Jacques Duclos (2 October 189625 April 1975) was a French

Communist Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...

politician who played a key role in French politics from 1926, when he entered the

French National Assembly The National Assembly (french: link=no, italics=set, Assemblée nationale; ) is the lower house of the bicameral French Parliament under the Fifth Republic, the upper house being the Senate (). The National Assembly's legislators are known a ...

after defeating Paul Reynaud, until 1969, when he won a substantial portion of the vote in the presidential elections.

Biography

Born in Louey,

Hautes-Pyrénées Hautes-Pyrénées (; Gascon/Occitan: ''Nauts Pirenèus / Hauts Pirenèus'' awts piɾeˈnɛʊs es, Altos Pirineos; ca, Alts Pirineus alts piɾiˈneʊs English: Upper Pyrenees) is a department in the region of Occitania, southwestern France. ...

, Duclos fought in the Battle of Verdun, where he was wounded. He was captured at Chemin des Dames, and remained a

prisoner of war A prisoner of war (POW) is a person who is held captive by a belligerent power during or immediately after an armed conflict. The earliest recorded usage of the phrase "prisoner of war" dates back to 1610. Belligerents hold prisoners of wa ...

for the remainder of the war. In 1920, he joined the newly formed

French Communist Party The French Communist Party (french: Parti communiste français, ''PCF'' ; ) is a political party in France which advocates the principles of communism. The PCF is a member of the Party of the European Left, and its MEPs sit in the European Unit ...

. He rose to the

Central Committee Central committee is the common designation of a standing administrative body of Communist party, communist parties, analogous to a board of directors, of both ruling and nonruling parties of former and existing socialist states. In such party org ...

in 1926, and defeated

Léon Blum André Léon Blum (; 9 April 1872 – 30 March 1950) was a French socialist politician and three-time Prime Minister. As a Jew, he was heavily influenced by the Dreyfus affair of the late 19th century. He was a disciple of French Socialist le ...

in the elections for deputy in the

20th arrondissement The 20th arrondissement of Paris (known in French as the ''XXe arrondissement de Paris'' or simply as "''le vingtième''") is the last of the consecutively numbered arrondissements of the capital city of France. Also known as Ménilmontant () af ...

. He was named head of the

propaganda Propaganda is communication that is primarily used to influence or persuade an audience to further an agenda, which may not be objective and may be selectively presenting facts to encourage a particular synthesis or perception, or using loaded ...

section of the Party in 1936, and was elected to Vice-President of the French National Assembly. A

Stalinist Stalinism is the means of governing and Marxist-Leninist policies implemented in the Soviet Union from 1927 to 1953 by Joseph Stalin. It included the creation of a one-party totalitarian police state, rapid industrialization, the theory o ...

, Duclos was for more than 35 years the brain behind political choices made by Maurice Thorez and

Benoît Frachon Benoît Frachon (13 May 1893 – 1 August 1975) was a French metalworker and trade union leader who was one of the leaders of the French Communist Party (''Parti communiste français'', PCF) and of the French Resistance during World War II (1939– ...

. He was involved in the

International Communist Movement The history of communism encompasses a wide variety of ideologies and political movements sharing the core theoretical values of common ownership of wealth, economic enterprise, and property. Most modern forms of communism are grounded at leas ...

, in the

Comintern The Communist International (Comintern), also known as the Third International, was a Soviet Union, Soviet-controlled international organization founded in 1919 that advocated world communism. The Comintern resolved at its Second Congress to ...

, and in the Cominform. In the 1930s, he was assigned the task of exerting "discipline" on Communist Movements in Spain (1930, 1935) and Belgium (1934–1935). On

Joseph Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili; – 5 March 1953) was a Georgian revolutionary and Soviet political leader who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953. He held power as General Secreta ...

's orders, he advised the Communist Party of Spain to participate in the Popular Front at the outbreak of the

Spanish Civil War The Spanish Civil War ( es, Guerra Civil Española)) or The Revolution ( es, La Revolución, link=no) among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War ( es, Cuarta Guerra Carlista, link=no) among Carlists, and The Rebellion ( es, La Rebelión, lin ...

. Upon France's defeat in 1940, Duclos, the most senior PCF official in France, engaged in negotiations with the Nazi authorities with a view to legalising the Communist Party (banned following the signature of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact and the declaration of war) as well as requesting permission to restart publication of the PCF daily (''L'Humanité'') (banned by the French government for the same reasons). The negotiations did not succeed but hurt the PCF's post-war credibility among the populace. Duclos was the supervisor of the clandestine party throughout the Nazi German Occupation (1940–44), and, with

Pierre Villon Pierre Villon (27 August 1901 in Soultz-Haut-Rhin, Haut-Rhin – 6 November 1980 in Vallauris, Alpes-Maritimes) was a member of the French Communist Party and of the French Resistance during the war. With his true name of Roger Ginsburger, he w ...

