Political situation at the beginning of the war. Franco-German War (1870-1871) Franco-German War 1870-1871

The defeat of France with the beginning of the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-1871 took place unusually quickly. Three German armies, led by himself Wilhelm I, constantly having Bismarck, Moltke and the Minister of War Roon with them, moved to France, preventing its army, with Napoleon III at the head, from invading Germany. Already in the first days of August, the Germans victoriously entered Alsace and Lorraine, after which revolutionary fermentation began in Paris.

Franco-Prussian War 1870-1871: Battle of Mars-la-Tour 16 August 1870. Painter P. J. Jangnot, 1886

Under the influence of dissatisfaction - both among the people and in the army - with the defeats that individual parts of the French army underwent, Napoleon III resigned his main command in the Franco-Prussian War and handed it over to Marshal Bazaine. It was necessary to retreat, but nothing was prepared for the retreat, and Bazaine had only one thing left - to lock himself in Metz, which was immediately surrounded by the enemy. Another French army under the command of a marshal McMahon she was heading towards Metz, but the Germans blocked her way, pushed her to the north and surrounded her from all sides near Sedan. Here, on September 2, the main catastrophe of the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-1871 took place - the surrender of the French army of more than 80 thousand people and the surrender of Napoleon III himself. Bazin's attempt, around this time, to break through to connect with MacMahon was repulsed, and Bazin was finally locked up in Metz.

Franco-Prussian War. Battle of Sedan. 1870

Sedan battle decided the outcome of the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-1871 and became a mortal blow for the second French empire. Napoleon III did not feel safe in his own army, left in a carriage to look for the Prussian king, but met with Bismarck and Moltke, and then with Wilhelm I. At their meeting, they talked about the causes of the Franco-Prussian war, and the captive emperor justified himself by that to start a war, which he himself did not want, made him the public opinion of France. “But this public opinion,” the Prussian king objected to him, “was created by your Majesty’s ministers.”

Captured Napoleon III talks with Bismarck after the Battle of Sedan

The news of the sedan disaster came to Paris the next day, and on the 4th revolution. In the morning, crowds of people walked through the streets of Paris, shouting about the deposition of Napoleon, and in the middle of the day people filled the legislative building. The meeting was adjourned, and the Parisian deputies, having gathered in the town hall, proclaimed a republic ( Third Republic) and organized, under the chairmanship of General Trochu, a "government of national defense". It included well-known opponents of Napoleon III: a Jew who took over internal affairs, and a journalist Rochefort, who had just been released from prison. This government was not averse to ending the Franco-Prussian war and making peace, but Bismarck demanded the cession of Alsace and the German part of Lorraine. “Not a single inch of our land, not a single stone of our fortresses,” Jules Favre, a member of the French government in charge of foreign affairs, resolutely declared in response to this demand.

On September 12, the “Government of National Defense” sent Thiers for help to foreign courts, but his mission was not successful, and on September 19, 1870, exactly two months after the declaration of war, the Germans had already laid siege to Paris. At the end of September 1870, the capitulation of Strasbourg, besieged at the beginning of hostilities, followed, at the end of October, Bazaine was forced to starve the Germans to surrender Metz with an army of 173,000. (Public opinion biasedly accused the marshal of treason). There were now two French armies in German captivity, numbering some 250,000 men—something unheard of in all military history—and German troops from near Strasbourg and Metz could move further into France. During the Franco-Prussian war of 1870-1871, the Sedan, Strasbourg and Metz stocks went to the Germans, like everything that was still found by the Germans in other fortresses, which then surrendered one after another.

Franco-Prussian War. Map. The dotted line marks the border of the territory ceded to Germany by the Treaty of Frankfurt

On September 19, as was said, the siege of Paris began. Back in the forties, in view of the expected war with the Germans, the city was, on the initiative Thiers, fortified with a rampart and a moat 34 versts long and a number of forts at some distance from Paris, the line of which was 66 versts. When the enemy attacked Paris during the Franco-Prussian War, 60-70 thousand regular troops were gathered, a large amount of food was brought, as well as military supplies, etc. It was a difficult task for the Germans to surround Paris with its population exceeding 2 million souls to cut him and his forts off from all communication with the rest of the world. The headquarters of the German army was located in Versailles, the famous residence of the last three French kings of the old monarchy.

Siege of Paris, which lasted during the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-1871 19 weeks without one day (4 and a half months) in terms of the mass of the inhabitants of the besieged city and the mass of the besieging troops was something unprecedented in world history. Food supplies, in the end, were not enough, and they had to eat dogs, rats, etc. In addition to hunger, the Parisians also suffered from the winter cold. To top it off, in January 1871, when the Prussians brought heavy siege artillery to Paris, the city was bombarded for three weeks. Communication with the outside world was maintained only by carrier pigeons. Three members of the government of national defense, even before the start of the siege, withdrew to Tours in order to organize the defense of the country from there, and after the start of the siege Gambetta, who took off from Paris in a balloon, joined them.

All attempts by the besieged to repulse the Germans ended extremely unsuccessfully; dissatisfaction with General Trochu reigned in the city, and attempts were even made to overthrow the government. Finally, on January 23, 1871, after a series of unsuccessful truce negotiations in the Franco-Prussian War, Jules Favre went to Versailles to sue for peace. On January 28, 1971, he and Bismarck signed an act of capitulation of Paris and an armistice for three weeks with the transfer of all external forts to the Germans, the issuance of weapons, the leaving of the Parisian army in the city as prisoners of war, the payment of 200 million francs of indemnity and the obligation to gather in Bordeaux in two weeks national assembly for the conclusion of peace.

Ten days before the surrender of Paris, on January 18, 1871, in one of the halls of Versailles, the allied German sovereigns, on the formal initiative of the Bavarian king, proclaimed the Prussian king as the German Emperor. This was preceded by a month's reception by Wilhelm I of a deputation from the North German Reichstag, asking him to accept a new title. It is curious that at the head of the deputation was the same person (Simsov), who in 1849 offered the imperial crown on behalf of the Frankfurt Parliament to the late brother of Wilhelm I. Thus ended the unification of Germany under Prussian leadership.

Proclamation of the German Empire at Versailles, 1871. Painting by A. von Werner, 1885. In the center, at the steps of the throne - Bismarck in a white uniform. To his right, half-turned, Helmut von Moltke

During the siege of Paris, the "dictator of Tours", as Gambetta was nicknamed for the energy and authority he had shown, as now Minister of War, organized a massive militia from the remnants of the regular army and recruits (all men from 21 to 40 years old) and obtained weapons for him, secretly bought in England. Four armies were created, in which there were almost 600 thousand people, but the Germans defeated these untrained crowds thrown into battle by the French Republicans one after another. During the continuation of the Franco-Prussian war, they still captured thousands of soldiers and took cities already on the other side of Paris, by the way, having mastered Tours itself. The northeastern corner of France between Belgium and the English Channel, and a large territory southwest of Paris, were in the power of the Prussians, and one of the hastily recruited Gambett armies, defeated and losing up to 15 thousand prisoners, was forced to move to Switzerland, where it was disarmed . Despite all this, Gambetta resisted the conclusion of peace and, with a proclamation to the people on January 31, appealed to the patriotism of the French to wage the Franco-Prussian war to the last extreme.

Leon Michel Gambetta. Painting by L. Bonn, 1875

In essence, however, the outcome of the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-1871 was decided by the capitulation of Paris. Military operations in 1870-71. 180 days lasted, during which 800 thousand people left the French troops killed, wounded, taken prisoner, disarmed in Paris and crossed into Swiss territory - again something that could not have been imagined before.

At the beginning of February, elections took place throughout France, without any interference from the Germans, for the National Assembly, which then opened its meetings on February 12 in Bordeaux. The government of national defense resigned its powers, and Thiers became the head of the executive branch, who was instructed to negotiate peace. The preliminary treaty that ended the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-1871 was held at Versailles on 26 February. On March 1, 1871, it was adopted by the national assembly (546 votes to 107), and on May 20 it was finally signed in Frankfurt am Main. By Peace of Frankfurt 1871 France lost Alsace and a large part of Lorraine with a population of one and a half million, two-thirds German, one-third French, undertook to pay 5 billion francs and had to undergo German occupation east of Paris before paying an indemnity. Germany released the French prisoners of war immediately, and at that moment there were more than 400 thousand of them.

After the Austro-Prussian-Italian War of 1866, Prussia sought to unite all German lands under its control and weaken France. France did not want the emergence of a strong political enemy at its borders, so the war between them was inevitable.

Background and reason for war

Prussia was greatly strengthened in the 19th century and became one of the leading countries on the continent. Having secured an alliance with Russia, Prussia set about uniting the German lands without fear of a major war.

In 1868, a relative of the Prussian king, Leopold Hohenzollern, was a pretender to the Spanish throne. France, not wanting to see him on the throne, put forward a demand to Wilhelm to withdraw Leopold's candidacy. King Wilhelm, not wanting war, compromised and granted their demands. France put forward tougher conditions, demanding that Leopold permanently renounce a possible crown, provoking war. The answer to this demand was given not by Wilhelm, but by Chancellor O. von Bismarck, moreover, quite sharply. In response to this, a stormy reaction of the French deputies followed in Paris, who immediately voted for the war with Prussia, the date of which was June 19, 1870.

Course of the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-1871

Already in the first days of the war, three German armies under the command of Wilhelm I, with the support of Otto von Bismarck and Minister of War Roon, crossed into French territory, preventing them from starting a war in Germany. Already during the occupation of Alsace and Lorraine by the Germans, revolutionary fermentation began in Paris.

Under the influence of the public, Napoleon III had to step down as commander in chief, transferring them to Marshal Bazaine. Near Metz, Bazaine's army was surrounded by the Germans, and the second army, which was going to help it, was blocked from the path.

What have we learned?

