MENU: 6. La Commune
"THAT STRANGE SPRING WHEN REVOLT SPRANG OUT OF THE GROUND..."
began when the government lost control of the army and fled to Versailles, and "La Commune"* sprang into the breach. War between "Versaillais" and "Communards" broke out almost immediately, culminating in a repression that foreshadows 20th-century carnage.
*The name alludes to the Parisian government that saved the French Revolution against all odds.
Proclamation of the Commune 26 mars 1871 by Daniel Vierge
-- Musée Carnavalet, not exhibited.
"One hundred thousand men are there, their hearts beating in unison"
-- Maxime Vuillaume, My Red Notebooks, Memories of la Commune,1910,
evoking the proclamation of La Commune.
Other sources show the same euphoria.
La Commune's defeat...
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- Preserved the republic by reassuring the privileged.
- Eliminated a City Hall in Paris until 1977.
- Brought the monument that looms over the city, the church of the Sacré Cœur.
- Ended resistance to capitalism for a generation.
- Immeasurably deepened social antagonism.
- "They want to relive the Commune!" Furious exclamation of a member of the government, after the demonstration conservatively estimated at half a million high school and university students, parents, teachers, Yellow Vests (...) on October 17, 2026.
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Painting at union headquarters in the working-class part of 18th district. |
"The corpse lies on the ground and the idea stands tall."
