Stalin's hand in the French CP
By Stuart Russell
Documents recently released by the Russian presidential archives demonstrate to what extent former Soviet Union leader Joseph Stalin controlled the policies of the French Communist Party.
In June 1941, after Hitler attacked the USSR, the French CP threw itself into the Resistance. By 1944-45 its prestige was enormous, to such an extent that France's President de Gaulle was forced to appoint two Communist ministers. A situation of dual power existed in late 1944 which could have brought the CP to power. In early 1945, however, after visiting Moscow, the leadership of the CP publicly called for support for de Gaulle.
Debate has raged ever since as to whether this turn in policy was made in France or in Moscow. A recent issue of the French journal Communisme now confirms that it was indeed Stalin who changed the CP's line.
According to the recently released documents in Moscow, in November 1944 Stalin strongly "advised" the French CP to change its line. For Stalin it was more important to conquer Eastern Europe, which he thought would be jeopardised by an insurrectionary movement in France, than to promote an anti-capitalist uprising which could have brought the French workers to power.