In the article on history (grade 8) we talked briefly about the Franco-Prussian war. It should be noted that it turned out to be a disaster for the ambitious France, which lost it in all respects. Germany has shown itself to be a powerful modern power, which is the main military and economic force in Europe.

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After the Austro-Prussian War, only the Second Empire stood in the way of creating a unified Germany. Outside the North German Confederation remained the German states lying south of the Main - Bavaria, Württemberg, Hesse-Darmstadt, Baden. Although in August-September 1866 they concluded defensive and offensive alliances from Prussia, separatist and anti-Prussian sentiments continued to sound in them. The South German lands historically gravitated towards France and Austria, connected with them by the community of the Catholic religion. Napoleon III's vision of southern Germany was no secret to anyone, and the French ruling circles made far-reaching plans for the liquidation of the North German Confederation, the restoration of the former German confederation, and the return of Prussia to the borders of the Duchy of Brandenburg.

European diplomacy on the eve of the war.

The change in the situation in Central Europe created a serious threat to the dominant influence of France on the continent. Her passive behavior during the Austro-Prussian war and the uncompensated strengthening of Germany caused sharp criticism of the French public.

To top it off, in 1867 the French colonial expedition to Mexico ended in failure. Her capture, planned by the Tuileries and called by the court flatterers "the greatest idea" of the regime, in fact turned into a disgrace. After the evacuation of the French troops, the Mexican rebels captured and shot the "emperor" of Mexico - the protege of Napoleon III Maximilian Habsburg (brother of the Austrian Emperor Franz Joseph). The Mexican expedition dealt a huge blow to the prestige of the Second Empire; the French emperor appeared before the world as an adventurer who abandoned his ally to the mercy of fate. To war, as a means to improve internal affairs, Napoleon was also pushed by the political crisis experienced by the empire.

O. Bismarck, all the more, was not going to retreat. He did not hide his intention to eliminate the "Main Line" and complete the national unification of Germany under the auspices of the Hohenzollerns. O. Bismarck conducted excellent diplomatic preparations for the war with France, as, indeed, for the campaigns of 1864 and 1866.

France found itself in international isolation. By 1870 its alliance with England during the Crimean War lay in ruins. During this time, a large number of disagreements accumulated between them on issues of European and colonial policy. London began to see in powerful Prussia a counterbalance to France on the continent. Back in September 1865, Prime Minister G. Palmerston wrote to the head of the Foreign Office, D. Russell: warlike powers - France and Russia.

Like Palmerston, both factions of Parliament - the Liberal and the Conservative - began to associate the provision of British political interests in Europe with the strengthening of Prussia, and were ready to replace Austria with a stronger Prussian-Germany.

The attitude to what is happening in Germany and in Buckingham Palace has changed. Queen Victoria, who was very worried about the fate of her beloved reigning nieces and nephews, uncles and aunts, stopped publicly calling Bismarck an aggressor, an instigator of conflicts in German courts. When, in August 1866, the creation of a new organization of German countries began in Berlin, Victoria, who had never particularly sympathized with the Hohenzollerns, expressed the opinion that Germany "strong, united ... would be the most useful ally of England." That's why, the Prussian successes in 1870, as in 1866, did not bring the British cabinet out of a state of "observant" neutrality.

The position of neutrality was also taken on the banks of the Neva. As noted above, the Russian government, represented by the Minister of Foreign Affairs A.M. Gorchakova, relying on the planned alliance with France, hoped to achieve the abolition of the neutralization of the Black Sea and offered the Tuileries Palace friendship and cooperation in exchange. However, the support of the French diplomacy of the St. Petersburg cabinet in the Eastern question in the first years after the Crimean War was very limited. Napoleon III stubbornly did not want to revise the articles of the Paris Peace Treaty and contribute to the restoration of Russian positions in the Middle East. The weakening of the rapprochement between Russia and France was outlined after Napoleon's intervention in the Polish uprising of 1863. Nevertheless, Gorchakov, until the very crisis of 1870, took steps towards developing a coordinated political line with Paris. In conversations between the Russian minister and the French ambassador, the idea of the importance of establishing agreement between the two courts in the Balkans and Istanbul was emphasized. However, on Cad'Ors they pretended not to understand Petersburg's hints. The ambassador was instructed to act in such a way as to prevent any formal Russian proposals regarding the treaty of 1856, which, according to Napoleon, was the "political capital" of France, "one of the largest and happiest acts" of her policy, and also regulated "the situation on East in a spirit most consistent with our traditional interests and the common interests of Europe.” The rejection of an alliance with Russia and even unwillingness to improve relations with her was a serious miscalculation, if not a fatal mistake, of Napoleon's diplomacy.

The state that could help Russia free itself from the fetters that bind it on the Black Sea turned out to be Prussia. In St. Petersburg, they carefully followed the actions of the Berlin court, aimed at subjugating the whole of Germany and completely destroying the European balance, but they were inclined to underestimate this threat. The sympathy of influential circles of the dignitary nobility and Alexander II himself for the Hohenzollern dynasty had an effect. Gorchakov considered it necessary to oppose Bismarck's pan-German plans through diplomatic channels and approached rapprochement with Berlin with great caution. Only France's stubborn unwillingness to come to an agreement with Russia led the Russian minister to the idea that an agreement with Prussia was "a less unfavorable policy." Bismarck, having learned about Alexander's dissatisfaction with violations of the legitimate rights of the German princes as a result of the annexation of their possessions by Prussia and Gorchakov's proposal to convene a congress to consider German affairs, immediately expressed his readiness to pay the price desired by the tsarist government.

In the summer and autumn of 1866, Adjutant General E. Manteuffel and Prussian Crown Prince Friedrich visited St. Petersburg. An agreement was reached: Prussia would support Russia in canceling the articles of the Paris Treaty on the neutralization of the Black Sea, and Russia would not interfere with the creation of a North German alliance led by Prussia.

These visits had far-reaching consequences. IN 1868 as a result of Russian-Prussian negotiations on concerted action in the event of a Franco-German war Alexander II And William/ came to oral agreement actually valid contract.

Russia pledged not only to remain neutral, but also to send large forces to the border of Austria-Hungary and thereby force her to refrain from supporting France; in the event of Austria-Hungary entering the war, Russia did not exclude the possibility of occupying Galicia; Prussia confirmed its intention to assist Russia in revising the Paris Treaty.

In the early days of the Franco-German war, Alexander, faithful to his obligations, specifically warned the Austrian emperor against wanting to intervene in the war, assuring him in his own name and that of the Prussian king that the security of the borders of Austria-Hungary was guaranteed if she remained neutral.

Bonapartist diplomacy made great efforts to make the Habsburg monarchy an ally of France. Napoleon III offered Franz Joseph South Germany or Prussian Silesia to choose from. In August 1867, a meeting of the monarchs took place in Salzburg, and in the spring of the following year, Austro-French negotiations began on a military-political alliance. They dragged on until the beginning of the Franco-German war, but did not lead to positive results.

Military and aristocratic circles, the highest Catholic clergy of Austria did not reconcile themselves to the defeat of 1866 and longed for revenge. Bismarck's mortal enemy was F. Beust, who, after the surrender of Saxony (an ally of Austria), at the request of the Berlin cabinet, left the post of head of the Saxon government. He soon entered the service of Franz Joseph, first as Minister of Foreign Affairs and then Chancellor of Austria-Hungary.

The Austrian monarchy needed time to recover from the blow received at Sadovaya and complete the reorganization of the army. Franz Joseph could not have much confidence in Napoleon, and Beust was constantly tormented by the idea that the French emperor was able to lure the Vienna court into a trap, for example, by pushing him against Prussia, and himself agreeing with Bismarck.

The position of Hungary and its Prime Minister D. Andrássy played an almost decisive role in frustrating Vienna's aspirations to continue the traditional anti-Prussian policy. In Pest, they did not want the annexation of German territories to Austria, which was inevitable with the defeat of Prussia, since this would upset the existing balance in the dualistic state in favor of Austria. In Salzburg, Andrássy bluntly told Napoleon that in the event of war with Prussia, France should not count on Pest to come out in her support against Vienna.

The Austrian Germans also opposed Austrian participation in the war and through their press tried to activate feelings of German kinship and old grievances against France. For all their hostility towards the Hohenzollerns and the Prussian Junkers, the Austro-German liberals understood that revenge was least of all achieved through participation in the anti-German war as a French ally. Fearing acute internal political complications, the Austrian Chancellor Beust did not dare to give the Tuileries military obligations.

Convinced of the impossibility of concluding an alliance with France on the basis of German affairs, Beust tried to use the Eastern question. In his opinion, for the sake of this issue, Vienna could agree to an anti-Prussian agreement with France, focusing on a war with Russia. However, Napoleon sought help from the Austrians in the West, not in the East.

In addition, Eastern problems sharply affected the interests of England, and a bilateral Austro-French agreement in this area could cause her ill will. Beust sought to interest London in the idea of reviving the 1853-1856 combination. - an alliance of Austria with the Western powers against Russia and to isolate Prussia. The British showed no interest in her. In the current situation, it was more profitable for the St. James cabinet not to stimulate complications in the East, but to play on the contradictions between France and Prussia in Europe, because here

England could count on the role of arbitrator, while in the East she would act as a participant in the conflict.

During the Austro-French negotiations, it was decided to involve the Italian kingdom in them. The government of Victor Emmanuel II was disappointed with the outcome of the Italo-Austrian war, continuing to make plans for South Tyrol and Trieste.

