Chapter VIII – The French Revolution
The French Socialist Party, led by Jean Jaurès, had been strongly opposed to war with Germany in July of 1914. Because of this, a fanatic nationalist assassinated Jaurés on July 31st, creating a powerful martyr for the left-wing and anti-war cause. All other parties, including the social-liberal Radicals who had so far championed improved relations with Germany, united in a coalition Government named “l’Union Sacrée” (the Holy Union).
After the failure of the French 1916 offensive and the Entente defeats in Russia and Serbia, the Prime Minister, former socialist Aristide Briand, proposed making peace overtures to Germany to bring an end to the war. He was however violently opposed by Georges Clemenceau, who argued that with Russia defeated, France could never hope to regain Alsace and Lorraine, and would be at the mercy of a strengthened Germany. It was now or never, if the lost lands were to be regained. A bitter political feud ensued, where Briand, supported by the Socialists was opposed by the Conservative with the Army (represented by the Generals, the opinion of the ordinary
Poilu was markedly different from theirs) in support. The Radical party was deeply divided on the issue along its left-right axis. In the end the Union Sacrée (Coalition Government) could not be preserved, and Georges Clemenceau formed a new Conservative-dominated Government bent on carrying on the war. As a last ditch attempt to prevent this, a General strike called by the Socialist Unions was broken up by military force.
When the final French offensive had failed by the end of June, a new Government crisis was in the making, but the German counter-offensive and break-through instead caused the re-formation of the coalition Government. Given the military disaster and looming defeat, the Socialists seemed vindicated in their anti-war stance. On July 31st of 1917 (a ten-day before the end of the war), the anniversary of the murder of Jean Jaurès was wildly celebrated by out of control soldiers who blamed Clemenceau’s government for the lost and senseless war. The Army was already disintegrating, with officers being shot in improvised mutinies, but before this state of anarchy could degenerate into open revolution, the Government accepted the inevitable and signed the preliminary armistice of August 11.
A sense of anti-climax reigned as a profoundly demoralised nation awaited the result of the peace negotiations at Versailles. There was much resentment directed against Britain for “abandoning” her allies, but also much regret among the ordinary people – if only France had not declared war! One and a half million dead, economical ruin, defeat… it could all have been avoided!
When the news of the October Revolution reached France, radical elements in the Socialist Party began to consider how to bring about a similar situation in France, but the time was still not ripe. Just a few weeks later, the Peace of Versailles was signed, its harsh conditions sparking a wave of riots, strikes and protests. As if to pour oil on the flames, the Government of Clemenceau announced dramatic tax raises in order to begin to pay the huge war reparations to Germany. Suddenly Socialism and Patriotism seemed to find common ground – striking was seen as a way to deny the German enemy their loot. Demobilized soldiers refused to hand over their weapons, instead forming Soldier Soviets after the Russian fashion to guard the factories and support the striking workers. It wasn’t long before regions of France were taken over by Red Guards, proclaiming diverse “Communes”, in the tradition of the Paris Commune of 1871 in Lyon, Marseille, Bordeaux… the post-Versailles remnants of the Army were soon trading shots with these paramilitary communists in the streets. Realising the country was on the verge of Revolution, Clemenceau stepped down, calling for elections in the hope that the new Government would have the legitimacy to reinstate order.
Communist militia, southern France, late 1918
Whatever doubts could have remained about the outcome of the elections were dissipated when the alleged assassin of Jean Jaurès, young ultranationalist Raoul Villain, was acquitted of the charges of murder in March of 1918. This perceived (and probably actual) perversion of justice led to an unparalleled mobilization of the political left with more riots, marches and strikes. The General Assembly elections of spring 1918 were thus held in an atmosphere of fear and disorder and led to an overwhelming majority for the Socialist Party, which in its ranks encompassed from moderate Social Democrats to outright revolutionaries of the Bolshevik kind. The new Government, with Socialist leader Léon Blum as Prime Minister, was however dominated by the more moderate elements and it began a policy of nationalising industries, purportedly to be better able to pay the reparations without bleeding the taxpayers white. In order cover the expenses of wages to the millions of new state employees, Blum wasn’t shy about letting the bill printing presses work.
