A Police Spy and the Exiled Communards, 1871-1873 Author(s): P. Martinez Source: The English Historical Review, Vol.

97, No. 382 (Jan., 1982), pp. 99-112 Published by: Oxford University Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/568496 . Accessed: 30/04/2013 19:05
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English Historical Review (? 1982 Longnan Group Limited London

0013-8266/82/14590099/$02.00

A policespy and the exiled Communards, i87i-i8731

SOME three and a half thousand men, women and children fled to London in the aftermath of the bloody defeat of the Paris Commune in i87I.2 The majority of them were artisans or tradesmen. They arrived in a state of desperate poverty and endured a life of demoralizing misery until amnesty allowed them to return to France.3 Despite the significance of many of the exiles in the social and political history of France,4 sources for the history of the emigration are fragmentary in the extreme. Official British sources contain nothing of significance.5 The refugees themselves left little in the way of records: some correspondence,6 a dozen ephemeral newspapers,7 an incomplete copy of the papers of one of their societies,8 some two score pamphlets and brochures. Unquestionably the most substantial source for this study is the mass of reports i. Mr Maurice Hutt and Dr Eugene Schulkind have kindly read and commented upon earlier drafts of this paper. 2. They are the subject of my D.Phil. thesis (Univ. of Sussex I98I). 3. Some two thirds of the refugees whose profession has been identified, were manual workers; of these the overwhelming majority were skilled manual workers. Metal, wood working and engineering trades were the most heavily represented. All but a handful of the exiles took advantage of the partial amnesty of I879 and the 'plenary' amnesty of I 88o, to return to France. In general, those few who remained in Britain had achieved fairly prosperous positions, unlike the majority of their colleagues. 4. Perhaps the most famous of the Communard refugees was Edouard Vaillant (i 840-I9I 5), one of the leaders of the future socialist movement in France. 5. There are indications that discreet surveillance of the refugees was undertaken in London, by the British authorities. Some agents' or informers' reports did not, however, enter the normal bureaucratic channels of the home office. Most of those that did appear to have been 'weeded out' before the records were deposited in the P[ublic] R[ecords] O[ffice]. Scotland Yard, for its part, disclaims any knowledge of the records of such surveillance. In any event, the willingness of the British authorities to communicate information on the exiles to the French, and the paucity of the information so communicated, leads one to conclude that British surveillance was of a distinctly low order. For such an agreement, see British ambassador in Paris, Lyons to Foreign Secretary Granville, 27 June I87I, PRO, Foreign Office Series 27/I866; French ambassador in London, de Broglie to Foreign Minister Favre, 2 July I87I, A[rchives du] M[inistere des] A[ffaires] E[trangeres], [Angleterre], 757; de Broglie to Favre, 2 July I87I, AMAE, Favre Papers, vii. 6. The most important collection is that assembled by Lucien Descaves, and deposited at the I[nternational] I[nstitute of] S[ocial] H[istory] in Amsterdam. Minor collections are held at the Institut francais d'Histoire sociale, and the Bibliotheque historique de la Ville de Paris. 7. The most important were the Qui Vive! (3 Oct. I87I-Io Dec. I87I); Vermersch-Journal (i8 Dec. I87I-20 March I872); Union Democratique(25 March I872-3 Oct. I872). 8. This consists of photographs of the MS copies of the papers of the Societe des Refugies de la Commune, drawn up in I875. For a description of the papers, which are lodged in the Nicolaesky Collection, Hoover Institute, Stanford University, see M. Molnar, 'A Londres, quelques jalons', InternationalReview of Social History, xvii
(I972),

304-I7.

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provided by the network of agents and indicateursestablished in London by an anxious French government. Thousands of'reports were despatched to Paris, where the activities of the network were supervised by Lombard, the head of the (secret) Fourth Brigade at the prefecture.1 The agents, of whom there were some six or seven at any one time, acted independently of one another and were paid out of secret funds.2 Their reports were signed only with a number, a pseudonym or even with a simple geometric design', a cross or a star. Two or three reports, in all, were sent every day to Paris, reports in which the Communards' actions, contacts, ideas and feelings were minutely analysed and commented upon. From internal evidence, it is clear that this correspondence has survived virtually complete.3 In the course of working on this material, it became obvious that the quality of the reports and of the agents who had drawn them up, varied widely. One agent would give vent to what were, in retrospect, the most extreme and violent fantasies; another would provide cogent and detailed accounts which accord with and illuminate information available from other sources. It was necessary, therefore, to assess the general significance and accuracy of the series of reports given by each agent, before utilizing the individual items of information. In this process, it became evident that one agent had been exceptionally successful in penetrating the inner circles of the refugee community in London. This agent, who signed himself 'W', made some two hundred, often lengthy, detailed reports between I87I and I873. In so doing, he provided the near perfect source of information for the prefecture (and the historian). When the refugees began to arrive in London in I 87I, the French intelligence services in the English capital were in complete disarray,4 not least because of the rapid changes of government in France, and the seizure of the prefecture's archives in the course of the Commune.5 No agents were operating in London, and the hasty improvisations of the French embassy proved quite inadequate. An anxious correspondence ensued between the ambassador, the minisi. The reports can be found in the A[rchives de la] P[refecture de] Po[lice], Paris, principally in the series APPo Ba 427 to Ba 430, Communards Refugies en Angleterre; APPo Ba 434 and 43 S, L'Internationale; and in the files of 6 S individual Communards, in the sequence Ba 874 (Gambon) to Ba 294 (Viard). d'un Prefet de Police (Paris, Rouet, i 88 5), ii. 33. 2. L. Andrieux, Souvenirs 3. Essentially all the information passed through Lombard's hands. Individual dossiers were created for everyrefugee and the reports were either dispersed amongst these, or alternatively, extracts were copied. Most of the individual dossiers have been destroyed, except for the 65 mentioned above. Summaries of all the dossiers, however, were made for the consideration of the Commission des Graces, and can be found in the Archives nationales in the series BB 24. Comparisons of these parallel archives makes it possible to draw this conclusion. 4. De Broglie to Foreign Minister Remusat, S Aug. I87I, AMAE 757. S. One result was a pamphlet, attributed to P. Vesinier, entitled Le Pilori des (Paris, I871), 'an alphabetical list of names of those who applied to act as m?ouchards spies under the Empire and from 4 Sept. I870 to I8 March I871'.

