THE
CIVIL WAR
IN
FRANCE

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  ^[1] Engels wrote this introduction for the third German edition (jubilee edition) of Marx's The Civil War in France, published in 1891 by the Vorwärts Press, Berlin, to mark the 20th anniversary of the Paris Commune. While pointing out the historical significance of both the experiences of the Paris Commune and the theoretical generalizations drawn from them by Marx in The Civil War in France, Engels also made a number of additions in the introduction to the history of the Commune, including references to the activities of the Blanquists and Proudhonists. In the jubilee edition Engels included two works written by Marx -- the First and Second Addresses of the General Council of the International Working Men's Association on the Franco-Prussian War. Other editions of The Civil War in France, published later in various languages, usually contained Engels' introduction.
    At first, Engels' introduction was published with his approval under the title of "On The Civil War in France" in Die Neue Zeit, No. 28, (Vol. II), 1890-91. When it was published, the editorial board of Die Neue Zeit tampered with the text by changing the words "Social-Democratic philistines" in the last paragraph of the manuscript into "German philistines." It was evident from Richard Fischer's letter to Engels on Match 17, 1891, that Engels disapproved of this arbitrary change. However, he kept the changed words in the pamphlet, probably because he did not want different versions of his work published contemporaneously. The present edition restores the original text.    [p.1]

  ^[2] See Marx and Engels, Selected Works, Foreign Languages Publishing House, Moscow, 1951, Vol. I, pp. 221-311.    [p.1]

  ^[3] A reference to the wars of national liberation waged by the German people from 1813 to 1814 against the rule of Napoleon I.    [p.2]

  ^[4] In 1819, after the wars against Napoleonic France, reactionary circles in Germany applied the name demagogues to people who took part in the opposition movement against the reactionary system of the German states and organized political demonstrations for the unification of Germany. The movement spread widely among the intelligentsia and student societies. The "demagogues" were persecuted by the reactionary authorities.    [p.2]

  ^[5] See Marx, "Second Address of the General Council of the International Working Men's Association on the Franco-Prussian War," p. 34 of the present book.    [p.2]

  ^[6] The monarchists in France were at that time divided into three dynastic parties: the Legitimists (see Note 55), the Orleanists (see Note 34), and the Bonapartists -- adherents of Louis Bonaparte (Napoleon III).    [p.5]

  ^[7] The coup d'état of Louis Bonaparte, then President of France. He dissolved the National Assembly, and a year later proclaimed himself Emperor of France.    [p.5]

  ^[8] The Second Empire of France was the name given to the period of Louis Bonaparte's rule (1852-70) in distinction from the First Empire of Napoleon I (1804-14).    [p.5]

  ^[9] Prussia was victorious in the war against Austria which was engineered by Bismarck. By excluding Austria from the German Confederation Prussia secured the hegemony at the founding of the German Empire. Napoleon III remained neutral in the Austro-Prussian War, in return for which he hoped -- in vain -- to receive part of the territory of the German states, as promised by Bismarck.    [p.6]

  ^[10] On September 1-2, 1870, a decisive battle was fought in the Franco-Prussian War in the vicinity of Sedan, a town in northeastern France, resulting in the complete rout of the French army. According to the capitulation terms signed by the French Headquarters on September 2, 1870, Napoleon III and more than 80,000 French soldiers, officers and generals were taken prisoners. From September 5, 1870 to March 19, 1871, Napoleon III was detained in Wilhelmshöhe, a Prussian castle near Kassel. The debacle at Sedan accelerated the downfall of the Second Empire. As a result, France was proclaimed a republic on September 4, 1870.    [p.6] [p.83]

  ^[11] This refers to the Franco-German preliminary peace treaty signed in Versailles on February 26, 1871 by Adolphe Thiers and Jules Favre on one side and Bismarck on the other. Under the terms of the treaty France agreed to cede Alsace and the eastern part of Lorraine to Germany

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and pay a war indemnity of five billion francs, while Germany was to continue occupying part of French territory until the indemnity was paid. The final peace treaty was signed at Frankfort-on-Main on May 10, 1871.    [p.7]

  ^[12] Quoted from the report of the election commission of the Commune, published in the organ of the Commune, Journal officiel de la République française, No. 90, March 31, 1871.    [p.8]

  ^[13] Engels is probably referring to the contents of the order issued by Edouard Vaillant, delegate of education of the Paris Commune, which was published in the Journal officiel de la République française, No. 132, May 12, 1871.    [p.9]

  ^[14] Now, usually called "The Wall of the Communards."    [p.12]

  ^[15] This refers to Proudhon's work Idée générale de la révolution au XIXe siècle (General Idea of the Revolution of the 19th Century ), Paris, 1851. A criticism of the views expressed by Proudhon in this book was given in Marx's letter to Engels dated August 8, 1851 and in Engels' work, "Analytical Criticism on Proudhon's General Idea of the Revolution of the 19th Century " (Archives of Marx and Engels, Vol. X, pp. 13-17).    [p.14]

  ^[16] The Possibilists represented the opportunist trend in the French working-class movement at the end of the 19th century.    [p.14]

  ^[17] The First Address of the General Council of the International Working Men's Association on the Franco-Prussian War was written by Marx between July 19 and 23, 1870.
    On July 19, 1870, the day the Franco-Prussian War broke out, the General Council commissioned Marx to draft an address on the war. It was adopted by the Permanent Committee of the General Council on July 23 and unanimously approved at the session of the General Council on July 26, 1870. It was first published in English under the title "The General Council of the International Working Men's Association on the War" in the London newspaper Pall Mall Gazette, No. 1702, July 28, 1870. A few days later a thousand copies of the Address were printed in leaflet form. A number of British papers also printed the full text or excerpts of the Address. A copy was sent to the editorial board of The Times, but it refused to publish it.
    The General Council decided on August 2, 1870 to reprint another thousand copies of the Address as the first batch had soon sold out and the number of copies issued had fallen far short of the demand. In September 1870, the First Address was reprinted in English together with the General Council's Second Address on the Franco-Prussian War. In

