GUSTAVE

PAUL

See also:

• GUSTAVE PAUL CLUSERET (1823-1900)

CLUSERET (1823-1900)  , French soldier and politician, was born at Paris . He was an officer in the garde mobile during the revolution of 1848 . He took part in several expeditions in Algeria, joined Garibaldi's volunteers in 186o, and in 1861 resigned his commission to take part in the Civil War in America . He served under Fremont and McClellan, and rose to the rank of general . Then, joining a band of Irish adventurers, he went secretly to Ireland, and participated in the Fenian insurrection (1866-67) . He escaped arrest on the collapse of the movement, but was condemned to death in his absence . On his return to France he proclaimed himself a Socialist, opposed militarism, and became a member of the Association internationale des travailleurs, a cosmopolitan Socialist organization, known as the " Internationale." On the proclamation of the Third Republic in 1871 he set to work to organize the social revolution, first at Lyons and afterwards at Marseilles . His energy, his oratorical gifts, and his military experience gave him great influence among the working classes . On the news of the communist rising of the 18th of March 1871 he hastened to Paris, and on the 16th of April was elected a member of the commune . Disagreements with the other communist leaders led to his arrest on the 1st of May, on a false charge of betraying the cause . On the 24th of the same month the occupation of Paris by the Versailles troops restored him to liberty, and he succeeded in escaping from France . He did not return to the country till 1884 .

In 1888 and 1889 he was returned as a

deputy to the chamber by Toulon . He died in 1900 . Cluseret published his Memoires (of the Commune) at Paris in 1887-1888 .