9. The Commune at Lyons, St. Etienne and Creuzot¶
Core Argument¶
Chapter 9: The Commune at Lyons, St. Etienne and Creuzot
The Paris Commune of 1871 found its first provincial echo in Lyons, where on 22 March National Guard delegates assembled and, rebuffed by the mayor Hénon, seized the Hôtel-de-Ville. They arrested the prefect Valentin, proclaimed the Commune, and raised the red flag. Yet the movement proved brittle: the five appointed councillors withdrew the following day, isolating the Communal Commission. Popular battalions melted away, and General Crouzat organised resistance with ease. By 25 March, the Hôtel-de-Ville stood empty, and the Commune had collapsed. The provisional Commune resigned, declaring that the National Guard no longer supported them, thereby releasing themselves from their electoral engagements and surrendering all received powers.
That same evening, the insurrection erupted in St. Etienne. On 24 March, the mayor promised a plebiscite, and the crowd dispersed. But the prefect De l’Espée then refused elections and summoned troops. The next day, a shot killed a worker; the crowd stormed the Hôtel-de-Ville and seized De l’Espée. Amid confusion that evening, the prefect and a guard named Fillon were killed. A Commission constituted itself, but as in Lyons, the rappel was not answered. By 28 March, the Hôtel-de-Ville was evacuated and numerous arrests made.
At Creuzot, on 26 March, National Guards proclaimed the Commune and raised the red flag, but the people did not move. The following day, the commander returned with reinforcements and retook the mairie. Within four days, all three cities were lost to the Commune.
The bourgeois reaction was swift and lurid. Four months later, Prefect Ducros testified before the Commission d’Enquête sur le 18 Mars, alleging that after De l’Espée’s death, a participant entered a café offering pieces of the victim’s skull and cracking fragments between his teeth. Ducros claimed the man was arrested, tried, and acquitted. These fabrications—described as the “delirium tremens of the great bourgeoisie” and “horrible imaginings”—were condemned even by St. Etienne’s Radicals. The chapter thus exposes how the ruling class, terrified by the spectre of revolution, resorted to grotesque slander to discredit the provincial uprisings, whose real weakness lay not in savagery but in the isolation and timidity of their leadership.