Editing Paris Commune (section)

=== Radicalisation ===

[[File:Edwin Buckman - A Republican Procession in London Sunday Morning - manifestation de soutien à la Commune de Paris le 16 avril 1871.jpg|thumb|Demonstration of seven thousand London workers on Sunday, 16 April 1871, between Clerkenwell Green and Hyde Park, in support of the Paris Commune]]

By April, as MacMahon's forces steadily approached Paris, divisions arose within the Commune about whether to give absolute priority to military defence, or to political and social freedoms and reforms. The majority, including the Blanquists and the more radical revolutionaries, supported by {{lang|fr|Le Vengeur}} of Pyat and {{lang|fr|Le Père Duchesne}} of Vermersch, supported giving the military priority. The publications {{lang|fr|La Commune}}, {{lang|fr|La Justice}} and Valles' {{lang|fr|Le Cri du Peuple}} feared that a more authoritarian government would destroy the kind of social republic they wanted to achieve. Soon, the Council of the Commune voted, with strong opposition, for the creation of a [[Committee of Public Safety (1871)|Committee of Public Safety]], modelled on and named after the committee that carried out the [[Reign of Terror]] (1793–94). Because of the implications carried by its name, many members of the Commune opposed the Committee of Public Safety's creation.

The committee was given extensive powers to hunt down and imprison enemies of the Commune. Led by [[Raoul Rigault]], it began to make several arrests, usually on suspicion of treason, intelligence with the enemy, or insults to the Commune. Those arrested included General [[Edmond-Charles de Martimprey]], the governor of [[Les Invalides]], alleged to have caused the assassination of revolutionaries in December 1851, as well as more recent commanders of the National Guard, including [[Gustave Cluseret]]. High religious officials had been arrested: Archbishop Darboy, the Vicar General Abbé Lagarde, and the Curé of the Madeleine Abbé Deguerry. The policy of holding hostages for possible reprisals was denounced by some defenders of the Commune, including Victor Hugo, in a poem entitled "No Reprisals" published in Brussels on 21 April.{{sfn|Milza|2009a|pp=346–347}} On 12 April, Rigault proposed to exchange Archbishop Darboy and several other priests for the imprisoned Blanqui. Thiers refused the proposal, arguing that it would encourage more hostage-taking. On 14 May, Rigault proposed to exchange 70 hostages for the extreme-left leader, and Thiers again refused.{{sfn|Milza|2009a|pp=345–350}}