Le retour d’exil, un nouvel exil ? Le cas des communards

International audienceWithin the decade of the insurrection of 1871 former Communards were amnestied by laws voted in 1879 and 1880. Both exiles and the deported were thus allowed to return to France. But soon after their return, an ideological debate developed around the conditions of their re-settlement in France. This renewed the polemics around the Commune itself as well as around the nature of the amnesty. Former Communards described their own return from exile as a second exile ; they spoke of the hardship of their life in France in the 1880s as a prolongation of their sufferings during the exile period. By this time, they began linking the three problems : the pains endured during the repression of the Commune, those of their years of absence from France, and those of the period following their return.Plusieurs années après l’échec de l’insurrection de 1871, les amnistiés de 1879-1880 permirent le retour des communards déportés en Nouvelle-Calédonie, ou partis en exil. Mais à la réinstallation et ses conditions furent à l’origine d’affrontements idéologiques qui perpétuaient ceux qui avaient existé à propos de la Commune et dans le débat sur l’amnistie. Chez les anciens communards, le retour d’exil fut souvent présenté comme un nouvel exil ; et les possibles difficultés des années 1880 comme le prolongement de celles de l’exil. Par-là, un lien était établi entre les souffrances de 1871, celles des années d’absence et celles du retour