STOVL

1896-1920 - Childhood, youth

Jacques Duclos was born the October 2nd 1896 with Louey (Hautes-Pyrénées) and is deceased the April 25th 1975 with Montreuil.

Wire of Antoine Duclos (craftsman-carpenter) and a mother dressmaker, Jacques Duclos was apprentice-pastrycook as of the twelve years age. There remains avid of reading during all its adolescence. Adult, his size never exceeded a meter forty-nine.

In 1915, it is plunged in the hell of Verdun where " is said; that it fought bravement". Wounded, quickly looked after, redirected towards the Way of the Ladies where it is made prisoner. His/her older brother will have had less chance, it left on the battle fields its nose and an eye.

1920-1939 - Adhesion with the Communist party at the Second world war

Jacques Duclos adheres to the Communist party as of his foundation in 1920. One year later, he becomes the secretary of the section of the 10th district of Paris while taking responsabilities with the republican Association for the war veterans (ARAC). He exerts his trade of chief-pastrycook until 1924 when he follows the first school of the executives of the Party, with Bobigny.

He is elected member of the central committee in 1926. It is this year also that it makes its entry at the Parliament by beating Paul Reynaud with the by-election of the March 28th. With the elections of 1928, victorious of Leon Blum in the 20th district of Paris, it belongs to the 14 survivors out of 28 outgoing communist deputies.

In fact, Jacques Duclos does not sit at the Parliament; with the avant-garde of the fight antimilitarist, it does not stop being condemned for various offenses related to its action. In 1928, the total of all the judgments which struck it go up at forty seven years of imprisonment. He thus lives in clandestinity, but often remains with Moscow, assumes responsibilities on behalf of International or of the Profintern, International trade-union Rouge. With the liking of the political circumstances, the Republic can also show good girl. In 1932, the radical Edouard Herriot being President of the Council, Duclos profits from a withdrawal of case and can take again official responsibilities in the Party. It becomes the number two about it, at the side of Maurice Thorez, Eugen Fried and Benoit Frachon.

It often signs articles in Humanity and it defends the line there “classifies against class” before 1934, but as from June 1934, it follows the recommendations of the Internationale Communist (IC) and calls with the bringing together with the Socialists and the Radicals. It represents PCF at the Buffalo Stage on July 14th, 1935, in Assises Peace where it makes sing the Marseillaise by Communist militants.

He is often operations manager by the IC: Resequencing of the Spanish party (1930), supervision of the Belgian party (1934-35). New intervention near the Spanish party (1935)

In 1936, it becomes officially responsible for the propaganda of the Party. Elected official appointed of Montreuil-sous-Bois (Seine-et-Oise) in May 1936, he becomes general secretary of the communist group to the assembly and vice-president of the National Assembly. During the summer 1936, it takes part, with Maurice Thorez, with meetings in private conversation with Leon Blum.

As soon as the pro-Franco rebellion burst in Spain, it is charged to supervise the action of the Spanish PC. He advised with the PCE to take part in the government.

January 4th, 1937, Jacques Duclos marries a nurse Gilberte Roux, born on December 18th, 1911, of a father died in the face in December 1914 and raised by a father-in-law Communist militant and trade unionist. The couple moved in with 258 bis rue de Paris with Montreuil, then at the beginning of 1939 in a house of Montreuil placed at its disposal by the Party and which he will live until his death.

January 13rd, 1938, he is re-elected vice-president of the Room. He still often goes to Spain to meet the leaders of the PCE.

1939-1944 - The Second world war

When after the Pact germano-Soviet and the declaration of war, the Party is dissolved by Edouard Daladier on September 26th, 1939, Jacques Duclos who is not mobilized because of his age, leaves France, and belonged to the group of the executive team which gathers with Brussels around Eugen Fried, the delegate of the IC. According to the terms of the " Maitron" , biographical dictionary of the labor movement, " Once again, it was shown completely faithful to the USSR, Stalin, the IC and supported firmly Maurice Thorez ". Jacques Duclos will remain in Brussels of October 1939 in June 1940, whereas Maurice Thorez was acicular on Moscow after his desertion from the army in October 39, on order of the IC and that Benoît Frachon remained in the Paris region, in clandestinity.

