The Paris Commune was the first great attempt of proletarian regime in human history. Marx thought it was a powerful proof of his theory of productism, while bakunin thought it was actually anarchism.
Chinese name
Paris Commune
Foreign name
Paris commune (French)
English
la commune de paris
event
Paris, France
start time
65438+July 0870
Historical significance
The first dictatorship of the proletariat in the world
Major leaders
Valin, Blanche, Charles de Lecleru, Duval, frankl, Eugè ne portal.
Start and end times
1871March18-1871May 28th.
1On September 2nd, 870, the French emperor Charles Louis Napolé on Bonaparte, who was besieged in Sedang, ordered to surrender, and the Second Empire collapsed with the emperor's surrender. On September 4th, a revolution broke out in Paris, announcing the establishment of the Third Republic. The new government, composed of the bourgeoisie and Orleans elements, is called the "national defense government". Prussia was not satisfied with the emperor's surrender and continued to attack France on a large scale. On September 65438, 2009, Pu Jun surrounded Paris. The growing polarization between the rich and the poor over the years, coupled with the current food shortage, the failure of the army and the constant shelling of the Prussian army, have finally greatly aggravated the dissatisfaction of all walks of life. Parisians, especially the working class and the middle and lower classes, have always wanted to establish a democratic republic. A clear demand is that Paris should be autonomous, have its own elected parliament and enjoy the same rights as other small French towns, but this demand was rejected by the government for fear of illegal civilians. A related but unclear desire is to manage the national economy in a fairer and even socialist way. These requirements boil down to a slogan: building a "socialist democratic country".
187 1 year 1 month, four months after the siege, the ruling national defense government sought to sign a ceasefire agreement with the newly declared German Empire. The Germans demanded that a clause be added to the peace agreement to allow German troops to enter Paris during the triumph ceremony. Despite being besieged for many days, many Parisians were very angry and resolutely opposed to the Prussians (Prussia was already a new empire-the German Empire) announcing their occupation of their city with any ceremony.
At that time, 300,000 Parisians were armed members of a civil organization called the French National Guard, which had been greatly expanded to help defend the city. Self-defense forces elect their own officials, all from the working class, including radicals and socialist leaders.
They further formed the "Central Committee" of the Self-Defense Forces, including patriots and socialists, to defend Paris, defeat the German attack, defend the * * and the regime and prevent the restoration of the monarchy. 187 1 In February, a majority election supporting the monarchy was held to form a new National Assembly.
Fearless spirit
The people of Paris are fearless in the face of failure and are ready to fight the enemy to the end in the armed conflict caused by the German army entering the city. Therefore, before the German army entered Paris, garde nationale, with the assistance of ordinary workers, managed to move a large number of cannons (which they thought were their assets, because part of the funds for purchasing these cannons came from government bonds issued by the state) out of the only way for the German army and stored them in some relatively safe places. One of the major "cannon parks" is located in the Mont martel Highland.
Adolf thiers, the head of the newly established interim government, realized that in this unstable situation, the Central Committee had formed another political and military power center. In addition, he was worried that the workers would arm themselves with the weapons of the National Guard to anger the Germans.
Ethnicity
find
1870, France was defeated in the war with Prussia. The people's uprising in Paris overthrew the rule of the Second Empire, established the * * * Republic, namely the third * * Republic of France, and the bourgeoisie seized power. The bourgeois provisional government adopted a subconscious attitude towards the Prussian army approaching Paris.
187 1 In February, it initialled a treaty with Germany (Prussia was a confederate state of Germany at that time), agreeing to compensate Germany for 5 billion francs and cede parts of Alsace and Lorraine provinces to Germany. At the same time, the army was mobilized to prepare for the disarmament of the Paris National Guard.
1871March18 in the early hours of the morning, government troops were found trying to seize the Mont-martel highlands and the Mont-Somont highlands. The people of Paris fought back and occupied the strategic location of the city that night. Thiers, the prime minister of the interim government, fled Paris in embarrassment and moved to Versailles. Soon, the Paris Commune was established, which was the embryonic form of the first proletarian regime. Many leaders of the Paris Commune are members of the First International.
