On the following Tuesday, 13 February, a silent and solemn procession bearing wreaths and estimated at half a million strong marched behind the eight coffins to Père Lachaise cemetery, the sanctum of the martyrs of the French Left from the Commune of 1871 onwards. Nothing like it had been seen in Paris since the bloody days of civil revolt of February 1934; some reckoned the funeral procession to be the biggest street turnout since the Liberation.

XREF: Connects to broader understanding of French interwar political violence between police and leftist demonstrators.

Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Alge…, loc. 1529