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this new edition, Marx corrected the misprints that had appeared in the first edition of the First Address.
    The General Council set up a commission on August 9 -- consisting of Marx, Hermann Jung, Auguste Serraillier and J. George Eccarius -- and instructed it to translate the Address into French and German and to disseminate it. The Address first appeared in German in Der Volksstaat, No. 63, August 7, 1870, Leipzig, the translation being made by Wilhelm Liebknecht. Marx revised this German version and retranslated nearly half of the text. This new German translation appeared in Der Vorbote, No. 8, August 1870, as well as in leaflet form. In commemorating in 1891 the 20th anniversary of the Paris Commune, Engels included the First Addless of the General Council in the German edition of The Civil Wer in France which was published by the Berlin Vorwärts Press. The translation of the First Address for this new edition was made by Louisa Kautsky under the guidance of Engels.
    The Address appeared in French in L'Egalité, August 1870, in L'Internationale, No. 82, August 7, 1870, and on the same day in Le Mirabeau, No. 55. The Address was also published in leaflet form in accordance with a French translation by the General Council's commission.
    A Russian version of the First Address appeared for the first time in the Narodnoye Dyelo, Nos. 6-7, August-September 1870, Geneva.    [p.19]

  ^[18] Marx and Engels, Selected Works, FLPH, Moscow, 1951, Vol. I, pp. 348-49 and p. 349.    [p.19]

  ^[19] The plebiscite was conducted by the government of Napoleon III in May 1870 in an attempt to consolidate the tottering regime of the Second Empire which had caused widespread discontent among the people. The questions were so worded that it was impossible to express one's disapproval of the policy of the Second Empire without at the same time declaring against all democratic reforms. In spite of the demagogic manoeuvres made by the government, the result of the plebiscite indicated the growth of the opposition forces -- 1,500,000 people voted against the government and 1,900,000 abstained from voting. While preparing for the plebiscite, the government took extensive measures to suppress the working-class movement, ceaselessly slandered the workers' organizations and distorted their objectives in order to frighten the intermediate stratum of society with the danger of "Red terror."
    The Paris Federal Sections of the International (Les sections parisiennes fédérées de l'Internationale) and the Federation of Workers' Unions (Chambre fédérale des Sociétés ouvrières) jointly issued a declaration on April 24, 1870, exposing the Bonapartists' demagogic plebiscite and

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calling on the workers to abstain from voting. On the eve of the plebiscite the government arrested members of the Paris sections of the International on a police-concocted charge that they were plotting to assassinate Napoleon III. Armed with the same charge the government launched an extensive persecution of members of the International in other cities throughout France. Although the falsehood of this charge was thoroughly exposed during the trials which took place from June 22 to July 5, 1870, the Bonapartist court still sentenced members of the International to imprisonment on the ground that they belonged to the International Working Men's Association.
    Persecution of the International in France aroused widespread protests among the workers.    [p.20]

  ^[20] This refers to the Franco-Prussian War which began on July 19, 1870.    [p.20]

  ^[21] This refers to the coup d'état by Louis Bonaparte on December 2, 1851, which ushered in the Bonapartist regime of the Second Empire.    [p.20]

  ^[22] Le Réveil -- organ of the French Left-wing Republicans, first a weekly, then a daily newspaper from May 1869. Edited by Charles Delescluze, it appeared in Paris from July 1868 to January 1871. From October 1870 it was opposed to the Government of National Defence.    [p.21]

  ^[23] Le Merseillaise -- a French daily newspaper, organ of the Left-wing Republicans, appeared in Paris from December 1869 to September 1870. The paper regularly published articles on the activities of the International and the workers' movement.    [p.21]

  ^[24] A reference to the Society of December Tenth, so called in honour of the election of its patron, Louis Bonaparte, to the Presidency of the French Republic on December 10, 1848. Formed in 1849, this secret society of the Bonapartists was composed mainly of declassed elements, political adventurers and militarists. Though formally dissolved in November 1850, its adherents continued to propagate Bonapartism, and took an active part in the coup d'état of December 2, 1851. Marx gave a detailed account of the Society of December Tenth in his work "The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte" (Marx and Engels, Selected Works, FLPH, Moscow, 1951, Vol. I, pp. 221-311).
    The chauvinist demonstration in support of Louis Bonaparte's plan of conquest was held by the Bonapartists with the collaboration of the police on July 15, 1870.    [p.21]

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  ^[25] The Battle of Sadowa fought in Czech on July 3, 1866 -- with Austria and Saxony on one side and Prussia on the other -- was decisive in the Austro-Prussian war of 1866, from which Prussia emerged victorious. Historically it was also known as the battle of Königgrätz (now called Hradec Králové).    [p.22]

  ^[26] The meetings of workers held at Brunswick on July 16, and at Chemnitz on July 17, 1870 were convened by the leaders of the German Social-Democratic Labour Party (the Eisenachers) in protest against the policy of conquest of the ruling class.
    Marx quoted the resolutions of both meetings from Der Volksstaat No. 58, July 20, 1870.    [p.23]