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1982

AND

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ter of foreign affairs and the minister of the interior.1 The last stressed the need for a master agent to penetrate the mysteries of the refugees: I1faut pouvoir entrer d'un seul coup au sein de cette societe en formation, en connaitre, les bases, les projets, les esperances, les moyens, les membres et les souteneurs! Pour cela il faut quelqu'un connu d'eux, et sur le compte duquel [les refugies] n'aient aucun soupson, qui vienne a eux en fugitif? I1 faut que cette personne soit assez intrigante et habile pour arriver a etre non pas leur subordonne, mais leur collegue, leur rival influent! ... In all respects, agent 4 fulfilled these criteria. From the content of his reports, it seemed that he was himself a refugee of some prominence in the exiled Communard community. He was familiar with the most influential Communards,3 with leading members of the First International,4 and with many of the Englishmen who sympathized with the Commune.5 Agent 4, moreover, did not conform to the usual image of the spy who consistently exaggerates. Almost alone of the agents operating in London, he did not subscribe to the apocalyptic visions of new Communes in Britain or France, inspired He rejected the view that the by a resurgent International. International had instigated the Commune.6 He perceived accurately the rupture between the General Council of the International and the British trades unions, and flatly contradicted the widely held notion that every trade unionist was a fully paid up member of the International: 7 ... l'ouvrier anglais, jusqu'a present du moins, ne soucie pas de meler la politique avec ses interets corporatifs.... Depuis la chute de la Commune, l'ouvrier anglais est, en fait, reste completement etranger a l'Internationale. Sentant que son organisation etait foncierement pourrie, il s'est tenu a l'ecart pour suivre de l'oeil sa decadence....8 Further, he was the sole agent to make a realistic assessment of the
i. De Broglie to Remusat, 3 Aug. I871; Minister of the Interior to Remusat, io Aug. I871; Remusat to de Broglie, I2 Aug. I871, AMAE 757, AMAE A[ffaires] P[olitiques] D[iverses] 44, AMAE 757 respectively. 2. Minister of the Interior to Minister of Foreign Affairs, io Aug. I 871, oc. cit. 3. See, for example, the reports dated 22 April I 872, i o May I 872, I 5 May I 872, APPo Ba 428. 4. In particular, agent 4 was on close terms with Hermann jung (i 830-i90I), the Swiss watch-maker who played a prominent role in the General Council of the International, I864-72. S. Notably, the English Positivists, report dated 30 April I873, APPo Ba 428. For the Positivists' advocacy of the Commune, see R. Harrison, 'The Activity and Influence of the English Positivists on Labour Movements i859-i885' (Oxford, unpublished PhD thesis I9 S); The English Defenceof the Commune(Merlin, I97I). 6. Report dated 2i Aug. I872, APPo Ba 435. 7. Report dated I5 Feb. i 872, APPo Ba 435. 8. Report dated 7 Oct. I 872, APPo Ba 43 5. For a study of the International in Britain, see H. Collins and C. Abramsky, Karl Marx and the British Labour Movement
(Macmillan,
I965).

