Editing Paris Commune (section)

== "Bloody Week" {{anchor|bloody week}} ==
{{See also|Semaine sanglante}}
[[File:Versaillais(--)Communards.jpg|left|thumb|Map of Paris Commune and the ″bloody week″, drawn according with Michèle Audin, (fr) ''La Semaine sanglante, mai 1871, légendes et comptes'', Libertalia publ., Montreuil 2021, {{ISBN|978-2-37729-176-2}}.]]

=== 21 May: Army enters Paris ===
[[File:JAROSŁAW ŻĄDŁO DĄBROWSKI herbu (coat of arms) RADWAN.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Jaroslav Dombrowski]], a Polish exile and former military officer, was one of the few capable commanders of the National Guard. He was killed early in the Bloody Week.]]

The final offensive on Paris by MacMahon's army began on Sunday, 21 May. On the front line in the southwest, soldiers camped just outside the city learned from an agent inside the walls that the National Guard had withdrawn from one section of the city wall at Point-du-Jour, and that the fortifications were undefended. An army engineer crossed the moat and inspected the empty fortifications, and immediately telegraphed the news to Marshal MacMahon, who was with Thiers at [[Fort Mont-Valérien]]. MacMahon promptly gave orders, and two battalions passed through the fortifications without meeting resistance.  The Versailles forces were able to swiftly capture the [[City gates of Paris|city gates]] of the Porte de Saint-Cloud, La Muette and the Porte de Versailles from inside.  By four o'clock in the morning, fifty thousand soldiers had passed into the city, and advanced as far as the [[Champs-Élysées]].{{Sfn|Milza|2009a|pp=379–380}}<ref name="Tombs 2009 p. 320-321">{{Harvnb|Tombs|2009|pp=320–321}}</ref>

When he received the news from Dombrowski that the army was inside Paris, the Commune leader Delescluze refused to believe it, and refused to ring the bells to warn the city until the following morning.<ref name="Tombs 2009 p. 320-321"/> The trial of Gustave Cluseret, the former commander, was still going on at the Commune when they received the message from General Dombrowski that the army was inside the city. He asked for reinforcements and proposed an immediate counterattack. "Remain calm," he wrote, "and everything will be saved. We must not be defeated!".{{sfn|Milza|2009a|p=381}} When they had received this news, the members of the Commune executive returned to their deliberations on the fate of Cluseret, which continued until eight o'clock that evening.

The first reaction of many of the National Guard was to find someone to blame, and Dombrowski was the first to be accused. Rumours circulated that he had accepted a million francs to give up the city. He was deeply offended by the rumours. They stopped when Dombrowski died two days later from wounds received on the barricades. His last reported words were: "Do they still say I was a traitor?"{{sfn|Milza|2009a|p=394}}

=== 22 May: Barricades, first street battles ===
[[File:Commune de Paris barricade Place Blanche.jpg|thumb|A barricade on [[Place Blanche]] during Bloody Week, whose defenders included [[Louise Michel]] and a unit of 30 women]]

On the morning of 22 May, bells finally were rung around the city, and Delescluze, as delegate for war of the Commune, issued a proclamation, posted all over Paris:

{{blockquote|In the name of this glorious France, mother of all the popular revolutions, permanent home of the ideas of justice and solidarity which should be and will be the laws of the world, march at the enemy, and may your revolutionary energy show him that someone can sell Paris, but no one can give it up, or conquer it! The Commune counts on you, count on the Commune!<ref>''Proclamation de Delescluze. delegue a la Guerre, au peuple de Paris'', ''[[Journal officiel de la République française|Journal officiel]],'' 22 May 1871</ref>}}

The Committee of Public Safety issued its own decree:

{{blockquote|TO ARMS! That Paris be bristling with barricades, and that, behind these improvised ramparts, it will hurl again its cry of war, its cry of pride, its cry of defiance, but its cry of victory; because Paris, with its barricades, is undefeatable ...That revolutionary Paris, that Paris of great days, does its duty; the Commune and the Committee of Public Safety will do theirs!{{sfn|Milza|2009a|p=386}}}}

[[File:Maximilien Luce - A Street in Paris in May 1871 - Google Art Project.jpg|thumb|''A street in Paris in May 1871'', by [[Maximilien Luce]]]]

