Rue des Feuillantines

Arrondissement 5

Numbers: 5, 8, 17

The road’s name dates back to the convent built in 1622 for an extremely strict Bernardine order in Paris and funded by Anne of Austria . The order was wound up in the French Revolution.

Two of France’s greatest writers are associated with this road: from the end of 1863 until early 1864 Émile Zola lived with his mother at No. 5; Victor Hugo lived in the old convent at No. 8 as a child from 1808-1813.

From January 1914 until September 1916 at No. 17 Trotsky edited with Julius Martov (until he broke with it in 1915) the newspaper called successively ‘The Voice’, ‘Our Word’ and finally ‘The Beginning’. Its opposition to the First World War was followed closely by Monatte and Rosmer.

The paper was supported financially by the Bulgarian socialist Christian Rakovski (1873-1941) who was present at the Zimmerwald Conference of 1915 and was a founder member of the Communist International. Rakovski was a friend of Trotsky and was finally imprisoned and executed in Russia in 1941. Lucky man, he was rehabilitated in 1988!

PLACES