  ^[27] The Second Address of the General Council of the International Working Men's Association on the Franco-Prussian War was written by Marx between September 6 and 9, 1870.
    After studying the new situation brought about by the fall of the Second Empire and the beginning of a new stage in thc Franco-Prussian War, the General Council of the International decided on September 6, 1870 to issue a second address on the war, and for this purpose set up a commission consisting of Marx, Hermann Jung, George Milner and Auguste Serraillier.
    While writing the Address, Marx made use of the material Engels sent him, which exposed the attempt of the Prussian militarists, the Junkers and the bourgeoisie to annex French territory under the pretext of military-strategic considerations. The Address drafted by Marx was unanimously adopted at a special session of the General Council on September 9, 1870, and sent to all the bourgeois newspapers in London. With the exception of the Pall Mall Gazette which printed an extract of the Address on Septembcr 16, 1870, all the newspapers kept silent. A thousand copies of the Address were issued in English in leaflet form between September 11 and 13. At the end of the same month a new edition appeared containing both the First and Second Addresses. In this the misprints in the first edition were corrected and a few changes were made in the language.
    The Second Address was translated into German by Marx himself. In this translation, he made several omissions and added a few sentences addressed especially to the German workers. This version of the Second Address was published in Der Volksstaat, No. 76, September 21, 1870, and Der Vorbote, Nos. 10 and 11, October-November 1870, as well as in leaflet form in Geneva. In 1891 Engels included the Second Address in the German edition of The Civil War in France. The translation of

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the Address for this new edition was made by Louisa Kautsky under Engels' guidance.
    The French version of the Second Address appeared in L'Internationale, No. 93, October 23, 1870, and partly (the publication was not completed) in L'Egalité, No. 35, October 4, 1870.    [p.27]

  ^[28] In 1618 the Electorate of Brandenburg merged with Ducal Prussia (East Prussia), a vassal state of the republic of the szlachta (gentry) of Poland which had been formed in the early 16th century by estates of the Teutonic Order. As ruler of Prussia the Elector of Brandenburg became a vassal of Poland. This relationship remained until 1657 when the Elector of Brandenburg took advantage of Poland's difficulties in its war against Sweden and obtained the recognition of his sovereign rights over Prussian territory.    [p.29]

  ^[29] This refers to the reparate Peace Treaty of Basle which Prussia concluded with France on April 5, 1795. The treaty led to the break-up of the first anti-French coalition of the European states.    [p.30]

  ^[30] By the Treaty of Tilsit concluded in 1807 between France on the one side, and Russia and Prussia on the other, Prussia lost almost half of her territory, agreed to pay an indemnity, reduce her army and close all her ports to British shipping.    [p.31]

  ^[31] At a conference with Napoleon III at Biarritz in October 1865, Bismarck won France's de facto agreement to a Prussian-Italian alliance and Prussia's war against Austria. Napoleon calculated that Austria would be the victor and that he could then intervene in the war and reap the gains for himself.
    At the beginning of the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71, the czarist Foreign Minister Alexander Gorchakov stated in his talks with Bismarck at Berlin that Russia would keep a benevolent neutrality in the war and put diplomatic pressure on Austria. In its turn, the Prussian government undertook not to place any obstacles in the way of czarist Russia's policy on the Eastern question.    [p.33]

  ^[32] This refers to the victory won by feudal reaction in Germany after the downfall of Napoleon's rule.
    Together with the people of the other European countries the German people participated in the war of liberation against the rule of Napoleon I. The fruits of the victorious war, however, were seized by the rulers of the feudal absolute states in Europe who relied on the reactionary nobility. The counter-revolutionary league of monarchies -- the Holy Alliance, with Austria, Prussia and czarist Russia as its nucleus -- controlled the destinies of the European states. With the founding of the

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German Confederation, feudal separatism remained in Germany, feudal absolutism was consolidated in the German states, all the privileges of the nobles were kept intact and exploitation of the peasants under semi-serfdom was intensified.    [p.34]

  ^[33] A quotation from "Das Mallifest des Ausschusses der Sozialdemokratischen Arbeiterpattei an alle deutschen Arbeiter," which appeared in leaflet form on September 5, 1870, and was published in Der Volksstaat, No. 73, September 11, 1870.    [p.35]

  ^[34] The Orleanists were monarchists representing the interests of the financial aristocracy and the big bourgeoisie. They were the supporters of the House of Orleans, a branch of the Bourbons dynasty that ruled France from July 1830 to 1848.    [p.35]

  ^[35] Marx is referring to the movement started by the British workers for recognition of and diplomatic support for the French Republic established on September 4, 1870. With the active support of the trade unions, working people held mass rallies and demonstrations from September 5 in London, Birmingham, Newcastle and other cities. All the demonstrators expressed sympathy for the French people and demanded in resolutions and petitions that the British government immediately recognize the French Republic.
    The General Council of the First International took a direct part in organizing the campaign.    [p.36]

  ^[36] This is an allusion to the active participation of bourgeois-aristocratic Britain in the formation of the coalition of absolute feudal states, which started the war against revolutionary France in 1792 (Britain herself entered the war in 1793); and to the fact that the ruling British oligarchy was the first in Europe to recognize the French Bonapartist regime founded after Louis Bonaparte's coup d'état of December 2, 1851.    [p.37]

  ^[37] During the civil war in the U.S.A. (1861-65) between the industrial North and the South, which upheld the system of slave plantations, the English bourgeois press supported the slavery of the South.    [p.37]

  ^[38] The Civil War in France is one of the most important works of scientific communism, which, in the light of the experience of the Paris Commune, further developed the fundamental theses of Marxist teachings on the class struggle, the state, revolution and the dictatorship of the proletariat. It was written as an address of thc General Council of the International Working Men's Association to all its members in Europe and the United States.
    As soon as the Paris Commune was proclaimed Marx began meticulously to collect and study material about the activities of the Com-