Despite the appeals, only fifteen to twenty thousand persons, including many women and children, responded. The forces of the Commune were outnumbered five-to-one by the army of Marshal MacMahon.<ref>Da Costa, Gaston, ''La Commune vecue'', 3 vol. Paris, Librairies-impremeries reunies, 1903–1905, III, p. 81. Serman, William, ''La Commune de Paris'', p. 348</ref>

Once the fighting began inside Paris, the strong neighborhood loyalties that had been an advantage of the Commune became something of a disadvantage: instead of an overall planned defence, each "quartier" fought desperately for its survival, and each was overcome in turn. The webs of narrow streets that made entire districts nearly impregnable in earlier Parisian revolutions had in the centre been replaced by wide [[boulevard]]s during [[Haussmann's renovation of Paris]]. The Versailles forces enjoyed a centralised command and had superior numbers. Equally important, they had learned the tactics of street fighting from 1848 and earlier uprisings. They avoided making frontal attacks on Commune barricades. They tunnelled through walls of neighbouring houses to establish positions above the barricades, and gradually worked their way around and behind them, usually forcing the Communards to withdraw without a fight. The majority of the barricades in Paris were abandoned without combat.<ref>Lissagaray (1896) pp. 349–351</ref> On the morning of 22 May, the regular army occupied a large area from the Porte Dauphine; to the [[Champ de Mars]] and the [[École Militaire]], where General Cissey established his headquarters; to the Porte de Vanves. In a short time the 5th corps of the army advanced toward [[Parc Monceau]] and [[Place Clichy]], while General [[Félix Douay]] occupied the [[Place de l'Étoile]] and General Clichant occupied the [[Gare Saint-Lazare]]. Little resistance was encountered in the west of Paris, but the army moved forward slowly and cautiously, in no hurry.

No one had expected the army to enter the city, so only a few large barricades were already in place, on the [[Rue Saint-Florentin, Paris|rue Saint-Florentin]] and [[Avenue de l'Opéra]], and the [[rue de Rivoli]]. Barricades had not been prepared in advance; some nine hundred barricades were built hurriedly out of paving stones and sacks of earth. Many other people prepared shelters in the cellars. The first serious fighting took place on the afternoon of the 22nd: an artillery duel between regular army batteries on the [[Quai d'Orsay]] and the Madeleine, and National Guard batteries on the terrace of the Tuileries Palace. On the same day, the first executions of National Guard soldiers by the regular army inside Paris took place; some sixteen prisoners captured on the [[Rue du Bac, Paris|rue du Bac]] were given a summary hearing, and then shot.<ref>Milza, Pierre, "La Commune", p. 391</ref>

===23 May: Battle for Montmartre; burning of Tuileries Palace===
[[File:Combats dans la rue Rivoli.jpg|thumb|Communards defending a barricade on the [[rue de Rivoli]]]]
[[File:Commune de Paris nuit du 23 au 24 mai incendies dans Paris.jpg|thumb|Fires lit by the Commune during the night of 23-24 May]]
On 23 May the next objective of the army was the [[butte]] [[Montmartre]], where the uprising had begun. The National Guard had built and manned a circle of barricades and makeshift forts around the base of the butte. The eighty-five cannon and twenty rapid-firing guns captured from the army at the beginning of the Commune were still there, but no one had expected an attack and they had no ammunition, powder cartridges or trained gunners.<ref>Lissagaray (1896), p. 318</ref>

The garrison of one barricade, at Chaussee Clignancourt, included a battalion of about thirty women, including [[Louise Michel]], the celebrated "Red Virgin of Montmartre", who had already participated in many battles outside the city. She was seized by regular soldiers and thrown into the trench in front of the barricade and left for dead. She escaped and soon afterwards surrendered to the army, to prevent the arrest of her mother. The battalions of the National Guard were no match for the army; by midday on the 23rd the regular soldiers were at the top of Montmartre, and the tricolor flag was raised over the Solferino tower. The soldiers captured 42 guardsmen and several women, took them to the same house on rue des Rosier where generals Clement-Thomas and Lecomte had been executed, and shot them. On the [[Rue Royale, Paris|rue Royale]], soldiers seized the formidable barricade around the [[La Madeleine, Paris|Madeleine church]]; 300 prisoners captured with their weapons were shot there, the largest of the mass executions of the rebels.{{sfn|Milza|2009a|p=394}}