In December 1866, French troops left the Papal States, but several thousand French soldiers and officers remained in the service of Pius IX as volunteers. The Florentine cabinet naturally protested. In the autumn of 1867, Napoleon again sent an expeditionary force to the Papal States in connection with the second campaign of D. Garibaldi against Rome to abolish the secular power of the pope and reunite the Roman region with the rest of Italy. At Mentan, the combined forces of the French and papal troops defeated the Garibaldians (November 3). The French corps remained to guard Pius. Napoleon continued to oppose the inclusion of the pope's secular possessions in the Italian state, which caused the hatred of Italian patriots and extreme irritation at the Florentine court. The repeated attempts of the French emperor to solve the "Roman question" that was painful for him by referring it to an international conference were not successful. The powers showed no desire to help the Tuileries get out of this situation, the fate of the pope's possessions did not particularly bother them either. Having received an invitation to take part in the Austro-French negotiations, Victor Emmanuel showed his readiness to conclude a tripartite alliance, but demanded the withdrawal of the French corps from the Papal States. Napoleon refused.

Italo-Austrian contacts developed more successfully. In Austria, when developing plans for possible military operations against Prussia, much attention was paid to the security of their southwestern borders on the border with Italy. From this point of view, the conclusion of the Austro-Franco-Italian alliance seemed very expedient. Chancellor Beust promised Victor Emmanuel assistance in capturing Rome and even in the possible transfer of South Tyrol to Italy. However, the "Roman question" was a stumbling block in Franco-Italian relations. Ultimately Vienna and Florence decided to remain neutral in the conflict between France and Prussia and wait for the development of hostilities.

Franco-German War 1870-1 is a military conflict between France, on the one hand, and the North German Confederation and the South German states associated with them, on the other hand.

As you know, the war was declared by France, but it was directly planned by Prussia. France for Prussia is a hereditary enemy, led by Napoleon III, who claimed Hegemony in Europe after her active participation in the Crimean War.

Prussia, being one of the initiators of the unification of German lands according to the small German plan, actually reached the finish line for the unification of its lands by 1870. The war with France was supposed to be the trigger for the end of the unification process.

Regarding France, internal troubles within the empire of Napoleon III served as a pretext for war. France needed a small victorious war. At the same time, the French ruling circles hoped, as a result of the war with Prussia, to prevent the unification of Germany, in which they saw a direct threat to the predominant position of France on the European continent, and, moreover, to seize the left bank of the Rhine.

The highest tension between the relations of the two states was the diplomatic crisis associated with the question of a candidate for the vacant royal throne of Spain.

The impetus for the war was dynastic disputes over the Spanish throne. In 1868, a revolution took place in Spain, as a result of which Queen Isabella II was deprived of the throne. The people demanded a republic, while the ruling circles of Spain, meanwhile, were looking for a new monarch. In 1870, the throne was offered to a relative of the Prussian king, Prince Leopold from the side line of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen. Fearing to be between two fires, France began to insist that Leopold's candidacy as a contender for the throne should not be considered.

Thus, when the candidacy of Leopold became official, and the French ambassador to Prussia, Benedetti, appeared in Ems. In a conversation with him, the Prussian king limited himself to saying that he personally never wanted to win the Spanish throne for any of his relatives. At the end of this meeting, Wilhelm I immediately tried to bring to the attention of both Leopold himself and his father, Prince Anton of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen, that it would be desirable to renounce the Spanish throne. Which was done. King Wilhelm, in a dispatch sent by him on July 13 from Ems to Berlin to inform Prussian diplomatic agents abroad and representatives of the press, agreed with the first demand, but refused to satisfy the second. Prior to the publication of the dispatch, Bismarck deliberately changed its text in such a way that it acquired a tone and meaning offensive to the French government. He expected that in France they would believe her for at least one day, and that this would be quite enough to get the desired result - aggression from France.

The French government took this as a refusal and on July 19, 1870 declared war on Prussia. Masterfully played out by Bismarck, the provocation was a success. Prussia in the eyes of the public acted as a victimaggression.

The attitude of the European powers towards the Franco-Prussian conflict from the very beginning remained quite neutral. So, without stocking up on any ally, with an unprepared, much smaller and worse armed army, without decent military maps of his own country, Napoleon III began this fatal war for his dynasty and for France. (250 thousand against (France) - 400 thousand soldiers (Germany))

The alignment of forces on the eve of the war. An important milestone in the history of Western Europe was the war between France and Germany. It is usually considered the beginning of the second stage of a new history. This war was generated by deep contradictions between Germany and France. For many years, this war was called the Franco-Prussian war, although not only Prussia fought against France, but almost all German states united by Prussian Prime Minister Otto von Bismarck into the North German Confederation. Only four German states - Baden, Bavaria, Württemberg and Hesse-Darmstadt - fought in alliance with France, since they were closely connected with it economically and religiously (belonging to Catholicism - a common confession).

Having created the North German Union from fourteen North German principalities, three free cities and the Kingdom of Saxony, the “Iron Chancellor”, Prussian Prime Minister Otto von Bismarck sought to complete the process of German unification with “iron and blood” under the leadership of the Prussian Junkers through a new dynastic war. The leaders of the North German Confederation believed that it was impossible to complete the unification of the German states without a military victory over France. In 1871, the military treaties concluded between the German states expired, so the war with France should have begun as early as possible. The majority of the population of the North German Confederation supported the final unification of Germany and were in favor of declaring war on France. In the Reichstag, the law on the increase in the army was easily and quickly passed (its size was supposed to be one percent of the total population). After the Austro-Prussian War of 1866, Bismarck considered war with France inevitable and was only looking for a profitable pretext to start a war with France. In case of victory, he hoped to achieve the main goal of the war: to seize Alsace and Lorraine from France. The army of the North German Confederation, under the leadership of the Prussian generals, carefully prepared for the upcoming war. Already in 1868, Moltke, chief of the German General Staff, developed a plan for a war against France. By 1870, Prussian troops were concentrated near the borders of France.

France wanted to go to war with Prussia during the Austro-Prussian War of 1866. But the quick end of hostilities played into the hands of Prussian Prime Minister Otto von Bismarck and delayed the inevitable outbreak of war between France and Prussia by several years. Beginning in 1866, Emperor Napoleon III sought an ally, negotiated unsuccessfully with Austria and tried to find ways to conclude an alliance with Russia. The French emperor Napoleon III treated Prussia arrogantly, he considered the North German Confederation a weak adversary. The second empire in France was going through a deep systemic crisis; inside the country, wide sections of the population were dissatisfied with the regime of Napoleon III. The emperor of France sought to strengthen his shattered prestige through foreign policy adventures. He sought to attack Prussia before Bismarck had united all of Germany, to seize the left bank of the Rhine and prevent the unification of Germany.

The Junkers and the big military industrialists of Prussia, for their part, also strove for war. They hoped, by defeating France, to weaken it and capture the iron-rich and strategically important French provinces of Alsace and Lorraine. Otto von Bismarck had considered war with France inevitable since 1866 and was only looking for a convenient excuse to declare it. Bismarck wanted France, not Prussia, to be the aggressor and start the war first. In this case, the war would inevitably give rise to a national movement in the German states to hasten the complete unification of Germany. Then Bismarck would have been able to easily enlist the support of the last German states not attached to the North German Confederation (Bavaria, Württemberg, Hesse and Baden). In this case, the war with France could be presented as an aggression against the North German Confederation and act as a defender of the German states from the aggressive French. Bismarck's next step would be the transformation of the North German Confederation into a more powerful, unified and centralized state - the German Empire under the leadership of Prussia.

War between Prussia and France became inevitable. Both Napoleon III and Bismarck - both leaders were looking for only a convenient excuse to start it. The international situation continued to be favorable for Prussia. The competitive struggle between France and England for colonies forced the British government to consider Prussia as a counterbalance to France. Russia wanted to use France's difficulties in Europe to achieve the liquidation of the humiliating Treaty of Paris, which forbade Russia to build fortresses and have a navy on the Black Sea. These conditions were imposed by France, which lost the Crimean War to Russia under the terms of the Paris Peace Treaty (was concluded on March 18, 1856). Italy wanted the weakening of France, as Napoleon III's policies now prevented the completion of Italian unification. Napoleon III always prevented the inclusion of the Papal States in the Italian state. The French emperor Napoleon III patronized the Pope and did not allow the liquidation of the Papal States. The government of Austria-Hungary was hostile to Prussia. But it was afraid of the threat of war on two fronts: against Prussia and against Italy. Austria-Hungary did not support in 1867 the alliance proposed to it by Napoleon III against Prussia.

All European powers did not want to allow the unification of Germany, they did not want the emergence in Europe of a new, strong German state. Then they did not even imagine that the main result of the Franco-Prussian (Franco-German) war would be the creation of the German Empire. The European governments hoped that in the course of a joint war, both Prussia and France would exhaust and weaken each other economically and politically. The European powers were inclined towards a favorable outcome of the war for France, the success of France seemed more and more likely and predictable. Therefore, they treated Prussia more favorably in order to prevent the strengthening of France at her expense.

France did not have to rely on the help of any other European powers. Great Britain could not forgive France for its penetration into China, Indochina, Syria, New Caledonia - the zones of British colonial interests and considered France as a rival in the struggle for the redivision of the world. After the defeat in the Crimean War, Russia became closer to Prussia and could not be an ally of France. But the Minister of War of France, Leboeuf, assured that the country was completely ready for war, right down to the last button on the gaiter of the last French soldier. Only a small handful of Republicans, led by Louis Adolphe Thiers, did not support the declaration of war, while the entire French public was in favor of war. In fact, France was not ready for war: the fortifications were not completed, the roads had not been repaired for a long time, the mobilization was carried out in a disorganized manner, the convoys from provisions were always late. There were not enough hospitals, doctors, dressing materials. Soldiers and officers had a vague idea of the goals of the war, the General Staff did not take care of the proper provision of operational maps of military operations. There were no military plans developed.

