Creation of the Paris Commune & Its Communist Myth

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Extra Information & Sometimes Corrections if Needed !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Project France Playlist- youtube.com/playlist?list=PLsGkrS0GwoS6ivoJge_lU8d… 0:46 There where also sizable republican movements (and in some socialist movements) in other major cities in France at the time. But Paris was by far the most leftist of these cities harboring the largest number of Marxists, Anarchists, etc. 1:12 Brother not son. 2:10 Wrong picture for Copenhagen and the Danish 1848 revolution. This is the correct picture- en.wikipedia.org/wiki/March_Revolution_(Denmark)#/… 3:05 Jacobins not to be confused with the Jacobites and Jacobitism which was an English political movement not French. 3:49 Hotel De Ville was the main administrative building of Paris at the time and held the council of National Defense and later the council of the Commune. It also held all Paris records which where destroyed along with the building in a fire during the bloody week. It is unknown who started the fire. 3:57 Also the wages of workers and worker conditions during the Second French Empire fell drastically in Paris. Baron Haussmann notes that more than half of Parisians live in "poverty bordering on indigence", even if they work eleven hours a day. 8:16 'Memoirs of Louise Michel', page 61 9:29 It is debated whether 4 of those moderate leftists from Paris where actually radicals or not as some of their ideas where more liberal rather than Marxist or Anarchist, therefore in the video I say they're all radical while showing the more nuance debate with an asterisks on the screen. With that said all of them where for the continuation of the war. Same debate goes for the monarchy supporters and how really monarchist where some of them as in the end the council did establish the Third French Republic not a monarchy, even though the council had a majority of monarchists. 9:44 1830 not 1930 obviously. 12:01 The picture of the kids actually comes from Paris during the Second French Empire to showcase just how bad the condition for lower class people in Paris where (even kids had to work to sustain the family). But the idea is there as after the siege Paris was economically in a disaster and this disaster hit the lower classes the most. 12:59 This is usually given as the starting date for the commune. 13:06 Paris did elect mayors for various areas of the city in November 1870, this was done by the Government of National Defense to placate the Parisians, however these mayors where directly responsible to the government and there was no city council so in effect the mayors acted as just middle man for the main government control of the city. 13:25 It wasn't even the first time a commune was declared in Paris, there was a commune in Paris during the first french revolution as well, although this one didn't have such a socialist charter as the one in 1871 for obvious reasons 14:34 'Memoirs of Louise Michel', page 217. 16:53 Ok the commune did nationalize some stuff but never any factories or big businesses or the bank. They nationalized things like Thiers' house in Paris which they then sold off with all the possession in it. All the restarting of production and self management by workers was meant to start up the economy of the city despite the fact that many business and factories where closed by their owners who left the city due to fears of an insurrection. The laws were meant to be temporary to give people work not revolutionary or communist. 18:33 Jacques Rougerie, who had earlier accepted the 20,000 figure, wrote in 2014, "the number ten thousand victims seems today the most plausible; it remains an enormous number for the time." Rougerie, Jacques, La Commune de 1871," p. 118 The Paris Commune wasn't even unique in that period as other cities like Marseille and Lyon also established independent administrations in the aftermath of the Franco Prussian war. These cities where just like in Paris divided among more radical people and less radical people. But none of them came to be communist as portrayed by Marx or Engels. 19:33 Engels also praised the Commune as did Lenin and many other socialists. However there where some on the left that criticized the commune and also not all praises made by the men mentioned where necessarily fully positive as all of them had their own opinion as to why the commune didn't succeed even though it was so "perfect". 19:33 To all those Marxist in comment section arguing that Marx never praised the commune or never said it was communist. To the first one look at the quote from Marx's Civil War in France on the screen, it's a clear statement that Marx did in fact praise the Commune. Second another quote from the same piece by Marx "The Commune, they exclaim, intends to abolish property, the basis of all civilization! Yes, gentlemen, the Commune intended to abolish that class property which makes the labor of the many the wealth of the few. It aimed at the expropriation of the expropriators. It wanted to make individual property a truth by transforming the means of production, land, and capital, now chiefly the means of enslaving and exploiting labor, into mere instruments of free and associated labor ... if it is to supersede the capitalist system; if united co-operative societies are to regulate national production upon common plan, thus taking it under their own control, and putting an end to the constant anarchy and periodical convulsions which are the fatality of capitalist production – what else, gentlemen, would it be but communism, “possible” communism?" By the ending of that quote it's clear that Marx did in fact saw the Commune as communist or at least having a possibility to achieve communism which is all that matters in the point of the video. The fact that Marx praised the commune and called it communist (or possible to achieve communism) meant that the Commune became very mythical in the eyes of later communists like Lenin. Which I wanted to point out wasn't true as the Commune was never really communist despite the saying of the USSR or even today's Communists. It wasn't even marxist or as said in the video a whole revolution of the proletariat as pointed out by Marx (if you choose to disregard the communist point) that's what the video was pointing at. The funny thing is that the information Marx had about the commune wasn't very accurate. His sources of information were either news papers which were very hyperbolic and portrayed the commune as either perfect or as the spawn of evil and from his son in law who visited the Commune as an ambassador of the First International. Marx's son in law account of the commune and what he saw is so inaccurate that historians today don't even treat it as a primary source about the commune because it does not agree with any other sources from the Commune. He basically made the Commune seem far more communist and idealistic than it actually was. This is also partly the reason why Marx was so positive about the Commune. So in the end the funny thing is the information about the Commune that made Marx rethink a lot of his ideas wasn't actually very accurate. I bet there is some sort of a philosophical angel here about truth, subjectivism, and objectivism but that's beyond my scope.

