Maurice Thorez

Maurice Thorez (April 28, 1900–July 11, 1964) was a French statesman and longtime leader of the French Communist Party (PCF) from 1930 until his death. He also served as vice premier of France from 1946 to 1947. This work is copyrighted. ... This work is copyrighted. ... April 28 is the 118th day of the year (119th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 247 days remaining. ... 1900 is a common year starting on Monday. ... July 11 is the 192nd day (193rd in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian Calendar, with 173 days remaining. ... 1964 was a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will take you to calendar). ... The logo of the PCF. Note the absence of traditional communist imagery such as the hammer and sickle. ... 1930 is a common year starting on Wednesday. ... 1946 was a common year starting on Tuesday. ... 1947 was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will take you to calendar). ...

Thorez, born in Noyelles-Godauld, France, became a coal miner at the age of 12. He joined the French Socialist Party in 1919, but soon after, joined the Communist Party and was imprisoned several times for political activism. In 1923 he became party secretary and, in 1930, secretary general of the party, a position he held until his death. Thorez was supported by Soviet leader Joseph Stalin for PCF leadership following splits in many Communist parties in wake of his struggle with Leon Trotsky. As the official leader, he was secretly controlled and linked to the orders of the Comintern by the secretive Eugen Fried (Annie Kriegel, Stéphane Courtois, Eugène Fried: Le grand secret du PCF, Seuil, 1997). The emblem of the French Socialist Party The Socialist Party (Parti Socialiste or PS), founded in 1969, is the main opposition party in France. ... 1919 was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar). ... 1923 was a common year starting on Monday (link will take you to calendar). ... 1930 is a common year starting on Wednesday. ...   Joseph Stalin[?] (Russian, in full: Иосиф Виссарионович Сталин (Josef Vissarionovich Stalin), real name: Иосиф Виссарионович Джугашвили (Josef Vissarionovich Dzhugashvilli), Georgian: იოსებ ჯუღაშვილი (Ioseb Jughashvili); December 6 (OS)/December 18 (NS), 1878 – March 5, 1953) was the leader of the Soviet Union from mid-1920s to his death in 1953 and General Secretary of the Communist Party of the... Leon Trotsky, 1940   Leon Davidovich Trotsky[?] (Russian: Лев Давидович Троцкий; also transliterated Leo, Lev, Trotskii, Trotski, Trotskij and Trotzky ) (October 26 (O.S.) = November 7 (N.S.), 1879 – August 21, 1940), born Lev Davidovich Bronstein (Лев Давидович Бронштейн), was a Bolshevik revolutionary and Marxist intellectual. ...

Thorez was elected to the Chamber of Deputies in 1932 and was reelected in 1936. In 1934, following the Comintern 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, won the elections of 1936. With the support of the Communists under Thorez, Leon Blum became prime minister of a Popular Front government and managed to enact long-needed social legislation. Meanwhile, Thorez presided over the massive growth of the Communist Party beginning with the elections of 1936. 1932 is a leap year starting on a Friday. ... 1936 was a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will take you to calendar). ... 1934 was a common year starting on Monday (link will take you to calendar). ... The Popular Front was an alliance of left-wing political parties (the Communists, the Socialists and the Radicals), which was in government in France from 1936 to 1938. ... This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ... Léon Blum Léon Blum (9 April 1872 - 30 March 1950), French socialist leader and Prime Minister, was born in Paris, into a middle-class Jewish family. ...

Following the Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact of 1939 however, the Communist Party was banned. Shortly thereafter, Thorez was mobilized, but he deserted from the army to flee to the Soviet Union. Thorez was tried in absentia for desertion and sentenced to death. Molotov (lower left), Ribbentrop (in black) and Stalin (far right) The Molotov-Ribbentrop pact, also known as the Hitler-Stalin pact or Ribbentrop-Molotov pact or Nazi-Soviet pact and formally known as the Treaty of Nonaggression between Germany and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, was in theory a... 1939 was a common year starting on Sunday (link will take you to calendar). ...

When General Charles de Gaulle's Free French Forces liberated France in 1944, Thorez received a pardon. After liberation, Thorez led the PCF immediately after the Second World War to a non-revolutionary road to power, instructing the wartime Communist partisans to surrender their weapons, while the party became a powerful force in the postwar governments. General Charles André Joseph Marie de Gaulle (   listen?) (November 22, 1890 – November 9, 1970), in France commonly referred to as général de Gaulle or Le Général, was a French military leader and statesman. ... The Free French Forces (Forces Françaises Libres in French) were French fighters in World War II, who decided to go on fighting against Axis forces after the surrender of France and German occupation, following the call of General De Gaulle, and the de jure government of France in exile... 1944 was a leap year starting on Saturday (link will take you to calendar). ...

In November 1944, he returned to France from 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 leading role in the anti-Nazi resistance movement during the occupation of France. Thorez was again elected to the Chamber of Deputies and reelected throughout the Fourth Republic (1946–1958). Forming a popular front with the Socialist Party in the 1945 elections, he became vice premier of France from 1946 to 1947. The Fourth Republic existed in France between 1946 and 1958. ... 1946 was a common year starting on Tuesday. ... 1958 was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... 1945 was a common year starting on Monday (link will take you to calendar). ... 1946 was a common year starting on Tuesday. ... 1947 was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will take you to calendar). ...

By 1947 a combination of the emerging Cold War between the United States 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. But the crisis came about the beginnings of the colonial war in Vietnam, the communist deputies in the Assemblée nationale voting against the communist-participating governement. That incident led Premier Paul Ramadier to dismiss his Communist ministers from the government, May the 7th 1947. Contrary to a very common legend, the firing of the communist ministers was not linked to U.S. pressure, as a condition for France to benefit from the coming Marshall Plan. But the parallel movements in Italy and Belgium show that Cold War political fences were being buit all over Western Europe at that time. The Communists' refusal to continue support for the French colonial reconquest of Vietnam on one hand and a wage-freeze during a period of hyperinflation on the other were the immediate triggers to the dismissal of Thorez and his colleagues from the ruling coalition in May 1947. For the generic term for a high-tension rivalry between countries, see cold war (war). ... French prime minister Paul Ramadier Paul Ramadier (March 17, 1888 - October 14, 1961) was a prominent French Socialist politician of the Third and Fourth Republics. ... A 1,000,000,000 (1 billion) Mark banknote, issued in Bavaria/Germany during the hyperinflation of 1923 (http://www. ...

Although the Communists under Thorez's leadership continued to enjoy a dedicated popular following, the French political system operated to isolate and marginalize them for the remainder of the regime. Following the Cominform meeting in september 1947, Thorez abandoned its cooperative attitude towards the other political forces, intending to follow the Jdanov doctrine. He then proved to be the most stalinist of all communist leaders in Western Europe, blocking the evolution of his party.That lack of dynamism clearly appeared after de Gaulle came to power again in 1958 upon the founding of the French Fifth Republic, the Communist Party's strength in the Chamber dropped to 10 seats, but Thorez retained his seat. 1958 was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The Fifth Republic is the fifth and current republican constitution of France, which was introduced on October 5, 1958. ...

Although his health deteriorated, Thorez remained party leader, until shortly before his death in 1964. 1964 was a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will take you to calendar). ...

He published Fils du peuple (1937; Son of the People, 1938) and Une politique de grandeur française (1945; "Politics of French Greatness").