Bismarck soon had a convenient pretext for declaring war over the issue of a monarch's candidacy for the vacant royal throne in Spain. On the vacant throne, not without the participation of Bismarck, the Spanish government was offered the Prussian Prince Leopold of Hohenzollern. This caused deep discontent and protest of Emperor Napoleon III, since the French could not allow the same Hohenzollern dynasty to rule both in Prussia and in Spain. This posed a danger to France on both frontiers. In July 1870, the French government demanded from Wilhelm that the German prince Leopold of Hohenzollern renounce the Spanish crown offered to him. Under pressure from France, the prince's father, King Wilhelm of Prussia, renounced the throne for his son Prince Leopold. Prince Leopold also abdicated. But Napoleon III, through his ambassador Benedetti, presented Wilhelm, who was then resting in Ems, with a brazen demand that the Prussian king, as head of the Hohenzollern dynasty, officially approve such a refusal and, in addition, “for all future times” forbade Leopold to occupy the Spanish crown. The French demanded a guarantee from King Wilhelm of Prussia that such a claim to the Spanish crown would never be repeated. The Prussian king Wilhelm was deeply humiliated and offended and did not make such a promise. At the same time, Leopold in a polite manner promised the French ambassador to continue negotiations on this. On July 14, 1870, Abeken, a close associate of the king, sent a telegram to Bismarck in Berlin informing him of the talks in Ems. The master of provocations and fakes, Bismarck, personally shortened the text of this “Ems dispatch” and deliberately distorted the information. Now it turned out that King William abruptly refused to receive the French ambassador and thereby insulted him. Bismarck hoped that Napoleon would not tolerate the insults of the French ambassador and would be the first to start the war. The distorted text of Abeken's telegram was handed over to the press. When the text of the telegram was forged, Generals Roon and Helmut Moltke were at Bismarck's and dined. Abeken's telegram upset them, they even interrupted the dinner. But as soon as Bismarck showed them the fake, the generals cheered up. They welcomed Bismarck's idea and rejoiced in advance at the war with France.

Napoleon also knew how the negotiations between Ambassador Benedetti and the king actually proceeded, but he was not interested in the truth. He used the published text of the Ems Dispatch to declare France offended. It seemed to him that the favorable and plausible moment for attacking Prussia had finally arrived. By falsifying the so-called "Emsky dispatch" Otto von Bismarck achieved his goal. On July 19, 1870, France, represented by the government of the Second Republic, was the first to officially declare war on Prussia. The favorite of Rouer, the new Prime Minister Emile Olivier, Empress Eugenie, called on Napoleon III to declare war on Prussia. The French press launched a massive propaganda campaign in support of the war with Prussia. France thus acted as the attacking side.

The beginning of the war and the course of hostilities. In the forthcoming victorious war, the Bonapartist clique saw a way out of the deepening political crisis, which was assuming menacing proportions. The conflict between France and Prussia over the candidacy of Prince Leopold of Hohenzollern for the Spanish throne was used by both sides to hasten the outbreak of war, the declaration of which Bismarck had provocatively left to Napoleonic France.

In order to finally secure his rear from Great Britain, Bismarck published a written account of Napoleon III's secret demands four years ago about negotiations with Prussia and the capture of Belgium, hidden by him. As expected, the British royal court and the British government were outraged and finally believed in the aggressiveness of France.

During the declaration of war, four days after it began, on July 23, the General Council of the International issued an appeal to the workers of all countries, written by Marx, in protest against the outbreak of the Franco-German war. However, the protest of the International turned into demagogic chatter: not a single soldier of the Landwehr (that was the name of the Prussian recruiting system) heeded the advice of the appeal of the MTR and deserted from the war, did not dare to lay down their arms and leave the battlefield. The General Council of the International urged the German soldiers to this in their appeal. Marx predicted the imminent collapse of the Bonapartist empire of Napoleon III. The appeal said: “Whatever the outcome of the war between Louis Bonaparte and Prussia, the death knell for the Second Empire has already sounded in Paris.” The appeal exposed the so-called "defensive" nature of the war for the German states and revealed the aggressive, reactionary nature of the war, showed the provocative role of Prussia in unleashing the war.

The French command, headed by Napoleon III (during his stay in the army as commander-in-chief, Empress Eugenie was declared regent) relied on a lightning war dictated by military and political considerations. The French army was not prepared to conduct a protracted, regular campaign. The Prussian army was better trained, had high fighting qualities and outnumbered the French. The people of France did not want war and were afraid that Prussia's war against France would turn into a war with the French people. Further, the argument that France had no allies at the time of entry into the war was of no small importance. True, France harbored empty hopes that the first victories of French arms would induce Italy and Austria to enter the war with Prussia on the side of France. For these reasons, Napoleon III planned to rapidly invade Germany and gain a military advantage even before the completion of mobilization in Prussia. The French cadre system allowed earlier and faster mobilization of its troops than the Prussian landwehr system. This gave a gain in time and disrupted the possibility of connecting the North German and South German troops. Having isolated the North German Confederation from the South German states that did not join it (Bavaria, Württemberg, Hesse and Baden), Napoleon III achieved the neutrality of these states (anti-Prussian sentiments were strong in them).

However, for the implementation of these plans, full readiness for waging a blitz, offensive war was needed. But from the very beginning, hostilities developed extremely unsuccessfully for France. The plans of the French command to conduct a lightning war failed even before the first shot. July 28, 1870, when the commander-in-chief of the French armed forces, Emperor Napoleon III, personally arrived at the border point of Metz (in Lorraine) to be present at the crossing of the Prussian border the next day. The emperor found only one hundred thousand French soldiers on the border, and the remaining forty thousand were still in the Strasbourg region. This straggler contingent was not provided with either marching uniforms or equipment, there was no ammunition and provisions. The disorderly, belated mobilization of the French army proceeded somehow, very badly. Disorder and confusion also reigned on the railways, soldiers were transferred on their own for hundreds of kilometers. A favorable moment for the offensive was lost. The French army did not advance either on July 20 (according to the original plan), or on July 29, according to the personal plan of Napoleon III. Engels aptly noted on this occasion: “The army of the Second Empire was defeated by the Second Empire itself” (Soch., 2nd ed., vol. 17, p. 21.). Meanwhile, Prussia did not lose a single day. The Prussian War Minister von Roon managed to complete the mobilization of the North German and South German troops and concentrated them on the left bank of the Rhine. 4 august prussian but ki were the first to go on the offensive, forcing the French from the very beginning of the war to take up defensive positions. Having missed the favorable moment and the initiative of the first strike, the French switched to a long-term defensive war, for which they were not ready. The French command was opposed by the first-class German army for that time. Its size was much, twice as large as the French army, organizational skills, military knowledge, the experience of the command staff of the German army, the structure of the general staff, the combat skills of soldiers, tactical training - in all these indicators, the French were much weaker than the Germans. The Prussian command had a carefully developed military plan for the campaign, the author of which was the Prussian field marshal Moltke. The German artillery was equipped with breech-loading guns: they far exceeded the French guns in terms of range and rate of fire. The superiority of the French concerned small arms (Chassepo guns), but they did not properly use them. Finally, the Germans had an idea that inspired them, for which they gave their lives: the completion of the unification of the German fatherland. The German economy was ready for war: the military depots were full, the railways and the transport system operated without interruption.

The troops of the German states were divided into three armies to facilitate control. All three armies were located close to each other and, if necessary, it was easy to link them together. In early August 1870, these three armies crossed the Rhine and deployed along the Alsatian and Lorraine borders. The command of the French troops (eight corps)) was taken over by the aged and sick Napoleon III, and the chief of his general staff was Minister of War Leboeuf. French troops deployed on the Northeastern border from Saarbrücken to Belfort.

On August 4, 1870, at Wissembourg or Weissenburg (in Alsace) and on August 6 at Werth (also in Alsace), the Prussian army defeated the southern group of French troops (Marshal MacMahon commanded the southern group of French troops). At Weissenburg, five thousand Frenchmen held back the forty thousandth group of Germans all day and retreated to Strasbourg. French troops concentrated north of Strasbourg, numbering forty-six thousand soldiers, fought with one hundred and twenty thousand German groups. Such a superiority of forces allowed the German troops to defeat the corps of Marshal MacMahon and cut it off from the rest of the French troops already in the first days of the war.

On the same day, August 6, at Forbach (in Lorraine), the second corps of the Army of the Rhine under the command of the French general Frossard was defeated (Marshal Bazin commanded the northern group of the French). As a result of the first three defeats of the French army, the Germans occupied part of Alsace and Lorraine. The French fought valiantly, bravely, which was noted by the commander-in-chief of the Prussian army, Field Marshal Helmut Moltke. The courage and valor of the French soldiers alone was not enough for the successful conduct of the war. On August 12, the aged Emperor Napoleon III handed over the command of the French troops to Marshal Bazaine and left for Chalons. The troops of Bazaine (90 thousand soldiers) were locked in Metz by two German armies in a narrow corridor between the river Meuse (Meuse) and the Belgian border. Bazaine's corps never entered the war until the surrender of the French troops on 27 October.

The government of the Second Empire tried to hide the true state of affairs from the population, but rumors of the defeat leaked to Paris and shocked the capital. The Parisian masses responded to the news of the defeat on August 4 and 6, 1870, with numerous anti-government demonstrations. As early as August 7, mass spontaneous demonstrations began and went on for three days in a row, until August 9. In different parts of Paris, there were spontaneous clashes between demonstrators and the gendarmerie and government troops. There were demands for the deposition of Napoleon III. The demonstrators demanded the immediate proclamation of a republic and the arming of all citizens capable of bearing arms. The audience believed that only under a republican system was it possible to achieve victory in the war with the German states. The demonstrators demanded that the deputies of the left (republican) faction of the Legislative Corps come to power. The deputies-republicans, acting together with the supporters of the constitutional monarchy - the Orleanists, believed that now, at a time of an external threat to France, was not the time to stage a coup d'état. "There was a breath of revolution in Paris." Popular performances were spontaneous, no one organized, led or directed them. The working class at that time was deprived of its leaders - they were in prison or hiding in exile. The favorable opportunity to overthrow the monarchy on August 7, when confusion and confusion reigned at the top and the capital was left without power for several hours, was missed. Ministers rushed about, crowds hummed on the boulevards, the police and gendarmerie received no instructions. The government was very afraid of the action of the workers of Paris under the leadership of the Republican deputies. But the fears turned out to be unfounded: the deputies of the left factions did not join the people, but preferred to send a delegation to the chairman of the legislative corps, Joseph Eugene Schneider (it included Republicans Jules Favre, Jules Francois Sim about n, K. Pelletan and others) with a request to transfer executive power to a committee of Bonapartists alone. Joseph Schneider did not give his consent to the transfer of power, and this news encouraged the Bonapartists. They came to their senses and went on the offensive.

