Thorez (English name) Maurice Thorez

French politician and Communist leader. Born in the Pas-de-Calais department in northern France to a coal miner. He joined the Communist Party at a young age, and, aided by internal strife within the party, became its de facto Secretary-General in 1930 (officially from 1936). He had also been a member of parliament since 1932. He was loyal to the Comintern's policy at the time that Social Democracy was the main enemy at the time, and in 1934 expelled Driot, who advocated a united front between the Socialists and the Communists. Shortly after, he accepted the Comintern's change in tactics and called on the Socialists to form a united anti-fascist front, and in the autumn of the same year proposed a "Popular Front of Bread, Liberty and Peace" that included the Radical Socialists, which he eventually realised. In the 1936 general election, he called for "the unity of the French people" on the radio, and became the driving force behind the Communist Party's great advance. The Communist Party refused to let him join the Popular Front government that was formed in the same year, but he managed to calm the unprecedented factory occupation strikes that occurred at the same time, saying that "not everything is possible." When Comintern changed its policy again after the German-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact of 1939, he deserted the French army at the beginning of World War II and stayed in Moscow until the end of the war. After returning to France in 1944 after the liberation of France, he called on party members who expected a revolution to cooperate with the Provisional Government of De Gaulle, and in November 1945 he joined the second De Gaulle cabinet as a Minister of State. After De Gaulle resigned the following year, he served as Deputy Prime Minister in the cabinets of Gouin, Bidault, and Ramadier, and finally resigned in May 1947 due to the progression of the Cold War. In May 1964, he handed over the position of Secretary General to Waldeck Rocher, and in July of the same year, he died suddenly on a Soviet ship while on his way to the Soviet Union for medical treatment. In addition to his autobiography, "Son of the People," first published in 1937 and revised several times since, he also published a collection of many reports and speeches.

[Tetsuya Hirase]

"The People's Son" (translated by Michihiko Kitahara, 1979, Otsuki Shoten)

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

フランスの政治家。共産党指導者。北フランスのパ・ド・カレー県に炭坑夫の子として生まれる。若くして共産党に参加し、同党の内紛にも助けられて1930年には事実上の書記長（正式には1936年から）に就任した。1932年以来代議士でもあった。社会民主主義が当面の主要敵であるとの当時のコミンテルンの方針に忠実であった彼は、1934年、社共統一戦線を主張したドリオを除名した。その直後、コミンテルンの戦術変更を受け入れ、社会党に反ファシズム統一戦線を呼びかけたばかりか、同年秋には急進社会党も含む「パンと自由と平和の人民戦線」を提唱して結局これを実現した。1936年の総選挙ではラジオで「フランス国民の団結」を呼びかけ、共産党の大躍進の原動力となった。こうして同年成立した人民戦線内閣に対し共産党は入閣を拒んだが、同時におこった未曽有(みぞう)の工場占拠ストライキに対しては「すべてが可能ではない」としてこれを鎮静させた。1939年の独ソ不可侵条約ののちコミンテルンが再度方針を変更すると、これに従って第二次世界大戦の初期にフランス軍を脱走し、終戦までモスクワにとどまった。フランス解放後の1944年に帰国した彼は、革命を期待する党員にドゴール臨時政府への協力を呼びかけ、自ら1945年11月第二次ドゴール内閣に国務相として入閣した。翌年のドゴール退陣後もグーアン、ビドー、ラマディエの諸内閣の副首相を務め、冷戦の進展により1947年5月ようやく下野した。1964年5月、ワルデック・ロシェに書記長の地位を譲り、同年7月ソ連に病気治療に赴く途中、ソ連船上で急死した。1937年に初版を出しその後再三内容を改めた自伝『人民の子』のほか、多くの報告、演説を集めた著作集がある。

［平瀬徹也］

『北原道彦訳『人民の子』（1979・大月書店）』

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