Paris from fresh perspectives: THE HUMBLE AGAINST THE POWERFUL

Monday, March 23, 2015

THE HUMBLE AGAINST THE POWERFUL

"I WAS A MODEST EMPLOYEE AT CITY HALL. PEOPLE HAD SEEN ME SHED TEARS...

When fathers brought newborns wrapped in their shirts as they shivered in the cold. I had known some who died, and had gone to their funerals. Ten years later, that was remembered."

Jules Vallès is elected deputy.

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"Many men were frightening to see: Small, gaunt, deformed... They fought so that their children would be less small, less gaunt, less vicious..."

-- Louis Rossel,* cited by Pierre Milza, "The Terrible Year: the Commune," 2009 (in French).

*The sole officer of the regular army to join the Commune, hoping that it would continue the fight against the Prussians. Versailles shot him. He was 27.

L'Appel ("The Call") by André Devambez, 1906 / zoom

Painting based on the memories of the artist's father and survivors. In the foreground, paving stones have been torn up to build a barricade.

Women

Daniel Vierge, Ma Commune de Paris

The myth that all were killed on a barricade they defended shows men's respect.

La Barricade de la place Blanche défendue par des femmes (recadré), artist and date unknown / zoom

Musée Carnavalet, not exhibited

On another occasion: "Bearing the red flag unfurled, about 20 women came to join us, among them..." [their names follow]. Again: "They bandaged the wounded on the battlefield and often picked up a dead man's gun."

-- Louise Michel

"Lost children"

Prisonniers à Versailles
-- Les Enfants perdus de la Commune

"V. Thiebaut, aged 14, ran through the bullets to bring water. When the guards were forced to pull back, they had to sacrifice supplies. The boy rushed forward on a barrel of wine that he shattered while shouting, 'They won't drink our wine!' He seized the rifle of a guard who had just fallen..."

-- Lissagary, Appendix V, an account he says chosen among many.

Maxime Vuillaume calls them "terrifying kids" when they join a platoon to execute hostages (Les Cahiers rouges p. 109).

"A Marriage during the Commune" by Félix Guerie / zoom

An anti-Communart painting

They transmit messages, build barricades, carry shells and although battalions in principle do not accept anyone under 17, Louise Michel finds much younger boys defending the forts with her.

Many are orphans, obliged to fend for themselves.

They resemble the right-wing mobile guards in origin and behavior, but the way in which they are taken in hand is very different. That mentoring helps explain the rarity of crime (scroll down to the American pastor's observation).

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Bismarck sends 100,000 POWs back to France so that its government can repress social change that could spread: The drawing below shows the army then filling what is said to be the world's largest avenue.

Le Départ de Versailles by Crafty, 1871 / zoom

Avenue de Paris,Versailles / zoom

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Someone from the wealthy neighborhood on the route from Versailles opens the city gate. The troops enter without a fight and residents hail them with joy. The first image indicates a crowd to whom the commander waves his sword and the second shows well-dresssed couple cheering.

Les Troupes entrent à Paris, le 21 mai 1871 by Charles Vernier, 1871 / zoom

Le 24 mai 1871 l'armée réunie à Versailles parvient après un siège en règle entre dans Paris. La population manifeste sa joie et fait à nos soldats l'accueil le plus sympathique. L'insurrection est vaincue, et les coupables qui ont sacrifié les otages et incendié la capitale, sont punis de leur crimes.

"On May 24 1871the army gathered at Versailles manages after a by-the book siege [does not say by treason] succeeds in entering Paris. The population shows its joy and gives our soldiers the most sympathetic welcome. The insurrection is defeated, the guilty who sacrificed the hostages and burned down the capital, are punished for their crimes."

"All along the Grands Boulevards well-bred crowds

came out to join the red-trousered troops.

They clapped their hands as if they were at the opera, and called 'Bravo!' as if a battle had been won. Above the marching soldiers, coins showered down from the windows and jingled on the pavements. In this part of Paris, the stones had stayed firmly in place [that is, no barricades]. The people here sat tight, mostly, waiting to be saved, playing cards to pass the time. As soon as they knew they were safe, out they rushed, wine bottles waving. Gentlemen stood smiling while their wives' arms opened, smothering sweaty necks with silk and satin, sowing kisses under kepis."

-- Liberty's Fire, pp. 229-30

After a detour to punish residents of Montmartre where the insurrection began, the soldiers head toward the working-class east to continue retribution...