@ -1540,4 +1540,48 @@ All associated with 81 street names bearing the names of saints. The street sign
Maurice Moissonnier is an historian.
\chapter{1871: Class Betrayal and Bloody Week}
First milestone: the bankruptcy of the political and military leadership teams.
On July 19, 1870, the Second Empire, \enquote{with a light heart}, declared war on Prussia, a heart all the lighter because, according to the Minister of War, the army \enquote{did not lack a single gaiter button}.
Six weeks later, Napoleon III capitulated pitifully at Sedan and, on September 4, the Republic was proclaimed.
The new government, known as \enquote{National Defence}, in fact \enquote{national defection}, is made up of moderate Republicans \enquote{extremely finicky on the question of order and property}\footnote{J. P. Azéma and M. Winock, Les Communards (The communards), Seuil, 1970, p. 22.}.
Presiding over this government and military governor of Paris, General Trochu, \enquote{past paticiple of the verb trop choir}\rfootnote{French pun: Trochu is pronounced the same as trop chu which is past tense of trop choir which means too much fail}, ironize Victor Hugo.
Surrounded by the Prussians since September 19, Paris, despite the extreme rigors of the siege, \enquote{chose the side of overly struggle} (Lissagaray).
The popular Paris in arms (including cannons, bought by popular subscription) is organized.
\begin{displayquote}
From then on, the fear of the \enquote{dangerous classes} resurfaced with more force than ever.
As early as September 19, 1870, Francisque Sarcey — a very reactionary journalist — observed with cynicism and lucidity:
\enquote{The bourgeoisie saw itself, not without a certain melancholy, between the Prussians who set foot on its throat, and those it called the reds, and that it saw only armed with daggers.
I don't know which one scared her the most: she hated foreigners more, but she feared the Bellevillois more.}…
\end{displayquote}
That same September 19, Jules Favre secretly met Bismarck at Ferrières to inquire about the conditions of an armistice…
However, Trochu's confidence to his friend the conservative writer Maxime du Camp: \enquote{The National Guard will only consent to peace if it loses 10,000 men.}\footnote{Maxime du Camp, Les convulsions de Paris (Paris's seizures), Hachette, 1897, vol. I, p. 11. State of mind corroborated by the Parliamentary Inquiry into the Insurrection of 18 March, vol. I. p. 399 and vol. III, p. 13.}
No problem: the exit of Buzenval, on January 19, 1871, resulted in the death of 4,000 soldiers and officers.
This combined fear and phobia leads to betrayal. The choice between Prussians and Bellevillois is quickly made.
Gustave Flaubert wrote to George Sand on April 30, 1871: \enquote{\enquote{Ah! Thank God the Prussians are here!} is the universal cry of the bourgeoisie}.
Words confirmed by Francisque Sarcey: \enquote{You cannot imagine the way in which this ia… He seemed to say, this ai deeper than a mug from Germany:
\enquote{Yes, poor Frenchman, we are here, fear nothing more… You were born in a free land, ia, on a friendly land, ia, under the protection of the Bavarian bayonets, ia, ia.}
I couldn't help but repeat this ia in my turn while trying to catch the intonation.}\footnote{In the newspaper named — irony of history — Le Drapeau tricolore (The threecolored flag), May 20, 1871.}
The armistice, signed on 28 January, delivered Alsace and part of Lorraine to Prussia.
As soon as January 3, 1871, \emph{Le Figaro} sounded the hallali: \enquote{Army of good versus army of evil… order against anarchy, the fight will be neither long nor difficult! It will be more of the fight than the battle… A crusade of civilization against barbarism.}
On March 18, Thiers executed: he sent the army, in the early morning, to seize the guns of the National Guard.
This provocative wick explode the powder keg. The Central Committee of the National Guard proclaims on March 21:
\enquote{The proletarians of the capital, in the midst of the failures and betrayals of the ruling classes, understood that the time had come for them to save the situation by taking over the direction of public affairs.
Does not the bourgeoisie, their eldest, which achieved its emancipation more than three quarters of a century ago, which preceded them in the path of revolution, understand today that the turn of the emancipation of the proletariat has arrived?}
By its birth, by its brief existence (72 days) and especially by its abundant work, the Commune, the first world workers' revolution, commits a crime of lèse-majesté, lèse-capitalism and lèse-moral order:
a government of the people by the people and for the people, elected representatives on imperative and revocable mandates, a real citizen mobilization,
the premises of self-management (restarted by the associated workers of the workshops deserted by their bosses), the first steps towards female emancipation, the role of foreigners (a Hungarian Jewish immigrant, Leo Frankel, Minister of Labour)…
During the Bloody Week (21-28 May 1871), the Versailles army had a field day.
This army, and especially its senior officers, had made its hand during the conquest of Algeria (the massacres of Dahra cave in 1845), in Mexico (\enquote{les blanca blanca} de Galliffet) and against the strikers (27 killed in Aubin and La Ricamarie).
Long at the head of this army, General Vinoy defines himself as \enquote{a man who has always regarded order as the first duty of any society.}\footnote{Communication by Jean-Claude Freiermuth, in Maintien de l'ordre et polices, Créaphis, 1987, pp. 41-51.}
This army was enlarged by Bismarck, who freed the prisoners of war. Class internationalism.
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