In an issue of the program "Historically yours" devoted to "those who lit the fire", Stéphane Bern tells the story of the life of Jules Bergeret, the general of the Paris Commune who ordered that the Tuileries palace be reduced to ashes. The Paris Commune is at the heart of the new issue of "Figaro Histoire", published in partnership with Europe 1.
A formidable social laboratory for some, a criminal civil war for others.
150 years after setting Paris to fire and blood, the Municipality continues to make people talk.
Among those who set up the barricades and led the struggle for the autonomy of the capital, we find General Jules Bergeret, architect of the destruction of one of the most famous Parisian monuments.
We are the evening of May 23, 1871. A group of satisfied men enjoy from the Louvre a spectacle of which they are the authors: the gigantic fire in the Tuileries Palace.
A show that one of them finds "sublime", in his own words.
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This man is Jules Bergeret, general of the Commune.
A very singular general.
A little earlier in the evening, the man, with his accomplices Etienne Boudin and Victor Bénot, meticulously set fire to this symbol of the monarchy.
For three days, the historic home of the kings of France will burn down.
It must be said that they did not go dead hand: five carts filled with kegs of powder, barrels of oil and liquid tar were used.
"The last vestiges of royalty have just disappeared"
This destructive act on the Tuileries will soon earn Jules Bergeret a death sentence. But for now, he hardly cares. With his comrades, he celebrates the success of the blaze around a splendid buffet of cold terrines and jellied poultry. Burgundy wine flows freely. A box of cigars passes from hand to hand. Exalted by the atmosphere, Jules Bergeret wrote down on paper these few words: "The last vestiges of royalty have just disappeared; I want all the monuments of Paris to be the same."
It was not the case.
On the night of the fire, the Bergeret camp had in reality already lost and the popular uprising of the Paris Commune is living its last days.
We are in the middle of a "bloody week", the final episode of the Parisian far-left insurgency which has lasted for two months.
To understand the role of Jules Bergeret in the course of events, let's go back a few weeks.
Since March 18, 1871, the capital has been experiencing a period of great turmoil.
The Parisians, tested by the war against Prussia and by the siege of the city, rose up against the government of Adolphe Thiers newly constituted by the National Assembly.
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The locals drove him out of the city and instead instituted a new libertarian government, based on direct democracy.
It is the Paris Commune.
But the government of Thiers does not let it happen.
From Versailles, where he fled, the former head of government led several attacks against the insurgents.
It is the war between Communards and Versaillais.
And it is the latter who will be victorious, following a real civil war.
Politicization through work
For his part, nothing predestined Jules Bergeret at the outset to be caught up in the turbulence of history.
His life until his 40th can be summed up quite quickly.
Coming from a wealthy family, he is a child of the Hautes-Alpes.
At the age of 20, in 1850, he joined the imperial army where he was a clerk in the 1st regiment of voltigeurs of the Imperial Guard.
He deserted in 1864.
He then became a stable boy and sold Bibles on the roads for a while.
It was then in the world of books that he became involved by becoming a proofreader, then a typographer.
This is where we find the first traces of a political commitment.
You should know that the typographers of the time were very politicized.
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They are almost the only ones in the proletariat who know how to read.
And are therefore very much courted political movements.
It was in this context that Bergeret joined the Socialist International.
And that's when the historical events occur that will turn his life upside down.
Following the capitulation of Sedan and the capture of Napoleon III, the Prussian army laid siege in September 1870 in front of Paris.
This episode brings Jules Bergeret back to military duties.
He participated in the defense of Paris within the headquarters of the National Guard and moved to Place Vendôme to direct the military services.
When the siege of Paris ended in January 1871, Bergeret and the rest of the Paris National Guard did not want to disarm.
Like many suffering Parisians, he refuses to recognize the victory of Prussia.
A paper soldier, not a fire man
On March 18, the day the Commune uprising began, the Thiers government attempted to disarm the National Guard.
And Jules Bergeret has a front row seat.
It was even he who, it is said, encouraged the crowd to prevent the troops from seizing the cannons of the Butte Montmartre.
For this intervention, Jules Bergeret becomes one of the leading figures of the Communards.
He will then take on an important role in the new Parisian order.
A few days later, he was elected to the Commune Council, then appointed commander of the Place de Paris.
But this will cost the Parisian insurrection dear, as Nicolas Chaudun explains in his book
Le
b
rasier: Le Louvre burnt by the Commune
.
Bergeret is not the man for the job.
He's a paper soldier, not a fire man.
In addition, he never held a command post.
And it will quickly show.
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On April 3, in response to an offensive on Paris by the Versaillais, the National Guard responded.
Jules Bergeret is at the head of the troops.
But the offensive was a bitter failure and the losses were heavy on the side of the Communards.
General Bergeret was then dismissed.
Worse yet, he is arrested and incarcerated, and faces several charges.
He is accused of the disastrous offensive against Versailles, but also of having fomented disturbances at the time of his dismissal.
He is also accused of having abused a "reactionary and monarchical" comfort.
During the assault on Versailles, Jules Bergeret was not on horseback but in a carriage.
It must be said that the deposed general ... does not know how to ride a horse.
Anonymous death ... in New York
Jules Bergeret, however, kept a few allies in the government of Paris. From the end of April, he returned to the senior ranks of the Municipality. But this one is in rout. The Federates, the other name of the Communards, go from defeat to defeat. On May 21, the Versaillese entered Paris. They are 130,000. The Communards are only a few tens of thousands. The famous "bloody week" begins.
It is in this context that the fire of the Tuileries Palace by Jules Bergeret and his acolytes intervenes. In Paris, it's panic. Jules Bergeret wants to react. And he is going to do the same thing as many other Communards that night: burn Paris. But by lighting this gigantic fire at the Tuileries, it only makes matters worse, thus marking a turning point for the worse. An estimated 8,000 to 12,000 Communards died during the bloody week.
Against all expectations, and despite a death sentence by the war council, Jules Bergeret subsequently manages to escape from Paris. It is even said that it was Adolphe Thiers himself who provided him with a passport for London. In the British capital, the general will continue his political struggle for some time, with the publication of a newspaper entitled
March 18
. Only three issues will see the light of day. Then we almost lose track. We simply know that he will end up as a night watchman in New York, where he will die in total destitution in 1905.