14. The weaknesses of the Council¶
Core Argument¶
The chapter dissects the fatal political and military weaknesses of the Paris Commune’s Council, arguing that its indecisiveness, misplaced deference, and failure to seize the bourgeoisie’s economic jugular ensured its destruction. Lissagaray contrasts the Commune’s genuine popular unity—Paris standing “for an idea that exalted her battalions”—with the Council’s paralysis at the Hôtel-de-Ville. The disastrous sortie of 3 April is presented as the first major symptom: the Council allowed generals to launch a mad offensive, then refused to dismiss or punish them afterwards, contenting itself with a “most respectful” notification of replacement. The author’s polemic is sharpest against Cluseret, the new war delegate, dismissed as a “military pamphlet-monger” who had “played the marionette in three insurrections” and deliberately allowed the sortie to fail before denouncing it.
Lissagaray argues the Council compounded its errors by failing to choose a coherent defensive strategy—either abandoning the southern forts to concentrate on the ramparts and interior strongpoints, or defending everything—and by refusing to dissolve the Central Committee, which had issued a far clearer class-based proclamation identifying the struggle as one between “parasitism and labour.” The chapter’s central indictment, however, concerns the Bank of France. The Council had three milliards of francs within reach—enough to buy every general at Versailles—yet treated the bank as sacrosanct. Old Beslay, the Commune’s delegate, is depicted as a dupe who humbly petitioned the deputy governor, De Ploeuc, for funds, accepted a subordinate role, and was easily contained. The Proudhonists in the Council, Lissagaray notes with contempt, forgot their own master’s injunction to suppress the bank. The real hostages were not captured individuals but the bank, the civil register, and the domains; by refusing to seize them, the Council handed the bourgeoisie its weapon. The chapter closes with a bitter reflection: the Revolution comes “blind and fatal as the avalanche,” and the true soldier fights on even in certain defeat, for “his victory looms in the future.”