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mune which was available from such sources as the French, British and German newspapers, and in letters from Paris. At a session of the General Council on April 18, 1871, Marx proposed that the Council issue an address to all members of the International on "the general trend of the struggle" in France. The Council commissioned Marx to draft the address and he then started the work on April 18 and continued it until the end of May. He wrote the first and second drafts of The Civil War in France (see pp. 109-260 and Note 111 of the present book). Then he set about to complete the final text. On May 30, 1871, two days after the last street barricade in Paris fell into the hands of the Versailles troops, the Council unanimously approved the final text of the address Marx read out.
    The Civil War in France, written in English, was first printed in London around June 13, 1871. A thousand copies of this 35-page pamphlet were issued. As the first edition was sold out very quickly, a second English edition of two thousand copies was issued and sold among the workers at a reduced price. In this edition Marx corrected the misprints in the first edition and added a second document to the "Notes." The names of two trade unionists, Benjamin Lucraft and George Odger, were removed from the list of signatures of General Council members at the end of the Address because they had expressed disagreement with the Address in the bourgeois press and withdrawn from the General Council; the names of new members were added. In August 1871 a third edition of The Civil War in France appeared, in which Marx removed a few inaccuracies that had been made in the preceding editions.
    In 1871 and 1872, The Civil War in France was translated into French, German, Russian, Italian, Spanish and Dutch and published in newspapers, magazines, and also in pamphlet form in Europe and America.
    The German version was translated by Engels and appeared in Der Volksstaat, Nos. 52-61, June 28, July 1, 5, 8, 12, 16, 19, 22, 26 and 29, 1871, and partly in Der Vorbote, August-October 1871. It was also printed as a separate pamphlet in Leipzig. In the translation, Engels made a few minor changes in the text. When a new German edition of The Civil War in France was prepared in 1876 to mark the fifth anniversary of the Paris Commune, some revisions were made in the text.
    Engels again revised this translation in 1891 for the German jubilee edition of The Civil War in France, issued to mark the 20th anniversary of the Paris Commune. He also wrote an introduction for it. He included in this edition two works by Marx -- the First and Second Addresses of the General Council of the International Working Men's Association on the Franco-Prussian War. These were also contained in

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most of the separate pamphlets of The Civil War in France subsequently published in various languages.
    The French version of The Civil War in France first appeared in L'Internationale, Brussels, July-September 1871. A pamphlet in French appeared in Brussels the following year. The translation was edited by Marx, who retranslated many passages and made numerous changes on the proofs.    [p.39]

  ^[39] The correspondence of Alphonse Simon Guiod to Louis Suzanne appeared in the Journal officiel, No. 115, April 25, 1871.
    Journal officiel is an abbreviation for the Journal officiel de la République française, official organ of the Paris Commune. It was published from March 20 to May 24, 1871. The journal used the name of the government paper of the French Republic, published in Paris from September 5, 1870. (During the period of the Commune, the organ of the Thiers government in Versailles was also published under the same title.) Only the issue of March 30 bore the title Journal officiel de la Commune de Paris.    [p.43]

  ^[40] On January 28, 1871. Bismarck and Jules Favre, representative of the Government of National Defence, concluded the "Convention on Armistice and the Capitulation of Paris."    [p.43]

  ^[41] The Capitulards -- a contemptuous name for those who advocated the capitulation of Paris during the siege (1870-71). Later, this term became used in French to describe capitulationists.    [p.44]

  ^[42] Le Vengeur, No. 30, April 28, 1871.    [p.44]

  ^[43] L'Etendard -- a French Bonapartist paper, published in Paris in 1866-68. It had to stop publication following an exposure of the fraudulent means used by the paper to obtain financial support.    [p.45]

  ^[44] This refers to the Société générale du crédit mobilier, a big French joint-stock bank founded in 1852. Its source of income was chiefly from speculation on the securities of the joint-stock companies it had established. Crédit mobilier had close connections with the government of the Second Empire. It went bankrupt in 1867 and closed down in 1871. In many of his articles published in the New York Daily Tribune Marx laid bare the real nature of Crédit mobilier (sec Marx and Engels, Works, Ger. ed., Berlin, Vol. XII, pp. 20-36, 202-09, 289-92).    [p.45]

  ^[45] L'Electeur libre -- organ of the Right-wing Republicans, published in Paris from 1868 to 1871. It was a weekly at first and became a daily after the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War. In 1870 and 1871 it had close connections with the Finance Office of the Government of National Defence.    [p.45]

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  ^[46] A reference to the actions against the Legitimists and the church which occurred in Paris on February 14-15, 1831 and found a response in the provinces. To protest against the Legitimists' demonstration at the funeral of the Duke of Berry, the masses wrecked the Saint-Germain l'Auxerrois church and the palace of Archbishop Quélen, who was known as a sympathizer of the Legitimists. The Orleanist government intended to deal a blow at the hostile Legitimists, and therefore took no measures to restrain the masses. Thiers, the then Home Minister, who was present when the church and the archbishop's palace were being wrecked, persuaded the National Guards not to intervene.
    Thiers ordered the arrest in 1832 of the Duchess of Berry -- mother of the Count of Chambord, the Legitimist pretender -- put her under strict surveillance and made her undergo a humiliating physical examination so as to make public her secret marriage and thus compromise her politically.    [p.46]

  ^[47] Marx is referring to the infamous role played by Thiers in suppressing the uprising of April 13-14, 1834, which was against the rule of the July Monarchy. The uprising of the Paris workers, and the petty-bourgeois strata which joined in with them, was led by the Republican secret Society for the Rights of Man. In suppressing the insurrection, countless atrocities were perpetrated by the militarists, including the slaughter of all the dwellers in a house in the Rue Transnonain. Thiers was the chief instigator of the brutal suppression of the democrats both during the uprising and after it was put down.
    Under the provisions of the reactionary Laws of September -- introduced in September 1835 -- the French government restricted the activities of juries and severely inhibited the press by such measures as that which increased the sum of money periodicals had to deposit as a security. The laws also threatened imprisonment and heavy fines for speeches against private ownership and the existing state system.    [p.46]

