Gustave Hervé (; Brest, January 2, 1871 –

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

, October 25, 1944) was a French politician. At first, he was a fervent antimilitarist

socialist Socialism is an economic ideology, economic and political philosophy encompassing diverse Economic system, economic and social systems characterised by social ownership of the means of production, as opposed to private ownership. It describes ...

and

pacifist Pacifism is the opposition to war or violence. The word ''pacifism'' was coined by the French peace campaigner Émile Arnaud and adopted by other peace activists at the tenth Universal Peace Congress in Glasgow in 1901. A related term is ''a ...

, but he later turned to equally zealous

ultranationalism Ultranationalism, or extreme nationalism, is an extremist form of nationalism in which a country asserts or maintains hegemony, supremacy, or other forms of control over other nations (usually through violent coercion) to pursue its specific i ...

, declaring his ''patriotisme'' in 1912 when released from 26 months of imprisonment for anti-militarist publishing activities.

Career

In 1901 Gustave Hervé had attained notoriety with an apparent image of the tricolor planted in a dungpile. Soon he forged a prominent antimilitarist movement called Hervéism. When France's socialist parties united in 1905, Hervé led the most extreme faction. Soon Hervéists created a weekly newspaper, ''La Guerre sociale'', which attempted to unite the extreme French left. Before World War I Hervé was one of the most strident voices within both French socialism and the

Second International The Second International, also called the Socialist International, was a political international of Labour movement, socialist and labour parties and Trade union, trade unions which existed from 1889 to 1916. It included representatives from mo ...

, advocating violent, revolutionary means to prevent war. Six years of sensational and provocative campaigns and organizations failed to implement his ideas. Despite his dedication, the quixotic Hervé grew frustrated due to continuing leftist divisions. His disillusionment was connected to a rather naive reading of the increasingly anachronistic revolutionary tradition. Hervé was quite sincere, yet his romantic and eclectic socialism exhibited atavistic features. By 1914, he rallied to 'la patrie en danger' and in 1916 changed the name of his paper to'' La Victoire''. In 1919, Hervé and several prominent socialists created the Parti socialiste national (PSN), which promoted "class co-operation" and solidarity. This "national socialism" of Hervé held significant overlap with Italian fascism, and when

Benito Mussolini Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini (29 July 188328 April 1945) was an Italian politician and journalist who, upon assuming office as Prime Minister of Italy, Prime Minister, became the dictator of Fascist Italy from the March on Rome in 1922 un ...

took power in

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

in the

March on Rome The March on Rome () was an organized mass demonstration in October 1922 which resulted in Benito Mussolini's National Fascist Party (, PNF) ascending to power in the Kingdom of Italy. In late October 1922, Fascist Party leaders planned a march ...

, Hervé heralded him as "my courageous Italian comrade". Startling as his reversal may appear at first glance, Hervé's activist Insurrectional Socialism actually included an antimaterialistic critique of society. That critique was crucial to his evolving national socialism which looked to the nation and its religious traditions to remedy social divisions and decadence. His rechristened newspaper and its associated groups offered various authoritarian panaceas to end French disorder. Despite Hervé's marginalization during the interwar era and his general reluctance to engage in violence, his Neo-Bonapartist views and admiration for Mussolini must inescapably be included within what Philippe Burrin has called "the fascist drift". The PSN would never attract many supporters, so Hervé attempted to resurrect the party in 1925 as the ''Parti de la République autoritaire''. In 1927, the name reverted to the ''Parti socialiste national''. When

Marcel Bucard Marcel Bucard (7 December 1895 – 13 March 1946) was a French Fascist politician. Early career A decorated soldier who earned a reputation for bravery in World War I, Bucard became active in politics after 1918, initially as a member of '' ...

became involved with the magazine ''La Victoire'', it was renamed once again to ''La Milice socialiste'' in 1932. Later in 1936, Hervé rallied behind French war hero Marshal

Philippe Pétain Henri Philippe Bénoni Omer Joseph Pétain (; 24 April 1856 – 23 July 1951), better known as Marshal Pétain (, ), was a French marshal who commanded the French Army in World War I and later became the head of the Collaboration with Nazi Ger ...

, but distanced himself from him in 1940. He died in 1944, and was actually harassed during the war years by

Vichy France Vichy France (; 10 July 1940 – 9 August 1944), officially the French State ('), was a French rump state headed by Marshal Philippe Pétain during World War II, established as a result of the French capitulation after the Battle of France, ...

officials for his criticism published in ''La Victoire''. The Italian-born soprano

Herva Nelli Herva Nelli (January 9, 1909May 31, 1994) was an Italian and American operatic soprano. Biography Named after the French socialist Gustave Hervé, she was born in Florence, where she attended a convent school. At the age of ten, however, she and ...

was named after Gustave Hervé.

In popular culture

Hervé is mentioned in

Robert Hugh Benson Robert Hugh Benson AFSC KC*SG KGCHS (18 November 1871 – 19 October 1914) was an English Catholic priest and writer. First an Anglican priest, he was received into the Catholic Church in 1903 and ordained therein the next year. He wa ...

's dystopian novel '' Lord of the World''. Published in 1907, Benson's novel depicts a

future history A future history, imaginary history or anticipatory history is a fictional conjecture of the future used by authors of science fiction and other speculative fiction to construct a common background for stories. Sometimes the author publishes a t ...

in which Hervé played a key role in a pan-European socialist revolution beginning at the fictional "Labour Parliament of 1917": "There had been Socialists before, but none like Gustave Herve 'sic''in his old age—at least no one of the same power."Robert Hugh Benson, ''Lord of the World'' (Cambridge 1907), p. 1-2.

References

External links

* *
Gustave Hervé Archive
at marxists.org {{DEFAULTSORT:Herve, Gustave 1871 births 1944 deaths Politicians from Brest, France Politicians of the French Third Republic French socialists French fascists Prisoners and detainees of France

Career

In popular culture

Further reading

References

External links