Cold Open

It’s the afternoon of May 21st, 1871, in Paris, France.

Albert Hans grips his rifle as his squad advances along a smoke-filled boulevard. Albert is a soldier in the French Army. His blue tunic and red pants stand out starkly against the blackened, pockmarked street. Glass and rubble crunch underfoot. Albert knows it all makes him an easy target—but if they’re going to retake the French capital, he has no choice but to press on.

Two months ago, radical insurgents rose in rebellion and seized Paris. Earlier today, the French army began its long-awaited counterattack. Albert was among the first to breach the city walls, and now, he’s determined to hunt the rebels down.

Up ahead, a shape takes form through the haze—broken furniture piled across the street. It’s a makeshift barricade with a solitary red flag flying limply from the top. There’s no sign of the enemy, and Albert assumes they’ve retreated, leaving the barricade to slow the army’s progress.

But then a gunshot cracks through the air. Everyone scatters for cover. Ducking down, Albert scans the surrounding buildings, looking for the shooter.

He spots movement in a second-floor window and runs toward the building.

Bursting inside, he dashes upstairs. And within moments, he finds his man. Cornered, the sniper drops his rifle and throws up his hands.

But Albert is in no mood for mercy and raises his weapon. But before he can execute the man…

…the window shatters. There’s another sniper across the street.

Albert drops flat as bullets ricochet off the walls. His captive seizes the chance, and ignoring the flying shards of glass, he lunges for the door and scrambles away before Albert can react. Albert pounds his fist against the floor, furious. This rebel has escaped—but Albert won’t let that happen again.

Over the next week, Paris will become a battlefield as revolutionaries and the French Army fight street by street for control of the city. Thousands will die, many more will be wounded, and the radical experiment known as the Paris Commune will come to an end in the deadliest battle in the city’s history, which began on May 21st, 1871.

Introduction

From Noiser and Airship, I’m Lindsay Graham, and this is History Daily.

History is made every day. On this podcast—every day—we tell the true stories of the people and events that shaped our world.

Today is May 21st, 1871: Paris’s Bloody Week.

Act One: Vive la Commune!

It’s the morning of March 18th, 1871, in Montmartre, Paris, two months before the French Army storms the city.

40-year-old Louise Michel leads a crowd up a steep hill, a rifle in one hand, and her other clenched in a raised fist. Even though dawn has only just broken, Louise and hundreds of other Parisians have answered an urgent call for help. At the top of this hill sit dozens of cannons. The artillery belongs to the city’s militia, the National Guard. But this morning, the French Army is coming to take the guns—and the people of Paris aren’t happy about it.

Six months ago, French emperor Napoleon III was overthrown and replaced by a republican government. But this new regime came under pressure. France was already at war with Prussia and was soon forced to accept humiliating peace terms. Now, the government is worried that another enemy is about to show itself, this one comes from within.

Paris and the city’s National Guard have become a stronghold of working-class radicalism. In the fall of the emperor and the weakness of the new government, these revolutionaries see an opportunity to tear down the old order and build a more equal system in its place. But over the last few hours, rumors have swept through Paris that the French Army is planning a pre-emptive strike. They seek to seize the city’s cannons before the people of Paris can use them against the government.

So, as Louise reaches the top of Montmartre hill, she sees it for herself. A company of soldiers already at work, hitching the cannons to horses and preparing to drag them away. But Louise and the rest of the crowd aren’t going to let them go so easily. They form a human barrier in the road, blocking the soldiers’ path.

This tense standoff soon turns violent. Louise pulls a knife and slashes through a horse’s harness. The soldiers push her back, and seeing that, the crowd erupts, shouting and throwing bottles and stones. The commotion draws more people to the scene, and soon, the soldiers are completely outnumbered. The officer in command senses that he’s losing control, and he gives the order to retreat before things get out of hand.

A roar of triumph sweeps across Montmartre. And word soon spreads across Paris that the people have defied the army—and won. And in the face of the public’s fury, the French government flees the capital. Ministers retreat a few miles to the old royal palace at Versailles. There, they regroup and consider their next steps.