, took the initiative in creating the

Front National The National Rally (french: Rassemblement National, ; RN), until 2018 known as the National Front (french: link=no, Front National, ; FN), is a far-rightAbridged list of reliable sources that refer to National Rally as far-right: Academic: ...

resistance movement, which was the political front for the Francs-Tireurs et Partisans (FTP) guerrillas. The

Communist Party USA The Communist Party USA, officially the Communist Party of the United States of America (CPUSA), is a communist party in the United States which was established in 1919 after a split in the Socialist Party of America following the Russian Revo ...

, meanwhile, had been following a Popular Front line under

Earl Browder Earl Russell Browder (May 20, 1891 – June 27, 1973) was an American politician, communist activist and leader of the Communist Party USA (CPUSA). Browder was the General Secretary of the CPUSA during the 1930s and first half of the 1940s. Duri ...

supportive of the New Deal. In fact, Browder had gone so far as to dissolve the Communist Party, and replace it with a " Communist Political Association" which would work within the existing two-party system to advance Marxist goals. With the end of the Great Power alliance at the end of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

and the beginning of the

Cold War The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because the ...

, "Browderism" came under attack from the rest of the international Communist movement. In 1945 Duclos, as a prominent leader of the French Communist Party, published an article supposedly written by him denouncing Browder's policy (it had actually been written in

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...

, and published secretly there in early 1945, in a magazine restricted to high Soviet Communist officials; the published article was a French translation of the Russian original).

Klehr, Harvey Harvey Elliott Klehr (born December 25, 1945) is a professor of politics and history at Emory University. Klehr is known for his books on the subject of the American Communist movement, and on Soviet espionage in America (many written jointly with ...

Haynes, John Earl John Earl Haynes (born 1944) is an American historian who worked as a specialist in 20th-century political history in the Manuscript Division of the Library of Congress. He is known for his books on the subject of the American Communist and anti- ...

and Kyrill M. Anderson. ''The Soviet World of American Communism.'' (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1998.) With the Comintern having been dissolved during the war, the "Duclos letter" was used to communicate informally Moscow's views. CPUSA official Gil Green told interviewer Anders Stephanson:

William Z. Foster William Zebulon Foster (February 25, 1881 – September 1, 1961) was a Political radicalism, radical American labor organizer and Communism, Communist politician, whose career included serving as General Secretary of the Communist Party US ...

, Browder's predecessor and a staunch Marxist-Leninist, led the opposition to Browder within the CPUSA and replaced him as party chairman in 1945, with Eugene Dennis taking over as General Secretary. Browder was expelled from the party in 1946. After 1950, Thorez's health faltered, but Duclos remained one of the most influential members of the Party. He was acting Secretary General from 1950 to 1953 in Thorez's absence and was instrumental in eliminating his rival André Marty from the Party's leadership. Waldeck Rochet's own failing health prompted Duclos to run as the Party's presidential candidate in the 1969 election, scoring 21.27% of the vote, the highest ever for a communist presidential candidate in France. He died in Montreuil on 25 April 1975 at age 78.

References

External links

* Reprinted in

et al. '' Marxism-Leninism vs. Revisionism''. New York: New Century Publishers, February 1946, pp. 21–35. {{DEFAULTSORT:Duclos, Jacques 1896 births 1975 deaths People from Hautes-Pyrénées Politicians from Occitania (administrative region) French Communist Party politicians Members of the 13th Chamber of Deputies of the French Third Republic Members of the 14th Chamber of Deputies of the French Third Republic Members of the 16th Chamber of Deputies of the French Third Republic Members of the Constituent Assembly of France (1945) Members of the Constituent Assembly of France (1946) Deputies of the 1st National Assembly of the French Fourth Republic Deputies of the 2nd National Assembly of the French Fourth Republic Deputies of the 3rd National Assembly of the French Fourth Republic French Senators of the Fifth Republic Senators of Seine (department) Senators of Seine-Saint-Denis Candidates for President of France Comintern people French military personnel of World War I French prisoners of war in World War I Communist members of the French Resistance World War I prisoners of war held by Germany French people of the Spanish Civil War French Resistance members Red Orchestra (espionage) Members of the Front National (French Resistance) movement Burials at Père Lachaise Cemetery