Eugène Pottier

Lenin’s article to commemorate the 25th anniversary of Eugène Pottier’s death, written on January 3, 1913, and published in Pravda issue No.2 on January 3, 1913. The Chinese translation is included in Vol. 22 of the second revised edition of the Complete Works of Lenin.

Eugène Pottier, the famous song writer of “The Internationale”, was born in a poor working family in Paris on October 4, 1816. November 12 was the 25th anniversary of his death. Workers from all over the world were commemorating him. On this occasion, Lenin wrote this article to commemorate him and spoke highly of his role in history. Lenin wrote about the poor and revolutionary life of Eugène Pottier and called him a “French worker poet” and “advanced soldier”. Lenin pointed out that during major events in France such as the 1848 Revolution and the 1871 Paris Commune Revolution, Pottier took part as a barricade fighter in the great struggle against the bourgeoisie. He participated in all the activities organized by the first proletarian government—the Paris Commune. Since 1840, Pottier wrote songs to raise people’s consciousness and called for workers to unite and fight against the bourgeoisie and its government. Lenin praised Pottier’s “The Internationale” as a “song of the world’s proletariat”. This song had spread the idea of the Paris Commune all over the world. It was more energetic than ever: wherever one goes, in whichever place one is designated by fate, however foreign and friendless one feels, whatever language one speaks, however far one is from his motherland, he could always find comrades and friends by singing the familiar song “The Internationale”. Lenin highly praised Eugène Pottier and regarded him as one of the greatest promoters who used songs as his tools: when he wrote his first song, only a few dozen workers were socialists. However, there are millions of proletarians now who can sing this historic song. Although Pottier has died because of poverty, he has left us a monument that beyond man.

On the eve of the World War I, the class contradictions within both the major capitalist countries in Europe and the United States and the external contradictions were increasing. During that time, this article provided spiritual support for the surging of revolutionary movements of the proletariat.