  ^[48] In January 1841 Thiers submitted a plan to the Chamber of Deputies on the building of fortifications -- ramparts and forts -- around Paris. The revolutionary democrats regarded this move as a preparatory measure for the suppression of the people's uprisings. It was pointed out that it was exactly for this purpose that Thiers' plan provided for the construction of a large number of particularly strong forts near the workers' quarters in the eastern and northeastern part of Paris.    [p.46]

  ^[49] In January 1848 the army of Ferdinand II, King of the Two Sicilies, bombarded the town of Palermo to suppress the people's uprising, which was a signal for the bourgeois revolution in the Italian states in 1848-49. In the

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autumn of 1848, Ferdinand II again indiscriminately bombarded Messina, and thus won himself the nickname King Bomba.    [p.47]

  ^[50] In April 1849 the French bourgeois government in alliance with Austria and Naples intervened in the Roman Republic in order to overthrow it and restore the temporal power of the Pope. Because of the armed intervention and the siege of Rome -- cruelly bombarded by the French army -- the Roman Republic was overthrown despite heroic resistance and Rome was occupied by the French army.    [p.47]

  ^[51] This refers to the cruel suppression of the uprising of the Parisian proletariat of June 23-26, 1848, by the bourgeois Republican government, With the suppression of the insurrection the reactionary forces became rampant and the position of the conservative monarchists was further consolidated.    [p.48]

  ^[52] The Party of Order, founded in 1848, was the party of the conservative big bourgeoisie in France, and a coalition of two monarchist factions, the Legitimists and the Orleanists. It played the leading role in the Legislative Assembly of the Second Republic from 1849 up to the coup d'état of December 2, 1851. The bankruptcy of its anti-popular policy was utilized by Louis Bonaparte's clique in building the regime of the Second Empire.    [p.48]

  ^[53] France faced the danger of war with an anti-French coalition of the European powers following the conclusion of the Convention of London on July 15, 1840 by Britain, Russia, Prussia, Austria and Turkey, which agreed to aid the Turkish sultan against the French-backed Mohammed Ali, governor of Egypt. The French government was forced to withhold support for Mohammed Ali in order to avert the war.    [p.49]

  ^[54] Endeavouring to strengthen the Versailles troops for the suppression of revolutionary Paris, Thiers requested Bismarck to permit him to enlarge the number of his troops, which, according to the terms of the Versailles preliminary peace treaty signed on February 26, 1871, were not to exceed 40,000 men. Thiers' government assured Bismarck that the troops would be used only to suppress the insurrection in Paris. There upon, the government was granted permission, through the Rouen agreement of March 28, 1871, to increase the size of its army to 80,00 and then to 100,000 men. Under this agreement the German Headquarters hastily repatriated the French prisoners-of-war, namly those captured in Sedan and Metz. They were then put in locked-up camps by Versailles and trained in hatred for the Paris Commune.    [p.49]

  ^[55] The Legitimist Party was the party of the supporters of the older line of the Bourbon dynasty overthrown in 1792. It represented the in-

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terests of the big landowning aristocracy. The party was formed in 1830, after the Bourbons were overthrown for the second time. During the Second Empire the Legitimists, unable to gain any support from the people, contented themselves by adopting a temporizing tactic and publishing some critical pamphlets. They became active only in 1871 after they joined the campaign of the counter-revolutionary forces against the Paris Commune.    [p.51]

  ^[56] Chambre introuvable -- a name given to the French Chamber of Deputies of 1815-16 which, composed of out-and-out reactionaries, was elected in the early period of the restoration.    [p.52]

  ^[57] Pourceaugnac -- a character in one of Molière's comedies, typifying the dull-witted, narrow-minded petty landed gentry.    [p.52]

  ^[58] The Assembly of Rurals was a contemptuous nickname for the French National Assembly of 1871, which consisted mostly of reactionary monarchists -- provincial landlords, officials, rentiers and merchants elected from the rural election districts. Out of the 630 deputies, 430 were monarchists.    [p.52]

  ^[59] A reference to the demand for the payment of war indemnity put forward by Bismarck as one of the terms in the preliminary peace treaty concluded between France and Germany in Versailles on February 26, 1871. (See Note 11.)    [p.52]

  ^[60] On March 10, 1871, the National Assembly passed the Law on the Postponement of Payment of Debt Obligations, which laid down that debts incurred between August 13 and November 12, 1870 had to be paid within seven months from the day they were contracted, while those incurred after November 12 could not be deferred. Thus the law actually did not grant a delay of payment for most of the debtors; it dealt a heavy blow at the workers and the poorer strata of the population and bankrupted many of the small manufacturers and merchants.    [p.53]

  ^[61] This refers to Charles Cousin-Montauban, a French general who commanded the joint French and British aggressive forces which invaded China in 1860. He was given the title of comte de Palikao by Napoleon III because he defeated the troops of the Ching dynasty (1644-1911) at Palichiao, a village east of Peking.    [p.53]

  ^[62] The Décembriseur -- participants and supporters of the coup d'état of Louis Bonaparte of Decembcr 2, 1851. Vinoy took a direct part in the coup d'état and with armed force suppressed the uprising of the Republicans in one of the provinces.    [p.53]

  ^[63] According to press reports, Thiers and other government officials were to get more than 300 miliion francs as "commission" out of the

