Thorez, Maurice

(1900–1964)

   Born in France, Maurice Thorez rose from childhood labor as a coal miner to become general secretary, and then chairman, of the French Communist Party (PCF). Joining in 1920, Thorez was a member of the PCF almost from its inception. Having been imprisoned on several occasions for his leftwing beliefs, Thorez diligently worked his way up the PCF, and by 1930 he had become general secretary of the party. Two years later he was elected to the Chamber of Deputies, leading French communists within the parliament. Thorez, along with Leon Blum and other left-wing political figures, took part in the creation of the Popular Front coalition in response to the threat posed to France by the Third Reich. The Popular Front was victorious in the 1936 parliamentary elections, with Blum becoming prime minister and the PCF forming part of the coalition government having won 15 percent of votes cast. However, the advent of the 1939 Nazi–Soviet Pact saw the PCF banned by the French government, the Popular Front having been defeated in the 1938 election. Thorez fled to the Soviet Union and in doing so avoided army service, gaining a prison sentence in absentia which was amnestied in 1944. Following World War II the PCF joined with the French Socialist Party to form the government, with Thorez becoming deputy prime minister between 1946 and 1947. Following this spell he reverted to opposition, and served as PCF chairman until his death in 1964. His most renowned works were Son of the People (1937) and Politics of French Greatness (1945).