V. I. Lenin

Source: ru:LS/v26
Translated: machine translation (DeepSeek) from the Russian; AI-translated.

IN MEMORY OF THE PARIS COMMUNE

25 VII 70 war declared.
German statements (W. I.): *Verteidigungs* war.
(P. 20. in the Speech from the Throne: war with N[apoleon] III, not with the Fr[ench] people; likewise 11 VIII 70 in the m[ani]festo to the French on crossing the border).
3. The protests of the w[ork]ers.
— French m[ani]festo 12 VII 70 (P. 16) (and resolutions in the provinces) 22 VII 70 (P. 16—17)
M[ani]festo of the Paris members of the I[nternational] of 12 VII (P. 18).
— G[erman] protest (meeting in Chemnitz) (P. 18)
(meeting in Brunswick 16 VII 70) — Berlin section of the I[nternational].
— Address of the General Council of the I[nternational] 1) 23 VII 70 against the war.
4. The outcome of the war.
Sedan 2 IX 70. Capture of N[apoleon] III, Debacle.*
Fall of the venal regime.
Proclamation of the republic 4 IX 70 by the w[ork]ers in Paris.
Power in the hands of adventurers, power — to the delegates from
of the police m[agi]strate of Louis Phi- Paris in the legislalippe — Thiers, General Trochu. tive body.
Jules Favre, Jules Ferry, Ernest Picard.
. . . “Government of National Defence”. . .
National defence = arming of the w[ork]ers = rev[ol]ution.
Government of national betrayal.
Defence... against the Paris w[ork]ers.
5. Advice of the I[nternational]
2nd Address of the General Council (9 IX 70) (P. 25).
“Not to let themselves be provoked into a desperate folly”.
“Not to be deluded by the national memories of 1792”.
“Calmly and resolutely to organise their own class”, to make use of full freedom.
*
* Debacle (collapse) — the title of a novel by E. Zola devoted to the depiction of the Franco-Prussian war. Ed.
1st Address of the General Council of the I[nternational].

6. The Siege of Paris. The comedy of Trochu
(never!) and
J[ules] Favre (not an inch of land!)¹²
The capitulation of Paris. 28 I 71
The comedy of defence: Guyot wrote to Suzanne about one of his protégés: let him go to Mont Valerien, where they are supposedly firing from cannons.
7. The National Assembly in Bordeaux.
— Chamber of Junkers. Reactionaries.
— The comedy of peace with Paris.
Striving to disarm Paris (“disarmament of the revolution” 4 IX 70)
Alliance with the G[erman] army against Paris.
The supposedly cannons of the National Guard belong to the state! A lie! P. 36—37.
The Central Committee of the G[erman] S[ocial]-D[emocratic] W[orkers’] P[arty] protested against the annexation of Alsace-Lorraine (Arrest of Bracke and others)¹³
Under the terms of the capitulation (28 I 71) (P. 34), the National Assembly had to be convened within 8 days (!).
Thiers’ agitation for a reactionary assembly, legitimists etc. (450 monarchists out of 750 members).
Conspiracy against Paris:
Thiers’ measures (P. 35).
1) anti-republican demonstration of the National Assembly
2) ambiguity of Thiers’ expressions.
3) Threat to Paris (décapiter [décapi]taliser *)
4) prohibition of republican newspapers.
5) Death sentence for Blanqui.
6) Appointment as governor of Paris — Vinoy, as police prefect Valentin, as commander of the National Guard — D’Aurelle de Paladines
* To behead or deprive of the status of capital. Ed.

IN MEMORY OF THE PARIS COMMUNE

8. Attempt to seize the cannons, 18 III 71 (Vinoy.)
I Failure / (of the National Guard).
The Commune.
18 III.
Flight of the government to Versailles.
Shooting of Lecomte and Cl[erm]ent Thomas, Bonapartist officers, not the deed of the Commune, but of outraged soldiers.
Manifesto of 18 III: P. 43.
18 III 71. Central Committee of the National Guard
26 III 71. The Commune.
Clericals, Bonapartists, gendarmes
From the beginning of April war of Paris with Versailles.
Begging for troops (prisoners) from Bismarck (P. 57—58).
9. The deeds of the Commune:
Its minuses: — lack of consciousness (Proudhonists, Blanquists)
— lack of organi- { did not take the bank, sation [precipitancy]
{ did not march on Versailles.
— infatuation with nationalist and revolutionary phrase.
10. Its pluses:
Abolition of all state payments to the church
Free public education (P. 46).
It managed with 1/4 of the former number of officials. Lissagaray
A) Political reforms a. separation of ch[urch] from state (2 IV 71). Expropriation of church property. 1 IV 71.
β. abolition of the standing army (P. 46) (30 III 71)
γ. abolition of bureaucracy. Government of the w[ork]ers (P. 49).
δ. Full rights for foreigners (30 III 71) (one German — minister of the Commune) (P. 53).
Participation of Poles (Dombrowski, Wroblewski).
ε. Self-government of the communes.
The banner of the Commune is the banner of the world republic.
(1) election and recall of all officials. (P. 46)
(2) Low salary not > 6000 Fr[anc]s
Regierungsfähig*.
* Capable of governing. Ed.