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English republican movement and its leader, Bradlaugh.1 While some of the French revolutionaries were gleefully anticipating the possibilities of an alliance with the English orator, the prefecture at least was informed of the gulf which separated Bradlaugh's 'constitutional' republicanism from the 'redder than red' republicanism of Bradlaugh's self-appointed Communard allies.2 In his assessment of the Commune, agent 4 was equally perceptive, anticipating Marx's comment that 'the majority of the Commune was in no wise socialist'.3 This assessment reposed upon the spy's own view of socialism, his researches in London as to the role of the International in the Commune, and his views of the beliefs and opinions of the majority of the Communards. For this agent, what characterized socialism was a clear and articulate programme to expropriate the bourgeoisie. Only those who thought that private property should be abolished were socialists. In a socialist society, the means of production would be controlled by the state, and all, without distinction, would work in manual professions. Education would complete the emancipation of the working class by eliminating religious superstition and the selfish individualism nurtured by capitalism.4 According to agent 4, such a programme was altogether too revolutionary for the majority of the Communards: ., est un programmeutopique,insense au dernier Bref, leur programme,... chef ... Ce programmepeut seduire quelques ouvriers, plus disposes a un capitalacquisqu'aen conquerirun autreparleur travail . . ., s'approprier maisil ne sauraitsourirea la grandemassedes ouvriershonnetesqui croient a l'existence d'une question sociale, a la necessite de l'emancipationdu travail,mais qui, desabusesparles catastrophes de la dernierelutte, au sujet de l'emploi de la force, ne veulent devoir leurs conquetesqu'a l'usage de la
liberte.5

The only groups among the Communards in exile which were socialist, according to his definition, were those which were close to the International. Agent 4's assessment of the Commune, therefore, depended, secondly, on an analysis of the role of the International in the Commune. Here, anticipating many of the ideas of contemporary historians,6 he flatly contradicted the chorus of other agents who identified the Commune as the fruit of a dreadful international
I. For biographies of Bradlaugh, see H. B. Bonner, Charles Bradlaugh(Fisher, (Remington, I 88o). of CharlesBradlaugh Unwin, I 894) and A. H. Smith, TheBiography APPo Ba 43 5, Ba 428. 9 Oct. I872, 2. Reports dated 4 March I872, 3. Marx to F. Domela-Nieuwenhuis, 22 Feb. i88i, Marx, Engels, Selected (Moscow, Progress Publishers, i965), p. 338. Correspondence 4. Report dated 2I Aug. I872, APPo Ba 435. These views are amplified and clarified in L. B. Matuszewicz, Etude sur les Revolutionnaires du I 8 mars (MS in 2 vols. [late I873 or early I874]). For the link between agent 4 and Matuszewicz, see below, pp. 105-112. S. Report dated 2i Aug. I872, IC. Cit. 6. See, in particular, J. Rougerie, 'L'Association Internationale des Travailleurs et le mouvement ouvrier a Paris pendant les evenements de I870-7I', International Reviewof Social History ( I972), XVii.

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conspiracy, long nurtured in London. 1 He discovered that there was almost no direct contact between the members of the Commune and the General Council of the International.2 Moreover, the Parisian Internationalists were disorganized, they failed to act in a concerted way, and scarcely recognized the authority of the General Council.3 The revolutionaries of i 8 March I87I appear as anti-monarchical, anti-capitalist, anti-capitulationist and republican. They believed that the armistice entered into by the Government of National Defence, was a betrayal, and that the assembly elected in February i 8 71 would restore the monarchy. The Communards might voice ferociously anti-bourgeois sentiments; they might contrast the decadence, egoism and corruption of the bourgeoisie with the vigour and vitality of the working class; but, they were not socialists.4 The majority of the refugees who, in exile, continued to believe in a new insurrectionary initiative, were, to use agent 4's terminology, jacobins, not socialists.' Indeed, according to his assessment, the lack of direction in the military affairs of the Commune, and the vagueness and incoherence of the programme of 'communalism' resulted precisely from the absence of a clear socialist alternative.6 Amongst the refugees in exile, he asserted: ... ceuxqui travaillent serieusement avouentque la Commune n'etaitque l'expressiond'uneinfimeminorite,et que s'ils pouvaientfaciliterle triomphe d'un gouvernement qui leur assuraitles completes libertes de presse, des droits de reunion et surtout de celui d'association,ils arriveraientd'une fason pacifique a la solution des problemes sociaux, c'est a dire, des reglementsentre les rapportsdu capitalvis a vis du travail.7 Whenever Lombard, who coordinated the surveillance from the prefecture, was particularly sceptical about intelligence he received, it was agent 4 who was asked to verify it. Thus, in August i872, an agent signing himself 'R', claimed to have discovered a veritable swarm of conspiracies.8 Agent 4 replied to Lombard's query,
i. This view was entertained by spies, by the French authorities and by some antiCommunard newspapers in Britain. See, for example, the unsigned reports dated 21 June I871, 12 Aug. I87I, APPo Ba 427 and the circulars issued by Foreign Minister Favre, 6 June and 22 June I871. The Standardgave a long and extremely tedentious history of the International in Oct. I 87 I. For an account of the activities of the French government against the International, see G. Bourgin, 'Le Gouvernement francais contre la Premiere Internationale', InternationalReviewfor Social History, iv, Leiden
( I9 39) 2.

Report dated 2 I Aug. I 872,

IOC.cit.; Etude

[sur les Revolutionnaires du I 8 mars]

i. 39 ff. I 8 7 1; Marx to Frankel and Varlin,

1977), xxxiii.

3. For the slight degree of contact which did exist, see Marx to Frankel, 26 April I 3 May I 8 7 1, Marx, Engels, Werke (Dietz, Berlin,
ii. 9.

