Maurice Thorez (; 28 April 1900 – 11 July 1964) was a French politician and longtime leader of the

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 ...

(PCF) from 1930 until his death. He also served as Deputy Prime Minister of France from 1946 to 1947.

Pre-War

Thorez, born in

Noyelles-Godault Noyelles-Godault (; pcd, Nöyel-Godault) is a commune in the Pas-de-Calais department in the Hauts-de-France region of France. Geography Noyelles-Godault is a former coal mining town, nowadays a light industrial and commercial town, east of ...

Pas-de-Calais Pas-de-Calais (, "strait of Calais"; pcd, Pas-Calés; also nl, Nauw van Kales) is a department in northern France named after the French designation of the Strait of Dover, which it borders. It has the most communes of all the departments of ...

, became a coal miner at the age of 12. He joined the

French Section of the Workers' International The French Section of the Workers' International (french: Section française de l'Internationale ouvrière, SFIO) was a political party in France that was founded in 1905 and succeeded in 1969 by the modern-day Socialist Party. The SFIO was foun ...

(SFIO) in 1919 and was imprisoned several times for his political activism. After the 1920 split in the SFIO led to the formation of the

(PCF) in December 1920, Thorez became party secretary in 1923 and, in 1930, general secretary of the party, a position he held until his death. After he took office as secretary general, he was supported by Soviet leader

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

and the

Communist Party of the Soviet Union " Hymn of the Bolshevik Party" , headquarters = 4 Staraya Square, Moscow , general_secretary = Vladimir Lenin (first) Mikhail Gorbachev (last) , founded = , banned = , founder = Vladimir Lenin , newspape ...

. In 1932 Thorez became the companion of Jeannette Vermeersch; they had three sons before marrying in 1947, and remained married until his death. Rassemblement-populaire-14-juillet-1936

Thorez was elected to the Chamber of Deputies in 1932 and reelected in 1936. In 1934, following a

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

directive, he helped form the Popular Front, an alliance between Communists, Socialists, and radical Socialists. The Front, because of strong popular support as France was reeling from the impact of the

Great Depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...

, won the 1936 election. With the support of the Communists under Thorez, the socialist

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 ...

became Prime Minister of a Popular Front government and managed to enact much of the Front's social-legislation programme. Meanwhile, Thorez presided over massive growth of the Communist Party, beginning with the elections of 1936.

World War II

Following the

Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact , long_name = Treaty of Non-Aggression between Germany and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , image = Bundesarchiv Bild 183-H27337, Moskau, Stalin und Ribbentrop im Kreml.jpg , image_width = 200 , caption = Stalin and Ribbentrop shaking ...

of 1939 and the subsequent Soviet participation in the

invasion of Poland The invasion of Poland (1 September – 6 October 1939) was a joint attack on the Republic of Poland by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union which marked the beginning of World War II. The German invasion began on 1 September 1939, one week af ...

, the Communist Party was against the French war effort and so was outlawed: the Communist Party did not support what the

Nazis Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in N ...

stood for but supported the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...

's tactical treaty with Germany in order to direct German aggression away from the USSR and toward

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It ...

. Its publications were banned and many party members were interned. Thorez himself had his passport revoked. Shortly thereafter, he was drafted. Following the

German invasion of the Soviet Union Operation Barbarossa (german: link=no, Unternehmen Barbarossa; ) was the invasion of the Soviet Union by Nazi Germany and many of its Axis allies, starting on Sunday, 22 June 1941, during the Second World War. The operation, code-named afte ...

in June 1941, the French Communist Party openly declared it would violently resist the German occupation (though even before this the Communist Party organized a demonstration of thousands of students and workers against the occupation on 11 November 1940, and in May 1941 organized a strike of 100,000 miners in the

Nord Nord, a word meaning "north" in several European languages, may refer to: Acronyms * National Organization for Rare Disorders, an American nonprofit organization * New Orleans Recreation Department, New Orleans, Louisiana, US Film and televisi ...

and

departments). During this time, articles written by and ghostwritten for Thorez appeared frequently in the party's underground newspaper, ''Humanité Clandestine''. Each of these letters was signed 'Maurice Thorez, somewhere in France'. It was not until several years after the war that the party admitted that this was false, and that Thorez had been 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 ...

for the entire war. In his absence, the affairs of the PCF and of the '' Francs-Tireurs et Partisans'', the party's resistance movement, in France were organised by his second in command,

Jacques Duclos Jacques Duclos (2 October 189625 April 1975) was a French Communist politician who played a key role in French politics from 1926, when he entered the French National Assembly after defeating Paul Reynaud, until 1969, when he won a substantial ...

