Sieyes, Emmanuel-Joseph

He studied at a Catholic seminary in Paris and, at the behest of his relatives, against his own will, became a priest; was then general vicar of the bishop of Chartres . In 1788, Sieyes was a member of the clergy in a provincial assembly in Orleans . The appearance of a series of pamphlets written by Sieyes regarding the upcoming convocation of the General States dates back to this time: these compositions of Sieyes had a very strong influence on the people, especially the brochure Essai sur les privilèges (Essay on Privileges, 1788) and the pamphlet Qu est ce que le tiers-état? "(" What is the third estate ? ", Jan. 1789), containing the famous lines:" What is the third estate? Everything. What was it still under the existing order? Nothing. What does it require? Become something . ”

Thanks to these brochures, he became one of the leaders of public opinion in France, Sieyes was elected to the National Assembly as a representative of the third estate from the city of Paris. He was one of the most active members of the national assembly and gained significant influence, while not being an outstanding speaker. He organized: the National Guard , the new distribution of taxes, the organization of municipalities , the division of the territory of the departments of France , etc. He made an oath made by the deputies on June 20, 1789 , - not to disperse until a new constitution was given to France; he also proposed that the deputies accept the name of the national assembly for the General States (June 17, 1789). Sieyes' pamphlet, “ Reconnaissance et exposition des droits de l'homme et du citoyen ” (July 1789), was the forerunner of the “Declaration of Human Rights ”.

One of the founders of the Jacobin Club, in July 1791 he joined the Club of Phelans , then he belonged to the “swamp”, evading the determination of his political position. In 1789-1790, he advocated the introduction of a property qualification for participation in elections. In 1790, Sieyes was at one time president of the National Assembly. The proposed constitutional bishop of Paris, Sieyes, refused in 1791 . Elected to the Convention , Sieyes in January 1793 cast a vote for the execution of the king. During the terror, Sieyes did not take an active part in politics and managed to avoid the guillotine (later, when asked what he did in the era of terror, he replied: “I lived”). After the fall of Robespierre, he became a member of the Committee of Public Salvation (in 1795 : from March 5 to July 3 and from August 2 to October 26 - the dissolution of the Convention) and took part in peace talks in Basel with Prussia and Spain. From April 20 to May 4, 1795, he served as chairman of the Convention. Sieyes refused the drafting of the constitution of the third year as well as his entry into the Directory and the post of Minister of Foreign Affairs. Elected to the Council of Five Hundred , he worked on various committees, and in 1797 he was president of this council. In the same year, an attempt was made on the life of Siyes by Abbot Poulie, who wounded him in the arm and chest.

Sieyes was ^{[1] a} member of the famous Nine Sisters Masonic Lodge ^[2] .

The following year, Sieyes was sent to Berlin as the plenipotentiary minister, with the order to achieve, if not union, then at least neutrality of Prussia , which he succeeded. Upon his return to France, Sieyes was elected director of the Rebel place (in 1799) and, during preparations for the 18 Brumaire coup, stood on the side of Bonaparte , to whom he had very substantial support for his influence on the deputies; he drafted a new constitution, essentially, however, amended by Bonaparte. After the coup, Sieyes became one of the three temporary consuls , but had no real power. Bonaparte appointed him a senator and gave him a very profitable state estate Cron (Crosne). Subsequently, Sieyes was president of the Senate for some time, and in 1808 received the title of Count of the Empire. He was also a member of the French Academy .

After the second restoration, Sieyes, expelled from France as a regicide, settled in Brussels and returned to Paris only after the July Revolution of 1830 .

• Essai sur les privilèges
• Qu'est-ce que le Tiers État?
• Vues sur les moyens d'exécution dont les représentants de la France pourront disposer en 1789.
• Des Manuscrits de Sieyès. 1773-1799 et “1770-1815”, Tome I (576 p.) Et II (726 p.), Publiés sous la direction de Christine Fauré, avec la collaboration de Jacques Guilhaumou, Jacques Vallier et Françoise Weil, Paris, Champion, 1999 et 2007

in Russian

• Sieyes, Emmanuel-Joseph // Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary : 86 volumes (82 volumes and 4 additional). - SPb. , 1890-1907.
• Sieyes, Emmanuel-Joseph // Social Partnership - Television [Electronic Resource]. - 2016. - S. 511. - ( Great Russian Encyclopedia : [in 35 vols.] / Ch. Ed. Yu. S. Osipov ; 2004—2017, vol. 31). - ISBN 978-5-85270-368-2 .

in other languages

• Jean-Denis Bredin, Sieyès. La clé de la Révolution française , Paris, Éditions de Fallois, 1988.
• Pasquale Pasquino, Sieyès et l'invention de la constitution en France , Odile Jacob, 1998.
• Jacques Guilhaumou, Sieyès et l'ordre de la langue. L'invention de la politique moderne , Éditions Kimé, 2002.
• Charles Philippe Dijon de Monteton, Der lange Schatten des Abbé Bonnot de Mably. Divergenzen und Analogien seines Denkens in der Politischen Theorie des Grafen Sieyès , in: Thiele, U. (ed.): Volkssouveränität und Freiheitsrechte. Emmanuel Joseph Sieyes' Staatsverständnis, Nomos, Baden-Baden, 2009, S. 43-110.

• Notice biographique de l'Académie française
• Notice de l'Assemblée nationale: mandats et fonctions
• Groupe d'études sieyèsiennes
• Textes de Sieyès consultables sur Gallica
• Inventeur du mot sociologie
• Audiolivre: Siéyès, Qu'est-ce que le Tiers-Etat?