A Memory Sterilized, Utilized, and Realized

Abstract

After the French suffered a humiliating defeat in the Franco-Prussian War, the conditions were set for proletarian uprising in Paris, resulting in the formation of the Commune of Paris. The Commune’s abortive existence stood as a violent shock across Europe and generated highly charged opinions from the poorest laborers to the wealthiest members of the nobility. The effect of the Commune’s memory on the European political Left was particularly divergent as men and women continued to grapple with the memory of the Commune and determined for themselves how best to render it intelligible. Some decided to pacify the memory, preaching of heroism and class struggle rather than violent revolution and anarchy. Others decided to utilize the memory of the Commune to incite revolts and strikes, and others worked to realize the Commune’s mission by taking tangible lessons from the Communards’ example. This paper focuses on specific socialist movements in France and wider Europe to demonstrate the multiplicity of occasions in which the Commune was centrally remembered and the diverse outcomes of the use of that memory.