11. B) Economic reforms.
— Prohibition of night work for bakers (20 IV) (P. 53; — Prohibition of fines (P. 53).
— [Postponement of debts] The Commune attracted to itself the mass of the Parisian petty bourgeoisie, ruined by N[apoleon] III (postponement of debts). — The Commune appeals to the peasants (P. 51).
— Transfer of abandoned factories (P. 54) to workers’ cooperatives 16 IV: statistical survey of factories
[ — obligation to pay compensation for any cohabitation with a woman]
Transformation of Paris of idlers and pleasure-seekers into a working Paris (P. 55—6).
12. The final struggle.
— The heroism of the Federals (Elections of mayors 30 IV against the National Assembly.
Thiers yields to Bismarck: 10 V signs the peace treaty in Frankfurt; 21 V ratified by the National Assembly).
— The Bloody Week 21—28 V 71. (P. 62).
The rifle is not enough, the mitrailleuse
— Balance 35,000 — 20,000 killed.
15,000 deported etc.
(For several years the courts worked.)
The chorus of slander (P. 64—66)
13. Results and lessons. The vengeance of the bourgeoisie. Even “national” war became a political swindle (P. 67).

IN MEMORY OF THE PARIS COMMUNE

They betrayed the fatherland (Alliance with the Germans: P. 66)
Instability of bourgeois democracy.
Dictatorship of the proletariat.
Bismarck 1871. C[on]f[er]* 490 4.

The three outlines printed here were written by Lenin in 1904 and formed the basis of a report dedicated to the memory of the Paris Commune in Geneva on March 22, 1904, in the Handwerk Hall. The first of the outlines was published in No. 63 of “Pravda” for 1926. On the basis of these outlines, in 1905 Lenin developed a detailed “Plan of Readings on the Commune” (printed in Len. Coll. XVI, 284—289). The first two outlines are given by Lenin without titles.
The basis of Lenin’s outlines was a careful study of Marx’s book “The Civil War in France”. All Lenin’s references are to the Berlin edition of 1891 (“Der Bürgerkrieg in Frankreich”). In addition, a number of indications of facts from the history of the Commune are taken from Lissagaray’s “History of the Paris Commune” and from G. Weill’s “History of the Social Movement in France 1852—1902”.
a *Verteidigungskrieg* — defensive war. “For the Germans,” says Marx, “this war is a defensive one. But who placed Germany in the position of having to defend herself? Who gave Louis Bonaparte the possibility of waging war against Germany?” (See K. Marx, Selected Works, II, 360).
³ Reference is to the manifesto of the Paris section of the International of July 12, 1870, “To the Workers of All Nations” against the dynastic war and with an appeal for international solidarity (see Selected Works, II, 359. On the protest of the German workers — see ibid., 361).
⁴ Reference is to two addresses of the General Council of the International concerning the Franco-Prussian war of July 23 and September 9, 1870 (see Selected Works, II, 358—369).
⁵ *Ruraux, Krautjunker* — “country bumpkins, cabbage nobility,” — a mocking nickname for the landowners of France, who were the mainstay of the Versailles government.
⁶ 35,000 — the number of Communards killed on the streets of Paris.
⁷ Reference is to the Speech from the Throne of William to the North German Reichstag on August 11, 1870 (see Selected Works, 363).
⁸ Speaking of Thiers’ ministers, Marx remarks: “Such men could only obtain tickets-of-leave on the ruins of Paris; they were just the men for Bismarck’s purposes.” Then the following explanation is given: “In England, criminals, when they have served the greater part of their sentence, are sometimes given leave tickets, with which they can live at liberty, but under police supervision. Such tickets are called tickets-of-leave, and their holders tickets-of-leave-men” (see Selected Works, II, 373).
⁹ Dupont’s letters — the corresponding secretary of the General Council of the International for France — are cited in G. Weill’s “History of the Social Movement in France” (see Russian ed. 1906, 138).
* Compare, collate. Ed.

¹⁰ All data on the victims of the Commune are taken from E. Lissagaray’s “History of the Commune” (see ed. St. Petersburg 1906. “Znanie” Society, 473).
¹¹ Engels, in the introduction to “The Civil War”, written in 1891, says: “Retribution followed close on its heels. If the proletariat was not yet able, the bourgeoisie was no longer able to rule France” (Selected Works, II, 348).
¹² Marx wrote in “The Civil War”: “Trochu, the governor of Paris, will never capitulate” — was written in one of these proclamations. “The Minister of Foreign Affairs Jules Favre will never yield an inch of land, nor a single stone of our fortresses” (see Selected Works, II, 371).

Bracke Wilhelm (1842—1880). In 1869 he was elected a member of the Central Committee of the German Social-Democratic Workers’ Party (Eisenachers). On September 5, 1870, on behalf of the Central Committee, he issued a manifesto, in which he fought against the plans for the annexation of Alsace-Lorraine, for which in 1871 he was imprisoned for 3 months.