John Bulaitis - Maurice Thorez: A Biography

John Bulaitis is Senior Lecturer in Modern History at Canterbury Christ Church University. He is the author of Communism in Rural France: French Agricultural Workers and the Popular Front (I.B.Tauris, 2008).

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An English-language biography of Maurice Thorez has long been needed. John Bulaitis has delivered a peerless study, guaranteed to become the definitive account of Thorez's life for some time to come.

Matthew Worley, Professor of Modern History,
University of Reading

John Bulaitis's stylishly written biography of Maurice Thorez will long remain a model of carefully crafted and judicious scholarship; an example of what dispassionate yet critical post-communist historiography can achieve. While the author does not hesitate to take issue with established French scholars, he avoids erecting a kind of tribunal where the biographer is judge and jury. Every deed (and misdeed) of the communist leader is situated in its proper historical context on the basis of an intimate knowledge of the archival sources. Thorez emerges as a complex figure, a leader who tried, often unsuccessfully, to balance political pragmatism with loyalty to the communist movement a far more interesting character than the traditional depiction of him as a mere Stalinist hack.

Donald Sassoon, Emeritus Professor of Comparative
European History, Queen Mary University of London

This is a beautifully crafted biography and political history based on solid research and an obvious command of the secondary sources. A biography of Thorez in English is long overdue and with it John Bulaitis has made an exemplary contribution to the historiography of European communism.

Kevin Morgan, Professor of Politics and Contemporary History,
University of Manchester

For Margaret

Published in 2018 by
I.B.Tauris & Co. Ltd
London New York
www.ibtauris.com

Copyright 2018 John Bulaitis

The right of John Bulaitis to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by the author in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in a review, this book, or any part thereof, may not be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

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Any omissions will be rectified in future editions.

References to websites were correct at the time of writing.

Communist Lives: Volume 4

ISBN: 978 1 84511 725 2

eISBN: 978 1 78672 368 0

ePDF: 978 1 78673 368 9

A full CIP record for this book is available from the British Library

A full CIP record is available from the Library of Congress

Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: available

CONTENTS

LIST OF PLATES

Head shaven while on the run from police, c.1929. Credit: Thorezs personal file, Comintern archives. Courtesy of Russian State Archive of Socio-Political History.

Campaigning during the Belleville by-election, October 1930. Thorez is standing behind the desk. Credit: Albert Harlingue/Roger-Viollet.

Centre-stage at the Cominterns Seventh Congress, July 1935. To Thorezs right is Georgi Dimitrov. Credit: Photo by Laski Diffusion/Getty Images.

Saluting the crowd on 14 July 1936. To his right is Socialist leader Lon Blum. Behind, obscured by Thorezs waving arm, is Radical leader douard Daladier. Credit: Photo by Keystone-France/Gamma-Keystone via Getty Images.

Spain, February 1937. Pictured with members of the International Brigades in Albacete. Credit: ITAR-TASS Photo Agency/Alamy Stock Photo.

A communist view of gender roles. With Jeannette Vermeersch and their son Jean, late 1936. Credit: Photo by Keystone-France/Gamma-Keystone via Getty Images.

La Barbe. Clandestine in Moscow, late 1940. Credit: Thorezs personal file, Comintern archives. Courtesy of Russian State Archive of Socio-Political History.

9 September 1944. Andr Marty at the rostrum during the first PCF mass meeting in Paris after the citys liberation. The banner proclaims Maurice Thorez must return to Paris. Behind the stage, the Union Jack and Stars and Stripes fly alongside the Hammer and Sickle. Credit: Photo by LAPI/Roger Viollet/Getty Images.

Pencil sketch by Pablo Picasso, 23 May 1945. Credit: Succession Picasso/DACS, London 2017.

Speaking at a PCF rally before the onset of the Cold War. Credit: Photo by David E. Scherman/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images.

27 November 1946. Meeting of Central Committee and communist parliamentarians, with a banner demanding a Thorez premiership for the security and renaissance of France. Thorezs portrait shares the platform with those of other PCF leaders. Credit: Photo by David E. Scherman/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images.

Thorez in his ministerial office, 1946. Part of the PCF campaign to promote him as a statesman, worthy to be prime minister. Credit: Photo by David E. Scherman/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images.

The Party of Maurice Thorez. Rally at Ivry to celebrate his fiftieth birthday, 28 April 1950. Credit: Photo by Roger Viollet Collection/Getty Images.

Le Bourget Airport, 11 November 1950. One month after a stroke, Thorez is lifted into a Soviet plane for treatment in the Soviet Union. Credit: Photo by Walter Carone/Paris Match via Getty Images.

22 December 1955. Campaigning in Paris during the legislative elections, with lighting carefully positioned to hide his paralysed right side. Credit: Photo by Philippe Le Tellier/Paris Match via Getty Images.

21 December 1956. At the opening of Picassos exhibition in Nice, a month after the artist put his name to a letter criticising the PCFs response to the Soviet intervention in Hungary. Credit: Keystone Pictures USA/Alamy Stock Photo.

2 August 1963. On the quay at Yalta, after arriving for his final summer vacation in the Soviet Union. To Thorezs right is Mikhail Suslov. Jeannette Vermeersch is behind the two men. Credit: SPUTNIK/Alamy Stock Photo.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I first started living with Maurice Thorez ten years ago, after Donald Sassoon suggested I write his biography. I thank Donald for the suggestion and for his invaluable support and advice over the years. Many people have helped this project to fruition. I am particularly grateful to Pierre Thorez, for not only opening his father's archives but also for his hospitality and kindness. A generous grant from The Barry Amiel and Norman Melburn Trust funded research in Moscow. Canterbury Christ Church University provided me with study leave, covered expenses during a long stay in Paris and financed a research assistant. I also received a generous grant from the late Miss Isobel Thornley's Bequest to the University of London.

Support came from many archivists, some of whom went way beyond the call of duty. I thank those at the Archives nationales and at the Archives dpartementes in Seine-Saint-Denis, Nord, Pas-de-Calais and Meurthe-et-Moselle. A special word of thanks goes to Gautier at the Archives municipales d'Ivry-sur-Seine. Other collections that opened their doors with warmth include La Bibliothque Jean Maitron (Centre d'Histoire sociale), CEDIAS-Muse social and l'Office universitaire de recherche socialiste (OURS).