Talk:Paris Commune (1789–1795)

Expanding this Article

It's certainly a shame such an interesting part of revolutionary history remains a stub on English-language wikipedia, so I'm going to try adding an expanded paragraph or two using French wikipedia and alternative sources later today. Are there any specific aspects of this subject that would interest other users and they would like to focus on? Alternatively, we can just try contributing what we can and then edit it down together. Whatever you can contribute, whenever you have the time to do so would be great, and it would be awesome to bring a lot of different perspectives and fields of specialism to the article. Bon travail! ClaireLouise92 (talk) 07:49, 13 February 2021 (UTC)

Ok, just added a bit, but feel I need a break because getting used to Wikipedia is hard and I'm distracted by Adam Curtis' new documentary series. I've left the page a bit of a mess with threads I need to pick up on and more I need to add, but will return to it this evening, with some more research and sourcing, and I'll try working in some translated stuff from the French-language article too. ClaireLouise92 (talk) 14:43, 13 February 2021 (UTC)

Added a fair bit more, with terrible grammar and style that I will edit tomorrow when I'm a bit less tired! Also tried to structure it a bit more like a proper Wikipedia article and brought in a bit from the French language page. Still so much that can be added though. Let's all just make a big 18th Century Paris Commune stew and then try to refine it into something decent quality. ClaireLouise92 (talk) 20:37, 13 February 2021 (UTC)

I've taken out the half-written and unexpanded parts of the article to be placed here as a sort of sandbox until they are complete and ready to be added. It definitely improves the quality and narrative sense of the article to not have the bits that are just me thinking out loud (and too lazy to fully expand upon just yet) on it. ClaireLouise92 (talk) 11:22, 15 February 2021 (UTC)

Trying to get a bit more bulk in tonight and bring it all together, but also need to make the introduction a bit less sucky! We have good work so far, so we can't let it down with a crappy introduction (it needs a few more sentences as a summary or abstract of the article ). I'm happy to do tbis first thing tomorrow, just writing it down here so I don't forget! ClaireLouise92 (talk) 20:52, 18 February 2021 (UTC)

The Brunswick Manifesto

I added a small mention about the Brunswick Manifesto in the article, claiming it impacted the Communard Insurrection to a small extent. I also added a link to its article which goes into detail about how big its impact was. If it's not needed, we can take it out. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Zainab000 (talk • contribs) 11:44, 15 February 2021 (UTC)

That's perfect, thank you! I'll try to clean up the rest of the stuff I was going to post tomorrow, and aim to have a lot more references in the general article by Thursday. ClaireLouise92 (talk) 14:53, 16 February 2021 (UTC)

The September Massacres of 1792

One of the bloodiest consequences of the Paris Commune were the September Massacres, and their exact origins continue to be a source of historical debate around the internal politics of the Paris Commune. Between the 2 and 6 September, an estimated 1,100 - 1,600 people were killed, by around 235 forces loyal to the Commune who had been responsible for guarding the prisons of Paris, and it is estimated that half of the prison population of Paris was massacred by the evening of 6 September A culture of fear had emerged amidst the ongoing wars with Austria and Prussia, and the Jacobins had propagated a culture of conspiracy and revenge which singled out a potentially disloyal prison population, fearing that political prisoners, and the many Swiss prisoners in Parisian jails would side with either an advancing foreign or counter-revolutionary army . Furthermore, the culture of revolutionary terror also prompted an opportunistic desire for revenge, and all of this coupled with the instability of the state and location of power, and the precarity of ordinary Parisian life fuelled a culture of extreme fear and paranoia (particularly fear that prisoners freed by advancing foreign armies would attack the revolutionaries) that would eventually fuel the mass violence which was rationalised as a pre-emptive act. On September 2, Danton gave a speech in the Legislative Assembly specifically singling out internal enemies, and calling for volunteers to take arms against them and assemble together in Paris immediately, insisting "any one refusing to give personal service or to furnish arms shall be punished with death", and claiming that the salvation of France rested upon ordinary citizens taking up arms against potential traitors. The very next day the massacres began, and within 24 hours, 1,000 people had been killed. Jean-Paul Marat, heading the surveillance committee of the Commune, immediately started the mass dissemination of a notice imploring all patriots to eliminate counter-revolutionaries themselves as soon as possible , and Jean-Lambert Tallien, the secretary of the commune, called for an expansion of the mass action beyond Paris as a patriotic duty. A huge wave of violence followed, often organised through revolutionary sections, and the prison population halved. However, for all the rhetoric of dangerous political prisoners posing a threat to Paris, only a minority were political prisoners, and the vast majority were not political prisoners (72%), and some of them even children . The after-effects of the massacres were severe, and the assassination of Marat by Charlotte Corday, who blamed him for the violence, triggered an even further wave of radicalisation amongst Jacobins, as a cult of martyrdom emerged around him. Blame for the massacres remains controversial, but Danton and his inflammatory rhetoric is the most frequent figure emphasised by historians.