But that leaves Paris in the hands of the people. Workers spill into the boulevards, celebrating that the city now belongs to them, and as night falls, a red flag is hoisted above City Hall.

Less than a week later, on March 26th, elections are held to form a new city government that becomes known as the Commune, and its leaders are determined to seize the initiative. They order a march on Versailles, banking on a repeat of Montmartre, when the power of the people overwhelmed armed force.

But this time, it goes terribly wrong. The hastily assembled Commune army marches out of Paris, only to be gunned down by government cannons outside Versailles. It’s a massacre. The surviving rebels scramble back to Paris, broken and bloodied.

Still, the capital remains firmly under the Commune's control, and the radical government begins to reshape daily life in the city. Past due rents are canceled. Child labor becomes illegal. New trade unions are established. And Paris becomes an experiment in direct democracy, with neighborhoods governing themselves through elected assemblies and workers’ councils.

But beyond the city walls, the republican government plots its return. It calls in reinforcements from every corner of France. Troops gradually encircle Paris and begin to bombard the city. And by April, the mood begins to shift in the capital. Some revolutionaries demand stronger leadership, a powerful central authority to coordinate the defense of the city. But not everyone agrees. Many argue that they didn’t fight for a socialist paradise, only for it to be replaced by another dictatorship within a few weeks.

But with soldiers massing outside the city, that opposition fades. A five-man “Committee of Public Safety” is formed, and they have sweeping powers. Among the five men is the 61-year-old radical socialist Charles Delescluze, who is elected Delegate for War and made responsible for the Commune’s defense.

But Delescluze has no military experience—and with the full force of the French Army bearing down on his city, the fate of the Commune will instead rest in the hands of the people of Paris.

Act Two: The Red Virgin

It’s 9 PM, on May 21st, 1871, in Montmartre, two months after the revolutionary Commune seized Paris.

Standing at the top of the hill, Louise Michel slings her rifle over her shoulder and gazes down at the city below. The sky glows a sickly shade of orange, and thick smoke coils upward, gathering into dark clouds that block out the moon. Paris is burning.

From up the hill, Louise can see the government soldiers creeping closer. Their advance is slow and methodical—street by street, and block by block. She turns to the gunners behind her. They nod grimly, ready to fire into their own city.

After weeks camped outside Paris, republican troops finally breached the city walls this morning. Church bells rang all across the capital, calling Parisians to the barricades. But the response was scattered and disorganized. And as thousands of soldiers cautiously swept through the city, they only met pockets of resistance. Now, as darkness falls, the army is closing in on Montmartre, the symbolic heart of the revolution. Only two months ago, the uprising began on this very hill, and Louise is determined that it won’t end here, too.

She gives the order to fire and covers her ears. Explosions ring through her skull as the first shells streak through the darkness toward the distant enemy. But Louise frowns. The barrage should have been even bigger.

Several guns have failed to fire. Their crews move in cautiously, checking the weapons, wary of a delayed blast. Then, they turn back to Louise with a helpless shrug. It might be damp powder. It might be rusty firing mechanisms. But whatever the cause, these weapons are useless.

Louise curses under her breath and turns back to the city. The French Army soldiers continue to advance, unfazed. She sighs. This fight won't be decided from up here. The real battle is waiting for them in the streets below.

So at dawn, Louise and her battalion descend from Montmartre and into the streets. Posters plastered on walls flap in the breeze—proclamations from the Delegate of War, Charles Delescluze, calling for every man and woman to take up arms.

Louise and her battalion reach Place Blanche without meeting any resistance. A crude barricade stretches across the square, a low wall of broken tables, chairs, and paving stones. Right now, it’s little more than a pile of debris that wouldn’t delay any determined soldiers long, but Louise is determined to transform it into a formidable line of defense.

