Gustave Boulanger (1824-1888). "Episode de la Commune, place de la Concorde". Huile sur toile. Paris, musée Carnavalet. (all images courtesy Wikimedia Commons) Louise Michel, leader of the Montmartre ...

The Paris Commune was a defining moment for the European left: the first self-consciously socialist uprising — as opposed to the liberal nationalist revolutions of 1830 and 1848 — that aimed to put ...

On the 150th anniversary of the Commune of Paris, a revolutionary and anticlerical government that took control of the French capital for 72 days, the Church is seeking to honor the memory of the ...

In France, historical anniversaries tend to divide rather than unite. This year, which marks the 150th anniversary of the Paris Commune and the bicentennial of Napoléon Bonaparte’s death, certainly ...

Bruno Braquehais, "Toppled bronze statue of Napoleon from the Vendôme Column" (1871), albumen print (all images courtesy Getty Research Institute) This year marks the 150th anniversary of the Paris ...

A brief history of the world's first socialist working class uprising. The workers of Paris, joined by mutinous National Guardsmen, seized the city and set about re-organising society in their own ...

Kristin Ross’s The Commune Form traces a political tradition—based on reimagining class relations—that stretches from the 1871 uprising to the modern-day struggles of ZAD. A man walks past a statue of ...

In 1871 France went to war with Prussia and was defeated. The head of the national government was Adolphe Thiers, he had negotiated the details of the peace with Prussia. After doing this he was faced ...

IN 1871, the working class in Paris rose up against their rulers and proclaimed the Paris Commune. It was the first example in history of ordinary people taking control of society and running it ...

The essay below by Leon Trotsky was first published in French as a preface to the book by C. Talès, La Commune de 1871. It was written in the town of Zlatoust, on February 4, 1921, in the lead up to ...