Socialists such as Blanqui, Lissagaray and Potemkin mutiny leader Matushenko sought social change through revolution and popular direct action. Some cannot be reduced to a single party or school. More specific anarchist, Bolshevik or Socialist Revolutionary commitments can be explored through each person’s other positions and activities.
Insurrectionary strategist who spent 37 years in prison; Blanquism paved the road to Leninism
"I am accused of having told thirty million French people, proletarians like me, that they had the right to live." — defence speech at the 'Trial of the Fifteen', 12 January 1832
French revolutionary socialist. He systematised Blanquism (armed insurrection by a disciplined vanguard followed by revolutionary dictatorship) which influenced Marxist theory and the Bolshevik party concept. He spent 37 years in prison and was known as L'Enfermé ('The Prisoner').
Career timeline
1824Joins the Carbonari, a secret society dedicated to overthrowing the monarchy
1827Participates in street protests against Charles X; wounded three times, including a near-fatal bullet wound to the neck
1830Fights in the July Revolution; disillusioned by the Orléanist monarchy, turns to republicanism
1832Founds the 'Amis du peuple' society; arrested — declares his profession 'proletarian' at trial
1837Co-founds the secret 'Société des Saisons' with Armand Barbès and Martin Bernard
1839.5Leads armed insurrection in Paris; crushed, sentenced to death commuted to life imprisonment
1848Released by the February Revolution; founds the Central Republican Society, demands the red flag and postponement of elections
1849–1859Sentenced to ten years for the failed May 15 uprising; imprisoned in multiple facilities
1865–1870Exile in Brussels; writes key theoretical works including 'Instructions for an Armed Uprising'
1870Leads the La Villette insurrection; founds the newspaper and club 'La Patrie en Danger'
1871.3.17Arrested on the eve of the Paris Commune; elected in absentia; Versailles refuses to swap the Archbishop for him
1872Writes the cosmological meditation 'Eternity by the Stars' in Clairvaux prison
1879Elected deputy for Bordeaux (invalidated); released under a general amnesty
1880Launches 'Ni Dieu ni maître' newspaper; tours France for amnesty and abolition of standing armies
Journalist who fought on the Commune’s last barricade and wrote the History of the Paris Commune of 1871 in exile
French revolutionary socialist journalist Prosper-Olivier Lissagaray took part in the Paris Commune and wrote its history from survivor testimony and documents.
Born in Toulouse to a Basque family, he was a republican lecturer and journalist under the Second Empire and was prosecuted several times. During the 1870 war he joined the military organisation of the provincial government of National Defence, and during the Commune he published the papers L’Action and Le Tribun du peuple in Paris. He fought to the last barricade in Belleville in Bloody Week, escaped to London, grew close to the Marx family and was engaged to Eleanor Marx. He published his History of the Paris Commune of 1871 in Brussels in 1876 and, after the 1880 amnesty, returned to edit La Bataille.
Career timeline
1871Took part in the Paris Commune and founded and edited L’Action and Le Tribun du peuple.
1876Published the first edition of History of the Paris Commune of 1871, drawing on survivors’ testimony and contemporary documents.
The torpedo quartermaster who headed the Potemkin mutiny, then was hanged in Sevastopol in 1907
In his 1907 memoir Rakovsky recalled boarding the Potemkin at Constanța in 1905 and being greeted by Matushenko with the words: "We are 300 social democrats ready to die." That is Rakovsky's recollection, not verified verbatim speech.
Born on 2 May 1879 into a poor peasant family in Derhachi, Kharkov province. After the 1891 famine he left school, working as a railway oilman in Kharkov, a port labourer in Odessa, a stoker on a Vladivostok steamer and a docker in Rostov-on-Don, where he joined a Marxist study circle. Conscripted into the Black Sea Fleet in November 1900, he passed the Kronstadt torpedo-machinery school, served on the training ship Berezan and was assigned to the building battleship Potemkin in March 1902. In November 1904 he was among the leaders of the Lazarev barracks mutiny in Sevastopol, was amnestied, and then helped the Social Democrats while joining no party. On 14 June 1905 (O.S.; 27 June N.S.) he headed the mutiny as chairman of the ship's committee, then went through exile in Romania, Switzerland, the USA and France. He returned to Russia in 1907, was arrested, and was hanged in Sevastopol.
Career timeline
1900.11Conscripted into the Black Sea Fleet
1902.03Torpedo quartermaster, battleship Potemkin
1905.06.14Led Potemkin mutiny; chairman of the ship's committee (14 June O.S. = 27 June 1905 N.S.)
1905.06–1907.06Exile in Romania, Switzerland, USA, and France
1907.07Returned to Russia; arrested in Nikolaev; sentenced to death by a military court in Sevastopol
1907.10.20Hanged in Sevastopol (20 Oct O.S. = 2 Nov 1907 N.S.)