As early as August 7, the government took a number of emergency measures to suppress possible protests by the people. Paris was declared in a state of siege and reinforced by a contingent of forty thousand soldiers from different points. A number of departments were transferred to a state of siege. The opening of the emergency session of the legislative body was scheduled for August 9. The deputies of the left faction entered into an agreement with the Orleanists in order to save the monarchy at the expense of the Bonaparte dynasty, to create a provisional coalition government. Thus, in fear of the revolution, the deputies of the left faction threw themselves into the camp of the monarchist reaction. Together with the bourgeois parties they strove to prevent the revolutionary overthrow of the empire and the establishment of a republic. This further reassured the Bonapartists: they were now convinced that the left-wing deputies were incapable of risking a coup. The Bonapartists were ready to seize the political initiative from the left deputies and dismiss the liberal cabinet of ministers of Émile Olivier. All blame and responsibility for the failures in the war was placed on Olivier and his cabinet. The Bonapartists had a new cabinet at the ready, headed by the ardent Bonapartist Count Palicao.

In such conditions, on August 9, in the Bourbon Palace, under heavy guard, a meeting of the emergency session of the legislative corps opened in the afternoon. One hundred thousand Parisians, mostly workers, filled the square in front of the palace, slogans were heard: "Long live the Republic!" Attempts by demonstrators to enter the building of the palace were suppressed by police and cavalry units. First, the head of the cabinet, Emile Olivier, spoke in an attempt to save his cabinet, followed by a Republican deputy, Jules Favre, on behalf of the thirty-four deputies of the left faction. He made two proposals: on the general arming of the people and on the removal of Emperor Napoleon III from government and the transfer of executive power to a committee of fifteen deputies of the legislative corps. The first proposal passed almost immediately (it was supplemented by an amendment on the arming of the people in the provinces - the Bonapartists wanted to balance revolutionary Paris with reactionary peasant elements from the provinces). The second proposal to remove Napoleon III from power caused a storm of protest and was rejected by the Bonapartist majority. Even left deputies were worried about the prospect of a revolutionary seizure of power by the people. Left MP Jules Furr And went out onto the terrace of the palace and turned to the crowds of people to refuse to enter the premises of the legislative body. Another left-wing MP, Ernest Picard, suggested postponing the question of the resignation of Émile Olivier's cabinet. But Olivier's cabinet could not resist and resigned himself. The formation of a new cabinet was entrusted to the ardent Bonapartist Count Charles Montauban de Palicao. The Bonapartists triumphed: they had won a temporary victory.

So, thanks to the complicity of the left deputies, the events of August 7-9 extended the days of the Second Empire and brought to power in France a right-wing Bonapartist clique headed by Count Charles Palicao (he received the portfolio of Minister of War). This clique sought at all costs to prolong the agony of the Bonapartist regime, which hastened the military defeat of France. The new cabinet of ministers called itself the "Ministry of National Defense", making it clear that its main task is to fight the German troops. The first measures of the new Cabinet of Ministers of Count Charles Palicao were aimed at suppressing anti-Bonapartist sentiments: already on August 10, the republican newspapers Reveil and Rappel were closed. Instead of supporting the Army of the Rhine, part of the French troops from the border departments were withdrawn and transferred to Paris. British diplomats and the socialist press considered the Palikao ministry unviable: "The Empire is approaching its end ...". Republican deputies, including their leader Léon Gambette, extolled the patriotism of Charles Palicao's cabinet from the rostrum of the legislative corps and loyally thanked the count and his ministers for good intentions in the defense of the country. On the night of August 12, Auguste Blanqui, the Socialist leader, illegally arrived in Paris from Brussels. The socialists attempted to overthrow the empire on August 14, but were defeated: there was no support from the workers, time was lost. Blanca's appeals to the people: “Long live the Republic! To arms! Death of a Prussian but kam!” were left unattended. The progressive people of France (Louis Eugene Varlin, Jules Valles, Louise Michel) condemned the Blanquists for their recklessness. The bourgeois republicans called the attempted coup on August 14 "a vile deed of Prussian spies." On August 17, Leon Gambetta professed gratitude to the Palikao government for "immediately on the trail of Bismarck's spies" and demanded the most severe punishment for the participants in the speech - the socialists. Arrested on August 14, the Blanquists Emil Ed and Brid about were sentenced to death by the tribunal. The government of Count Charles Palicao was supported by the Orleanists, led by Louis Adolphe Thiers. The Orleanists (supporters of the restoration of the Orleans dynasty) and Louis Thiers considered the military defeat of the Second Empire inevitable and prepared the Orleanist restoration. Both princes of Orleans petitioned the government of Count Charles Palicao to return to France "to participate in the defense of the fatherland", but their request was not granted (to the delight of Louis Thiers, who considered their appearance in France premature). In addition to the Orleanist monarchist group, the Legitimists (supporters of the restoration of the legitimate, legitimate Bourbon dynasty) acted on the political field of France. Finally, the third monarchist grouping was the party of the current, ruling Bonaparte dynasty - the Bonapartists.

Meanwhile, events at the front brought the Second Empire closer to a complete military defeat. On August 14, Prussian troops imposed a battle on the French near the village of Born. And in order to cut off their path to Verdun, where the French command was concentrating troops, intending to create a new Chalon army there. The Prussian command involved the French in two new bloody battles: on August 16 at Mars-la-Tour - Resonville and on August 18 at Gravlot - Saint-Privas. Despite the courage and heroism shown by ordinary French soldiers, they completed the military defeat of the Army of the Rhine. The culprits for both defeats were Marshal Bazin, who shortly before (August 12) replaced Emperor Napoleon III as commander in chief. Bazaine left the troops without reinforcements and leadership. The treacherous inactivity of the French Marshal Bazin brought victory to the Prussians but kam. After five days of fighting in the vicinity of Metz, Bazaine's one hundred and fifty thousandth army was cut off from Chalons and blocked in Metz by seven corps of the first and second armies of German troops (total strength of 160 thousand people). The third German army moved unhindered to Paris, the fourth (reserve) German army and three cavalry divisions rushed there.

On August 20, Engels wrote: "The military power of France has been destroyed." Unbridled Bonapartist terror raged in Paris and the provinces. Distrust, suspicion, spy mania led to lynching and massacres of the population over suspicious persons. The Bonapartist press encouraged these reprisals in every possible way, presenting them as “the just revenge of the people on traitors to the motherland.”

As for the creation of an armed national guard, it was deliberately delayed and sabotaged by the local authorities. The wealthy were enrolled in the national guard, and the workers, formally enrolled in the lists of the guards, were left without weapons. Fear of the coming republic stopped the authorities - it was very, very dangerous to arm the people. The National Guards were trained in military craft, with sticks, umbrellas, canes and wooden models of guns in their hands. The same anti-national policy was carried out by the Bonapartist authorities in relation to the mobile guard. The government did not trust her, was afraid to arm her, because she was Republican in her majority. The Bonapartist clique dragged France into an irreversible crisis, the bourgeois republicans played the role of a buffer between the people and the empire. Engels rightly remarked: "The National Guard was formed from the bourgeoisie, petty traders and became a force organized to fight not so much with an external enemy as with an internal enemy." (Soch., 2nd ed., vol. 17, p. 121).

In August 1870, the political adventurer, reactionary and demagogue, Orleanist General Louis Jules Troche gained great popularity in France. Yu who skillfully used the difficult situation in the country for his own purposes. Relying on the bourgeois republicans, with their help, Louis Jules Troche Yu managed to inspire himself with the favor of the masses, who naively believed in the sincerity of his intentions and his ability to lead the country out of the impasse. On August 16, Louis Trochu, by order of Count Charles Palicao, arrived in Chalons and took command of the 12th Army Corps. He aspired to become the military governor of Paris and the commander of the Parisian garrison. But his ambitious plans were not limited to this: Louis Jules Troche Yu was sure that the war was lost, and the fate of Emperor Napoleon III was a foregone conclusion. He was ready to transfer power into the hands of the Orléanists or Legitimists and rise personally on this.

Count Charles Palikao ordered Louis J. Troche Yu move the army of Chalons to Metz to link up with the blockaded army of Bazaine and, by uniting them, defeat the Prussians but kov in the vicinity of Metz and stop the advance of the third and fourth German armies on Paris. But the Orleanist Louis J. Trochu was not going to carry out the order of the Bonapartist Count Palicao. He decided to move one army of Chalons to Paris in order to pacify the revolutionary Parisians and prevent a revolution. Orleanist Louis Jules Trochu did not believe in the plan of the Bonapartist Count Charles Palicao, it was more important for him to save the monarchy by removing the Bonaparte dynasty from power. Arriving on August 17 in Chalons, on the night of August 18, General Louis Jules Trochu left for Paris, having in his hands a document signed by Napoleon III on the appointment of L. J. Trochu as the military governor of Paris and commander-in-chief of the capital's troops. Together with the general, eighteen battalions of the Parisian mobile guard followed to Paris. The army of Chalons was to immediately start moving towards Paris. With the help of the army and eighteen battalions of mobiles, Louis J. Trochu hoped to wrest from Count Charles Palikao the sanction for his new appointment. Upon arrival in Paris, a fierce struggle broke out between Count Charles Palicao and General Trochu, which took on a sharp character. Each of them ignored the orders of the opponent, and this greatly weakened the defense of Paris. The popularity of the Orleanist Louis Jules Trochu grew every day, he became "the idol of the French bourgeoisie", "the supreme arbiter of the fate of the government and the defense of Paris."

