A revolutionary crucible: French radicals, foreign expatriates, and political exiles in the Paris commune

Abstract

During the Paris Commune of 1871 non-French radicals served the city's revolutionary government both actively and visibly, holding positions of political and military prominence up until the Commune's final hours. By examining three of these foreign radicals, Leo Frankel, Elisabeth Dmitrieff, and Jaroslav Dombrowski, this dissertation demonstrates how the Paris Commune constituted a pivotal moment in Europe's transnational radical discourse, particularly for foreign radicals operating within the French capital. Beginning with the French Revolution, Paris became a site of revolutionary pilgrimage for international radicals drawn by its promise of facilitating their own political and ideological aspirations. Inaugurated by the Great Revolution, this process greatly accelerated between 1830 and 1848 as the city's community of foreign radicals, spurred the growth of transnational discourse such as socialism, began to perceive Paris's revolutionary portent as transnational and exportable. Though the efforts of 1848 proved a failure, they served to illustrate to Paris non-French radical community that a truly transnational revolutionary effort could only be facilitated by first consolidating revolution in Paris. This, combined with the deepening of transnational radical ties through the establishment of the International, produced the conditions whereby Paris's transnational potential reached its apex with the Paris Commune. Based on archival research conducted in Paris, this project demonstrates how foreign radicals, specifically Frankel, Dmitrieff, and Dombrowski, came to view the Commune as the historical moment capable of carrying Paris's revolutionary promise to its final fulfilment, thus forging a pathway to an emancipatory future for Europe and beyond.