Left's Ancient History and Other Questions

[Comrade Dracula]

Aye, so I happen to have several queries which some of ye kind folk could perhaps answer. I'll split 'em up in several categories for aesthetical and practical purposes.

French Revolution and the Jacobins:

1. Are there any historical works detailing the events leading up to the French Revolution, the Revolution itself and onward that do so from a Historical Materialist/Marxist perspective?

2. As Jacobins were essentially the whole reason "Left Wing" even became a thing (as a phrase, mind you, not as the proletarian movement), I'm interested in them.
What were their politics? Obviously, they were the radical wing of the bourgeoisie, but I mean specifically. While on the matter, are there any theoretical texts of theirs I can find on the Internet.
Furthermore, is there someplace I can learn of their history, including the (in)famous Terror?

3. Gracchus Babeuf and his Conspiracy of the Equals. Unless I'm very much so mistaken, they were a group that existed during the French Revolution.
I hear they were the first group to label themselves communist, and I wonder in what manner they did this? Was it as some sort of utopian socialists or the Radical Bourgeoisie's very own version of the ultra left?
Furthermore, did they have any sort of manifesto that one could read (preferably online)? Also (quite unoriginally) is there anywhere I can read up on their history?

Early Proletarian Movements and the Communist League

1. After the establishment of capitalism as the dominant mode of production in Europe, what were the first proletarian movements that sprung up during this early period? Where can I read up on them?

2. The Communist League. I've heard that Marx and Engels were associated with 'em during their younger days. I even heard that the Communist Manifesto was actually a commissioned by the League.
The question is, what were they politically and what ultimately became of them? Did they dissolve into the First International?

The First International

1. Aside from Marx and Bakunin, who were the leading theoreticians? What factions existed within it?

2. Marx-Bakunin Split. A commonly asked questions, but just link me to roughly every credible source on this y'know of.

3. For what reasons did the First International collapse?

The Second International

1. Lassalle. I keep hearing of this fella, but I haven't the slightest as to who he was. What were his politics? What were his disagreements with Marx? Does he have any works one can read online?

2. Orthodox Marxism. Ye'all knew this one was coming. What are the essential works of this tendency? Who are considered the main theoreticians (except Kautsky)?

3. Except Marxists and Lassallists, what other tendencies existed within the International? Who were their theoreticians? Are any of their works online?

4. The Marxist Centre. This implies some form of Left and Right. Did the Left of the International eventually become the Left Communist tendency? Did the Right essentially evolve into the modern Social-Democracy? What can you tell me about the term and its usage in general?

Plaudite, Amici, Comoedia Finita Est...

For the last one: What are the essential works for understanding Gramsci's theory of Hegemony? Can they, by any chance, be found on MIA?

Thanks in advance!

[The Idler]

Yes there are works detailing the events leading up to the French Revolution, the Revolution itself and onward that do so from a Historical Materialist/Marxist perspective.
Georges Lefebvre is one notable author
The Jacobins were described in an article from the Socialist Standard (http://www.worldsocialism.org/spgb/socialist-standard/1980s/1989/no-1019-july-1989/1789-france%E2%80%99s-bourgeois-revolution) from 1989

The Jacobins were in fact the Bolsheviks of the French Revolution just as the Bolsheviks were the Jacobins of the Russian Revolution. This affinity was consciously recognised by Lenin and Trotsky and is to this day by their followers, as the following from an SWP publication shows:
"The Jacobins were the only possible leadership capable of successfully defending the revolution. We should defend them against both revisionists and ‘left’ utopian critics" (Socialist Worker Review, May 1989)
A similar position is taken up by the so-called "Marxist" school of historians of the French Revolution, including their doyen Albert Soboul. Their books, and his in particular, remain worth reading but in so far as they "defend" the Jacobins are not a proper nor an adequate application of the materialist conception of history. Applied to the French Revolution, this would seek to analyse the economic factors that determined it rather than to defend or attack the political role played by some or other group or person in the course of it.

Babeuf was described in an article (http://www.worldsocialism.org/spgb/socialist-standard/1910s/1910/no-67-march-1910/kropotkin-french-revolution) from 1910

Altogether Babeuf’s conception was so narrow, so unreal, that he thought it possible to reach Communism by the action of a few individuals who were to get the Government into their hands by means of a conspiracy of a secret society. He went so far as to put his faith in one single person, provided this person had a will strong enough to introduce Communism and thus save the world!

Early Proletarian Movements




http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communist_League (1847)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Social_Democratic_Party_of_Germany (1863)


The Communist Club (http://www.alphabetthreat.co.uk/pasttense/communistclub.html). By Keith Scholey.
The Communist Club, originally a political social club formed by German émigrés, played an important role in the radical politics of London and Europe during the mid to late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It linked Chartism, utopian socialism, the First International, early anarchism, the first Marxist groups in Britain, and formed an important connection between the British and Continental European (German, Russian) socialist movements.

The First International




I think there were utopian socialists in there
See http://www.marxists.org/archive/index.htm
and
http://www.marxists.org/history/international/iwma/index.htm
(http://www.marxists.org/archive/index.htm)
Marx, Bakunin, and the question of authoritarianism - David ... - Libcom (http://libcom.org/library/marx-bakunin-question-authoritarianism)
the split between anarchists and marxists



The Second International


Ferdinand Lassalle - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferdinand_Lassalle)

and
http://www.marxists.org/archive/lassalle/
Again see http://www.marxists.org/archive/index.htm
and http://www.marxists.org/history/international/social-democracy/index.htm
Impossibilists, Wilhelm Liebknecht
see 2