A journalist and militant of the International, he sat in 1871 on the Commission for External Relations of the Paris Commune. The crushing of the movement sent him to London, where the house of Karl Marx awaited him: he married the eldest daughter, Jenny, in 1872.
The story
Born in 1839, Charles Longuet was a journalist and a militant of the International when Paris rose. Elected to the Commune of 1871, he ran its official gazette: he was the man who wrote down what the revolution said of itself.
The crushing of the movement sent him to London, where the colony of exiles was waiting — and the house of Karl Marx.
In 1872 he married Jenny Marx, the theorist's eldest daughter; her sister Laura had married Paul Lafargue four years earlier. Both of Marx's sons-in-law lie at Père-Lachaise — and it is Lafargue who lies in the Longuet family vault, in Division 76.
Back in France after the amnesty of 1880, he wrote for La Justice, the daily Clemenceau had just founded, in a French left slowly rebuilding itself around the survivors of 1871.
He died in 1903 and rests in Division 92, avenue Transversale no. 2, eleventh row, under a bare stone — a few steps from the Communards' Wall where his Commune ended.
On site, do not miss
Division 92 lies in the upper part of the cemetery, a few minutes from the Communards' Wall: the journey of a Communard back from exile, from the wall where his Commune died to the grave where he rests.
Visitors' questions
Where is Charles Longuet's grave?
In Division 92, Avenue Transversale No. 2, eleventh row, in the upper part of the cemetery, not far from the Communards' Wall. The Division is also that of Victor Noir and the actor Olivier Hussenot. No description of his stone is recorded to date.
Victor NoirWhat was Charles Longuet's connection with Karl Marx?
He was his son-in-law: in 1872, during his London exile, he married Jenny Marx, the theorist's eldest daughter. Jenny's sister Laura married Paul Lafargue — both of Marx's sons-in-law rest at Père-Lachaise.
Paul Lafargue and Laura MarxWhat part did he play in the Commune?
He sat on the Paris Commune's Commission for External Relations in 1871, in charge of a besieged city's dealings with the outside world. The crushing of the movement forced him into exile in England.
Charles AmourouxDid he return to France after the Commune?
Yes, after the amnesty granted to the Communards in 1880. He took up journalism and political work again in a French left slowly rebuilding itself around the survivors of 1871, and died in Paris in 1903, at sixty-four.
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