References

The Insurrection of May and June 1793 and the Defeat of the Girondins

Still need to do a bit more work on this. ClaireLouise92 (talk) 09:18, 19 February 2021 (UTC)

The internal politics of the Commune and its political culture had a huge impact on the Insurrection of 31 May - 2 June 1793 and the fall of the Girondins. The Jacobin dominance of the Commune existed in strong tension with the much more moderate Girondins who dominated the Legislative Assembly. When the National Convention effectively replaced it in September 1792, the Girondins remained more powerful than the radical left Montagnards, and most of the Convention's power, and control over most of France remained in their hands. But by 1793, massive challenges to the legitimacy and reputation of the Girondins, such as the wars with Austria and Prussia, and the insurrectionary War in the Vendée began to destroy their popular support. The massacres of tens of thousands of people in the royalist Vendée uprising exposed just how deep the divides between urban and rural France were, and how little practical control the Girondins had over a unified French republic, and how ineffective they were at holding true to democratic principles. France was effectively moving into Civil War, and republicans were increasingly switching loyalty to the Montagnards. Amidst this crisis, in the Paris Commune, Marat sent a letter to throughout the provincial societies encouraging them to demand the recall of the appelants, which resulted in the Convention demanding he be put before a Revolutionary Tribunal. Outraged by this, most of the Parisian sections sent an outraged petition threatening the Girondins with an effective insurrection. In response to this, the Girondins launched a political assault on the Paris Commune as an institution, arresting Hébert for an inflammatory article he had published in his paper, and two other Jacobin Communards. This then triggered the Brunswick Manifesto, the Jacobins declared an open uprising, and Robespierre called upon the people to join in the revolt. A popular revolutionary army of around 20,000 men inside the Commune was formed, and the sections formed an insurrectionary committee. On May 31, an uprising attempt began unsuccessfully, and the smaller than expected forces who gathered were unable to take the Convention in any meaningful way, and Jean-Francois Varlet accused Hébert and Dobson of weakness at the evening meeting of the Commune for the poorly-planned attempt at ousting the Girondins. In response to this, the Commune gathered all day on June 1, with the understanding that a Sunday uprising would mean a much better attendance of sans-culottes. After a full day of Communard planning, in the evening 40,000 troops surrounded the Convention, trapping the Girondins inside. They spent much of June 2 fiercely denouncing the Jacobins and the Paris Commune itself through speeches, arguing for its suppression, but as Vendée fell to rebels, inspiring revolutionary outrage, Francois Hanriot ordered the National Guard to march on the convention and join those Communard forces to oust the Girondins who had lost the faith of republicans. The Convention, now having the National Guard around it demanding the ousting of the Girondins being blamed for France disintegrating. Girondin deputies attempting to leave were arrested as the Convention was stormed, and the President of the Convention came out to plead with Hanriot to remove the troops, but he refused to do so, and under this pressure, the Convention itself ended up voted for the arrest of those 22 leading Girondins - effectively destroying them as a political force. Marat and Couthon hailed Hanriot as a hero of the revolution, and he became seen as a hero of the Commune itself. This insurrection sparked by the Jacobins led to a new Montagnard governing force, the defeat of their Girondin enemies, and a completely new revolutionary government for France.

Needs a lot to be written on Jacobin dominance of the Commune, Girondin hostility towards it, the role of Marat etc.

The fate of Robespierre was intimately tied to the internal politics of the Commune.

Between March and April of 1793, a purge was carried out

The establishment and radicalisation of the Paris Commune meant that the national legal and political frameworks would increasingly have to

It lost much power in 1794 and was replaced in 1795.

References

Women's Rights

Just to add- this is great stuff! Thanks for such solid research. ClaireLouise92 (talk) 08:33, 19 February 2021 (UTC)

(adding stuff here first for general proofreading) In 1791, the French Revolutionary Constitution attributed women to the category of “passive” citizens. Later, in 1793, the Jacobin Constitution did not allow women to vote. In 1795 some men lost their right to vote and the notion of “passive” citizenship was no longer in use, meaning that women lost their rights to be called citizens at all. The lack of rights was not unusual at the time for most working-class and middle-class women, however, it significantly influenced those more wealthy who liked to be involved could exercise some influence through their salons or their husbands.

The 1791 Constitution acknowledged that marriage was a civil contract, and with time divorce became a possibility. In the early 1790s women also gained an opportunity to legally inherit property.

In general, there was an upheaval in women’s political involvement which started with the Parisian women’s march on Versailles in 1789. Women were also involved in political discussions. For example, the Jacobin Club was for men only, however, their public meetings were open to everyone. Even though women did not speak on the stage, attending and voicing their support of or disagreement with certain speakers was a way to be politically proactive.

Maximilien Robespierre, a member of the Jacobin Club, rose to power in the 1790s, and his popularity is largely attributed to his female supporters. Robespierre, however, was not an advocate for women’s rights, and a lot of contemporary female activists opposed his policies. Among those activists was Jeanne-Marie Roland who held salons for the Girondins, bourgeois republicans, around 1791. Her party’s political disagreements with Robespierre and his radical democracy had led to their falling out.