4. Etude, i. 6I-62,

5. Report dated

2I

Aug.
ii. 20-2

I872,
I.

IOC. cit.

6. Etude, i. 63-64,

7. Report dated 28 April I873, APPo Ba 428. 8. Reports dated I Aug. I872, 6 Aug. I872, APPo Ba 428.

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dismissing them as the inventions of a spy who was short of news. 1 In I 873, another agent 'revealed' a plot to install a dictatorship in Paris, the unlikely co-authors of which were supposedly Felix Pyat and Karl Marx.2 Agent 4 demonstrated the improbability of such a conspiracy, concluding: 'I have reasons to believe, therefore, that this account is entirely imaginary.'3 On a third occasion, it was alleged that the Cercle d'Etudes Sociales, a club which brought together many of the best educated and most articulate refugees, had amassed a large sum of money in order to finance the assassination of Thiers, the head of the French government.4 Whilst not a member of the Cercle, the spy was able to confirm that no plan, and certainly no funds, existed for this purpose.5 Agent 4 made himself indispensable to the prefecture through his acumen in showing how the divisions and quarrels of the refugees might best be exploited. When an article, which satirized the pretensions of some of the refugees, appeared in one of the Communard newspapers published in London, he suggested that it be given the widest currency in France. This would have profound results, he predicted: 'The argument will perhaps become personal and new enmities will be produced which can only divide the party and annul its capacity for action.'6 A few weeks later, when a faction in the Section Fransaise de I871, the dissident branch of the International,7 created a newspaper, the Fiddration,8 agent number 4 was quick to appreciate the possibilities of its lengthy declamations against Marx and the exiled leaders of the Commune:
... de le soutenir [le je crois qu'il ferait de l'intirit du Gouvernementfranfais

journal]non parune subventiondifficilea faireparvenir,maispardes achats

de numeros. Si vous arrivez a lui assurer son existence quotidienne,. . . , vous

assisteriez au spectacle comique des revolutionnairesse mangeant entre eux.9 Agent 4 did not, however, stoop to the role of agent provocateur. He played no editorial role in any of the refugees' newspapers. Indeed, he
APPo Ba 428. APPo Ba 428. Marx and Pyat had been violently hostile to each other since before the Commune. Marx regarded Pyat as an imprudent and therefore dangerous revolutionary poseur; Pyat cordially despised Marx for his lack of 'revolutionary' ardour.
2.

I. Report dated io Aug. I872, Report dated I9 Dec. I872,

3. Report dated 6 Jan. I873, APPo Ba 428.

4. Unsigned report dated 2I Aug. I872, APPo Ba 428. This was hardly likely in view of the rather cautious and conservative policies espoused by the Cercle d'Etudes Sociales at this time, and in view of the overwhelming poverty of the refugees. S. Report dated 24 Aug. I872, APPo Ba 428. 6. Report dated I June I872, APPo Ba 428. 7. For the Section Fransaise, see P. Martinez, 'The Section Fransaise de I87I' (Unpublished MA thesis, University of Sussex, I975); A. Lehning (ed.), Michel Bakounineet les conflits dans l'Internationale, I872, Archives Bakounine ii (Leiden, 8. La Federationappeared on the 24 Aug. I872, with a blistering attack on the Societe des Refugies de la Commune. The newspaper's editors were immediately expelled from the Society. 9. Report dated 24 Aug. I872, APPo Ba 428.
I965).

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had no reason to. The more foolhardy of the refugees provided ample ammunition for the prefecture without any intervention on his part. If anything, agent 4 remained neutral in the quarrels of the exiled Communards.1 No doubt this policy secured him the widest possible number of contacts and sources of information. Finally, the remarkable quality of agent 4's reports is illustrated by the immediate deterioration in the accuracy of the information available to the prefecture after July I873 when agent 4's reports mysteriously and abruptly ceased. Instead of reasoned analyses, Lombard was treated to the following variety of imaginative clap-trap: C'estun 93 anglaisqui se prepare,aveuglequi ne le voit pas. L'Internationale et les Trades-Unionscomptent en Angleterreplus de 8,ooo,ooo (je dis huit millions) de membresbien disciplines. Or, dans un pays comme celui-ci, engagerla lutte contreune armeede cette force,c'est avoirperduen avance.2 Apart from their sudden cessation in the summer of I 873, there are few clues in the reports as to the identity of their author. The silence of circumspection was broken only in the revelation that agent 4 had written for the Re'veil, an opposition newspaper published prior to the Commune,3 and for a periodical published in Turin, the Revue Militaire Italienne.4This far from conclusive evidence, together with the high quality of the reports, suggested that agent 4 was, in fact, a certain Colonel Ludomir Boleslas Matuszewicz. Matuszewicz did indeed contribute to both journals;5 he was a refugee in London, and further, he returned to Paris in July I873, only to be arrested, tried and sentenced to death for his role in the Commune. The likelihood of such an identification being accurate seemed, at first sight, rather small. Matuszewicz was of Polish origin, and exiled Poles were, in the mid-nineteenth century, renowned for their revolutionary sympathies. A professional army officer, Matuszewicz had made his radical and republican views widely known during the siege of Paris. During the Commune, he commanded the 2oth legion of the National Guard, drawn from the notoriously insurrectionary arrondissement of Belleville. In exile in London, Matuszewicz, 'le fameux Communard de Belleville', was one of the acknowledged leaders of the refugee community. Historians have considered him as a hero of the Commune. 6 There is, however, conclusive evidence that
i. Extract from a report dated 9 Aug. I872, APPo Ba I I76. z. Report signed 'Gustave', dated 23 Dec. I873, APPo Ba 435. 3. Ambassador de Broglie to Foreign Minister Favre, 3 I July I 87I, AMAE 75 7. 4. Report dated 8 Feb. I873, APPo Ba 428. 5. His articles signed variously capitaine M., un officier de ligne, un capitaine d'infanterie,un officierdistingue,appeared in the following: Le Combat, I Oct. I 870, 24 Oct. I870, I2Jan. I87I;LeRe'veil, 3i Dec. I870,8 Jan. I87I, I5 Jan. I87I; seealsothe deposition made by Matuszewicz between z6 August and io October I 873 at his trial before the i8th Court Martial, Matuszewicz dossier, Proces des Communards, A[rchives du] M[inistere de la] G[uerre], Vincennes. 6. See the entry on Matuszewicz in J. Maitron (ed.) Dictionnaire biographique du