In June 1940, whereas the leadership team made up around Benoit Frachon and of Arthur Dallidet left the Paris region and were folded up in the south of France, Jacques Duclos and Maurice Tréand are convoyed from Brussels by a Chilean diplomat and arrive at Paris at the neighborhoods of on June 15th.

In regular contact with the International Communist of Moscow, the two men assume together the making of contact with the German authorities in order to make reappear legally Humanity. These talks with the authorities German were a complete fiasco and until in the Seventies (publication of the memories of Duclos), one made some wear the hat in only Tréand. It is only on August 5th, 1940 that a directive of the IC in Moscow clarified the situation: Order was given to suspend any contact and Duclos was named responsible for PCF clandestine. He will assume this role until the return of Maurice Thorez in November 1944, always in close contact with Benoît Frachon, gone up on Paris in August 1940.

For all the period of June 40 in August 44 when it was responsible for PCF clandestine, Jacques Duclos, always very prolix, as well in words as in writings, was the principal writer of the clandestine press communsite. He can be consequently identified with the various lines followed by the Party during this period:

Attempt of exit partial of clandestinity and semi-legalization, of June 40 in September 40, line which resulted in a hecatomb of frameworks stopped by the French police force and interned in camps.
Between June 1940 and June 1941, speech anti-impérialiste, anti-English, anti-Pétain, anti-In Gaulle, anti-Blum, and very incidentally anti-German, who expresses dice summer 40, in the " the Call of July 10th " , leaflet largely diffused, signed Thorez and Duclos, but of which it seems that Jacques Duclos was the only writer.
Ligne of resistance anti-allemande as from June 1941 dates from the invasion of the USSR by Wehrmacht.

Initially installed in the HBM close to the boulevards outer in Paris, Jacques Duclos moved for safety reasons with Borough-the-Queen, then with Villebon-sur-Yvette, in December 1941, with the villa of the Oasis from where it left by bicycle only once a month to go to the meetings of the secretariat where it found Benoît Frachon, Charles Tillon, then Auguste Lecoeur, from mid the 42. Only Benoit Frachon visited him sometimes to the Oasis.

Thanks to a system of liaison officers circulating with bicycle or foot, Jacques Duclos could as well maintain regular contacts with the USSR, thanks to a network of radios installed in Paris region, as with all the persons in charge of areas or the multiple organizations which revolved in the orbit of PCF, like the National front, resistance movement open to the various socioprofessional categories, for which the responsibility had been entrusted to Pierre Villon, the Francs-tireurs and in favor (ftp) resistance movement armed of which the person in charge was Charles Tillon. He was also in liaison with all the Communists present for various reasons in the bodies of Resistance that Jean Moulin had started to set up as from 1943: National council of Resistance (CNR), CFLN (Provisional government of Algiers), COMAC (Military committee).

August 25th, 1944, Jacques Duclos makes his entry in Paris with Benoît Frachon. He reinstates the seat of the Central committee and negotiates with Charles de Gaulle at the beginning of September the participation of communist ministers in the French government.

With the return to Paris de Thorez, on November 27th, 1944, Duclos becomes again the number two of PCF, without one being informed of competitions which could have been born between the two men.

1945-1975 - Release with death

From 1945 to 1947, Jacques Duclos played a political role and member of Parliament of first importance. He proposed at the assembly the nationalization of most of the French economy: banks, insurances, electricity, iron and steel industry, chemistry and of the merchant navy (June 19th, 1945). November 8th, 1945, he is elected vice-president of the constituent Assembly.

To take again the terms of Maitron, " As to the time of the Popular front, preceding period “of political expansion”, Duclos gave in the three years which followed the Release all the measurement of its talents of policy, tactician, negotiator and propagandiste."

