One of the many popular acts of the Commune during its first weeks
was to redeem the possessions of workers, particularly tools,
that had been pawned during the early stages of the siege.
Paris was hungry. Paris was scared. Paris was angry. Paris was trapped.
The tension in the city was palpable even as the newly-minted Commune took power. The early chaos of revolution was tempered by the closeted atmosphere of the Prussian siege and the needs of a city of two million people. A steady centralisation of power around the Governing Committee, as it became known, began to form mid-November. Although a few Republican members belonging to the Government of National Defence continued to sit on the Committee, power really rested in the hands of a select socialist few, chief amongst whom was Blanqui.
This was bolstered in late November by a municipal election, where each arrondissement was allowed to vote for a direct Mayor to represent them on the Committee. Whilst a number of Republicans were elected, a significant body of radical socialists were also elected to lead, including Eugene Varlin, Leo Frankel and Elisabeth Dmitrieff. Indeed the number of international electees raised eyebrows across Paris and was used by the the Commune's critics as further evidence that the Commune had placed its finger on the electoral scales. Nevertheless, the pressures of the siege forged a weary unity amongst most groups.
And the pressures were immense. Paris was slowly starving. In December the animals in its celebrated zoo were lured out and killed by National Guardsmen, and many horses were butchered for food. The Commune established communal kitchens, requisitioned supplies from abandoned houses, and did all it could to centralise and rationalise food. Other tactics, such as rent remission and the commandeering of empty Imperial properties to house soldiers and families, might have proved controversial under other circumstances, but in early 1871 seemed just desperately necessary. Indeed, this unity of purpose seemed to help fuse the nascent government together, ironing over ideological differences, and whilst grand thinkers such as Blanqui may have chaffed at what he called "soup bowl socialism" others were aware that they were forging a new, communal, society in besieged Paris.
Of course, as the New Year came around and mass starvation threatened, the Commune found itself under pressure to act. Republican armies, massed by the Government in Bordeaux, had begun to move north, aiming to strike at the Prussians in January. But they were not alone. Throughout the winter its National Guard had been drilling across Paris and it would not be content with letting the National Government alone strike a blow against the Prussian besiegers. With a socialist government in Paris and a national republican one outside, neither of which could long tolerate the other's existence, it would be an uneasy coalition that sought to succeed against the invaders where Napoleon III had failed.