Molotov-Ribbentrop-Aragon: the Nazi-Soviet pact, French newspapers, and the French Communist Part. Issue 1 (April 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Sobanet, Andrew
• Is Part Of: Contemporary French civilization. Volume 45:Issue 1(2020)
• Page Start: 103
• Page End: 125
• Publication Date: 2020-04
• Subjects: French language -- Foreign countries -- Periodicals; Civilization, Modern -- French influences -- Periodicals; France -- Civilization -- Periodicals; France -- Social life and customs -- Periodicals; 306.094405
• DOI: 10.3828/cfc.2020.7
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0147-9156

Abstract

Abstract : This article explores how Louis Aragon became the symbol for the reaction of the French Communist Party (PCF) to the August 1939 pact of non-aggression between the USSR and Nazi Germany. The party's support for the pact, as this article contends, serves as a case study in the tension between patriotism and internationalism within the PCF. Through a comprehensive overview of both major and partisan French newspapers from the period, this article shows that the party's reaction to the pact (spearheaded by Aragon) served as a flashpoint in which the PCF's loyalty to Stalin and Soviet foreign policy led to its rejection by the broader public and the French political establishment, which at that time, exhibited a profound concern for national interests and patriotic unity among French citizens. This episode, as this article argues, is emblematic of the party's often competing loyalties to French national interests and symbols, on the one hand, and to those of the Soviet Union and international communism on the other. The article concludes with reflections on how the pact and the continued controversy around it had an impact on Aragon's postwar writing.