Jacques Duclos also at that time preserves important functions in the international communist movement, because in spite of the official dissolution of the IC in 1943, the Communist parties of the whole world are always gathered under the supervision of Soviet. Jacques Duclos often represents the French Party in the various meetings, in particular in September 1947 in Poland, with Szklarska-Poreba where PCF was blamed by Jdanov not to have known to rather early take the turning of the cold war and to cease any participation in the government. There still, Duclos applied the new line strictly and wrote in the review of the Kominform of many articles against Tito.

Jacques Duclos remains parliamentary almost without interruption until his death in 1975: deputy of 1946 to 1958, senator and president of the communist group of 1959 to 1975. But it is especially inside the PCF that its role remains paramount. October 10th, 1950, Maurice Thorez was victim of a Hémiplégie and until its death in 1964, it accomplished frequent stays in the USSR to be neat there. Jacques Duclos then makes function of general secretary per interim. He must then manage the exclusion of other eminent leaders: Andre Marty, Charles Tillon and Georges Guingouin in 1952, Auguste Lecœur in 1954.

It is also under its authority and with the support of the Soviet Union, that were launched calls against the Guerre of Indo-China carried out by its country, for fraternization with the Vietnamese soldier-Minh who fought with certain successes against the French Army, and against what it called already the American imperialism. It illustrates in the organization of a prohibited demonstration against the arrival in Paris of the general American Ridgway shown to proceed to a bacteriological Guerre in Korea (" Ridgway the peste"). On this occasion, he is again imprisoned a few days with the prison of health.

From 1953 to 1958, in agreement with Thorez, Jacques Duclos did not align itself on the calling into question of the person of Stalin expressed by the new Soviet leaders, divulga not near the French Communists the contents of the " secret" report/ratio; of Khrouchtchev to the XXe congress of the PC of the Soviet Union in 1956. But this same year 1956, the two men remained faithful to the USSR during the repression of the Hungarian insurrection.

In November 1958, Duclos lost a legislative election in its stronghold of Montreuil, vis-a-vis an adversary gaullist. He in addition knew some health issues and its influence within PCF started to decline. However, in the years which followed the death of Thorez in 1964, no successor imposed his leadership within the Party and the place of Duclos remained important.

In 1968, year of the Spring of Prague, he does not disapprove the invasion of Tchécosolvaquie by the armoured tanks of the Soviet army and remains faithful to the hard line by the Communist party of Soviet Union.

It was even him which was selected in 1969 as candidate of the French Communist party with the presidential election during which it collects 4.808.285 votes (21,5%). Many French who had not known it before remember the judgment that he had pronounced in connection with the two candidates (Georges Pompidou and Alain Poher) remained in string with the second round: it is “White bonnet” or “white Bonnet” , avoiding thus that communist voices do not refer on Alain Poher.

After a hospitalization in January 1975, at the month of April 75 Jacques Duclos goes to Louey where television must begin the turning of a film on its life. But feeling badly, he is hospitalized again in Paris for a congestion of the lungs and dies in his residence on April 25th, 1975.

Its funerals, followed by nearly two hundred and thousand people are the occasion of a last homage of the old guard of the international communist movement.

Portrait

Jacques Duclos, was from very small size, 1.49 meter. One has sometimes advanced, but without real evidence, that it is this characteristic which would have blocked it with the position of number two of the Party, of 1930 until 1960. The generation of the baby-boom discovered Duclos with the Télévision in 1969 like candidate with the presidential one. This excellent service was worth very a good score to him, but the youngest televiewers could be unaware of that before occurring on television, Jacques Duclos was already familiar of all the more traditional modes of propaganda: not only as speaker it could galvanize the militants in the meetings of the party, to take part in more felted debates of the Sénat with a good sense of distributed, but also prolific writer, it was also able to as many provide lines as necessary for " to buckle a numéro" Huma and to produce throughout its career a number impressing of books, booklets and opuscules, true arsenal of propaganda to defend the line of the moment.