A continuation of political fanaticism
After the Germans entered Paris, they left immediately after a while. But the high political fanaticism in Paris continues. The government has left Paris for Versailles, a safe harbor protected by Germany. Therefore, there was a power vacuum in the French capital before they went back.
As the Central Committee of the National Guard took a more radical stance and its power grew steadily, the government felt that it could not be allowed to control more than 400 cannons indefinitely. Therefore, as a first step, on March 18, 2008, thiers ordered the regular army to seize the cannons stored in the Mont martel highlands and other parts of the city. Soldiers with low morale not only failed to carry out orders, but became brothers with the National Guard and local residents. Claude Martin Lecomte, the general of Mon martel, was pulled from his horse. Later, someone testified that he ordered soldiers to shoot at the National Guard and citizens, so he was shot. At the same time, he was executed, as well as a veteran of the Republic of China, General Thomas, who was arrested from nearby. He was hated because he was a former commander of the National Guard.
Many other troops also took part in the rebellion, so the rebellion expanded rapidly. Thiers, head of government, issued an order to all regular troops, police, administrators and experts at all levels who still obey orders to evacuate immediately. He escaped to Versailles before the others. Thiers boasted that he had considered this strategy ("retreating from Paris to crush the people behind") for a long time. This was his reflection on the experience of the 1848 revolution, but it was probably just a decision he made in a panic. There is no evidence that the government has foreseen or made any plans to deal with the crisis that is starting now. The Central Committee of the National Guard was the only effective government in Paris at that time: it organized the commune election on March 26th.
The 92 members of the community (specifically the community committee) include a large proportion of skilled workers and some experts (such as doctors and journalists). Many of them are political activists, with factions ranging from reform to various types of socialists, and even members of the jacobin Party who hoped to restore dictatorship during the French Revolution in 1789.
Blancqui, the former leader of the socialist revolution Blancqui organization, was elected as the chairman of the parliament, but he did not attend because he was arrested at 65438+ in March 2007, and he was held in a secret prison during the whole Paris Commune activity. At first, the commune tried to exchange the archbishop of Paris, Mgr Darboy, for his release from prison, and later exchanged it with 74 hostages they held, but Adolf thiers flatly refused (see below). The Paris Commune was announced on March 28th, but the districts often left the organization during the siege.
Social bill
In its short life, the commune adopted the abandoned French calendar and national calendar, adopted the red flag symbolizing socialism and the tricolor flag decorated with red border by the Second Republic as its symbol, and restored the "La Marseillaise" which was forbidden to sing during the Second Empire as its national anthem. 1848, during the period of the second French Republic, activists and socialists used red flags and tricolor flags decorated with red ribbons as their symbols to distinguish them from politically neutral * * * and molecules, just as these neutral and free French people did during the 1789 revolution.
Despite many internal differences, the parliament has done a good job in managing the basic public affairs of a city with a population of 2 million; We can also reach an agreement on some policies and tend to establish a progressive, long-term and highly democratic social democracy, not just a social revolution. Due to the short time (the commune only existed for less than 60 days), only some laws were really implemented. They include:
separation of church and state
woman suffrage
Exempt from the rent owed during the siege (payment has actually stopped during this period)
Hundreds of bakeries in Paris canceled night shifts.
Pensions are paid to unmarried couples and children of the National Guard who died in service.
Workers' tools and daily necessities mortgaged during the siege were all returned by the city pawnshop free of charge. They are worried that skilled workers will be forced to pawn tools in the war.
Deferred repayment of commercial debts and cancellation of loan interest.
Workers can accept compensation in the future when they take over the business abandoned by the original owners.
Abolish the high salary system for officials and stipulate that the annual salary of commune members (commander-in-chief of the National Guard) should not exceed 6,000 francs (equivalent to the annual income of middle-income workers in Paris at that time). The law of separation of church and state turns all church property into public property and cancels religious education from schools; After the failure of the Paris Commune, the French Third Republic did not re-implement this law until the Jules Ferry Act of 1880- 18865438 and the French Act of 1905, thus establishing the principle of separation of church and state in France. The commune allows the church to continue to engage in religious activities, but only if the church is open to public political gatherings at night. Together with streets and coffee shops, churches have become another major political center shared by communes-the contextualism movement will not forget this expression in its architectural proposition. Other planned legislation also includes education reform, which will make future education and technical training free for all.
