For 72 days, the Paris Commune turned the capital into a living experiment in working-class democracy. Parks opened, palaces became public space, newspapers and clubs exploded with debate, and a wave of reforms tried to remake daily life from the ground up: secular schools, cooperative workshops, equal pay in the National Guard, and a new vision of the “social republic.” But outside the city walls, Versailles gathered an army, and the dream of peaceful federation gave way to civil war. Inside the Hôtel de Ville, the Commune’s contradictions sharpened into open conflict. Jacobins demanded unity and discipline. Blanquists pressed for emergency powers. Internationalists and Proudhonists resisted anything that resembled a new state. As shells fell and bread ran thin, fear began to replace the exhilaration of March. The Decree on Hostages, the return of a Committee of Public Safety, and the tightening grip of censorship exposed a brutal question that had haunted every revolution since 1793: how does a movement built on liberty survive when surrounded? Then, on May 21, as Parisians gathered for a concert in the Tuileries, Versailles troops slipped quietly through an undefended gate. What followed was not a conventional battle, but a methodical annihilation as Versailles conquered Paris district by district. The week would end in massacre, executions, and fire: the Tuileries in flames, the Hôtel de Ville reduced to ash, the Commune’s leaders hunted down, and tens of thousands of working people crushed in the streets. In the aftermath, the revolution would put on trial, especially in the figure of Louise Michel, who refused repentance and claimed the Commune as “the Social Revolution” itself. And from the ruins of Paris, the left would inherit its defining divide as Marx and Bakunin both hailed the Commune but drew opposite lessons—centralism versus federation, discipline versus spontaneity, the workers’ state versus the negation of the state. The Commune lasted seventy-two days, but its fires would continue to burn for a century. This is Season One—The Origins of Socialism: Paris and the Making of Modern Revolution Next: Marxism vs. Anarchism: The Question of the State Written and produced by Matt Payne. Support, Subscribe, Read on Substack: https://ismhistorypodcast.substack.com/ Original Musical Compositions by Ian Payne: https://www.jamesianpayne.com/ Support the Show: PayPal Contact: ismhistorypodcast@gmail.com This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit ismhistorypodcast.substack.com
