Communes Quotes
Immediately after the Russian Revolution, the provisional government appointed him as Ambassador to the United States. However, the provisional government was supplanted when the Bolsheviks took over. See {640094} and {640095} for more on the Communist struggle with the Russian Peasants. Not enamored of Communism, he stayed in the United States with many other Russian refugees.
The Diggers were a religious-economic movement that even today would be considered very radical. They advocated the right of the poor to go onto public lands and farm them—thus the name “Diggers.” Beyond their opposition to the private ownership of land to the exclusion of the poor, Winstanley and the Diggers promulgated another very modern doctrine: That the poor should take the responsibility and have the right to determinine how the society should provide for the poor. A version of this became one of the Mottos of the Poverty Program of 1964. See {616966}.
Europe has had a tradition of communes—communities of like-minded people who wanted to live apart and differently from the majority of society. Most of the early communes were religious in nature—monasteries and abbeys being the most common example. The civil government–in this case the King of France—would grant the commune independent status and the residents would not have the duties (or get the benefits) of citizens at large. This particular commune began interacting with the major society and the commune offended others somehow. The King of France. Ended the commune at the request of both the church and civil authorities. However, it was reinstated later and today is a tourist attraction in Paris. The quote also gives us an idea of the military service requirements of the period as there is not a great deal of material about this period.
