Episode Summary
Executive Summary: The episode revisits the Paris Commune to connect Marx’s and Bakunin’s reactions to the Franco-Prussian War, the fall of the Second Empire, and the Commune’s defeat. It contrasts Marxist and anarchist revolutionary strategy, especially the role of workers vs peasants, and shows how the Commune became a lasting reference point—and warning—for later socialist debates.
Main Topics: Franco-Prussian War as revolutionary catalyst (Priority: 5/5): The episode situates Marx, Engels, and Bakunin in 1870 as the Franco-Prussian War begins, showing how the conflict accelerated the fall of Napoleon III and created the conditions for the Paris Commune. Marx and Engels’ shifting strategy (Priority: 5/5): Marx and Engels first support Prussia against Napoleon III, then cautiously back the Third Republic, delaying revolution until the government is discredited by defeat and peace terms. Bakunin’s insurrectionary anarchism (Priority: 5/5): Bakunin sees war and national crisis as opportunities to spark a bottom-up social revolution through local militias, communes, and mass action rather than waiting for favorable conditions. Workers, peasants, and revolutionary class theory (Priority: 5/5): A major theme is Bakunin’s argument that peasants are revolutionary too, directly challenging Marxist claims that only the urban proletariat can make revolution. Why the Commune failed (Priority: 4/5): Both Marx and Bakunin criticize the Commune’s tactical mistakes: reluctance to march on Versailles, failure to seize the Bank of France, and excessive caution in wartime. The Commune as ideological dividing line (Priority: 4/5): Bakunin uses the Commune to attack state socialism and dictatorship; Marx uses it to refine his view of proletarian power without endorsing mere Jacobin imitation. Legacy of the Commune (Priority: 4/5): The Commune is framed as a bitter defeat that nonetheless supplies future revolutionaries with a concrete model of what emancipatory politics might look like.
Key Arguments: Marx and Engels initially preferred a Prussian victory because it would smash Bonapartism and potentially improve conditions for workers in both Germany and France. Once the Second Empire collapsed, Marx and Engels supported the Third Republic tactically, but wanted revolution postponed until the Republic was weakened by military defeat and peace negotiations. Bakunin argued that revolution should begin immediately, using national defense as a bridge to social revolution rather than separating patriotic resistance from class struggle. Bakunin rejected the Marxist view that peasants were hopelessly reactionary; he argued they could become revolutionary if approached respectfully and materially. Bakunin warned that anti-religious decrees, confiscation from above, and contempt for the countryside would push peasants into the arms of reaction. Marx and Bakunin agreed the Commune made tactical errors by not advancing on Versailles and not seizing the Bank of France, which could have exerted major leverage. Marx criticized Commune leaders not for being too violent, but for being too decent, while denouncing Versailles and Thiers as the true agents of brutality. The Commune’s defeat sharpened the split between anti-statist anarchism and Marxist revolutionary strategy, while still leaving both traditions with a foundational historical example.
Data Points: Date of war declaration: July 19, 1870 - France declared war on Prussia, triggering the crisis discussed in the episode. Marx addresses to the International: 3 - Marx wrote three addresses in July 1870, September 1870, and May 1871. Bakunin major Commune-related texts: 2 - He wrote A Letter to a Frenchman on the Present Crisis (September 1870) and The Paris Commune and the Idea of the State (May 1871). Date of Third Republic proclamation: September 4, 1870 - After Sedan and Napoleon III’s abdication, the Third Republic was proclaimed. Bakunin’s Lyon attempt: September 28, 1870 - Bakunin and comrades tried to seize the Hôtel de Ville in Lyon and declare a revolutionary commune. Size of peasantry: 10 million peasants - Bakunin criticized the arrogance of urban socialists who thought they could ignore the political will of the rural population. Parisians under siege: 7 months - Implied duration of the siege of Paris from September 1870 to the Commune’s fall in May 1871.
Pivotal Quotes: "the French need a thrashing" — Karl Marx: Private letter to Engels on July 20, 1870, reflecting Marx’s early view that a defeat of Napoleon III could help end Bonapartism. "If Germany wins, French Bonapartism will at any rate be smashed." — Friedrich Engels: Letter to Marx on August 15, 1870, laying out the strategic hope that a Prussian victory would weaken reaction and help workers organize. "Working men's Paris, with its commune, will be forever celebrated as the glorious harbinger of a new society." — Karl Marx: Closing line from Marx’s third address on the Paris Commune, emphasizing its enduring symbolic importance.
Implications: The episode frames the Commune as both a strategic lesson and an ideological fault line: future revolutions would keep debating whether change comes through state power, mass uprising, or alliance with peasants and workers alike.
About Revolutions
Mike Duncan is taking everything he's learned from 12 seasons of historical revolutions - the repeating arcs, characters, ideas, events, and patterns which all revolutions seem to follow - and created a fictional history of the Martian Revolution of 2247. The series is written from the point of view of a historian working hundreds of years after the Martian Revolution and will be presented in the style and format of previous seasons of Revolutions. It will look, sound, and feel like a Mike Duncan history podcast…but will instead be a fictional narrative of a gripping science-fiction epic. Revolutions is a podcast that covers the great political revolutions that have defined the modern world. Each season is a long-form narrative covering a different defining revolutionary epoch across three hundred years of history. It explores in great detail the people, ideas, and events that challenged and toppled outdated regimes and replaced them with new governments. After more than 350 episodes over ten seasons of narrative nonfiction, the 12th season is a fictional account of the Martian Revolution of 2247. *BREAKING NEWS* In the fall of 2025, the Revolutions podcast will return to its roots by diving into the great revolutions of the 20th century. The new run of episodes begins with the story of Irish Independence, a dramatic upheaval in the wake of WWI that saw Ireland free itself from centuries of English rule. Full of inspiring personalities, tragic events, and thrilling triumphs, Irish Independence is one of the most gripping events in revolutionary history. Future seasons will plunge ahead through the turbulent 20th century, and include the Spanish Civil War, the Cuban Revolution, and the Algerian War of Independence.