History of the Paris Commune of 1871 Index History of the Paris Commune of 1871 Publisher’s Note Introduction Preface Prologue 1. The Prussians enter Paris 2. The coalition opens fire on Paris 3. The eighteenth of March 4. The Central Committee calls for elections 5. Reorganization of the Public Services 6. The mayors and the Assembly combine against Paris 7. The Central Committee forces the mayors to capitulate 8. Proclamation of the Commune 9. The Commune at Lyons, St. Etienne and Creuzot 10. The Commune at Marseilles, Toulouse and Narbonne 11. The Council of the Commune wavers 12. The Versaillese beat back the Commune patrols and massacre prisoners 13. The Commune is defeated at Marseilles and Narbonne 14. The weaknesses of the Council 15. The Commune’s first combats 16. The Manifesto and the germs of defeat 17. Women of the Commune and the opposing armies 18. The work of the Commune 19. Formation of the Committee of Public Safety 20. Rossel replaces Cluseret 21. Paris bombarded: Rossel flees 22. Conspiracies against the Commune 23. The ‘Lefts’ betray Paris 24. The new Committee at work 25. Paris on the eve of death 26. The enemy enters Paris 27. The invasion continues 28. The street battles continue 29. On the barricades 30. The Left bank falls 31. The Commune’s last stand 32. The Versaillese fury 33. The fate of the prisoners 34. The trials of the Communards 35. The executions 36. The balance-sheet of bourgeois vengeance Appendices Glossary All Pages Page 4 of 43PrefaceThe history of the Third Estate was to have been the prologue to this history. But time presses; the victims are gliding into their graves; the perfidies of the Radicals threaten to surpass the worn-out calumnies of the Monarchists. I limit myself for the present to the strictly necessary introduction.Who made the Revolution of the 18th March? What part was taken by the Central Committee? What was the Commune? How comes it that 100,000 Frenchmen are lost to their country? Who is responsible? legions of witnesses will answer.No doubt it is an exile who speaks, but an exile who has been neither member, nor officer, nor functionary of the Commune; who for five years has sifted the evidence; who has not ventured upon a single assertion without accumulated proofs; who sees the victor on the look-out for the slightest inaccuracy to deny all the rest; who knows no better plea for the vanquished than the simple and sincere recital of their history.This history, besides, is due to their children, to all the workingmen of the earth. The child has the right to know the reason of the paternal defeats, the Socialist party the campaign of its flag in all countries. He who tells the people revolutionary legends, he who amuses therewith sensational stories, is as criminal as the geographer who would draw up false charts for navigators.London, November 1877 Prev Next