Olympe de Gouges, another prominent female on the French political arena at the time, was a playwright and activist. In 1791 she had published the Declaration of the Rights of Woman and of the Female Citizen addressing the 1789 Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen. In her work, she criticised the revolution for not addressing gender inequality. Similar to Mme Roland, Olympe de Gouges was associated with the bourgeois republicans and has favoured the idea of the constitutional monarchy. The execution of Louis XVI caused her to question Robespierre and the Montagnards. De Gouges’ criticism of the revolutionary movement in her writing and her affiliation to the Girondins led to her being convicted of treason and she was executed along with other party members (including Madame Roland) in November 1793.

During the Reign of Terror activism began to decline. Most clubs and salons were closed in 1794 and women were prohibited from going into the Convention’s galleries. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Marv!tan (talk • contribs) 23:02, 18 February 2021 (UTC)

References

Some Super Useful Notes and Sourcing for Another Contributor

These notes and references are provided by another contributor who can't access Wikipedia due to technical difficulties, but would really improve the article's academic rigour if they are worked in properly. ClaireLouise92 (talk) 19:35, 18 February 2021 (UTC)

I've just worked most of these in now. ClaireLouise92 (talk) 08:26, 19 February 2021 (UTC)

Paris Commune

Francois Furet & Monica Ozouf, eds. - A Critical Dictionary of the French Revolution

revolutionary centre to Parisian administration in early days of revolution presented genuine revolutionary challenge to legal hub of power: the legislative assembly. pg 520, 522 Whatever victories it scored were always provisional and temporary, and, in the end, its power and efficacy were curbed by support for more moderate wings of the revolution, agai nst the violent excesses the Jacobins had had a hand in through the commune. pg. 522.

William Doyle - The Oxford History of the French Revolution

replaced Legislative Assembly as locus of power following deposition of King. Came to be dominated by Jacobin representatives i.e. Danton appears to be responsible for much of violence that followed (i.e. Prison Massacres), in effect giving license to more controllable sections of revolution. served to devalue the revolution's, and its own, popularity at home and abroad. pg. 189-192.

Gwynne Lewis - The French Revolution: Rethinking the Debate (Taylor & Francis Group, 1993)

organised most brutal and horrible event of Revolution: September Massacres responsibility of Marat - 'sanguinary outbursts in press' marks a watershed in troubled history between people and political elite product of war and twin political forces unleashed by revolution, popular radicalism and elite - and popular - counter-revolution. pg. 38.

Paris Commune promised 12,000 volunteers for levée-en-masse in response to military crisis of spring 1793 (allied attack) levée-en-masse provided greatest encouragement for counter-revolutionary action from Vendée. pg. 40

power base of extremists led by Hébert and Chaumette represented uncompromising call to arms on part of popular movement; increased to defeat the [foreigner allied abroad(?)] and social policy directed at the 'selfish rich' at home. pg. 47.

Ed. by Peter McPhee - A Companion to the French Revolution (Blackwell)

Commune (general):

'Reimagining Space and Power' - Alan Forest

Departments divided into districts. Below districts were communes, of which there 44,000 in France. fulfilling revolutionary goal of bringing administration closer to the people also providing a valuable conduit through which Paris could disseminate its laws as widely as possible localisation of government part of revolutionaries project for modernisation of country. an enlightened desire to create rational frameworks in which administration could function efficiently no further need for middlemen, tax-farmers, or military recruiters, serving state from positions of privilege and self-interest.

Paris Commune:

'The Course of the Terror' - David Andress

September 1793: local section groups keen to press for a more radical agenda pressurised municipal government (Commune). Allying with Jacobin directed popular anger at Convention. pg. 298. Nov. 1793: populist radicals of Paris Commune began to attack symbols and practices of religion. engineered replacement of various "aristocratic" generals with more acceptable plebian activists, especially in war against the Vendée. other representatives denounced such new appointments as cronyism and graft. others viewed atheistic dechristianisation as immoral excess that would alienate rural communities and lead to counter-revolutionary attitudes. pg.302.

'The Thermidorean Reaction' - Laura Mason

9 Thermidor: struck down Robespierre, but continued his assault by sweeping away the Paris Commune, which had provided institutional expression of sans-culottes demands. Babeuf and democratic militants - organised through newly created Electoral Club, demanded Commune be restored. pg. 317.

'The Revolution in History, Commemoration and Memory' - Pascal Dupuy

Hippolyte Taine in his 'Origine de la France contemporaine' (1875-94) - expressed contempt for the people and the revolutionary crowd writing in the light of his traumatic experiences of the Paris Commune of 1871 Taine might have seen the reverberations of the Revolution as the Commune (1871), amongst other measures, resurrected the Commitee of Public Safety of 1793-94. pg. 488