WI: Marx and Engels had lead the Paris Commune?

Marx both lauded and criticized various aspects of the Paris revolution in 1871.
He seemed to have to loved the democratic foundations of the revolutionary government but at the same time dismissed their nativity when it came to certain economic/diplomatic decisions, such as choosing to not seize control of the international financial assets in city's banks.

That being said, what if Marx and Engels, rather than sitting on the side lines, decided to smuggle their way into Paris in the first days of the Commune (a little implausable given the encirclment but bear with me)

Could their political knowledge and forsight have saved the Paris Revolution?
What sort've of leader could either of them become?
 
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I bet the government will now claim that the Paris Commune is a German supported operation to overthrow the French government.
 
Karl's Temper-elemental

Given Karl Marx's tendency to abuse anyone who faintly disagreed with him, he would establish the Counterrevolutionary Wrecker Prize, and the Commune would still fail, perhaps sooner. Karl and Fred would be shot, as foreign agents, and communism would become a dead discredited ideology. :p
Lenin would find some other foundation for his anti-Tsarist pontificating, leading to a survival of the Kerensky government. This would undercut both Hitler's anti-Bolshevik campaign and Mao's "agrarian reform" movement. :eek:
However, what with History being a Zero-Sum Game, something similar would arise to wreak bloody murder over half the globe in the XXth Century. :rolleyes:
 
How would they have led it? The Commune was a spontaneous event in Paris that spread outward, but was smashed rather quickly.

Unless I'm mistaken Marx and Engels were still in Germany.

They'd have to have been in Paris, France at that specific time to have a shot at any leadership position, and due to their German ethnicity the Communards would have looked at them with suspicion, what with the whole War thing.
 
Marx and Engels would never be put in charge of the commune. Not least because it was a democratic body, but also because Marx and Engels both supported the actual president of the commune (who never actually got to lead it because he was captured early on), Blanqui. Prevent Blanqui from being captured by the government and you make him president. Much more realistic compared to the likelihood of Marx and Engels somehow smuggling themselves into a city under siege and suddenly becoming it's leaders.
 
Marx and Engels would never be put in charge of the commune. Not least because it was a democratic body, but also because Marx and Engels both supported the actual president of the commune (who never actually got to lead it because he was captured early on), Blanqui. Prevent Blanqui from being captured by the government and you make him president. Much more realistic compared to the likelihood of Marx and Engels somehow smuggling themselves into a city under siege and suddenly becoming it's leaders.

Well then throw the leadership stuff out. How might they fair as influential but subordinate revolutionaries in the Commune.
Could the international fandom of both men spark more to join the commundard's cause in Paris? In the French Army?
 
Well then throw the leadership stuff out. How might they fair as influential but subordinate revolutionaries in the Commune.
Could the international fandom of both men spark more to join the commundard's cause in Paris? In the French Army?

Probably not. Even most of their ideas about what the commune should do were retrospective. The Civil War in France lays out Marxs basic ideas about how the commune could have more effectively governed and taken power. The sum of which is that the commune never behaved like it was a regime with only one goal of crushing Thiers. The communal elections (and the delays in military action necessary to make them happen), the early mercy to major National Assembly figures, and the large presence of compromises in the government made an effective war policy next to impossible. Blanqui as acting president in Marxs eyes provides the Commune with the needed leadership to actually fight a civil war.


And as for Marxs popularity contributing to the communards having arms, no one in France who could even be halfway described as a Marxist or a Marx fan didn't support the commune by lack of his physical presence there. The commune was just a spontaneous organization growing out of a single large city. Which isn't exactly the most powerful instrument against a whole country.
 
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