On the same day, having had little success fighting the army, units of national guardsmen began to take revenge by [[Fires in the Paris Commune|burning public buildings]] symbolising the government. The guardsmen led by [[Paul Brunel]], one of the original leaders of the Commune, took cans of oil and set fire to buildings near the rue Royale and the [[rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré]]. Following the example set by Brunel, guardsmen set fire to dozens of other buildings on [[Rue Saint-Florentin, Paris|rue Saint-Florentin]], [[rue de Rivoli]], [[Rue du Bac, Paris|rue du Bac]], rue de Lille, and other streets.

The [[Tuileries Palace]], which had been the residence of most of the monarchs of France from [[Henry IV of France|Henry IV]] to Napoleon III, was defended by a garrison of some three hundred National Guard with thirty cannon placed in the garden. They had been engaged in a day-long artillery duel with the regular army. At about seven in the evening, the commander of the garrison, Jules Bergeret, gave the order to burn the palace. The walls, floors, curtains and woodwork were soaked with oil and turpentine, and barrels of gunpowder were placed at the foot of the grand staircase and in the courtyard, then the fires were set. The fire lasted 48 hours and gutted the palace, except for the southernmost part, the {{lang|fr|Pavillon de Flore}}.<ref>{{Cite encyclopedia |year=1956 |title=Paris |encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica |edition=14th |volume=17 |page=293}}</ref> Bergeret sent a message to the Hotel de Ville: "The last vestiges of royalty have just disappeared. I wish that the same will happen to all the monuments of Paris."<ref>Joanna Richardson, ''Paris under Siege'' Folio Society London 1982 p. 185</ref>

The Richelieu library of the [[Louvre Palace|Louvre]], connected to the Tuileries, was also set on fire and entirely destroyed. The rest of the Louvre was saved by the efforts of the museum curators and fire brigades.<ref>Rene Heron de Villefosse, ''Histoire de Paris'', Bernard Grasset (1959). The father of the author of this book was an assistant curator at the Louvre, and helped put out the fires</ref> The consensus of later historians is that most of the major fires were started by the National Guard and several organised Communard groups; but that few if any fires were started by women.{{sfn|Milza|2009a|pp=396–397}} In addition to public buildings, the National Guard also started fires at the homes of a number of residents associated with the regime of Napoleon III, including that of historian and playwright [[Prosper Mérimée]], author of [[Carmen (novella)|''Carmen'']].{{sfn|Milza|2009a|pp=396–397}}

===24 May: Burning of Hotel de Ville; executions of Communards, the archbishop and hostages===
[[File:Commune de Paris 24 mai incendie de l'Hôtel de Ville.jpg|thumb|Fire at The [[Hôtel de Ville, Paris|Hôtel de Ville]], the headquarters of the Commune, attacked by the Versailles Army and burned by the National Guard]]

At two in the morning on 24 May, Brunel and his men went to the Hôtel de Ville, which was still the headquarters of the Commune and of its chief executive, Delescluze. Wounded men were being tended in the halls, and some of the National Guard officers and Commune members were changing from their uniforms into civilian clothes and shaving their beards, preparing to escape from the city. Delescluze ordered everyone to leave the building, and Brunel's men set it on fire.{{sfn|Milza|2009a|pp=397–398}}

The battles resumed at daylight on 24 May, under a sky black with smoke from the burning palaces and ministries. There was no co-ordination or central direction on the Commune side; each neighborhood fought on its own. The National Guard disintegrated, with many soldiers changing into civilian clothes and fleeing the city, leaving between 10,000 and 15,000 Communards to defend the barricades. Delescluze moved his headquarters from the Hôtel de Ville to the city hall of the [[11th arrondissement of Paris|11th arrondissement]], and set fire to the Hotel de Ville. More public buildings were set afire, including the [[Palais de Justice, Paris|Palais de Justice]], the [[Paris Police Prefecture|Prefecture de Police]], the theatres of [[Théâtre du Châtelet|Châtelet]] and [[Théâtre de la Porte Saint-Martin|Porte-Saint-Martin]], and the [[Saint-Eustache, Paris|Church of Saint-Eustache]]. Most of the Palais de Justice was destroyed, but the [[Sainte-Chapelle]] survived. Fires set at the [[Louvre Palace]], [[Palais-Royal]] and [[Notre-Dame de Paris|Notre-Dame]] were extinguished without causing significant damage.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=pGTJAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA11 ''The Paris Commune 1871''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200522201026/https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=pGTJAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA11 |date=22 May 2020 }}, Robert Tombs, p. 11</ref>