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domestic loan to be raised by the government. Thiers later admitted that representatives of the financial circles, with whom he negotiated for a loan, had demanded the speedy suppression of the revolution in Paris. The law on the domestic loan was adopted on June 20, 1871 after the Versailles troops had suppressed the Paris Commune.    [p.53]

  ^[64] Cayenne -- a city in French Guiana, South America, a penal settlement and place of exile for political prisoners.    [p.56]

  ^[65] Le National -- a French daily, organ of the moderate bourgeois Republicans, published in Paris between 1830 and 1851.    [p.59]

  ^[66] On October 31, 1870, workers and the revolutionary section of the National Guard in Paris launched an insurrection after receiving news that Metz had capitulated, Le Bourget was lost, and Thiers, by order of the Govemment of National Defence, had begun negotiations with the Prussians. The insurgents occupied the Hôtel de Ville and established a revolutionary organ of political power, the Committee of Public Safety, headed by Louis Auguste Blanqui. Under the pressure of the workers, the Government of National Defence promised to resign and hold an election to the Commune on November 1. However, taking advantage of the incomplete organization of the revolutionary forces of Paris and the differences between the leading sections of the insurrection -- the Blanquists and the petty-bourgeois democrats, the Jacobinists -- the government went back on its words, and, with the help of the few battalions of the National Guard which remained on its side, reoccupied the Hôtel de Ville and regained power.    [p.59]

  ^[67] The Bretons, i.e., the mobile guards of Brittany, which Trochu used as gendarmerie to suppress the revolutionary movement in Paris.
    The Corsicans made up an important part of the gendarmerie of the Second Empire.    [p.59]

  ^[68] On January 22, 1871, on the initiative of the Blanquists, the proletariat of Paris and the National Guards held a revolutionary demonstration, demanding the dissolution of the government and the establishment of the Commune. The Government of National Defence instructed its Breton mobilc guards, which guarded the Hôtel de Ville, to fire at the masses. It arrested many demonstrators, ordered the closure of all the clubs in Paris and banned mass rallies and many newspapers. After suppressing the revolutionary movement with terror, the government began to prepare for the surrender of Paris.    [p.60]

  ^[69] Sommations was a form of warning issued by the French authorities for the dispersal of demonstrations, meetings, etc. According to the law of 1831, the government had the right to use force after this warning

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had been repeated three times by a roll of drums or a flourish of trumpets.
    The Riot Act, which came into force in England in 1715, prohibited any "riotous assembly" of more than twelve persons. The authorities had the duty to sound a special warning to such an assembly and use force if the participants did not disperse within an hour.    [p.61]

  ^[70] When the event of October 31, 1870 occurred (see Note 66), members of the Government of National Defence were detained in the Hôtel de Ville. One of the insurgents demanded their execution but was stopped by Gustave Flourens.    [p.63]

  ^[71] See Voltaire, Candide, Chapter 22.    [p.63]

  ^[72] A quotation from the decree on hostages passed by tbe Paris Commune on April 5, 1871 and published in the Journal ofliciel de la République française, No. 96, April 6, 1871. (The date referred to by Marx was the date of its publication in British newspapers.) The decree provided that anyone accused and proved guilty of colluding with Versailles would be detained as hostages. By this measure the Commune tried to prevent the Versailles troops from killing the Communards.    [p.63]

  ^[73] Journal officiel de la République française, No. 80, March 21, 1871.    [p.66]

  ^[74] The wars waged by England, Russia, Prussia, Austria, Spain and other states against revolutionary France and later against the empire of Napoleon I.    [p.67]

  ^[75] Investiture in the Middle Ages meant the act of a feudal lord in granting his vassals a fief, benefice, office, etc. This system was characterized by the complete control exercised by the upper grades of the ecclesiastical and secular hierarchy over the lower grades.    [p.72]

  ^[76] The Girondins or Girondists were supporters of the Party of Gironde which was formed io the bourgeois French Revolution, representing the interests of the big commercial and industrial bourgeoisie, as well as the interests of the landlord-bourgeoisie which emerged during the period of the revolution. The Girondins were so named because many of their leaders represented the province of Gironde in the Legislative Assembly and the National Assembly. Under the flag of protecting the right of the provinces to autonomy and federation, the Girondins opposed the Jacobin government and the revolutionary masses supporting it.    [p.73]

  ^[77] Kladderadatsch -- an illustrated humorous satirical weekly which began to appear in Berlin in 1848. Punch -- an abbreviation for Punch or the London Charivari, a humorous weekly of the British bourgeois liberals which first appeared in London in 1841.    [p.74]

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  ^[78] On April 16, 1871, the Commune promulgated a decree postponing payments of all debt obligations for three years and cancelling interest, The decree alleviated the financial condition of the petty bourgeoisie and was unfavourable to the creditors among the big bourgeoisie.    [p.77]

  ^[79] This refers to the rejection of the bill on the "concordats à l'amiable " by the Constituent Assembly on August 22, 1848. The bill provided for the deferment of the payment of debts by any debtor who could prove he had become bankrupt owing to stagnation of business caused by the revolution. As a result of this, a considerable number of the petty bourgeoisie became totally ruined and were left to the tender mercy of the big bourgeois creditors.    [p.77]

  ^[80] Frères ignorantins -- a nickname for the religious order which appeared in Reims in 1680. Its members dedicated themselves to the education of poor children. In the schools founded by the order the pupils mainly received religious education and obtained very little in other fields of knowledge. Marx used this expression to allude to the low standard and clerical character of elementary education in bourgeois France.    [p.77]

  ^[81] "Union republicaine " (Alliance républicaine des Départements ) -- a political organization of the petty-bourgeois elements who came from different provinces and lived in Paris. It called on the provinces to support the Commune and fight against the Versailles government and the monarchist National Assembly.    [p.78]