France lost its army, its capital being sieged, its emperor captured, it's new republic has no option but to surrender. Paris: I didn't hear no bell.

Legend has it the Prussians are still camping in front of Paris

Is it better to say that the commune influenced Marxism more than Marxism influencing the commune

The famous communist red flag actually comes from France at this era. It almost became the French flag if Alphonse Lamartine had not defended the tricolor flag in an absolutely stunning speech, I recommend people to read it ! Funny story the Russian communist before having their anthem sang La Marseillaise (the French anthem) and Lenin and Stalin viewed themselves as the soviet versions of Danton and Robespierre.

Bruh imagine being a German soldier and you see the French killing each other

Honestly I had no clue how much chaos was happening before and during the Commune. Great video!

So basicly make Paris a city state and France will become more stable?

"Flew over the siege line in a balloon" an extremely frenchvway to escape a siege.

Govt of National Defence: We are the State! Bismark: giggles Govt of National Defence: Nervous Sweating Great video it was awesome of you to setup this collab for us!

SIGMA RULE 174: Only dethrone the old King to install yourself as Emperor.

Parisians: let’s establish a republic where the people will choose their own destiny People: choose to vote for monarchist Parisians: wait that’s illegal

The relationship of socialism and the commune is close-knit because of a simple fact: The commune was the first popular revolt headed by the social class which socialist ideology mainly appealed to, the urban poor or proletariat. Of the 400k people in paris, 200k participated in the elections for the new commune, mostly from the arrondissements (city districts) of the urban poor. In practice, it had the intention of keeping itself as an entity under the French government while espousing social democrat ideals for the new commune, but the government of the commune had little control over one of its most important parts: The National Guard. This brings us to one very important moment which the video did not mention: that the national guard tried to storm Versailles at one point, being easily repulsed by the French standing army. They thought a frontal assault would do it, but the standing army had prepared for the eventuality of an attack (either by newly emboldened Prussians or the much more likely option of riled up communards). This gave grounds for the army to enter Paris and in comes the bloody week. The numbers of the bloody week are debated and, if the rather well accepted toll of 20k is to be believed, means that 10% of the people that supported the commune and 5% of the entire Parisian population was killed. As well, the role of women, testified by the survivors of the bloody week, has been huge in the commune, but it is hard to encase everything in one video, I must agree. There are tales of young women going around the city during the bloody week trying to help wounded people who had been shot by the army or by radicalized communards. If anyone wishes to learn more of the commune after this awesome introduction by M. Laser, please give the wikipedia article a read, it's a much more in-depth summary of the events taking place during these two and a half months of Parisian idealism.

The rebuilding of Paris by Napoleon III was largely meant to prevent further revolts. Narrow, winding streets were easy to barricade so they were widened and straightened. These long straight streets were connected by open plazas that were intended to be artillery parks that would have a clear field of fire from one plaza to another. Essentially Paris was turned into an inside-out fortress designed to control its revolting inhabitants.

I just read an absolutely fantastic historical novel, In the Shadow of the Fire, by Herve Le Corre, set in Paris during the Commune. I had no idea about any of this history! What an amazing and devastating story. Thanks for the excellent context in this video.

I am extremely happy that you talked about this. It’s an extremely interesting topic.

I don't know if this has been already mentioned, but the Paris Commune in many ways was a very nationalistic event, as well. Many of the workers who participated in the Commune would later become supporters of the ultranationalist Boulangiste movement and many French Fascist parties regurarily celebrated the memory of the Paris Commune.

Brief correction, Marx didn't view the Commune as a "communist state" but as an example of what a "dictatorship of the proletariat" would look like, i.e., a society where the working class as a whole held absolute power. It actually caused him to completely reevaluate his position on the state, later writing that much of the proposals in the Communist Manifesto, especially relating to nationalisation, had become antiquated.

The amount of work that goes into these videos is insane, amazing work!

Even though the Paris Commune was not itself communist, it remains a valuable case study from which genuinely communist revolutionaries could refine their ideas and analysis.