Some women organized the feminist movement, which continued the political views of 1789 and 1848. In this way, the socialist bookbinder Natalie lemerre and Elizabeth Dmitrieff, a young Russian exile and Karl Marx's partner, established the Alliance for Defending Paris and Nursing the Wounded Women on April 187 1 day. In view of their belief that the struggle against patriarchy can only be realized in the global struggle against capitalism, the alliance demands gender equality, wage equality, women's right to divorce voluntarily, secular guidance (non-priests) and girls' right to receive professional education. They also demanded that the distinction between legitimate wives and mistresses, children born in wedlock and children born out of wedlock be abolished, and prostitutes be abolished-they closed maisons de tolérance (a legal official brothel). The Women's Union also participated in several municipal committees and organized cooperative factories. Famous images such as "The Red Virgin of Mont martel" joined the National Self-Defense Force and were sent to New Caledonia, symbolizing that a few women actively participated in the uprising. During the crackdown, a women's battalion of the National Guard defended Blanche Square. The work burden of commune leaders is very heavy. People expect members of parliament (they are not "representatives", but appointed, and theoretically they can be disqualified by voters at any time) to propose a series of administrative and military decrees similar to legislation. A large number of informal organizations (canteens, first aid stations) established in various districts to meet the needs of the community continued to flourish and worked closely with the community during the siege.
Meanwhile, these local councils usually pursue their own goals under the guidance of local workers. Regardless of the formal reform of the commune parliament, these commune members are relatively radical revolutionaries as a whole. The revolutionary tendency, represented by proudhon, is an early form of centrist anarchism and a mixture of international socialism, Browninism and more liberalism. The Paris Commune has been praised by anarchists and Marxist socialists, partly because of the diversity of this political trend, the high degree of workers' control and the close cooperation between different revolutionary factions.
Commune war
Commune troops
On April 2, the commune troops, the National Self-Defense Forces, started a small-scale conflict with the regular Versailles army. Neither side really wants to launch a large-scale civil war, but neither side wants to negotiate. Marquis de Galliffet, the executioner of the commune, later served as the war minister of Valdek-Rousseau government at the turn of the century (together with Millerand, an independent socialist), and was one of the generals who commanded the counterattack under the leadership of thiers.
catch
The suburb near Courbevoie was occupied by government forces on April 2, and the community's own armed forces failed to explore Versailles on April 3. Resistance and survival became the primary consideration, and the commune leadership made firm efforts to transform the National Guard into an effective resistance force. Foreign political asylum and exile groups in Paris also gave strong support: one of them was Jaros, a former Polish officer and nationalist? aw D？ Blausky, become the best general in the commune.
internationalism
Parliament fully supports internationalism. In order to show this brotherhood, the commune thought that the triumphal column commemorating Napoleon I's victory was a symbol of Bonaparte and chauvinism, so it was removed.
Abroad, trade unions and socialist organizations, including Germany, also held rallies and sent out messages of support. However, all hopes of getting real help from other cities in France were quickly dashed. Thiers and his cabinet at Versailles tried to stop any news from leaking out of Paris; And in other provinces and rural areas of France, they have always been skeptical about the movement of metropolis. The movements of Napoleon, Limoges and Marseilles were soon shattered.
With the further deterioration of the situation, a branch of Parliament won an election (the opponent was the bookbinder and Karl Marx's army reporter Eugene Waling and other centrists) and decided to create a "public safety committee", imitating the organization of the same name established by jacobins in 1792. It's powerful and ruthless in theory, but it's not that effective in practice.
Government forces
From April to May, the number of government troops increased-Prussia released French prisoners of war to help the thiers government-and they completed the division and encirclement of the resistance forces in the suburbs of Paris and drove the National Guard back to the city. On may 2 1 that year, a gate on the west side of the Paris wall was captured, and the Versailles army began to recapture Paris. They first occupied the prosperous western region, where they were welcomed by the citizens who did not leave Paris after the armistice. It is said that an engineer (often a spy for the thiers government) found that the city gate was unguarded, so he informed the Versailles army of this information.