. When General

Charles de Gaulle Charles André Joseph Marie de Gaulle (; ; (commonly abbreviated as CDG) 22 November 18909 November 1970) was a French army officer and statesman who led Free France against Nazi Germany in World War II and chaired the Provisional Governm ...

Free French Forces __NOTOC__ The French Liberation Army (french: Armée française de la Libération or AFL) was the reunified French Army that arose from the merging of the Armée d'Afrique with the prior Free French Forces (french: Forces françaises libres, l ...

liberated France in 1944, Thorez received a pardon. After the

Liberation Liberation or liberate may refer to: Film and television * ''Liberation'' (film series), a 1970–1971 series about the Great Patriotic War * "Liberation" (''The Flash''), a TV episode * "Liberation" (''K-9''), an episode Gaming * '' Liberati ...

, Thorez was ordered by Stalin to lead the PCF immediately after the

Second World War 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 opposi ...

to a non-revolutionary road to power. The instructions were to have the reluctant wartime Communist partisans surrender their weapons, and the party would became a powerful force in the post-war governments since it thought that it would soon win legally.

Post-war

In November 1944, Thorez returned to France from his exile in the Soviet Union, and in 1945 his citizenship was restored. The PCF emerged from the Second World War as the largest political party in France based on its role in the anti-Nazi resistance movement during the occupation of France, at least after 1941. Thorez was again elected to the Chamber of Deputies and reelected throughout the Fourth Republic (1946–1958).

In power

Forming a popular front with the Socialist Party in the 1945 elections, Thorez became vice premier of France from 1946 to 1947. By 1947 a combination of the emerging

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 t ...

between the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

and the Soviet Union and growing social conflicts in France, linked to the increasing gap between wages and prices, put the three party union (SFIO, PCF and MRP) under heavy pressure, culminating in the

May 1947 crisis In the May 1947 crises (or exclusion crises), the Communists were excluded from government in Italy and France. The crises contributed to the start of the Cold War in Western Europe. In Italy In Italy, the Christian Democracy (DC), led by Alcide De ...

. Prime Minister

Paul Ramadier Paul Ramadier (17 March 1888 in La Rochelle – 14 October 1961 in Rodez) was a French statesman. Biography The son of a psychiatrist, Ramadier graduated in law from the University of Toulouse and started his profession as a lawyer in Par ...

received threats from the United States that the presence of Communist ministers in the government would have consequences, such as the blocking of U.S. aid from the coming

Marshall Plan The Marshall Plan (officially the European Recovery Program, ERP) was an American initiative enacted in 1948 to provide foreign aid to Western Europe. The United States transferred over $13 billion (equivalent of about $ in ) in economic re ...

, or worse: "I told Ramadier,"

Jefferson Caffery Jefferson Caffery (December 1, 1886 – April 13, 1974) was an American diplomat. He served as U.S. Ambassador to El Salvador (1926–1928), Colombia (1928–1933), Cuba (1934–1937), Brazil (1937–1944), France (1944–1949), and Egypt (1949– ...

, then U.S. ambassador to France, wrote in his diary, "no Communists in gov. or else." Simultaneously, the

1947 strikes in France The 1947 strikes in France were a series of insurrectionary labor actions against post-war wage stagnation and Western capitalism. The strikes first emerged as a spontaneous wave in late April at the nation's largest Renault factory. When the Frenc ...

caused rumours to spread among the non-Communist members of the government that the PCF would attempt a

coup d'état A coup d'état (; French for 'stroke of state'), also known as a coup or overthrow, is a seizure and removal of a government and its powers. Typically, it is an illegal seizure of power by a political faction, politician, cult, rebel group, m ...

on 1 May:

Jules Moch Jules Salvador Moch (15 March 1893, in Paris – 1 August 1985, in Cabris, Alpes-Maritimes) was a French politician. Biography Moch was born into a renowned French Jewish military family, the son of Captain Gaston Moch and Rébecca Alice ...

