The Paris Commune uprising of 1871 was an initial, dramatically failed attempt to implement socialist ideas for a fairer society on a broad front. However, the significant female participation in this movement is often overlooked. Wilfrid Lupano therefore describes in several volumes how women also took to the barricades: with determination and stubbornness, and sometimes quite unconventional means. Elisabeth Dmitrieff, for example - as the illegitimate daughter of a noble Russian officer and landowner, she became acquainted with exploitation and injustice early on at her father's estate and learned to hate it. Thus, she seizes the opportunity of a sham marriage and travels to Geneva, where she quickly makes contact with the local exile community of Russian revolutionaries.