  ^[82] Probably from the appeal of the Paris Commune, "Au travailleur des campagnes," which was published in April or early May 1871 in the newspapers of the Commune and also as a leaflet.    [p.78]

  ^[83] On April 27, 1825, the reactionary government of Charles X promulgated a law compensating former émigrés for the loss of their estates confiscated in the years of the bourgeois French Revolution. The greater part of the indemnity -- totalling 1,000 million francs and paid by the government in the form of three-per-cent securities -- was obtained by the chief aristocrats at court and the big landlords of France.    [p.78]

  ^[84] The Provisional Government of France decided on March 16, 1848 to add a 45 centimes tax to each franc of direct tax collected. Thc burden of this additional tax fell mainly on the peasants. As a result of this policy adopted by the bourgeois Republicans, the peasants were estranged from the revolution and voted for Louis Bonaparte in the presidential election of December 10, 1848.    [p.78]

  ^[85] This refers to the laws that divided France into military districts and gave commanders extensive powers, granted the president of the

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republic the right to appoint and remove burgomasters, placed school-masters under the control of the prefects, and extended the clergy's influence over national education. Marx gave a characterization of these laws in his work "The Class Struggles in France, 1848 to 1850" (Marx and Engels, Selected Works, FLPH, Moscow, 1951, Vol. I, pp. 199-200).    [p.79]

  ^[86] The Vendôme Column -- a bronze column with a statue of Napoleon I, erected in the Vendôme Square in the centre of Paris, to glorify victories in his aggressive wars. Cast from 1,200 captured guns, and also known as the "Victory Column," it was a symbol of aggression and chauvinism.
    The Vendôme Column was demolished on May 16, 1871 according to a dccree enacted by the Paris Commune on April 12, which denounced it as a "monument of barbarism" and an "affirmation of militarism." It was re-erected in 1875 by the French bourgeois government.    [p.81]

  ^[87] In the newspaper Le Mot d'ordre of May 5, 1871, evidence was published of the crimes committed in the cloisters. A search in the Picpus convent in the suburban district of St. Antoine revealed cases in which nuns had been imprisoned in cells for many years. Implements of torture were also found. In the church of St. Laurent a secret vault was discovered revealing evidence of several murders. These facts were also made public in the Commune's pamphlet entitled Les crimes des congrégations religieuses.    [p.83]

  ^[88] Irish absentees -- big landlords who lived in England on their income from Irish estates which were managed by land agents or leased to speculator-middlemen, who, in turn, rented them out to small peasants on exacting terms.    [p.84]

  ^[89] Francs-fileurs -- literally "free absconders," was an ironical nickname for the bourgeois of Paris who fled the city during its siege. The nickname was ironical because its pronunciation is similar to that of francs-tireurs (free shooters), the appellation for the French partisans who took an active part in the war against Prussia.    [p.85]

  ^[90] Coblenz -- a city in Germany which became the counter-revolutionary centre for monarchist émigrés who prepared for intervention against revolutionary France during the bourgeois revolution of 1789. Coblenz was the seat of the emigrant government supported by the feudal absolute states and headed by Charles Alexandre de Calonne, the fanatic reactionary minister under Louis XVI.    [p.86]

  ^[91] Chouans -- originally the participants of the counter-revolutionary riots in northwestern France during the bourgeois French Revolution. At

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the time of the Paris Commune the Communards used this name to describe the monarchist-minded Versailles army recruited at Brittany.    [p.87]

  ^[92] Zouave -- a corps of colonial infantry troops in the French Army -- derived its name from a tribe of Algeria. First organized in Algeria in the 1830s, the corps was composed of local inhabitants. Later it became a purely French body but retained the original Oriental costume. The Pontifical Zouaves were the Pope's guards, organized and trained on the pattern of the original Zouaves and recruited from volunteers of the young French noblemen. After the occupation of Rome by the Italian troops and the end of the temporal power of the Pope, the Pontifical Zouaves were dispatched to France in September 1870, and reorganized under the name of the "Legion of Volunteers of the West." Incorporated into the 1st and the 2nd Loire Army, they fought in the war against Germany. After the war the Legion took part in the suppression of the Paris Commune. Later it was disbanded.    [p.87]

  ^[93] Under the influence of the proletarian revolution in Paris, which gave birth to the Paris Commune, revolutionary movements of the masses started in Lyons, Marseilles and many other French cities. On March 22 the National Guards and the working people of Lyons seized the town hall. On March 26 after the arrival of a delegation from Paris the Commune was proclaimed in Lyons. Though the Communal commission -- set up to prepare for the election to the Commune -- possessed an armed force, it finally relinquished power owing to lack of contact with the people and the National Guards. Another uprising by the Lyons workers on April 30 was cruelly suppressed by the army and police.
    In Marseilles the insurgent population occupied the town hall, arrested the prefect, formed the "department commission" and decided to hold an election to the Commune on April 5. The revolutionary outbreak in Marseilles was put down on April 4 by government troops which bombarded the city.    [p.89]

  ^[94] This refers to Dufaure's efforts to consolidate the regime of the July Monarchy during the period of the armed uprising of the Société des saisons (Society of the Seasons) in May 1839, and to the role played by Dufaure in the strugglc against the opposition petty-bourgeois Montagnards at the time of the Second Republic in June 1849.
    An attempt at a revolution by the secret Republican-socialist Society of the Seasons on May 12. 1839, headed by Louis Auguste Blanqui and Armand Barhes, did not rely on the masses and bore a conspiratorial character; the rising was suppressed by the government army and the Na-

