Écrasez l'infâme!: Two lives of Voltaire's slogan

Abstract

The article discusses the origin and modes of being of Voltaire's slogan Écrasez l'infâme! and of its Russian equivalent “Crush the Reptile!”. The word l'infâme in its specific meaning appeared in the early 1750s in the Potsdam circle of philosophers. The motto Écrasez l'infâme! perhaps dates back to Spinoza's statement, “Down with this pernicious superstition!” Voltaire used the motto in his correspondence of 1761–1768. For Voltaire and his correspondents the concept of l'infâme is often associated with the symbolism of a snake, hydra or dragon. Voltaire's later abandonment of the militant anticlerical slogan may have been caused by two reasons: 1) the tangible results of the campaign against l'infâme; 2) a fear of too radical an interpretation of the slogan. In 19th century Europe Voltaire's motto did not play a significant role as an actual political slogan. Its Russian form (lit. “Crush the Reptile!”) was created by Konstantin Balmont. In Russia and the USSR the slogan gained a completely independent existence; at different times it was used in the struggle against autocracy, Bolshevism, the “enemies of the people” of the 1930s, Hitlerism and the post-Soviet “red-brown” opposition. The verbal image of the “crushed reptile” was accompanied by a corresponding visual image on posters and caricatures.