Historical Summary

FOR France the period from 1870 to 1871, l’année terrible, was indeed a year of misfortunes. On the heels of the disastrous defeat by Prussia came the bloody uprising of the Paris Commune. Infuriated by economic distress, unemployment, and destitution, the Communards—a heterogeneous combination of revolutionaries—proclaimed Paris a "Commune," adopted the red flag, and called for a proletarian revolution.

The Commune was to be an autonomous "state within the State." Attempts to create other Communes in France failed, and the civil war was confined to Paris. The bourgeoisie, however, described all Communards as Communists attempting to overthrow the social order, and demanded their extinction.

The captive French armies released by the Germans began a new siege of Paris in April, 1871, this time with the Germans looking on. A terrible street struggle took place between the troops and the Communards, each side desperate and merciless. Several prominent personages, including the Archbishop of Paris, were executed. The Palais de Justice, the Hôtel de Ville, and the Tuileries were set afire and the Vendôme Column was pulled down. The final stand of the Communards took place at the cemetery of Père Lachaise. The Commune was wiped out with unparalleled ferocity. It is estimated that some 18,000 Communards perished in the orgy of revenge.

The courage and ferocity of the women of Paris during the insurrection led a correspondent of the London Times to remark that France would indeed be a terrible nation if it consisted entirely of women. In peace the women of Paris performed the lion’s share of work. While husbands lounged after working hours in cafes and cabarets, sipping absinthe or smoking caporal tobacco, their women were well-behaved, industrious, and home-loving. Then came the siege. Husbands lost their work. The wives waited day after day in the frost and snow for scanty shares of rations and saw their children die of starvation. For these desperate women the Commune became a sort of millenium which would cure all their ills.

The fighting woman of the Commune became known as la Pétroleuse (petroleum-thrower, from the universal belief, spread by propaganda, that Communard women and children went about with gasoline setting fires indiscriminately). An eyewitness of the march of these women on Montmarte writes: "I met a company of female Federals bearing two great red flags, and shouting the ’Marseillaise’ and ’Vive la Commune!’ I fancied I recognized at the head of the company one of the favorite orators of the club at the Boule Noire, who seemed to take the place of an officer. Each woman had a Chassepôt slung across her shoulders, and a belt and cartouch box, amply supplied with cartridges, round her waist. The bystanders signified their disgust but took care not to speak too loud, as it was evident these women were disposed to do something desperate."

Below is an eyewitness description of the last stand of the Parisian Amazons as related by an English surgeon in the service of the Commune.

Key Quote

An English surgeon in the service of the Commune describes the last stand of the Parisian Amazons.