A revolutionary committee which took the place of the municipality of Paris in the French revolution of 1789, and soon usurped the supreme authority in the state. Among its chiefs were some of the most violent of the demagogues, such as Hébert, Danton, and Robespierre.
The name was also adopted by the ultra-radical party in Paris brought into prominence by the events of the Franco - German war, more immediately by the siege of Paris (Oct. 1870 to Jan. 1871). They ruled over Paris for a brief period after the evacuation of the German troops, and had to be suppressed by troops collected by the National Assembly of France. The rising was entirely political and confined to Paris; it was based on no well-defined dogmas, only a fractional part of the communal government being communists in the economic sense, and these were soon thrust aside by their more violent and unscrupulous comrades. Much bloodshed and wanton destruction of property took place before the rising was put down by M. Thiers' goverument.