Meanwhile, in the vicinity of Metz, the last act of the war drama was being played out. On August 21, Marshal Marie Edme MacMahon, Duke of Magenta, transferred troops from Chalons to Reims, in order to march from there in the direction of Paris on August 23. But on August 23, for an incomprehensible explanation, he moved troops not to Paris, but to Metz, which was associated with the loss of the last active French army. Apparently, this was insisted on by Marie Edme MacMahon, Duke of Magenta, on the eve of the dispatch from Count Charles Palicao, who insisted on connecting with Bazaine.

The movement of the ten thousandth army of Marie Edme MacMahon, unsuitable for crossing the Ardennes, not provided with provisions or equipment, demoralized by the previous defeat, was extremely slow. The Germans blocked McMahon's path to Metz and came close to Metz on 28 August. Charles Palicao, meanwhile, sent Marshal MacMahon a new dispatch demanding connection with Bazaine: "If you leave Bazaine, there will be a revolution in Paris." On the night of August 28, Marshal MacMahon began to retreat west to Mézières, otherwise he could be locked in a narrow corridor between the Meuse (Meuse) River and the Belgian border. On August 28, Marshal Marie Edme MacMahon arrived at Mézières and resumed his movement east towards the Meuse River.

On August 30, 1870, the Germans, who advanced to the Meuse (Meuse) River and captured the crossing through it, attacked the troops of Marshal McMahon and defeated them. The French troops were driven back to the environs of Sedan, where the emperor's headquarters was located. At dawn on September 1, not allowing the French to come to their senses, the Prussian command launched a counteroffensive and gave the largest artillery battle of the 19th century near Sedan, well described in historical literature. The Germans had first-class artillery and large positional advantages, inflicted a crushing defeat on the French. Their 140,000-strong group with powerful artillery attacked the French. Marshal McMahon was wounded and replaced by General Wimpfen, who ordered the troops to fight to the end. The situation of the French became more and more desperate and hopeless, the ammunition ran out. The battle lasted twelve hours.

The surrounded and disorganized French troops, together with Emperor Napoleon III, concentrated in the fortress of Sedan. In the afternoon, a white flag was raised over the central fortress tower of Sedan by order of Emperor Napoleon III, who was there. Despite the courage and selflessness of the French soldiers, the outcome of the military defeat, the agony of the Second Empire was as follows: three thousand killed, fourteen thousand wounded, three thousand disarmed on Belgian territory, over five hundred guns surrendered, eighty-three thousand soldiers, officers and generals taken prisoner together with Emperor Napoleon III. The Germans got large military trophies - this is the outcome of the French military catastrophe near Sedan. Emperor Napoleon III sent a shameful message to the Prussian King Wilhelm: “My dear brother, since I failed to die among my troops, it remains for me to hand over my sword to Your Majesty. I remain Your Majesty's good brother. Napoleon." Apparently, the aged emperor still hoped to retain the throne.

The next day, September 2, by order of the emperor, the French General Wimpfen and the Prussian commander-in-chief, General Moltke, signed the act of surrender of the French army. The success of the Prussian army was ensured in no small measure by the numerical superiority of the Prussians in almost all battles (except for the single battle of August 16 at Mars-la-Tour). The war with France proceeded for the Prussians on one sector of the front.

Assessing the tragedy near Sedan, K. Marx exclaimed: “The French catastrophe of 1870 has no parallels in the history of modern times! She showed that the France of Louis Bonaparte is a rotting corpse.” (Soch., vol. 17, p. 521).

The bourgeois-democratic revolution of September 4, 1870. Despite the signing of the act of surrender, hostilities continued. On September 2, the third and fourth German armies, speaking from Sedan, moved to Paris. The government of the Second Empire did not dare to announce to Paris the fact of the defeat of the French army near Sedan and the signed act of surrender. The authorities cowardly concealed from the country the military catastrophe that had befallen it. On September 3, nothing was yet known in Paris about the situation at the front. The Minister of War spoke in the legislative corps and did not say a word about the defeat at Sedan. The authorities wanted to buy time and take measures to prevent the revolution before the official announcement of the surrender. The deputies of the left proposed the Orléanist Louis Adolphe Thiers to lead a coalition government with the Orléanist General Louis Jules Trochu as Minister of War. The Orléanist Louis Adolphe Thiers turned down the offer to head a coalition government: he assumed that the new government would not last long and preferred to stand aside, waiting for its fall. At the next meeting, the legislators of the left direction proposed the candidacy of the Orléanist General Louis Jules Trochu for the post of military dictator of France. “Before this dear, beloved name, all other names must recede,” Jules Favre, a bourgeois republican of the right wing, appealed to the deputies. The Bonapartist majority rejected the proposal of the deputies of the left faction. Then the left proposed the transfer of power to a triumvirate of two Bonapartists (Joseph Eugene Schneider, Charles Montauban de Palicao) and one Orléanist (Louis Jules Trochu). The next day, Engels spoke on this subject in the following way: “Such a bastard about The company has never seen the light of the day.”

The course of events soon completely upset the intricacies and political intrigues of bourgeois politicians who sought to prevent the revolution and the republic by any means. By the evening of September 3, finally, there was a message about a military disaster near Sedan. The report halved the real losses of the French army. And then Paris rose! An eyewitness to the events, the bourgeois republican A. Rank, described what he saw as follows: “Workers are descending from everywhere in crowded columns. All Paris hears the same cry. The workers, the bourgeoisie, the students, the national guardsmen hail the deposition of Bonaparte. This is the voice of the people, the voice of the nation.” The demonstrators went to the Bourbon Palace, the Louvre, the residence of the Orleanist General L.J. Trochu with slogans: “Deposition! Long live the Republic!” Left-wing deputies, led by the Republican Jules Favre, begged for a night meeting of the legislative body and the announcement of the transfer of power to the legislative body. “In case of delay, Paris will be at the mercy of demagogues!” the bourgeois republican Jules Favre begged Schneider. The legislators had at their disposal no more than four thousand soldiers and officers, and they were ready to go over to the side of the people. There was only one way to prevent a people's revolution - to get ahead of the people and abolish the Second Empire by parliamentary means. Almost all the deputies were unanimous in this: the Orléanists, the Republicans, and even the majority of the Bonapartists (the only exception was a miserable bunch of “stubborn” Bonapartists who did not want to make any concessions). At a night meeting on September 4, the left faction prepared and proposed a draft statement on the deposition of the emperor. It began with the words: "Louis Napoleon Bonaparte is declared deposed." The Orleanists wanted to add the wording: “due to the vacancy of the throne” (the emperor was a prisoner of the Germans). The Bonapartist Count Palicao was opposed to the transfer of power to the legislature. At a night meeting at about one in the morning, the Minister of War briefly informed the deputies about the defeat at Sedan and the capture of Napoleon III. The meeting adjourned exactly twenty minutes later without adopting any resolution. The explanation for this lay in the fact that the Parisian workers had already outstripped the deputies, they surrounded the Bourbon Palace and demanded the establishment of a republic. Only the eloquence of the deputy, the leader of the Republicans, Leon Gambetta, who stood on a hill behind the locked fence of the Bourbon Palace, calling on the insurgent people to “prudence”, prevented the people from spontaneously seizing the legislative body. At two o'clock in the morning, filled with horror and fear in the face of the impending revolution, the deputies left the palace. The right-wing bourgeois republican Jules Favre left the Palace of Bourbon in the carriage of the Orléanist Louis Adolphe Thiers. Unprecedented excitement reigned in the streets of Paris from the night and all the morning of September 4. The words "deposition" and "republic" passed from mouth to mouth. The Blanquists launched active propaganda, calling on the people to revolt.

A new meeting of the legislators was scheduled at the Bourbon Palace for two o'clock in the afternoon. Republicans, Orléanists, Bonapartists, Legitimists, Leftists - frantically tried to agree with each other on the form of transfer of power to the legislature. The demoralized government troops on the outskirts of the Bourbon Palace were hastily replaced at night by bourgeois battalions of the National Guard and eighteen battalions of mobiles loyal to the Orleanist General Louis Jules Trochu, who returned to Paris from Chalons. But it was no longer possible to save the empire, the Second Empire was actually dead. Already by twelve o'clock in the afternoon the square and the approaches to it were again filled with demonstrators. The meeting opened at one fifteen in the afternoon (13.15), it lasted exactly twenty-five minutes. The Bonapartists managed to submit their proposal for the creation of a "government council of national defense" under the leadership of Count Palicao as a military dictator.

At that moment, demonstrators burst into the Bourbon Palace, among them the Blanquists were the first to go. The crowd broke into the corridors of the palace, occupied the inner stairs and rushed to the stands with exclamations: “Long live the republic! Deposition! Long live France!” Right-wing Republican Leon Gambetta found himself on the podium, urging the people to “preserve order” and vacate the premises of the legislative building. Next to Léon Gambetta was the Bonapartist Joseph Eugene Schneider. Left deputies succeeded each other on the podium. Leon Gambetta took the podium eight times, trying to calm the masses. The Blanquists left the hall, leading their supporters away. It was about three o'clock in the afternoon. Due to unimaginable noise, the chairman was forced to close the meeting and left his chair. The Blanquists returned to his place and demanded the adoption of a decree on the deposition of the emperor and the proclamation of a republic. The resistance of the crowd became dangerous. The leftist deputies removed the Blanquists from the presiding chair with the help of the guards and proposed that they confine themselves to the deposition of Emperor Napoleon III. The bourgeois republican Leon Gambetta read out a draft resolution prepared by the left. But the trick didn't work. Demands for the establishment of a republic sounded with renewed vigor.

