The Montparnasse cemetery bears witness to the fierce battles waged by the Communards of the 14th arrondissement against the Versailles troops led by General Boulanger. On 22 and 23 May 1871, the latter entered the 14th arrondissement through the Porte de Vanves and advanced as far as Montparnasse station. Clashes reached a climax on 23 May, around the numerous barricades erected by the Communards under the leadership of Jean Allemane, particularly around the cemetery and in Montrouge. That same evening, Versailles troops took control of the district.

But the fighting continued, violent and desperate. Versailles troops carried out summary executions, even in the catacombs, underground passages and even in hospitals. This was the case, for example, of the wounded National Guards being treated at the Saint-Sulpice seminary, or of the young Fourierist doctor Valère Faneau, executed for refusing to denounce his comrades. Communards or not? You didn't need much to be suspicious: a look, a suit of clothes, a blackened hand... Above all, they were workers, employees, craftsmen - that was enough. Repression was indiscriminate. Between 24 May and 13 June 1871, the police recorded no fewer than 379,828 denunciations.

But what crime had these men and women committed to deserve to be shot without trial? They had wanted equality and fraternity. They had defended the separation of Church and State. They had demanded free, secular and compulsory education. They dreamt of a democratic and social Republic. In short, as Karl Marx wrote, they had dared to "take to the skies".

It could be said that some of these demands have now been met - but for how much longer? The Communards had committed the supreme and unforgivable affront: they had wanted to obtain them themselves, through the sovereign people. The revenge was terrible.

During Bloody Week, it is estimated that between 1,600 and 2,000 people were buried there. Their bodies, piled in pits around ten metres deep, were covered with lime. As at Père-Lachaise, recognition of the memory was slow in coming. It wasn't until 1907 that an official site was chosen in both cemeteries to honour the dead of the Commune. In 1910, a monument was unveiled at Montparnasse on 22 May, in front of a crowd of 3,000 people. Among the speakers were Jean Allemane, a veteran of the fighting in the district, and Edmond Goupil, founder of the Association fraternelle des anciens combattants et amis de la Commune, whose grave is also in the cemetery.

This monument is a slender, sober obelisk by the sculptor Antonio Orso. It bears both funerary and revolutionary symbols: a palm, a torch, a Phrygian cap, a rising sun, and the inscription MORTS DE LA COMMUNE - 21-28 MAI 1871. The obelisk stands on a concrete base. For a long time, it was surrounded by a grille from the former Tuileries Palace. The whole project was financed by public subscription.

Until the 1950s, events were held there every year. In recent years, Les Amies et Amis de la Commune have taken up the torch by organising an annual ceremony in front of the monument. The sacrifice of the men and women of the Communardes, who defended the ideal of a social and popular Republic to the very end, is remembered with great emotion.