The nationalisation program backfired badly. The Socialists voters wanted better wages, working conditions and power over their place of work. Instead they found that they now had a single immensely powerful employer, were working long shifts for savagely taxed and nominally frozen wages that were being eaten up by inflation. As monthly payments on the war reparations succeeded each other through 1918, the economical and political situation deteriorated steadily. Comintern agents were everywhere, infiltrating trade unions and army barracks. Also, more openly challenging the power of the Blum Government were the anarchists, with several foreign notables aiding their cause, such as Nestor Makhno, Errico Malatesta and the Grand Old Man himself, Prince Kropotkin.
Prince Peter Kropotkin
While the latter could speak anywhere, openly inciting the masses to revolution thanks to his enormous prestige, Makhno and Malatesta were organizing anarchist militias. Wise from his experiences after the October revolution, Makhno prepared his French followers to be ready to fight Bourgeoisie and Communist Party alike.
In September of 1919, order had broken down completely. In metropolitan France, the Army had all but disintegrated into diverse militias who helped themselves to the materiel stored in the military depots (far more, by the way, than allowed for by the Versailles treaty). The Police was powerless against the far better armed militias, of which the strongest one, inevitably, was the Communist, labelled Armée Populaire et Revolutionaire de Liberation (APRL) or Red Guards for short.
The anarchists were the direct cause of the implosion of the III Republic. Emboldened by the weakness of the hated state, their ALAC militias (Armée de Libération Anarcho-Communiste) began seizing farms, shops, factories, every kind of medium and small enterprise from their legal owners, often topping of theft with murder of the dispossessed (for being class enemies). Desperate to restore order, Blum accepted the Communist offer to use their Red Guard militias in the service of the Government. He must have known the offer would come with strings attached, other than naming Communist ministers of Defence and Police, but he had little choice. Even some junior parts of the traditionally right wing officer corps were joining the Red Guards, preferring Red order and discipline to Black anarchy. The army itself existed only on paper, the Navy was in the hands of Red sailors organised by Communist commissars and the Police remained impotent for the time being.
Just as Makhno had feared, when fighting erupted it was between the ALAC and the Red Guards. Savage street battles raged in every major city of France, but the Communists held all the aces. They had effectively infiltrated the army and the state, and could command its vast usurped resources while the anarchists had steered as far as possible from any involvement in the state they despised so. Thus it was in the name of maintaining law and order that the highly organized and disciplined cohorts of the Red Guards bloodily crushed the Anarchist uprising during the autumn and winter of 1919. By January 1920, the Anarchist leaders had abandoned all hope and fled the country – Kropotkin and Malatesta to London and Makhno back to the continued fighting in the Ukraine, where Fyodor Schtuss had commanded in his absence.
By that time, the Government had gradually become wholly Communist, with Leon Blum as a powerless figurehead. With order re-established and the tools of power firmly in their hands, the Communist Party of France (formed after the formal secession of the left wing of the Socialist Party in early 1919) outlawed all other parties, redrafted the constitution and established the Dictatorship of the Proletariat, all in a perfectly legal fashion, given that they had almost complete control of the General Assembly.
During the crisis and fighting, France had ceased to pay its war reparations. As a result, Germany seized more of her colonies, with the tacit approval of the more traditionally minded colonial officers who were aghast of developments in the motherland. Not wanting to be outdone, Britain acted in the same fashion, capturing even more French colonial lands. Paris protested loudly, but could do nothing. Tunisia and Algeria were however garrisoned by regular French Army troops which remained loyal to the Government (not the least because their soldiers had served in the trench war and had been radicalised as well) and by 1922 they lingered as the sole remnants of the French colonial Empire.