Then the bourgeois republicans, tired of vain exhortations and intimidation, turned to the last resort: according to the established tradition, the republic should have been proclaimed in R but ink. Right wing Republicans Jules Favre and Léon Gambetta urged to follow them to R but carcass. Confused t about The crowds of people, following Jules Favre and Léon Gambetta, went in two streams along the embankments on both banks of the Seine River to the Town Hall. Thus, the chamber of legislators was deftly liberated from the people. On the way to the Town Hall, Favre met with General Trochu, who had been holed up in the Louvre since the evening of September 3 in anticipation of a favorable situation. Louis Jules Trochu approved the actions of the deputies. Both streams of demonstrators arrived at about four o'clock in the afternoon at Place Greve. On the pediment of the Town Hall, a red banner, hoisted by the workers, was already fluttering. In the overcrowded hall of the City Hall, the Blanquists and neo-Jacobins tried to announce the list of members of the revolutionary government they had planned. It featured the names of Auguste Blanc And, Gustave Flour but nsa, Charles Delecle Yu for, Felix Pi but. In order to wrest the initiative from the hands of the Blanquists, the republican Jules Favre was forced to personally proclaim a republic from the rostrum. The deputies who remained in the Bourbon Palace deliberated feverishly over their list of members of the provisional coalition government of Orléanists and bourgeois republicans. The neo-Jacobins and Blanquists missed the opportunity to set up a revolutionary government. Part of the Blanquists at that moment was freeing political prisoners from prisons - among the released was the bourgeois republican Henri Rochefort, whose arrival the Blanquists were impatiently waiting for in the City Hall. Belted with the red scarf of the mayor of Paris, Henri Rochefort triumphantly proceeded from prison through the streets of the capital. He was asked to announce the composition of the revolutionary government. The popular Republican Henri Rochefort was offered participation in his government by neo-Jacobins and Blanquists, but he preferred to enter the list of bourgeois republicans. Each faction wanted to have Henri Rochefort as mayor of Paris, but he joined the list of bourgeois republicans. By joining the bourgeois republicans, Henri Rochefort played into their hands: he prevented the neo-Jacobins and Blanquists from coming to power. As for the post of mayor of Paris, Henri Rochefort did not get it: the post of mayor was given to the most moderate Republican Emmanuel Arag about, an elderly figure in the revolution of 1848, who had long since retired from the political arena. Henri Rochefort supported his candidacy for mayor. The question of the head of government remained unresolved. According to the original draft, this post was intended for the right-wing Republican Jules Favre. Orléanist Louis Jules Troche Yu the posts of the minister of war and the military governor of Paris were intended. But General Louis Jules Troche Yu agreed to join the new government only as its head. This demand was granted, and the right-wing bourgeois republican Jules Favre became the deputy of the Orléanist Louis Jules Troche. Yu. Henri Rochefort did not object to the participation of Louis Jules Troche Yu within the government.

The regent Eugene stayed in the Tuileries Palace, the Senate met in the Luxembourg Palace - both palaces were not attacked by the people. On the evening of September 4, at the first meeting of the government, the Republican Jules Favre received the portfolio of the Minister of Foreign Affairs; Republican Leon Gumb e tta—became minister of the interior; Republican Ernest Pick but r - became the Minister of Finance; Republican Gaston Creme e- headed the Ministry of Justice; Republican Jules François Sim about n - Ministry of Education. Orléanist General Adolphe Charles Emmanuel Lefle about became Minister of War; Orleanist Admiral Martin Fourisch about n - the Minister of the Sea; Frederic Dory but n - Minister of Public Works; Joseph Magne e n - Minister of Agriculture and Trade. Henri Rochefort did not receive a ministerial portfolio, as did the deputies Eugene Pelletan, Louis Antoine Garnier-Page e c, Alexandre Olivier Gle-Bizou uh n. Orleanist Louis Adolphe Thiers also did not receive a ministerial portfolio, he himself refused to participate in the government, but in fact played a large role in the government.

So on September 4, 1870, a bourgeois provisional government was formed in France, which usurped power in the country, conquered by the people. The government pompously called itself the "government of national defense." The Bonapartist empire was crushed by the Parisian workers and, despite the resistance of the bourgeois republicans, a republic was nevertheless proclaimed. Marx emphasized that "the Republic was proclaimed on September 4 not by the miserable lawyers who settled in the Paris City Hall as a government of national defense, but by the people of Paris." (Soch., 2nd ed., vol. 17, p. 513).

The news of the fall of the Second Empire and the establishment of a republic was greeted with satisfaction in France. In Lyon, Marseille, Toulouse, new republican authorities began to be created - the revolutionary Communes. In their composition, in the nature of the first measures, they were much more radical than the central government in Paris. In the provinces, the opposition of the bourgeoisie was much weaker than in the capital.

The revolution of September 4, 1870 was the fourth bourgeois revolution in the history of France (first: in 1789-1794; second: in 1830; third: in 1848). It ended the Bonapartist regime of the Second Empire and led to the establishment of the regime of the Third Republic. The decisive role in the events of late August - early September 1870 was played by the workers of Paris. The democratic transformations of France, begun by the Great French bourgeois revolution of 1789-1794, were continued by the revolution of September 4, 1870.

From the bourgeois-democratic revolution of September 4, 1870 to the proletarian revolution of March 18, 1871. From the first days of being in power, the government of the September Republic rose to the defense of its fatherland. Already on September 6, 1870, Republican Foreign Minister Jules Favre, in a circular sent to French diplomatic representatives abroad, announced the government's determination to "fulfill its duty to the end" and not to cede to the German aggressors "not an inch of land, not a stone of French fortresses." At the same time, the “government of national defense” was looking for ways out of the state of siege. On September 12, the French government sent Louis Adolphe Thiers on a diplomatic voyage to European capitals (Vienna, London and St. Petersburg), instructing him to ask the European governments of Great Britain, Austria-Hungary and Tsarist Russia to facilitate the conclusion of peace on terms acceptable to France (less enslaving). All three European countries flatly refused mediation and military intervention in the conflict between France and the German states. On September 19–20, French Foreign Minister Jules Favre visited the headquarters of Otto von Bismarck (in Ferrieres), but he also failed to agree on a truce with the Prussian chancellor. Only the second attempt by the government of national defense on October 30 was successful and the Parisians were told the "good news".

The Government of National Defense scheduled elections for October 16, which were then rescheduled for October 2. The situation in Paris was extremely difficult due to the advance of the third and fourth armies of the Prussian troops to the capital. Another part of the German army was pinned down by the blockade of Metz and the large army of Marshal Bazin stuck there. In accordance with government decrees, a national guard was formed from all sections of the population, and weapons were issued to workers. Stocks of food and weapons for the defense of Paris were not enough. The Orleanist Prime Minister, General Trochu, took a capitulationist position and declared that "in the present state of affairs, an attempt by Paris to withstand the siege of the Prussian army would be madness." Almost all ministers (with the exception of two or three) shared the capitulatory position of Louis Jules Troche Yu. The leaders of the new government were ready to make peace with the German aggressors on any terms. After the battle of Sedan, the nature of the Franco-German war changed: the German aggressors sought to seize Alsace and Lorraine from France. The General Council of the International exposed the plans of conquest by the Prussian Junkers and the German bourgeoisie. On the part of France, the war assumed a defensive, patriotic character. The German aggressors committed bloody crimes in the occupied French lands.

Encountering no resistance, in two weeks, by September 16, 1870, German troops approached Paris. On September 19, after an unsuccessful battle for the French at Chatillon, the Germans blockaded Paris and began a siege. By the beginning of the blockade, an army of one hundred thousand soldiers and two hundred thousand national guards had already been formed in the capital. It became clear that the Prussian army would not be able to take Paris outright. In September, Paris was surrounded. The headquarters of the German command was located in Versailles. The 132-day (132-day) siege of Paris by the Germans began. Prussia was seriously worried that other European powers would intervene in the conflict.

In France, there were patriotic calls to stand up for her, to defend the freedom and independence of her homeland. Great patriot of France, writer Vict about p Hug about wrote: “Let every house give a soldier, let every suburb become a regiment, every city turn into an army!” Volunteers from other countries hurried to help the French volunteers. The famous hero of the national revolutionary movement in Italy, Giuseppe Garibaldi, took an active part in the struggle against the German invasion. His international detachment operated in a mountainous region, southeast of Dijon. The number of fighters of partisan detachments (france tireres) reached fifty thousand people. The operations of the French armies were carried out without sufficient preparation, were not coordinated with the actions of the Parisian garrison and among themselves, and did not lead to serious results.

On September 24, the fortress of Toul capitulated, on September 28, after a seven-week defense and a long artillery shelling, Strasbourg surrendered. On October 29, after a forty-day passive defense, Marshal Bazin surrendered the fortress of Metz, along with one hundred and seventy-five thousand (175 thousand) Frenchmen - the last regular French army - to German troops. The ardent reactionary Bazin, even after the September 4 revolution, continued to consider the former Empress Eugenie the regent of France and conducted secret negotiations with her, seeking her consent to the peace conditions put forward by Bismarck. Marshal Bazin considered his army that had surrendered to the Germans as a force capable of “restoring order” (ie, the Bonapartist regime).

