The Last Communard
Adrien Lejeune, the Unexpected Life of a Revolutionary
Published on 21. June 2016
192 pages
978-1-78478-287-0 (ISBN)
Description
The Last Communard offers a brilliant, striking portrait of revolutionary Europe through a remarkable personal story.
In 1871, Adrien Lejeune fought on the barricades of the Paris Commune. He was imprisoned for treason when the Commune fell and narrowly avoided execution for his role in the struggle for a new future. In later life, he immigrated to Soviet Russia, finding fame as a revolutionary icon. In his native country, he was vaunted as a hero, a touchstone of revolutions past during France's interwar dramas.
Abandoned by the Soviet regime, he languished, fortunes foundering, in Russia. Having led a long and extraordinary life, he died in Siberia in 1942 while fleeing Moscow as the Nazi armies swept across western Russia. It was another thirty years before he returned to Paris, his ashes coming to rest in the Communards' plot of the P¿re Lachaise cemetery, on the centennial of the uprising, a symbol of France's undying radical tradition.
Gavin Bowd's stunning narrative shows how an individual can be swept up in the fierce tides of history, and at the same time be defined by his own efforts to force those tides into a different, and better, course. Lejeune's life captures war and revolution in a tumultuous period of European history.
In 1871, Adrien Lejeune fought on the barricades of the Paris Commune. He was imprisoned for treason when the Commune fell and narrowly avoided execution for his role in the struggle for a new future. In later life, he immigrated to Soviet Russia, finding fame as a revolutionary icon. In his native country, he was vaunted as a hero, a touchstone of revolutions past during France's interwar dramas.
Abandoned by the Soviet regime, he languished, fortunes foundering, in Russia. Having led a long and extraordinary life, he died in Siberia in 1942 while fleeing Moscow as the Nazi armies swept across western Russia. It was another thirty years before he returned to Paris, his ashes coming to rest in the Communards' plot of the P¿re Lachaise cemetery, on the centennial of the uprising, a symbol of France's undying radical tradition.
Gavin Bowd's stunning narrative shows how an individual can be swept up in the fierce tides of history, and at the same time be defined by his own efforts to force those tides into a different, and better, course. Lejeune's life captures war and revolution in a tumultuous period of European history.
More details
Edition
Ebook UK & RoW
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Product notice
Reflowable
Illustrations
5 b/w; 1 map
ISBN-13
978-1-78478-287-0 (9781784782870)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Book
06/2016
Verso Books
€24.00
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Person
Gavin Bowd teaches French at St Andrews University. He has written widely on Scottish, French, and Romanian culture and politics. He is also a poet, fiction writer, and journalist. He is the translator of Michel Houllebecq's novels The Possibility of an Island and The Map and the Territory, and has been shortlisted for the prestigious International Dublin Literary Award.