mnouvement ouvrierfranfais

(iA864-i

87i)

(i 967-7

I).

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the alter-ego of the revolutionary colonel was agent 4. To begin with, there is an allegation by one of the other agents that Matuszewicz was a spy.1 This is hardly convincing in itself, but is supported, secondly, by the report of Gavard, the French charge d'affaires. Gavard, who was intimately concerned with the attempts in I87I to create an intelligence network in London, reported to the foreign minister that
Matuszewicz
5 00

'. . . offered his services to the embassy last August for

francs and in the end made the revelations concerning his accomplices for much less.'2 Moreover, Matuszewicz himself sent a letter to the prefect of police in January I8 8o, offering to resume his activities as an agent on the same terms as in I 872, his wages to be paid 'one month in advance'.3 Matuszewicz then was certainly a spy, and was probably agent 4. Final proof of identity is contained in Matuszewicz' personal dossier at the prefecture of police: APPo Ba I 76. The dossier includes a lengthy manuscript, in two parts, the Etude sur les Revolutionnaires du I 8 mars, written by Matuszewicz in prison in the winter of I 873-4 for the special attention of Lombard.4 In agent 4's neat and meticulous handwriting, Matuszewicz summed up his appreciations and judgments on the Commune and its refugees. Matuszewicz was born in France, at Salins-les-Bains in the Jura, on 9 October I 837. He was the son of a doctor who had taken part in the I 83 I Polish uprising. Orphaned at an early age, he was cared for by friends of the family who, in I 854, sent him to the St Cyr Military Academy. He graduated to become a sublieutenant in the ggth Infantry regiment. In I 862 he was promoted to lieutenant, and two years later, to the rank of captain. The young officer covered himself in glory during the imperial campaigns in Italy, in Africa and in Mexico. Cited in dispatches in August i863, he was awarded the medals of the Italian and Mexican campaigns. Matuszewicz was decorated with the Croix de la Guadeloupe, and in March I 864, he became a Chevalier de la Legion d'Honneur. Until the Franco-Prussian war, there was no suggestion that Matuszewicz was any more, or less, than a conventionally successful career officer in the imperial army. This changed in I 870. The Prussians were quite a different proposition for the French army from Mexican irregulars or Arab tribesmen. The disastrous defeats of the Franco-Prussian War, and the incapacity of Napoleon's generals, shocked and disgusted Matuszewicz. He became convinced that the corruption and decadence of the empire was responsible for French reverses. The proclamation of the republic in September I 870 did nothing to improve the situation. Far from emulating the heroic exploits of the First Republic, the
Report dated 28 Sept. I 873, APPo Ba I I 76. Gavard to Remusat, I4 Jan. I872, AMAE, APD 45. 3. Matuszewicz to Prefect of Police, 6 Jan. I8 8o, APPo Ba 4. Police report dated 2 June I 874, APPo Ba I I76.
i. 2.

II76.

