THOREZ, MAURICE (1900–1964)

French Communist Party leader.

Maurice Thorez was born in Noyelles-Godault (Pas de Calais) to a coal-mining family and went to work as a coal miner himself at age twelve. His early and faithful adherence to communism, beginning in 1919, was to bring him a life of adventure and danger, together with rewards both symbolic and material. Although he belonged to the generation that fought in World War I, Thorez did not share the patriot's enthusiasm for defending the republic but rather voiced the postwar disenchantment and indictment of those responsible for the slaughter of the 1914–1918 conflict.

In the French Communist Party (PCF), Thorez's social-class background, his desire to succeed, and his hunger for knowledge served him well, and he was soon entrusted with important responsibilities. At the age of twenty-three Thorez headed a regional Communist organization and two years later became a member of the politburo of the French party. In 1930 he became secretary-general and head of the PCF.

Thorez had an ideal profile to become a party leader. He was intelligent, a worker, a combative neophyte, and just the kind of leader that the Comintern in Moscow was looking for to direct the new left-wing parties founded or reconfigured in the wake of the Bolshevik Revolution. The goal was to turn political socialist organizations into revolutionary parties on the Bolshevik model. This was the principal reason that the Comintern representative Eugen Fried chose Thorez, anointing him the head of the PCF with the approval of Joseph Stalin's adjunct Dmitri Manuilsky, who traveled from Moscow expressly for Thorez's investiture in the summer of 1931.

At the same time, Thorez had some vulnerabilities that could only have pleased his mentors, who disliked those with a complete independence of mind. First, from Moscow's standpoint, were his "political weaknesses," such as his support in 1924 of the Left opposition. He also had some degree of insecurity and self-doubt. On 27 July 1931 he sent Fried a letter of resignation, explaining why he felt discouraged. "Various facts permit me to believe that my comrades in the Communist International now doubt, wrongly in my view, my sincere willingness to fully apply all just directives of the International Executive Committee." He added that "this last consideration affects me deeply. I have always acknowledged my great weaknesses; but I have never felt I lacked loyalty or had anything but unlimited devotion to the cause of the Communist International." He was persuaded to stay on.

A gifted and dedicated executive, Thorez could also take the initiative. Although he did not, as Communist legend would have it, formulate the French Popular Front's new line in 1934, he was responsible for enlarging the coalition to include the radical Left parties in spite of reluctance on the part of the Comintern. However, on all critical matters, Thorez faithfully carried out Stalin's directives. In 1939, although disturbed by the new Nazi-Soviet Nonaggression Pact that left France in the lurch, Thorez without hesitation obeyed the orders of the Comintern. After being mobilized, he deserted from his regiment on 4 October 1939, while France was still at war, and went to Moscow, where he found himself entirely dependent on Stalin.

During the summer in 1940, after France's defeat, Thorez cautiously attempted to influence efforts by the French Communist Party to resume its publishing activities through a deal with the Nazis; he was concerned such an arrangement might compromise the future of the party. On the eve of his return to France on 19 November 1944, Thorez received new directives from Stalin, and the policy he subsequently carried out revealed his total compliance with the Soviet leader's "advice." Stalin had explained to him that, with the PCF too weak to directly contest the government of General Charles de Gaulle, French Communists were to work with de Gaulle. Thorez imposed the new strategy of cooperation, and from November 1945 to May 1947 he served as an elected deputy and for a time as vice-premier.

In the microcosm that was the innermost apparatus of the international communist movement, not just fear prompted obedience. Documents discovered in the Moscow archives also indicate genuine psychological dependency. In 1937, when Thorez published his autobiography, he sent a copy to Stalin with the following dedication:

To Comrade Stalin,
Genius builder of socialism,
beloved chief of workers the world over,
guide to the people,
the Master and friend who granted me,
one day happiest of all,
the great honor of welcome,
in witness to my absolute loyalty
and my filial love,
Thorez (translated from the French)

The minutes of the meeting between Stalin and Thorez on 18 November 1947 seem equally significant. They reveal an astonishing exchange that was at once frank and submissive: "Thorez said that the French communists will be proud of the fact that he had the honor of an interview with Comrade Stalin. Although French, Thorez remarked that he has the soul of a Soviet citizen. Comrade Stalin said that we are all communists and that says it all."

Thorez regularly imitated Stalin, particularly in terms of power. Discussions in the politburo ended with the conclusions of the secretary-general. Thorez even enjoyed an impressive cult of personality. In 1950 his fiftieth birthday was celebrated in the same fashion as Stalin's seventieth birthday the year before.

Submission to Stalin also explains Thorez's reluctance to accept the new Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev's critique of Stalin in 1956 and after. Thorez made hesitant steps toward the Chinese Communists, who had rejected Khrushchev's denunciation. But until his death on 11 July 1964 he satisfied himself by playing the "good father" who hoped for a Communist movement with the fewest divisions possible. He was condemned by Chinese and Albanian Communists but preserved in France a monolithic party with an immutable vision of a mythic working class.

See alsoStalin, Joseph.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Buton, Philippe. Le communisme, une utopie en sursis? Paris, 2001.

Courtois, Stéphane. "Maurice Thorez." In Ouverture, société, pouvoir: De l'édit de Nantes à la chute du communisme, edited by Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie, 175–192. Paris, 2005.

Courtois, Stéphane, and Annie Kriegel. Eugen Fried: Le grand secret du PCF. Paris, 1997.

Pennetier, Claude. "Maurice Thorez." In Dictionnaire biographique du mouvement ouvrier français. Vol. 42, pp. 189–206. Paris, 1992.

Robrieux, Philippe. Maurice Thorez: Vie secrète et vie publique. Paris, 1975.

Sirot, Stéphane. Maurice Thorez. Paris, 2000.

Philippe Buton