ABSTRACT
The tensions that are there throughout The Past of an Illusion from the beginning to the end are as much the internal tensions of the man as those of his subject. The number of ‘model-revolutions’, having at the same time a tragic but vain wish to be exported abroad and a universal appeal that make them ‘exportable’, would be limited to three: French, Russian and Iranian. A second line of enquiry that one can formulate, taking off fromFrancois Furet’s work concerns War, understood as a continuation of revolution and a prerequisite for establishing a repressive, even totalitarian political order. The revolutionary challenge exposes the State as it shows that it is based on the principle of alienation which also regulates the time. Asceticism, the principle of militancy of all revolutionary battles, will also leave its imprint on thought, thus making it impossible to differentiate between slogans.
