From March to May 1871, Paris was governed by a revolutionary commune. Its supporters were called communards. The majority were radical-democratic petit bourgeois and workers. They introduced several fundamental social reforms – the separation of church and state, free schooling for all and prohibitions against night-work. Nils Forsberg, who experienced the Paris Commune on site, portrayed the communard Lambert. After the fall of the Commune, some 38,000 communards were arrested; 7,500 of them were deported to New Caledonia for forced labour. Thousands were executed. The fate of Lambert himself is unknown.