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Government of National Defence was, in Matuszewicz' view, as culpable as its imperial predecessor. It declined to purge the bonapartist courtier-generals, and failed to prosecute the war with the necessary vigour.1 Besieged with his regiment, the I 34th, in Paris, his growing frustration led him first to volunteer for the most active service, and then to submit his own projects for the defence of Paris to Schoelcher, the commander of the artillery. Later, he attempted an unauthorized sortie against the Prussian lines at Le Bourget.2 Matuszewicz began to write, finally, in the radical newspapers, which stridently condemned the tergiversations of the government and the inactivity of Trochu, the military governor of Paris: the Combat,the Reveil, and the Tribundu Peuple.In his articles and letters, he satirized the timidity of his commander in chief, and attacked the lack of republican feeling in the army. If only, he stated, the defence of Paris were to be entrusted to energetic young republican officers (like, presumably, Captain Matuszewicz), the Prussians would be swept aside. Nothing could be expected from the decrepit imperial generals, who despised the republic, and who would rather harrass republicans than expose their precious selves to Prussian bullets: Que les officiers republicainsrelevent le moral de leurs hommes, qu'ils fassentjusticedes lacheset la victoire est assuree,car en ce moment, on est oblige de l'avouer,tous ces gredins ont abattule courage de nos soldats;le souffle Republicainles ranime,pas de discorde,chassonsl'etrangeret nous appuieronsl'avenirde la Republiqueuniverselle- Plus de tyrans!3 With the capitulation, in January I87I, his patriotic excitement turned to despair.4 His writing became more and more virulent, and he tried and failed at politics. The Vengeurbecame a platform for his candidacy in the elections to the legislative assembly, but his programme, which united the themes of militant republicanism and national regeneration, attracted only about a thousand votes. Matuszewicz appears to have hesitated at the beginning of the Communal insurrection on I 8 March. He had not accompanied his regiment when it had departed to Evreux, three days before. On the other hand, he did not throw himself into the Communard defence of Paris. No evidence has come to light concerning his activity during the first three weeks of the Commune, other than his own testimony before the Military Court in I 873. There is no reason, nevertheless, to doubt his assertion that he declined an offer by Delescluze, an acquaintance from the Re'veil,member of the Commune, and future
i. L. B. Matuszewicz, Predictiond'un officierrepublicain au sujet de la capitulationde Paris (Paris, [January I87I]). 2. Matuszewicz, court martial deposition, loc. cit. 3. Le Reveil, IS Jan. I87I. 4. Deposition of Rosalie Augustine Plazanet (Matuszewicz' mistress), I Sept. I873, to the investigating officer of the i8th Court Martial, Matuszewicz dossier, AMG.

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civilian Secretary for War, to take command of the fortresses of the left bank. He was, however, in regular contact with an old colleague from the ggth, another Jurassien, Ludwig Desire Gaston Faltot.1 Perhaps influenced by Faltot, Matuszewicz came to identify his regiment, now in the Versailles forces ranged against the Commune, with the reviled Empire. The Commune defended the republic; the Versailles army, therefore, became the 'armee pretorienne', the enemy of the republic.2 Consequently, in the middle of the third week in April, he simultaneously offered his services to the Commune, and commenced a daily correspondence in the Vengeur.Felix Pyat, the veteran revolutionist, member of the Commune, and editor of both welcomed him back as 'collaborateur Le Combatand then Le Vengeur et ami'. On 2i April, Matuszewicz was elected Colonel, in command of the 27,000 men of the 20th legion. Assisted by Faltot, his secondin-command, Matuszewicz organized his troops, obtained supplies, secured the release of guardsmen wrongfully imprisoned, and sought the personal intercession of Pyat and Delescluze in the relief of his hardest pressed battalion. As the military situation deteriorated, however, he became increasingly apprehensive that the suspicions which the revolutionaries had of professional soldiers, might attach to himself.3 The prospect of defeat fuelled his apprehensions. When the Versailles army penetrated the walls of Paris, Matuszewicz saw at once that the position was hopeless. On 22 May, he abandoned his command and fled through the Prussian lines, accompanied only by his mistress, Rosalie Augustine Plazanet.4 The couple stayed a few days at Enghien, then at Lille, before travelling with false documents to Brussels, and thence to London. In London, Matuszewicz acquired, if anything, greater prestige in the refugee community than he had enjoyed during the Commune itself. The Societe des Refugies de la Commutie attempted, with some success, to unite all the refugee Communards in one body. Colonel Matuszewicz was elected its treasurer, in which capacity he met Marx. 5 He became a notable figure in the branch of the International established in London by the refugee French Internationalists,
i. Faltot was born in i84i at Lons-le-Saunier. He served in the ggth infantry regiment as a sublieutenant. After the armistice he joined the 82nd battalion of the National Guard, and became a delegate to the Central Committee (of the National Guard). An ardent Communard, Faltot served as Matuszewicz' second-in-command in the 2oth Legion, with the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel. I 7 April I 87 I . 2. Le Vengeur, 3. Deposition of Matuszewicz, loc. cit. 4. Plazanet was born in I 849 and worked as a polisher and a seamstress. She met Matuszewicz in September I 870, through a M. Jeaningros, like Matuszewicz a native of Salins. She lived with him as his wife from January I 87 I . Mlle Plazanet helped to contrive Matuszewicz' escape from Paris, and accompanied him to London in i87I. She twice visited Paris before returning there permanently in June i873 after a quarrel with Matuszewicz. 5. Matuszewicz to Marx, 7 Dec. i87I, Marx-Engels Archive, Series D, IISH.

