The Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact - ELTE BTK Történelem Szakos Portál

Richaud, Romain
Politics’ reaction from a left-wing department about the German-
Soviet Pact
In the south of the country, The Landes department was firmly left-wing. Until
the 1930’S, the radicalism was holding the department. During these years, the
political deal changed lightly. In big cities like Dax extreme right leagues are created
and in front of this, antifascist committees were born offently led by communists.
The Communists are strongly established in cities of Tarnos and Boucau, symbol of
the worker class with the Forges de l’Adour and the Iron Work, in the south of the
department. A breeding ground in wich we can find the executive of the party. In the
same time, the socialists are in a full expansion: in 1936, Charles Lamarque Cando
became the first socialist elected in the Council Department.
In 1936, the Popular Front won the legislative elections in France, in most
departments and in the Landes too. The department got one socialist deputy and
three radical-socialist deputies. We can object that the republican democracy
played for them, the popular assembly and the left in general. Radicalism kept
the first place even if socialists were growing up and communists held their
position. However, quickly there is disunity. Every formation goes back to its
position. In their weekly, Le Travailleur Landais, The Socialists denounce the
radical-socialists too much attached to private property while they refuse to work
with the communists in the council department. The Communists who write in
L’Etincelle against radicals, newspaper published in the Basses Pyrénées. The
latter defended themselves and criticized the other parties in „Le Républicain
Landais” and „Le Démocrate”.
It’s now interesting to wonder how they reacted to the Ribbentrop-Molotov
Pact in august 1939 after a lot of negotiations between the different
governments. First we will look at the immediate reactions in local socialist
and radical-socialist newspapers. Then, we will analyse the explanations that
people at the time tried to find to the signing of that pact. Finally, we will deal
with the tensions between the different parties, and especially with what was to
become the „communist problem” 1 .
Between astonishment and obviousness
Jean Paul Brunet had shown that newspapers from the right and left agreed
with the idea that pact was a considerable event. However there is no doubt that
in our department URSS is the most criticized. 2
1 La Petite Gironde, 28 août 1939.
2 BRUNET, Jean Paul: La presse française et le pacte germano-soviétique (août 1939). In:
Relations Internationales, 1974, n°2. 187-212.
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