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tional Guard. In order to combat the danger of revolution, a new cabinet was formed, which Dufaure joined.
    During a growing political crisis in June 1849 -- caused by the Montagnards' opposition to the President of the Republic, Louis Bonaparte -- the Minister of Interior, Dufaure, proposed the adoption of a series of decrees against the revolutionary section of the National Guard, the democrats and socialists.    [p.90]

  ^[95] This refers to the law adopted by the National Assembly "On the Prosecution Against the Offence of the Press," which enforced the clauses in the former reactionary press laws (of 1819 and 1849) and laid down harsh penalties -- including that of prohibition -- for publications containing anti-government views. It also refers to the rehabilitation of officiais of the Sccond Empire who had been removed from office; to the special law concerning the procedure of returning the properties confiscated by the Commune, and the classification of such confiscation as a criminal offence.    [p.90]

  ^[96] The law on the proceedings in courts-martial, which Dufaure submitted to the National Assembly, further shortened the proceedings as stipulated in the "Code de justice militaire " of 1857. It confirmed the right of the army commander and the Minister of War to carry out judicial prosecutions according to their own discretion without preliminary inquiry, in such circumstances, the legal case, including the examination of the appeal, had to be settled and the sentence executed within 48 hours.    [p.90]

  ^[97] This refers to the trade agreement concluded between Britain and France on January 23, 1860. It was stipulated in the agreement that France relinquish the policy of prohibitive tariff and replace it with an income tax not exceeding 30 per cent of the value of the goods. The agreement gave France the right to export duty-free most of its goods to Britain. After the conclusion of this agreement, the large flow of English goods into France greatly inceased competition in the home market and aroused the discontent of the French manufacturers.    [p.91]

  ^[98] This refers to the situation of terror and bloody repression during the period of sharpening social-political struggle in ancient Rome, and at different stages of crisis in the slave-holding Roman Republic in the first century B.C.
    The Dictatorship of Sulla (82-79 B C.), lackey of the slave-holding nobility, was accompanied by a mass slaughter of the representatives of hostile groups of slave-holders. Under Sulla proscription was introduced for the first time, i.e., a list of persons whom any Roman had the right to kill without a trial.

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    The two Triumvirates of Rome (60-53 and 43-56 B.C.) -- A Triumvirate was the dictatorship of the three most influential Roman generals who divided the power among themselves. The first Triumvirate consisted of Pompey, Caesar and Crassus; and the second. Octavian, Antony and Lepidus, The Triumvirate represented a stage in the struggle for the liquidation of the Roman Republic and the formation of an absolute monarchy. They widely employed the method of physical extermination of their opponents. Upon the fall of the two Triumvirates, sanguinary, internecine civil war ensued.    [p.94]

  ^[99] Journal de Paris -- a weekly which appeared in Paris from 1867. It supported the monarchist Orleanists.    [p.95]

  ^[100] These two passages were quoted from an article by the French publicist Edouard Hervé, published in Journal de Paris, No. 138, May 31, 1871. For the quotation from Tacitus, see Tacitus' History, Book III, Chapter 83.    [p.95]

  ^[101] In August 1814 during the Anglo-American war, the British troops occupied Washington and burned the Capitol (the Congress hall), the White House and other public buildings.
    In October 1860 in the colonial war waged by Britain and France against China, the Anglo-French troops plundered and burned the Yuan Ming Yuan Palace near Peking, which was a rich treasure of architecture and art.    [p.96]

  ^[102] Praetorians -- the name used in ancient Rome to describe the privileged private guards of the generals or the emperor. At the time of the Roman Empire, Praetorians constantly took part in internal strifes and often placed their own nominees on the throne. Later the word "praetorians" became a synonym for mercenaries and those who committed outrages and carried out the arbitrary rule of military cliques.    [p.98]

  ^[103] By the "Prussian Chambre introuvable " -- analogous to the extremely reactionary French Chambre introuvable of 1815-16 -- Marx meant the Prussian Parliament elected in January-February 1849 according to the Constitution granted by the Prussian king on Dccember 5, 1848, the day of the counter-revolutionary coup d'etat. According to the Constitution, the Parliament was composed of the Housc of Lords of the privileged aristocrats arnd the Lower House. Only "independent Prussians" were allowed to take part in the elections to the Lower House, thereby ensuring the dominance of the Junker-burceaucrats and Right-wing bourgeois elements in it. Bismarck, who was elected to the Lower House, was a leader of the extreme Right-wing group of Junkers.    [p.99]

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  ^[104] The Daily News -- a liberal paper and mouthpiece of the British industrial bourgeoisie, published from 1846 to 1930 in London.    [p.104]

  ^[105] Le Temps -- a conservative daily, organ of the French big bourgeoisie; published in Paris from 1861 to 1943. It opposed the Second Empire and its war against Prussia. After the collapse of the Second Empire it supported the Government of National Defence.    [p.104]

  ^[106] The Evening Standard -- published in London between 1857 and 1905, used to be the evening edition of The Standard a daily paper of the British Conservatives, which was founded in London in 1827.    [p.105]

  ^[107] The statement was drawn up by Marx and Engels for the General Council of the International Working Men's Association on Jules Favre's circular of June 6, 1871. It was included in the second and third English editions of The Civil War in France and in the German editions of 1871, 1876 and 1891. It was also published separately in many newspapers. (See Marx and Engels, Works, Ger. ed., Vol. XVII, pp. 367-68.)    [p.105]

  ^[108] See Marx and Engels, Works, Ger. ed., Vol. XVI, p. 14.    [p.105]

  ^[109] This refers to the circular drafted by Marx, "The International Working Men's Association and the Alliance of Socialist Democracy" (see Marx and Engels, Works, Ger. ed., Vol. XVI, pp. 359-41).    [p.106]

  ^[110] The Spectator -- a British liberal weekly, which began to appear in London in 1828.    [p.107]