Ledru-Rollin, Alexander Auguste

Born Feb. 2, 1807, in Paris; died Dec. 31, 1874, in Fontenay-aux-Roses. French politician, petit bourgeois democrat, lawyer.

Elected in 1841 to the Chamber of Deputies, Ledru-Rollin was a member of an extreme left-wing group. In 1843 he was one of the founders of the opposition newspaper La Réforme. After the February Revolution of 1848 he joined the provisional government as minister of the interior. In May 1848 he was appointed a member of the Executive Commission. Ledru-Rollin participated in suppression of the June revolt of 1848. He was elected to the Legislative Assembly in May 1849. In the same year, as one of the leaders of the petit bourgeois opposition group Mountain (more precisely, the New Mountain), he headed the June demonstration in Paris against the reactionary foreign policy of the government of Louis Bonaparte. After the demonstration was broken up, he emigrated to Great Britain, where together with G. Mazzini and L. Kossuth he founded an émigré organization known as the Revolutionary Committee of Europe. In 1870 Ledru-Rollin returned to France. The following year he was elected a deputy to the National Assembly. He opposed the Paris Commune of 1871.