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the Section Fransaise de I87I. He lectured on the debacle of the imperial army and contributed to the Communard newspaper published in London, the Qui Vive!, and to the radical English newspaper, The Republican.In London, finally, Matuszewicz began, with considerable thoroughness, to betray his comrades. He himself left no record of his motives for this betrayal. Indeed, despite the possibility of a death sentence after his arrest in July I 873,1 he did not even mention his spying to his interrogators. Presumably, Matuszewicz did not believe that the prefecture would verify his story. He did, nevertheless, seek the personal intervention of the prefect in his case.2 Certain inferences can be made, however, from the available evidence. Matuszewicz' services to the prefecture appear to have been motivated by a compound of greed, demoralization and feelings of dislike and even contempt towards the other Communards. As the flood of refugees grew and as their slender resources disappeared, Matuszewicz became one of the first to offer to sell himself to the embassy.3 The first weeks of exile must have been all the more bitter in that Matuszewicz apparently believed the rumours, circulated by an hysterical Parisian press, that some of the refugee Communards were living in the lap of luxury, regaling themselves with their looted millions.4 There were, however, more fundamental differences between Matuszewicz and the other refugees than mere personal animosities. Throughout Matuszewicz' reports there runs a strain of contempt for the refugees whose activities he so assiduously spied upon.5 Their ideas are utopian, insenses, more likely to be put into effect on the planet Sirius than on earth.6 To a large extent, these were the views of a military man with lukewarm political convictions, who had little time and less sympathy for revolutionary social theories.
I. Matuszewicz' arrest appears to be the result of the right hand not knowing what the left was doing. According to Mlle Plazanet's deposition, he was detained by police officers who were searching for two other individuals. Once arrested, of course, his usefulness to the Prefecture was at an end since his release could have served only to discredit him in the eyes of the Communards. 2. Matuszewicz, court martial deposition, loc. cit.; letter of Matuszewicz dated 29 July I874. APPo Ba II76. In the event, Matuszewicz was sentenced to death, but reprieved in February I874. He was granted a pardon, finally, in I879. 3. Thus Gavard reported to Remusat (i 8 Aug. I 87 I, AMAE 7 57), 'A mesure que les refugies affluent a Londres et que leurs ressources diminuent, les denonciations se multiplient. Je choisis parmi les pieces que j'ai entre les mains, la lettre d'un chef de legion de la Commune qui offre de nous livrer, moyennant 500 francs le compte rendu de tous les conciliabules de ses complices.' This was certainly Matuszewicz; see above, p. io6 n. 2. 4. De Broglie to Favre, 31 July I87I, AMAE 757. S. A flavour of this contempt, part irony, part satire, is contained in the following account of revolutionary rhetoric: 'Roullier', he reported (14 Dec. I872, APPo Ba 12 5 9), 'a trouve le moyen de parler d'echafauds construits specialement pour la classe bourgeoise, de procession d'ennemis du peuple menes a la danse supreme et en tete de laquelle on verrait Thiers et Gambetta se donnant la main . ... 6. Report dated 2I Aug. I872, Ioc. cit.

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Matuszewicz and most of the other professional soldiers who served the Commune, had had little or no contact with the republican and revolutionary opposition under the Second Empire. They tended to support the revolution out of a sense of outrage at what they saw as the treason of the government. Paris, in their view, had been sacrificed by the 'Gouvernement de l'Indefense Nationale'; France had been violated by the surrender of Alsace and Lorraine to the Prussians; finally, Thiers and his government were about to administer the coup de grace to Paris, and by extension, to the republic and ultimately to France herself. As Louis Rossell put it, in his letter to the minister of war, announcing the resignation of his command, and his decision to fight for the Commune, ... Instruitpar une depechede Versailles,. . . , qu'il y a deux partisen lutte dansle pays, je me rangesanshesitationdu cote de celui qui n'a pas signe la paix et qui ne compte dans ses rangs des generaux coupables de
capitulation.2

In the course of the desperate and unsuccessful resistance against the Versailles onslaught, considerable friction arose between some of the professional military commanders and their civilian counterparts. The former despaired of the indiscipline and disorganization in the ranks of the Commune's army, the National Guard. They sneered, moreover, at the pretensions of certain revolutionaries who seemed to believe that officers' insignia would somehow confer the requisite experience, training and knowledge. 3 The latter distrusted the political views of the extimperial officers and accused them, at best, of stifling the 6/anof their men, at worst, of treason.4 Amidst growing recrimination, Rossel himself was eventually dismissed from his post of chief of staff of the Commune, and overall military command was transferred to Delescluze. Such discord was, if anything, heightened in the aftermath of the defeat. For the most part, those professional soldiers who, like Matuszewicz, had escaped into exile, avoided the society of other refugees, and the endless debate over the failure of the revolution. In Britain, Spinoy retired to Jersey and broke off all contact with the other refugees;5 Brunel adhered only to the relatively
i. Rossel had become one of the symbols of the inspired patriotic resistance against superior German armies in I 870-I . He served the Commune as Chief of Staff, but was dismissed and placed in prison. Brought to trial after the defeat of the Commune, he justified his participation in the revolution. This measure of defiance cost him his life; he was executed in November i 87I. 2. L. Rossel to Minister of War Le F16, I9 March I87I, cit. P. Kessel (ed.), La et la questionmilitaire (Union generale, Paris, I97I), p. 79. Commune 3. For Matuszewicz' view, see his report dated 27 June I872, APPo Ba 428. 4. These, questions are very inadequately dealt with in the historiography of the Commune. For a selection of some of the relevant material, see P. Kessel, op. cit. S. Adolphe Louis Spinoy (b. I833) had been an officer in the Belgian army. He volunteered to fight the Prussians in I 870. During the Commune, he commanded the third legion of the National Guard, but was disgraced, along with Brunel, following the failure of the sortie against Versailles on 4 April I 87 1.