So over the next few hours, they haul carts, carriages, and barrels into place, building the barricade higher and stronger. By dusk, it stands ready for the enemy. Louise’s eyes burn with fatigue, but she doesn't dare rest. Instead, she watches the dark streets for any sign of the enemy, her gun at the ready, until she can no longer fight off her exhaustion, and she falls into a deep sleep.

At first light, Louise is gently shaken awake. The enemy is finally here. Instantly alert, Louise scrambles to the top of the barricade. And down the narrow street, blue uniforms weave between buildings, edging closer. Louise raises her rifle. Beside her, a comrade plants a red flag. A gunshot cracks in the distance and a bullet whistles overhead. The battle has begun.

Louise leans over the top of the barricade, taking potshots at the advancing soldiers. Return fire slams into the wood around her, sending splinters knifing through the air. Louise ducks back as the gunfire intensifies.

Their makeshift wall is holding for now. But then the soldiers bring up a heavier gun. A single blast from it punches a hole in the barricade and sends Louise sprawling. As the smoke clears, French soldiers storm through the breach.

Louise drags herself upright. But pain shoots through her foot, and she can only limp desperately toward cover. Bodies obstruct her path, and the cobblestones are slick with blood. There’s another deafening blast of the heavy gun, and Louise stumbles, coughing and choking as a thick cloud of dust rolls down the street. Her rifle is gone, dropped in the chaos, and all she can think about now is escape.

Because throughout Paris, the Commune is collapsing. Street by street, barricade by barricade, the army is taking the city back. And within days, the fighting will be over, and the dreams of the revolutionaries of Paris will be reduced to ashes.

Act Three: Bloody Week

It’s 7 PM, on May 25th, 1871, in a square in the center of Paris, four days after the French Army entered the capital.

A young rebel slumps against a wall pocked with bullet holes, a cigarette trembling between his lips. He strikes a match, but his hands won’t steady. Over the last few days, he’s watched too many of his friends die, and he expects to join them soon.

Then, through the drifting smoke, a figure emerges—a white-haired man wearing a frock coat and red sash. The rebel stares, then recognizes him from the posters all over the city—it’s Charles Delescluze, the Delegate for War.

Delescluze nods a greeting at the young rebel, but he doesn’t stop. He walks straight past, heading for the barricade that blocks the street ahead. The rebel calls out, urging Delescluze to take cover—enemy snipers are everywhere. But the old man ignores him.

Instead, Delescluze climbs the barricade. Unarmed, he stands at the top, his silhouette sharp against the setting sun. Then three gunshots ring out. For a moment, Delescluze remains upright. Then, he slowly pitches forward, falling on top of the barricade, dead.

Despite the loss of the Commune’s military leader, the fighting in Paris continues for another three days. And only on May 28th, 1871, do the rebels finally surrender.

But by then, Paris is left shattered. Every neighborhood is in ruins. Thousands are dead, killed in some of the most brutal fighting the city has ever seen. And the bloodshed doesn’t end there. Surviving rebel fighters are rounded up and dragged before military courts. Many are executed. Others, like Louise Michel, are transported to a prison colony in New Caledonia, on the far side of the world.

But this thirst for vengeance will fade with time. By 1880, under a general amnesty, former rebels like Louise will be permitted to return to France. But Louise will have lost none of her revolutionary beliefs in her time away. She’ll tour Europe, delivering speeches, and eventually become known as the “Red Virgin of Montmartre” for her devotion to her principles—principles that many of her friends died for during Paris’s “Bloody Week,” which began on May 21st, 1871.

Outro

Next on History Daily. May 22nd, 1968. 99 men are feared dead when an American nuclear-powered submarine disappears in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.

From Noiser and Airship, this is History Daily, hosted, edited, and executive produced by me, Lindsay Graham.

Audio editing by Muhammad Shahzaib.

Sound design by Mollie Baack.

Music by Thrumm.

This episode is written and researched by Angus Gavan McHarg.

Edited by Scott Reeves.

Managing producer Emily Burke.

Executive Producers are William Simpson for Airship, and Pascal Hughes for Noiser.