[[File:Exécution de communards parisiens par les troupes versaillaises.jpg|thumb|Execution of Communards by Versailles troops]]

As the army continued its methodical advance, the [[summary execution]]s of captured Communard soldiers by the army continued. Informal [[military court]]s were established at the {{lang|fr|[[École Polytechnique]]|italic=no}}, [[Place du Châtelet|Châtelet]], the [[Luxembourg Palace]], [[Parc Monceau]], and other locations around Paris. The hands of captured prisoners were examined to see if they had fired weapons. The prisoners gave their identity, sentence was pronounced by a court of two or three gendarme officers, the prisoners were taken out and sentences immediately carried out.{{sfn|Milza|2009a|p=401}}

Amid the news of the growing number of executions carried out by the army in different parts of the city, the Communards carried out their own executions as a desperate and futile attempt at retaliation. Raoul Rigaut, the chairman of the Committee of Public Safety, without getting the authorisation of the Commune, executed one group of four prisoners, before he himself was captured and shot by an army patrol. On 24 May, a delegation of national guardsmen and Gustave Genton, a member of the Committee of Public Safety, came to the new headquarters of the Commune at the city hall of the 11th arrondissement and demanded the immediate execution of the hostages held at the prison of [[La Roquette Prisons|La Roquette]]. The new prosecutor of the Commune, [[Théophile Ferré]], hesitated and then wrote a note: "Order to the Citizen Director of La Roquette to execute six hostages." Genton asked for volunteers to serve as a firing squad, and went to the La Roquette prison, where many of the hostages were being held. Genton was given a list of hostages and selected six names, including [[Georges Darboy]], the Archbishop of Paris, and three priests. The governor of the prison, M. François, refused to give up the Archbishop without a specific order from the Commune. Genton sent a deputy back to the Prosecutor, who wrote "and especially the archbishop" on the bottom of his note. Archbishop Darboy and five other hostages were promptly taken out into the courtyard of the prison, lined up against the wall, and shot.{{sfn|Milza|2009a|pp=403–404}}

=== 25 May: Death of Delescluze ===
[[File:Louis Charles Delescluze.jpg|thumb|upright|left|[[Louis Charles Delescluze]], last military leader of the Commune, was shot dead after he stood atop a barricade, unarmed.]]

By the end of 24 May, the regular army had cleared most of the [[Latin Quarter, Paris|Latin Quarter]] barricades, and held three-fifths of Paris. MacMahon had his headquarters at the Quai d'Orsay. The insurgents held only the [[11th arrondissement of Paris|11th]], [[12th arrondissement of Paris|12th]], [[19th arrondissement of Paris|19th]] and [[20th arrondissement of Paris|20th arrondissements]], and parts of the [[3rd arrondissement of Paris|3rd]], [[5th arrondissement of Paris|5th]], and [[13th arrondissement of Paris|13th]]. Delescluze and the remaining leaders of the Commune, about 20 in all, were at the city hall of the 13th arrondissement on Place Voltaire. A bitter battle took place between about 1,500 national guardsmen from the 13th arrondissement and the Mouffetard district, commanded by [[Walery Antoni Wróblewski]], a Polish exile who had participated in the uprising against the Russians, against three brigades commanded by General de Cissey.{{sfn|Milza|2009a|pp=404–407}}

During the course of the 25th, the insurgents lost the city hall of the 13th arrondissement and moved to a barricade on Place Jeanne-d'Arc, where 700 were taken prisoner. Wroblewski and some of his men escaped to the city hall of the 11th arrondissement, where he met Delescluze, the chief executive of the Commune. Several of the other Commune leaders, including Brunel, were wounded, and Pyat had disappeared. Delescluze offered Wroblewski the command of the Commune forces, which he declined, saying that he preferred to fight as a private soldier. At about seven-thirty, Delescluze put on his red sash of office, walked unarmed to the barricade on the [[Place de la République|Place du Château-d'Eau]], climbed to the top and showed himself to the soldiers, and was promptly shot dead.{{sfn|Lissagaray|2000|pp=355–356}}