Jacques Duclos is a very skilful speaker. He can put at ease, explain, embobiner. Its access is naturally pleasant and benevolent with respect to his/her companions. It will be very popular near the Communist militants but will not inevitably cause as much admiration in the control of the political matters. Thus, this comment which one finds in the files of the Komintern in Moscow:

" the direction of the Party characterizes it like a good and devoted agitator (it directed very well the mass campaigns into 1934-1935-1936, it lightly compiled all the documents of the party: proclamations etc, found the terms right), it was in its place in the policy of the Popular front. Bold, no hesitation expressed on the question of the pact germano-Soviet, but in the fight interior of the party, forever have clear position, cannot be directed in difficult circumstances and the abrupt reversals, it always expressed opportunist tendencies and parlementarists who were still reinforced lately because of his position at the Parliament. Cannot expose clear questions briefly and clearly. "

In 1947 during a maintenance in Moscow between Thorez and Stalin, this last required of the chief of the French Party if Duclos were a good second. Thorez answered that " Duclos is a good worker and that he works much but he is sometimes authorized to speak at the Parliament without having, au préalable, prepared its intervention sufficiently… Nevertheless, Duclos is very good communist, intelligent. "

Two testimonys of immediate the post-war period, to emphasize the various facets of the talent of Jacques. Initially, the speaker:

" To hear Duclos for the first time, what a festival for the friendly ear of the eloquence! Balanced period, formula repeated in refrain, symbiosis of the tradition oratory of the South and the rites of the communist language which gains savor to be rolled on the gravel of an accent. Round the small body, round the famous person, rounds glasses; all reassures, done everything to think of the humming tom cat when suddenly this voice carries you and when suddenly the glance, boring and cold, reaches you. " (Dominique Desanti, Stalinist the )

Then, the man of apparatus, the politician:

" Duclos was there marvelously in its element. It had the thorough knowledge of the local situations, just like of the candidates. Its safety of diagnosis, its promptitude had something of attractive, but also of absolutely cynical. It sparkled, even when it sliced like a chopper. Nothing roundness as its small silhouette wrongfully let it believe. On the contrary, a coldness computer, without glance for anything of other that the success. This roughness brutally swept what Balzac calls the perfidious good-naturedness of the Southerner… " (Pierre Daix, I believed in the morning) "

Jacques Duclos was marked considerably by family pains: the abandonment of the father, initially, whereas he is very young child and the wounds of his brothers, the elder one, Jean, seriously wounded in 1917, an eye and nose torn off by a glare of shell, and the junior, Louis, victim of a lethargic encéphalite as from 1931, which will entirely leave it paralyzed.

Jacques and his Gilberte wife formed a rather harmonious couple. Gilberte, although expressing tastes limited for the public life is very admiring of Jacques. Fearing that the disease of his/her brother was not hereditary, Jacques and Gilberte decided not to have children. As it often arrives at those whose heart was hardened through tests of the life, driven back tenderness carries out resurgences impromptues. Duclos crossed clandestinity in company of a small she-cat which came to be made câliner on its knees.

It is out of artistic matter that Jacques Duclos preserved his independence of judgment since he appreciated the painting of Maurice Boitel, painter without any fastener with Communism. It is with him that he had entrusted the decoration of the school complex Voltaire of Montreuil-sous-Bois, its electoral stronghold: the day of the inauguration, showing the frescos of Maurice Boitel, he declared in his speech: " Nothing too beautiful for our children! " Jacques Duclos evolved/moved in the hard world of the war, of the Bolchevisme, the apparatus . The decisions which it made, the sentences which it pronounced took part of this same cruelty, but it got busy without slackening to evacuate of its environment the tensions, contrarieties and bitternesses which disturb the balance of the things.

Works of Jacques Duclos

The majority of the writings of Jacques Duclos were published in the social Editions:

Battles for the Republic , 1947
Written prison (1952)
“ With the attack of the sky ”. The Commune of Paris heralding a new world (1961 - review and increased 1974)
future of the democracy , Paris, social Editions, 1962
Gaullisme, technography, corporatism , 1963
Of Napoleon III with de Gaulle , 1964
the First international , 1964
October 1917 seen of France , 1967
Anarchistic of yesterday and today , 1968
Which is thus the Communists? Editions Ear, 1971
Memories , 6 volumes (7 volumes), Beech, 1968-1973
Bakounine and Marx. Shade and light , Plon, 1974
what I believe , Grasset, 1974

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