, SFIO Public Works Minister, claimed to have "certain information" on preparations of a coup by the PCF. Ramadier is alleged to have worked secretly with Georges Revers, the Army Chief of Staff, to set up a secret transport and communications network within the military to safeguard against such a coup, all without the knowledge of

François Billoux François Billoux (21 May 1903 – 14 January 1978) was a French communist politician. Biography Billoux was born in Saint-Romain-la-Motte. He was a member of the Central Committee of the French Communist Party (PCF) from 1926, and a member ...

, the Communist Minister of Defence. The crisis was also escalated by the beginnings of the colonial war in Vietnam, with the communist deputies in the National Assembly voting against the war. Combined, that led Ramadier to look for a pretext to dismiss Thorez and his colleagues from the ruling coalition. On 4 May, the PCF ministers voted against the government over deflationary policies such as wage and price controls, which was given as the reason for the PCF ministers being forced out of the ruling coalition on 7 May 1947. Thorez later recalled the May 1947 events:

In opposition

In 1950, at the height of his popularity among party members, Thorez suffered a

stroke A stroke is a disease, medical condition in which poor cerebral circulation, blood flow to the brain causes cell death. There are two main types of stroke: brain ischemia, ischemic, due to lack of blood flow, and intracranial hemorrhage, hemorr ...

and remained in the Soviet Union for medical care until 1953. That March, Stalin died and Thorez was a member of the French delegation to Stalin's funeral. During the absence of Thorez, the party was ''de facto'' controlled by

. Thorez resumed his duties upon returning to France. Although his health had deteriorated, Thorez remained party leader until shortly before his death in 1964 on a

Black Sea The Black Sea is a marginal mediterranean sea of the Atlantic Ocean lying between Europe and Asia, east of the Balkans, south of the East European Plain, west of the Caucasus, and north of Anatolia. It is bounded by Bulgaria, Georgia, Rom ...

cruise. He published in

1937 Events January * January 1 – Anastasio Somoza García becomes President of Nicaragua. * January 5 – Water levels begin to rise in the Ohio River in the United States, leading to the Ohio River flood of 1937, which continues into ...

an autobiography, ''Fils du peuple'' (''Son of the People'', 1938). The book had been written with the help of :fr:Jean Fréville, who had inserted in the story a passage where the initials of the words formed the phrase "Fréville a écrit ce livre" ("Fréville wrote this book"). The passage, present on pages 36-37 of the first edition, was deleted in the following editions. In 1945, he published ''Une politique de grandeur française'' (1945; "Politics of French Greatness"). The city of

Torez Chystiakove ( uk, Чистякове, ), formerly Torez ( uk, Торез), is a city of regional significance in the Donetsk Oblast in Ukraine. The city is a center of the regional coal industry and much of its economy relies on mining industr ...

Ukraine Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inva ...

was named after him in 1964. In 2016, the city was given back the former name of Chystyakove by decision of the

Ukrainian Parliament The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine ( uk, Верхо́вна Ра́да Украї́ни, translit=, Verkhovna Rada Ukrainy, translation=Supreme Council of Ukraine, Ukrainian abbreviation ''ВРУ''), often simply Verkhovna Rada or just Rada, is the ...

. The

Moscow State Linguistic University ) , former_names = Moscow Imperial Commercial School(1804–1917) Moscow Institute of New Languages(1930–1935) Maurice Thorez Moscow State Pedagogical Institute of Foreign Languages(1935–1990) , motto = ''Lingua facit pacem'' , motto_lang = ...

was named the ''Maurice Thorez Moscow Institute of Foreign Languages'' ( Russian: Московский институт иностранных языков имени Мориса Тореза) between 1964 and 1990.

References

Works of Thorez

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Thorez, Maurice 1900 births 1964 deaths People from Pas-de-Calais Politicians from Hauts-de-France French Section of the Workers' International politicians French Communist Party politicians State ministers of France Government ministers of France Members of the 15th 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 Deputies of the 1st National Assembly of the French Fifth Republic Deputies of the 2nd National Assembly of the French Fifth Republic Anti-revisionists People granted political asylum in the Soviet Union French expatriates in the Soviet Union People sentenced to death in absentia People who died at sea Recipients of French presidential pardons Burials at Père Lachaise Cemetery