<P> Robespierre's reputation has gone through several cycles of re-appraisal . During the Soviet era, he was used as an example of a Revolutionary figure . It peaked in the 1920s after the influential French historian Albert Mathiez argued that he was an eloquent spokesman for the poor and oppressed, an enemy of royalist intrigues, a vigilant adversary of dishonest and corrupt politicians, a guardian of the French Republic, an intrepid leader of the French Revolutionary government, and a prophet of a socially responsible state . In more recent times, his reputation has suffered as historians have associated him with an attempt at a radical purification of politics through the killing of enemies . In 1989, historian Francois Furet argued that this reappraisal of Robespierre has been technically inaccurate: </P> <P> There are two ways of totally misunderstanding Robespierre as historical figure: one is to detest the man, the other is to make too much of him . It is absurd, of course, to see the lawyer from Arras as a monstrous usurper, the recluse as a demagogue, the moderate as bloodthirsty tyrant, the democrat as a dictator . On the other hand, what is explained about his destiny once it is proved that he really was the Incorruptible? The misconception common to both schools arises from the fact that they attribute to the psychological traits of the man the historical role into which he was thrust by events and the language he borrowed from them . Robespierre is an immortal figure not because he reigned supreme over the Revolution for a few months, but because he was the mouthpiece of its purest and most tragic discourse . </P> <P> Nevertheless, Robespierre remains controversial to this day . Apart from one Metro station in Montreuil (a Paris suburb) and several streets named after him in about twenty towns, there are no memorials or monuments to him in France . By making himself the embodiment of virtue and of total commitment, he took control of the Revolution in its most radical and bloody phase: the Jacobin republic . His goal in the Terror was to use the guillotine to create what he called a "republic of virtue", wherein terror and virtue would be imposed at the same time . He argued, "Terror is nothing more than speedy, severe and inflexible justice; it is thus an emanation of virtue; it is less a principle in itself, than a consequence of the general principle of democracy, applied to the most pressing needs of the patrie (the' fatherland')." </P> <P> Terror was thus a tool to accomplish his overarching goals for democracy . Historian Ruth Scurr wrote that, as for Robespierre's vision for France, he wanted a "democracy for the people, who are intrinsically good and pure of heart; a democracy in which poverty is honourable, power innocuous, and the vulnerable safe from oppression; a democracy that worships nature--not nature as it really is, cruel and disgusting, but nature sanitised, majestic, and, above all, good ." </P>

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