The tasks of ensuring the national independence of France and strengthening the republican system fell on the new authority - the Commune. Initially, the Commune was considered by the population as a kind of city council, an intermediary between the government and the population. In one of the documents of October 1870, it was emphasized that the Paris Commune should not consist of lawyers and bourgeois, but of revolutionary, advanced workers. The news of the treacherous surrender of the fortress of Metz to the Germans caused great indignation in the capital. At the same time, the masses became aware of the defeat of the French troops at the village of Le Bourges e(near Paris). The National Guard first recaptured Le Bourges e the Germans, but without waiting for reinforcements from General Louis Jules Troche Yu, was forced to surrender the village to the Germans again. Due to the inaction of General L.J. Trosh Yu the number of dead and captured French reached two thousand people. Louis Adolphe Thiers arrived in the capital, who, on behalf of the government, took the initiative to conduct peace negotiations with Bismarck on a truce. Negotiations began in the main apartment in Versailles. On October 30, the government informed the people of Paris "good news" about the course of negotiations with Otto von Bismarck on the issue of an armistice between the German states and France.

On the morning of October 31, defiance began in Paris against the defeatist actions of the government. Assessing the surrender of Metz as a betrayal, a crowd of demonstrators with slogans “No need for a truce! War to the end! Long live the Commune!” broke into the Town Hall building. Members of the government were taken into custody, it was decided to immediately hold elections to the Commune. The establishment of the Commune was secured. Prominent revolutionary Gust but to Flur but ns proclaimed the creation of the Committee of Public Safety, which, in addition to Gust but va Flur but nsa, were also included Auguste Blanqui and Charles Delescluze. The leading role in the events of October 31 was played by a committee of vigilance set up back in September, headed by the Central Committee of the twenty arrondissements of Paris. However, the rebels were unable to consolidate their victory. Active participants in the events of October 31 are the Blanquists (supporters of Auguste Blanc And) and neo-Jacobins (“new Jacobins”) differed sharply among themselves in understanding the tasks facing them. The neo-Jacobins Charles Delescluse and Felix Pia, who were members of the Committee of Public Safety, objected to the overthrow of the government and only sought the election of the Commune. The new Commune, following the example of the Commune of 1792-1794, would act alongside the government. Auguste Blanc And and the Blanquists believed that it was necessary to overthrow the government and establish a revolutionary dictatorship of the people, although they were powerless to carry out this plan. This news aroused strong discontent among the petty-bourgeois democrats. Troops loyal to the new bourgeois government were recalled from the front, led by an ardent reactionary, General Auguste Alexandre Ducre. about, who rushed to the Paris City Hall to "crack down on the rebels."

While the neo-Jacobins and the Blanquists were debating, the remaining members of the government, with the help of the National Guard battalions loyal to them, released the arrested ministers and, by 4 o'clock in the morning on November 1, again took possession of the Town Hall. Having regained power, the government, contrary to its promise, did not resign and did not call elections to the Commune. It set for November 6 the election of mayors alone, and on November 3 hastily held a plebiscite on confidence. Through machinations, the government secured a majority of votes. Having consolidated its hold on power and regained its senses, the government immediately made arrests of all those involved in the coup attempt on October 31. Blanqui and his supporters, neo-Jacobins and other participants in the failed coup on October 31, 1870, fled to avoid prison.

Differences among the leaders of the movement, the tactical errors of the Blanquists, the vacillations of the petty-bourgeois democrats, the illusions about the "government of national defense" that have not been completely eliminated, the fear of the threat of civil war in besieged Paris - these are the reasons that caused the unsuccessful outcome of the uprising of October 31, 1870 .

Revolutionary uprisings also took place in other provincial towns. In Lyon, under the leadership of Mikhail Bakunin and his supporters, a demonstration took place, in which the workers of the “national workshops” took an active part. The mob took over the Lyon R but carcass. The anarchist leaders of the movement urgently created a “Central Committee for the Salvation of France” and issued a series of decrees proclaiming the “destruction of the administrative and governmental state machine”, but did not take measures to consolidate the success. Soon the bourgeois battalions of the National Guard approached the City Hall. The “Committee for the Salvation of France” liberated the Town Hall building without a fight. The uprising was put down. In Marseille, revolutionary-minded workers also captured the City Hall on November 1 and hoisted a red banner over it. Power passed into the hands of the Revolutionary Commune, made up of anarchists and radicals. It was headed by Andre, a member of the International, close to the Bakuninists. e Bastel And ka. A Committee of Public Salvation was created, which began to carry out a series of democratic reforms. But already on November 4, the National Guard battalions surrounded the Marseille City Hall. The uprising in Marseille was also put down.

According to the same scenario, revolutionary demonstrations broke out in Brest (October 2) and tragically ended; in Grenoble (21 September and 30 October); in Toulouse (October 31); in Saint-Etienne (October 31). The garrison of the city of Chateauden showed steadfast courage during the resistance to the troops on October 18th. An unequal struggle went on all day, the German troops got the smoking ruins of the city.

On October 7, one of the members of the government of national defense, the leftist Republican Gambetta, flew from besieged Paris to neighboring Tours in a balloon and developed energetic activities there to form new armies. In a short time, the Turkish delegation formed eleven new corps with a total number of two hundred and twenty thousand people. The newly formed troops acted successfully: on November 9, the Loire army entered Orleans and began to advance towards Paris. A month later, on December 4, under the onslaught of the enemy, the French troops again left Orleans. Failures pursued the French not only near Paris, but also on other fronts. The reason for the failures was one: the defeatist mood of the French generals, who did not believe in the success of the resistance and did not support the partisan movement of the common people. In the hands of the German invaders were Strasbourg, Dijon.

The siege of Paris lasted over four months. The Parisian garrison was commanded by General Louis Jules Troche. Yu. Parisians suffered from unemployment: many businesses closed. The national guard received a meager salary of thirty sous a day (small copper coin). The food policy of the government of national defense in the besieged capital was also anti-popular. In January 1871, the norms of bread were reduced to three hundred grams per person per day, and even this kind of bread could not be called bread, it was made from anything. Also, according to the cards, they gave out a piece of horsemeat, a handful of rice, a few vegetables - but people had to stand in long lines for them from early morning. Cat and dog meat was sold at the price of a delicacy. The working population of Paris was starving, speculators enriched themselves on the needs of the people. Cold, hunger and disease led to an unprecedented high mortality.

On December 27, to all the disasters of the Parisians, one more thing was achieved - artillery shelling. For a whole month, shells from German batteries exploded daily and methodically over the heads of the Parisians, sowing death and destruction everywhere; after each shelling, the ruins of residential buildings, museums, libraries, hospitals were left; objects that had no military significance. Many Parisians were left homeless. But they steadfastly endured the disasters of the siege and still demanded the continuation of the fight against the enemy. Louder and louder were the voices of dissatisfied with the government of national defense, which brought France to a military catastrophe. These sentiments of protest were reflected in numerous Blanquist literature, in the press, in harsh speeches at meetings and in political clubs.

On January 6, 1871, the indignation of the Parisians over the capitulatory tactics of the government found vivid expression in the “Red Poster”, published by the Central Republican Committee of the Twenty Districts (it was created at the end of 1870 and united the district committees of vigilance). The appeal put forward a demand for a general requisition of food products, the issuance of free rations. “The government did not call for a general militia, it left the Bonapartists in place and imprisoned the republicans ... With its slowness and indecision, it brought us to the brink of the abyss. The people are dying from the cold and starving, .. the rulers of France do not know how to govern or fight. The place is the Commune!” - these words ended the "Red Poster". The slogan of replacing the bankrupt government of national defense and its replacement by the Commune elected by the people, with the functions of defense and administration of Paris assigned to it, sounded with renewed vigor. It was in the Commune, endowed with governmental powers, that the masses of Paris saw the only force capable of saving France from destruction. Memories of the Commune of Paris in 1792-1793 were combined with the ideas of creating self-governing communes and their federation propagated by socialists and Proudhonists. The Commune was discussed at the meetings of the “Red Clubs”, plans were hatched for the confiscation of the property of the runaway proprietors, the Bonapartists, the church, the creation of workers' associations, and the transfer of joint-stock companies into the hands of the workers. The revolutionary Commune was often conceived of as consisting of delegates from the socialist groups of Paris, and the government of France consisting of delegates from the revolutionary communes of the country and the main centers of labor. Attempts were made to establish revolutionary communes in the provinces during popular uprisings in Lyon and Marseille.

Meanwhile, on January 18, 1871, the winners gathered in German-occupied Versailles - monarchs, kings, dukes, members of the governments of all German states that fought with France, the entire diplomatic corps arrived. In a solemn atmosphere in the Mirror Hall of the Palace of Versailles, the Grand Duke of Baden, on behalf of all German sovereigns, proclaimed Wilhelm I of Hohenzollern Emperor of Germany. The Prussian king became the hereditary German emperor. As desired by the Prussian Junkers and the liberals, Wilhelm received the crown from the hands of the monarchs. Otto von Bismarck (1871-1890) became Chancellor of the German Empire. The unification of Germany was completed "from above", through a dynastic war, with the formation of the German Empire. From the first days of its existence, the German Empire, united under the leadership of the Prussian Junkers, from the very beginning showed its reactionary character. The monarchical system and the positions of German reaction in Europe and in their own country were strengthened. The European powers watched with concern the new dangerous competitor that changed the balance and alignment of forces in Europe. Germany became one of the great powers of Europe.

On January 19-20, 1871, the government of national defense organized a major military sortie near Busenval (near Paris). As always, a poorly prepared operation led to the death of thousands of people's fighters, who bravely and selflessly fought against the well-armed German enemy. Throwing the national guards into a trap set by the Germans, the government hoped to finally demoralize the population of Paris and break their resistance.

Outraged by such cynicism of the government of national "defense" (and in fact - treason), the working class of Paris raised a new uprising on January 22, 1871. The rebels again tried to capture R but carcass, but were fired upon and driven back by troops. But this time, too, its initiators, the Blanquists, showed their inability to properly prepare it and ensure victory. As in the uprising of October 31, 1870, the leaders of the Paris organization of the International did not take part in the January uprising. The result was the same: the anti-government uprising on January 22, 1871 was defeated. The defeat was followed by massive