![Laurent Casanova en 1946](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cb/Laurent_Casanova_en_1946.jpg)
Laurent Casanova (9 October 1906 — 20 March 1972) was a French politician and resistance fighter. He was a
Communist deputy for Seine-et-Marne from 1945 to 1958 and Minister of Veterans and War Victims in 1946.
Biography
Political career
Born in
Souk Ahras
Souk Ahras (Berber: ''Tagast''; ancient name: ''Thagast''; ar, سوق أهراس) is a municipality in Algeria. It is the capital of Souk Ahras Province. The Numidian city of Thagaste (or Tagaste), on whose ruins Souk Ahras was built, was the bi ...
, Algeria and of Corsican origins, Casanova studied law at university in Paris. He became secretary of the Communist cell there, and he entered the underground apparatus of the French Communist Party (PCF) in 1928, when he was just twenty-one years old. By 1936, he had become a close associate of
Maurice Thorez
Maurice Thorez (; 28 April 1900 – 11 July 1964) was a French politician and longtime leader of the French Communist Party (PCF) from 1930 until his death. He also served as Deputy Prime Minister of France from 1946 to 1947.
Pre-War
Thorez, ...
, the party's secretary-general. Drafted into the French armed forces in 1939, Casanova was promptly taken prisoner; however, he escaped and resumed contact with the party through an intermediary,
Claudine Chomat, in March 1942.
Initially, he worked in the communist resistance 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 ...
, a period during which he met
Pablo Picasso
Pablo Ruiz Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist and Scenic design, theatre designer who spent most of his adult life in France. One of the most influential artists of the 20th ce ...
and
Louis Aragon
Louis Aragon (, , 3 October 1897 – 24 December 1982) was a French poet who was one of the leading voices of the surrealist movement in France. He co-founded with André Breton and Philippe Soupault the surrealist review ''Littérature''. He ...
. He then served the National Military Committee of the FTP (''
Francs-Tireurs et Partisans
The ''Francs-tireurs et partisans français'' (FTPF), or commonly the ''Francs-tireurs et partisans'' (FTP), was an armed resistance organization created by leaders of the French Communist Party during World War II (1939–45). The communist par ...
''), whose leader,
Charles Tillon
Charles Joseph Tillon (3 July 1897 – 13 January 1993) was a French metal worker, Communist, trade union leader, politician and leader of the French Resistance during World War II (1939–45).
Tillon was born into a working-class family and trai ...
, proposed Casanova as the FTP's representative to the
Provisional Consultative Assembly
The Provisional Consultative Assembly (french: Assemblée consultative provisoire) was a governmental organ of Free France that operated under the aegis of the French Committee of National Liberation (CFLN) and that represented the resist ...
of 1944 in
Algiers, but he never attended.
At the time of the liberation (August 1944), he was elected to be a delegate for Seine-et-Marne to two national constituent assemblies and then to the
National Assembly of France itself, a position he held for the duration of the
French Fourth Republic
The French Fourth Republic (french: Quatrième république française) was the republican government of France from 27 October 1946 to 4 October 1958, governed by the fourth republican constitution. It was in many ways a revival of the Third Re ...
(1946–1958). He was
Minister for Veterans and War Victims in the provisional governments of
Félix Gouin
Félix Gouin (; 4 October 1884 – 25 October 1977) was a French Socialist politician who was a member of the French Section of the Workers' International (SFIO).
Personal life
Félix Gouin was born in Peypin, Bouches-du-Rhône, the son of ...
and
Georges Bidault from 26 January to 8 July 1946.
He became an associate member of the central committee of the French Communist Party (PCF) in July 1945 and then an alternate to the National Office in June 1947, and, lastly, a full member in June 1954, at the time of the Thirteenth Congress of the PCF. He represented the party in the Peace Movement, replacing Charles Tillon, who stepped down in 1952 (in connection with his association with
André Marty
André Marty (6 November 1886 – 23 November 1956) was a leading figure in the French Communist Party (PCF) for nearly thirty years. He was also a member of the National Assembly, with some interruptions, from 1924 to 1955; Secretary of Comintern ...
). At the PCF, he was responsible for relations with intellectuals and with youth.
After the revelations of the Twentieth Congress of the Soviet Communist Party, during which
Nikita Khrushchev
Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev (– 11 September 1971) was the First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964 and chairman of the country's Council of Ministers from 1958 to 1964. During his rule, Khrushchev s ...
denounced the "
cult of personality" surrounding
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 Secretar ...
, Casanova became a Soviet representative to the governing bodies of PCF, a reaction favorable to Casanova based on a liberalizing change of style and thought in Russia. He had the support of Khrushchev he received the
Lenin Peace Prize
The International Lenin Peace Prize (russian: международная Ленинская премия мира, ''mezhdunarodnaya Leninskaya premiya mira)'' was a Soviet Union award named in honor of Vladimir Lenin. It was awarded by a pane ...
in 1960. However, Thorez managed to block the "aggiornamento" (trend to "bring things up to date") and eliminated Casanova from all governing bodies in May 1961.
Marcel Servin and
Maurice Kriegel-Valrimont were also victims of the purge.
Personal life
He married
Danielle Casanova
Danielle Casanova (born Vincentella Perini; 9 January 1909 – 9 May 1943) was a French communist activist and member of the French Resistance during World War II. A dentist by occupation, she was a high-ranking figure within the Communist Yout ...
(born Vincentelli Perini), who died heroically at
Auschwitz, and later, he married
Claudine Chomat, whom he had also known, before the war, in the communist youth movement.
He died in Paris.
Works
Casanova published various different pamphlets and books. His most famous work is named ''The Communist Party, the intellectuals, and the nation''.
Bibliography
Philip Robrieux devotes a few pages in his monumental biography of Maurice Thorez (4 volumes) to "The Inside Story of the French Communist Party" (V.2, p. 499–503 and V. 4, p. 126–127)
References
Philip Robrieux, Domestic History of the Communist Party, especially V. 2, p. 500 ff., also ''passim''.
See also
*
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 Un ...
*
Servin-Casanova Case
{{DEFAULTSORT:Casanova, Laurent
1906 births
1972 deaths
People from Souk Ahras
People of French Algeria
Pieds-Noirs
French people of Corsican descent
French Communist Party politicians
French Ministers of Veterans Affairs
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 military personnel of World War II
Communist members of the French Resistance
Lenin Peace Prize recipients
Migrants from French Algeria to France