===26 May: Capture of Place de la Bastille; more executions===
On the afternoon of 26 May, after six hours of heavy fighting, the regular army captured the [[Place de la Bastille]]. The National Guard still held parts of the 3rd Arrondissement, from the [[Carreau du Temple]] to the [[Arts et Métiers ParisTech|Arts-et-Metiers]], and the National Guard still had artillery at their [[strongpoint]]s at the Buttes-Chaumont and Père-Lachaise, from which they continued to bombard the regular army forces along the [[Canal Saint-Martin]].{{sfn|Milza|2009a|p=410}}

A contingent of several dozen national guardsmen led by Antoine Clavier, a commissaire, and Emile Gois, a colonel of the National Guard, arrived at La Roquette prison and demanded, at gunpoint, the remaining hostages there: ten priests, thirty-five policemen and gendarmes, and two civilians. They took them first to the city hall of the 20th arrondissement; the Commune leader of that district refused to allow his city hall to be used as a place of execution. Clavier and Gois took them instead to Rue Haxo. The procession of hostages was joined by a large and furious crowd of national guardsmen and civilians who insulted, spat upon, and struck the hostages. Arriving at an open yard, they were lined up against a wall and [[Massacre in the Rue Haxo|shot in groups of ten]]. National guardsmen in the crowd opened fire along with the firing squad. The hostages were shot from all directions, then beaten with rifle butts and stabbed with bayonets.{{sfn|Milza|2009a|pp=411–412}} According to [[Prosper-Olivier Lissagaray]], a defender of the Commune, a total of 63 people were executed by the Commune during the bloody week.{{sfn|Lissagaray|2000|p=383}}

=== 27–28 May: Final battles; executions at Père-Lachaise Cemetery ===
[[File:Le monde illustré - 24 juin 1871 - Derniers combats au Père-Lachaise.jpg|thumb|left|Last battles at [[Père Lachaise Cemetery|Père-Lachaise]]]]

[[File:Darjou - Père-Lachaise - Mur des Fédérés 03.jpg|thumb|Execution of Communards at Père-Lachaise ([[Communards' Wall]]).]]

On the morning of 27 May, the regular army soldiers of Generals Grenier, [[Paul de Ladmirault]] and Jean-Baptiste Montaudon launched an attack on the National Guard artillery on the heights of the Buttes-Chaumont. The heights were captured at the end of the afternoon by the first regiment of the [[French Foreign Legion]]. One of the last remaining strongpoints of the National Guard was the [[Père Lachaise Cemetery]], defended by about 200 men. At 6:00 in the evening, the army used cannon to demolish the gates and the First Regiment of [[Troupes de marine|naval infantry]] stormed the cemetery. Savage fighting followed around the tombs until nightfall, when the last Communards were taken prisoner. The captured guardsmen were taken to the wall of the cemetery and shot.{{sfn|Milza|2009a|pp=413–414}} Another group of prisoners, consisting of officers of the National guard, was collected at [[Mazas Prison]] and La Roquette prison. They were given brief trials before the military tribunal, sentenced to death, and then delivered to Père Lachaise. There they were lined up in front of the same wall and executed in groups, and then buried with them in a common grave. This group include one woman, the only recorded execution of a woman by the army during the Bloody Week. The wall is now called the [[Communards' Wall]], and is the site of annual commemorations of the Commune.{{Sfn|Tombs|2009|p=360}}

[[File:Maximilien Luce-The Execution of Varlin.jpg|thumb|[[Eugène Varlin]], one of the leaders of the Commune, was captured and shot by soldiers at Montmartre on 28 May, the last day of the uprising.]]

On 28 May, the regular army captured the remaining positions of the Commune, which offered little resistance. In the morning, the regular army captured La Roquette prison and freed the remaining 170 hostages. The army took 1,500 prisoners at the National Guard position on Rue Haxo, and 2,000 more at Derroja, near Père Lachaise. A handful of barricades at rue Ramponneau and Avenue de Tourville held out into the middle of the afternoon, when all resistance ceased.{{sfn|Milza|2009a|p=414}}