I rivoluzionari e la comune

The last book by Enzo Cervelli, dedicated to the origins of the Paris Commune (Le origini della Comune di Parigi. Una cronaca [31 ottobre 1870-18 marzo 1871]> Roma, Viella 2015) is closely linked to a series of essays written by him in the fifteen previous years and dedicated to some figures of such revolutionaries as Jules Valtes, Emmanuel Barthelemy, and Gustave Lefran^ais. In these texts, we find the same aspiration: To bring out from the bare chronicle of events a succession of three different and concatenated conflicts; an initial general resistance against the Prussian invasion develops into rebellion against the governments leanings guided by the choice of accepting military defeat, followed by a radical popular revolt against the wealthy accused of being oppressors and starvers of the common people. In this last phase of increasing radicalization, the prevailing Neo-Jacobin and Blanquist tendency is countered by a minority but significant trend: Anarcho-socialist communalism, whose significance Cervelli asserts.