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exclusive refugee body, the Cercle d'Etudes Sociales;1 Guillain2 avoided other Communards, while Esgonniere devoted himself entirely to his criticism of the military incapacities of the Commune.3 Only Matuszewicz, for his own sinister motives, played a prominent role in the Communard community in London. On the other hand, despite their differences with the other refugees, these 'militaires' did not sell their comrades; nor did they renounce their allegiance to the Commune; nor, still, did they seek to obtain a pardon by apologizing or confessing their 'mistakes'.4 Equally, all of them had, from the very first, thrown in their lot with the Commune, and had fought until the last barricades had been stormed. Matuszewicz, by contrast, hesitated for weeks before declaring himself, and prudently retired six days before the end of the fighting in Paris. This suggests that personal vanity or some similar motive played just as important a role as any patriotic consideration in Matuszewicz' decision to fight for the Commune. Indeed, this combination of disagreement towards some of the expressed aims of the Commune,5 lack of commitment, self-regard, and poverty, would seem to explain Matuszewicz' double metamorphosis in I 87 1, first to revolutionary colonel, then to master spy for the prefecture. It is perhaps appropriate to conclude with comments on the activities of agent number 4. Matuszewicz was remarkably effective in penetrating the innermost circles of the refugee community. The Communards were convinced that agents were operating in their midst and attempted to expose and eliminate them. Despite the pervasive climate of suspicion and a welter of accusations and counter-accusations, Matuszewicz was able to send a steady stream of information to Paris. Secondly, the unreliability of many of the other agents, and the dramatic deterioration in the quality of the intelligence at the disposal of the prefecture, after Matuszewicz' arrest, emphasizes the importance of the personal connections and qualities
i. Antoine Brunel (b. I830) had been a lieutenant in the imperial army. He commanded the io7th battalion during the siege. He was imprisoned for attempting to rebel against the surrender of Paris. Released, he was elected to the Commune and commanded the tenth legion of the National Guard. He is unusual in that he was connected to revolutionary circles prior to the Commune, but equally, he had left the army long before, resigning his commission in i864. 2. Edgard Guillain (b. I 8 39) had been a sergeant in the imperial armies and under the Commune, commanded the I37th battalion of the National Guard. Under the Commune, there was at least one attempt to remove him from his command, apparently because of his leniency in one of the Commune's military courts. 3. Edouard Esgonniere (b. I 8 3 5) had been a sous-officer. During the Commune he displayed considerable energy as a commander of the fourth legion. In exile, under the pseudonym of V. D'Esboeufs, he wrote Le Coin du voile (Geneva, Blanchard, i 872), La Verite sur le Gouvernement de la DefenseNationale, la Commune et les Versaillais (Geneva, Imprimeric Cooperative, i 871), R6volution et r6volutionnaires (Geneva, 4. Matuszewicz ingenuously claimed in his court martial deposition (loc. cit.) that he had joined the ranks of the Commune, only to disorganize them. 5. For example, its internationalism; see Etude, i. 39.
[I873]).

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of the individual agent. 1 Matuszewicz had had a brilliant career in the imperial army. After some hesitation, he fought for the Commune, doubtless imagining that the new government would reverse the disasters of the Franco-Prussian war. Instead, the Commune went down to defeat; not only were his career, his hopes, his ambitions destroyed, but he had also to endure exile amongst those he regarded as demagogic, phrase-mongering rabble-rousers. Is there not a suggestion, thirdly, that Matuszewicz' meticulous espionage, his systematic exploitation of his renown in the refugee community, was in a sense the continuation of his military career, so abruptly terminated? Lastly, the quality of Matuszewicz' reports demands our attention. The reports contain precious insights for the study both of the secretive world of the refugee Communards and of the Commune itself. From its inception, the Commune was the subject of two immensely compelling myths. On the one hand, it was acclaimed as the first socialist revolution, as the commencement of the struggle for the emancipation of labour; on the other, it was reviled as a criminal and demonic conspiracy to sap the bases of civilization. Matuszewicz' measured and considered judgments provide valuable evidence for the study and interpretation of the Commune. University of Sheffield
P. MARTINEZ

i. Indeed, the French police network in London did not recover its full effectiveness until the arrival from Switzerland, in I 875, of another well connected renegade Communard, Louis Chalain. Chalain (b. i 845) had played a significant role in the Parisian section of the International and was elected to the Commune. He fled to London and travelled to Austria and Switzerland before returning to London in I875. His long series of reports to the Prefecture were signed 'Ludwig', and later '20'.

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