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communards

n. (plural of communard English)

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Communards

The Communards were members and supporters of the short-lived 1871 Paris Commune formed in the wake of the Franco-Prussian War and France's defeat.

Following the war's conclusion, according to historian Benedict Anderson, thousands fled abroad, roughly 20,000 Communards were executed during the Semaine Sanglante ("Bloody Week"), and 7,500 were jailed or deported under arrangements which continued until a general amnesty during the 1880s; this action by Adolphe Thiers forestalled the proto-communist movement in the French Third Republic (1871–1940).

Communards (album)

Communards is the debut album by The Communards, released in 1986 (see 1986 in music) on London Records. The album was produced by Mike Thorne, who had previously produced Jimmy Somerville's earlier band, Bronski Beat. Although the singles released ahead of the album were only moderately successful, the first single to be lifted from it after release, " Don't Leave Me This Way", was number one in the UK for four weeks and was the top-selling single in the UK that year. During the single's four-week run at number one, the album itself reached a chart peak of number seven, going on to spend a total of 45 weeks in the UK Albums Chart.

Musically, the album contains tracks that largely fall into one of two styles, either Hi-NRG (all of the singles lifted from the album were in this style) or piano ballads showcasing the talents of Richard Coles, a classically trained pianist. The standard "Lover Man" is arranged as a straight jazz number, albeit with the unusual twist of being performed as a duet.

The front sleeve features a stark graphic design consisting of the group's name and logo against a black background. A photo of the duo appears on the back, while the inner sleeve features small photos of Coles, Somerville and Sarah Jane Morris, alongside the album credits and full lyrics for all the songs.

Two songs had dedications in the sleevenotes: "Don't Leave Me This Way" was dedicated to the GLC, and "Reprise" to Margaret Hilda Thatcher.

Usage examples of "communards".

The noble Communards, standing up for the Rights of Man, have been crushed and annihilated.

There the third war overtakes him, and in the siege, this Austrian, who has fought the Prussians to the death, is arrested by the communards as a Prussian spy and shot.

Several Paris quarters still bear scars where Prussian firing squads tore moonlike craters out of plaster walls, mingling there the ochre life blood of communards, royalists and bourgeois alike.