Since the bloody uprising of Lapalisse against the coup d'état of 1851, a strong feeling of republicanism and social justice was deep rooted in the region.

[2] In 1917, she participated in the October Revolution and, on 30 August 1918, she founded the French Communist Group in Moscow[1][3] alongside Jacques Sadoul, Pierre Pascal and Inessa Armand.

[4][5] Georges Clemenceau, supporting the ideals of the Russian counter-revolutionaries, sent a squadron of the French maritime fleet to Odessa, looking to militarily suppress the spread of mutinies in the Black Sea.

When Jeanne Labourbe found out about the landings, 18 December 1918, she volunteered to help the port city in a policy of propaganda and defence of the Bolshevik Revolution.

The police raided a Bolshevik committee meeting, 2 March 1919, which was attended by Labourbe, and opened fire on the ten militants present, who were tortured and executed.