Strong local loyalty used to be a favorable factor for the commune, but now it has become a unfavorable factor: there is no unified and planned defense, and each block fights for its own survival and is finally broken one by one. In the past Paris Revolution, the narrow alley network that once made the whole block almost indestructible has now become a broad avenue for Baron Haussmann to transform Paris. Versailles has centralized command and absolute superiority in quantity. They have learned the skills of street fighting. They can simply cut the walls of the house and attack the commune roadblocks from the side. Ironically, only those wide squares and streets transformed by Baron Haussmann are the areas where they are blocked by the guns of the resistance.
In the attack, the government forces should be responsible for the massacre of the National Guard and civilians: prisoners of war who once held guns, or people suspected of fighting, were immediately shot, and mass killings became commonplace.
The commune issued the "Hostage Decree" 187 1 on April 5th. According to this decree, any accomplice of the Versailles army will become a "hostage of the people of Paris". Article 5 further points out that any prisoner of war executed by the Versailles army or the regular government guerrillas of the Paris Commune will lead to three times the execution of hostages. However, this law has not been actually implemented. The Paris Commune tried several times to exchange the Archbishop of Paris, George Dahlbo, for August Branch, but Adolf thiers flatly refused. His private secretary, Barthelemi Saint Hilaire, declared, "They deserve it. (tant pis pour eux！ ) "The commune also made other negotiation attempts, proposing to exchange all 74 hostages under its control for Blanche, but all ended in failure.
Bleeding week
The most tenacious resistance took place in the working-class areas in the east, and the fighting continued until the last street fighting in a bloody week. By May 27th of that year, only a few resistance continued, especially in the poorest eastern regions, such as belleville and Minimont. The fighting ended in the afternoon or evening of May 28th. It is said that the last roadblock was seized in rue Ramponeau, belleville.
Marshal McMahon signed the announcement: "Parisians, the French army is coming to save you." Paris is free! At four o'clock, our soldiers occupied the last uprising stronghold. The battle is over today. Order, work and safety will be rebuilt. "Severe revenge began at once. Supporting the commune in any way is regarded as a political crime, and thousands of people have been prosecuted. Some commune members were shot at the commune members' wall in Abbe Cemetery, lachaise, and thousands were sentenced and shot by summary military courts.
The locations of the massacre include: Luxembourg Garden and Lobau Barracks behind Villa Hotel. In addition, nearly 40,000 people were brought to Versailles for trial. Under the supervision of the army, men, women and children lined up for the temporary prison in Versailles after several days and nights. Subsequently,12,500 people were tried and about10,000 people were convicted: 23 people were executed; Many people were sentenced to prison; 4,000 people were exiled to New Caledonia. The exact number of deaths during the bleeding week has not been obtained, but various estimates range from 10000 to 50000. According to Benedict Anderson, "7,500 people were imprisoned or exiled" and "about 20,000 people were executed".
According to Alfred Cobban, 30,000 people were killed. Later, as many as 50,000 people may be executed or imprisoned, and 7,000 people may be exiled to New Caledonia. In addition, thousands of people-including most commune leaders-successfully fled to Belgium, Britain, Italy, Spain and the United States. Finally, exiles and fugitives were granted amnesty at 1880. Some people are still outstanding in their later political careers, becoming Paris City Councillors, Deputies or Senators.
1872, "strict laws have been enacted to prevent all possibilities of left-wing organizations." In addition to those who were sentenced for assassination or arson, those who were imprisoned have an Amnesty of 1880. Paris continues to retain military law for five years.
Historical significance
The Paris Commune is a great attempt by the proletariat to overthrow bourgeois rule and establish proletarian dictatorship, and it is a glorious node in the history of proletarian revolution. Its practice enriches Marxist theory about proletarian revolution and dictatorship. It has provided valuable experience and lessons for the international socialist movement. The heroic and unyielding spirit of commune soldiers against powerful enemies will go down in history forever.
Commune reflection
Karl Marx believes that it is a great pity that the commune "wasted precious time" to organize democratic elections instead of quickly destroying the Versailles army. The French national bank in Paris holds billions of francs, but the commune has not sent anyone to protect it. They borrowed money from the bank, and Karl Marx thought they should confiscate all the assets of the bank without hesitation. For fear of condemnation, the commune chose not to confiscate the bank's assets. As a result, the bank assets were transferred to Versailles to arm the troops of Versailles.
