L'INTERNATIONALE — Majestic Version | Complete Original Lyrics L’Internationale — a revolutionary anthem of workers’ solidarity, social struggle and political upheaval, whose origins are closely tied to the Paris Commune of 1871. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 🇫🇷 **BORN IN THE SHADOW OF THE PARIS COMMUNE** France, 1871. Paris had endured siege, revolution and violent repression. The Paris Commune had been crushed, leaving thousands dead, imprisoned or exiled. In this turbulent historical context, Eugène Pottier, a French worker, poet and former member of the Commune, wrote the words traditionally dated to June 1871 that would become *L’Internationale*. Originally a revolutionary poem, it expressed the aspirations of the emerging international workers' movement. Its verses denounced poverty, exploitation and political oppression, while calling for solidarity among workers across national borders. More than a simple protest song, it was a declaration of revolutionary ideals. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 🎼 **1888 — THE BIRTH OF AN ANTHEM** Lille, France. Seventeen years after the Paris Commune, Belgian-born worker and musician Pierre Degeyter composed the melody that would make *L’Internationale* internationally recognizable. On July 23, 1888, the song was publicly performed in Lille by the workers' choir *La Lyre des Travailleurs*. Its powerful melody and collective refrain helped transform Pottier's poetry into one of the most influential political songs in modern history. From the industrial towns of northern France, the anthem gradually spread through socialist organizations, trade unions and workers' movements. What began as a French revolutionary poem became an international political and musical symbol. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ ⚒️ **SIX VERSES — A REVOLUTIONARY MANIFESTO** Unlike the shortened versions commonly performed today, the complete French text of *L’Internationale* contains six original verses. Together, they present a political vision rooted in nineteenth-century class struggle. They address poverty and inequality, criticize political and economic power, reject dependence on political or religious saviors, and call for the collective emancipation of workers. The fifth verse is particularly striking in its antimilitarism, urging soldiers to reject wars fought on behalf of rulers and to challenge military authority. The final verse turns toward workers and peasants, imagining a transformed society founded upon their labor. Each verse reveals a different aspect of the revolutionary thought of its era. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 🌍 **FROM FRANCE TO THE WORLD** During the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, *L’Internationale* spread far beyond France. Translated into numerous languages, it became closely associated with socialist, communist and other revolutionary movements across Europe and beyond. It accompanied political demonstrations, workers' gatherings and some of the major upheavals of the twentieth century. Following the Russian Revolution, the song also became the state anthem of Soviet Russia and subsequently the Soviet Union, remaining in that role until 1944. Across different countries and historical periods, its words acquired different political meanings. Its history is inseparable from the movements, revolutions, conflicts and ideological divisions that shaped the modern world. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 🎬 This video is presented for historical, musical and artistic interest. The historical atmosphere and cinematic sequences constitute an original artistic interpretation of the song and its historical context. The visuals and audio were created with the assistance of AI as part of this interpretation. **Original lyrics:** Eugène Pottier (traditionally dated 1871) **Original music:** Pierre Degeyter (1888) ℗ 2026 Chronicles and Ballads 🔔 Subscribe for historical songs, traditional marches, military music and cinematic musical stories. ━━━━━━━━━━━━ - @chroniclesandballads