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The Paris Commune

This series of slides shows key figures and events during the Paris Commune of 18 March - 28 May 1871. The Paris Commune was a revolutionary government which was initially elected as the city council ("commune"), but later declared itself to have authority to rule all France. It was violently suppressed by the regular French army in "the bloody week" of 21-28 May 1871. The final slides in the talk show a march in the 1920s or early 1930s to commemorate the Paris Commune, possibly on the 50th or 60th anniversary.

Unfortunately Henry Sara's notes for this talk haven't survived, but we have been able to add captions to some of the slides by using various sources, including some of the books from which Sara took his illustrations. Henry Sara wrote an article on the Paris Commune ('The March Past') for the Communist Review of March 1926 - this has also been reproducedLink opens in a new window and may give some idea of the arguments put forward during his lantern lecture (please contact us if you are unable to access the information in pdf format).

Reproduction for any purpose (publication, exhibition, web display, commercial use, etc.) is only permissible with the consent of the Modern Records Centre. Please contact us for more information.

[Document reference for this set of slides: MSS.15B/5/1/11]