Producers, left-wing socialists, anarchists and others regard the Paris Commune as a prototype or pioneer of a liberated society, because its political system is based on democracy in which everyone, including the grassroots, participates. Marx and Engels, bakunin and later Lenin and Trotsky all tried to draw theoretical lessons from the limited experience of the Paris Commune (especially about "dictatorship of the proletariat" and "subversion of political power"). A more pragmatic lesson came from the journalist Edmund de Goncourt, who wrote in La Semaine sanglante three days later ... The repression was so thorough that the bloodshed that killed all those who dared to resist like this would postpone the next revolution ... The old society won itself peace for at least 20 years ... "
On May 23rd, the government forces captured the Mont martel Highland through the lines of Prussian troops. That night, the failed commune regime ordered Paris to be set on fire. The buildings burned on the same day and the next day included the Tuileries Palace, the palaces of Bourbon and the Second Reich, and the Louvre (partially destroyed), the French Senate, the Ministry of the Interior, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Justice, the Royal Palace, the Paris City Hall and the Saint Martin Opera House, and began shooting hostages.
On May 24, the Paris City Hall, which had been completely burned down, was captured, and De Lecleru, the main member of the Paris Commune, died and Vallin was arrested. On May 27th, 5,000 government troops surrounded the last 200 commune soldiers who retreated to the cemetery of Father Lachaise in the northeast of Paris, and finally all these soldiers died by a wall in the cemetery. On May 28th, the commune failed. The national defense government then suppressed commune members. The execution without trial lasted for more than a month. It is estimated that about 20,000 people were shot without trial. Together with the dead in the battle, about 30,000 people died in the commune, about 50,000 people were arrested and imprisoned, and about 7,000 people were exiled or exiled to French Pacific islands.
1889, the French government granted amnesty to commune members.
Economic measures
Commune economic measures refer to the economic policies and laws promulgated and implemented by the revolutionary regime established by the French proletariat in Paris from March to May 28th,187/kloc-0.
content
In terms of economic measures, it mainly includes:
(1) to some extent, restrict and deprive capitalist enterprises. Communes set up specialized agencies, with the state supervising the production of railway transportation and military industry, issuing decrees to hand over the enterprises of fugitive capitalists to workers' cooperatives for operation, and drawing up plans for establishing workers' cooperatives. For enterprises whose owners have not fled, the public will send people to supervise them. In addition, the economic privilege of the church was abolished, and all state expenditures on religious affairs were cancelled. The confiscated church property was owned by the state.
(2) Major reforms have been made to state organs. The commune has set up the highest authority to manage economic work-the Food Committee, the Finance Committee and the Labor, Employment and Exchange Committee. At the same time, a new salary system has been implemented for public officials in state organs, the high salary and extra allowances of senior officials have been abolished, and the wages of low-income people have been increased.
③ Improve the living and working conditions of workers as much as possible. Laws and decrees have been issued to raise the wages of workers, announcing that all wages must be paid to workers, and enterprises should not use this as an excuse to deduct and impose unreasonable fines. Those that have been deducted or fined must be refunded in full. In order to eliminate unemployment and avoid intermediate exploitation, the "employment agency" set up by imperial police was abolished and the labor employment registration office was established. In improving workers' working conditions, the commune issued a decree prohibiting bakery workers from working at night, and put forward the principle of 8-hour working day for workers.
(4) Fully consider the economic interests of the urban poor and other urban and rural workers, and strive to solve their practical difficulties. The commune cancelled private lending institutions and prohibited usurers from lending usury. Generally, debts are paid in installments, which are postponed for three years without interest. It also ordered that pawn shops be prohibited from selling expired pawns, and small collateral with a value of less than 20 francs should be returned to the original owners. The commune cancelled all rents from June 1870 to June 187 1, and if it has been paid, it will be regarded as rents payable in the future. The houses of property owners who have fled will be confiscated and allocated to those who have no houses and few houses. The commune has also formulated regulations to provide pensions to members and family members of soldiers killed or injured, set up poverty alleviation institutions and distributed special funds to the poor. In order to ensure the supply of daily necessities, the commune has taken various measures, including restricting the sale of bread. In addition, the commune is also very concerned about the vital interests of farmers, clearly announced the idea of "handing over land to farmers" and proposed to exempt farmers from the burden of war.