The Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact - ELTE BTK Történelem Szakos Portál

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soviets didn’t have motive. Blum advanced the idea that the British and French delegations' slowness could have had consequences, but later said he reckoned it was a bad excuse. It was really the USSR's, and more particularly Stalin's duplicity which was denounced. As Lamarque Cando said „the father of common peoples whose earlier propaganda pitted public opinion against fascism, and who had shown Hitler as the enemy of liberty is now none other than the murderer of Finland, after stabbing Poland in the back” 20 . For the radical-socialists L.Barbedette wrote in every edition a critical column with titles like: „the soviet cynicism”, „torturers”, „bad faith”, or again „nausea” and „the odious soviet attitude” 21 . Column, in which, he criticized deliberately the „obvious duplicity” of the „real Asiatic despot” who regret nothing about the dirty deed done. 22 Appreciation we can find lead all at the same conclusion. A few quotations will help to understand. Blum claimed that „in this situation we can’t count on the USSR” and said that „the collapse of the peace forehead is just a question of weeks” 23 . Some socialist would have liked to believe in the soviet power to umpire the crisis but they stayed sceptical. Le Travailleur Landais published a declaration of Harmel a leader of the CGT: „what is new in the last 24 hours is that there is no chance to create an Eastern peace front, the USSR being out” 24 . Peace in Europe was more than compromised, and the County Council member Lamarque Cando added: „The Ribbentrop-Molotov pact is a bandits' deal” settled by „two gangsters” 25 . Needless to say that this hostility to the USSR was going to have consequences on all communist parties and in the Landes too, where as we have seen it was well implanted. Repercussion on the politic life and the „communist problem” If we haven’t mentioned the French Communist Party in the Landes until now, it’s in order to expose its reaction in this last part. It was in a very tricky position. Like at the national level, it was a divided and just about to implode in our left-wing department. First we will see its relationships with the other political formations. Radical-socialists were always afraid of „a red conspiracy”. That’s why criticism went on. L. Barbedette kept his state of mind. An anticommunist mind. He said that „we have to tear off the masks of the big leaders who deliberately deceived the working class and were in fact doing their utmost to spark an armed conflict” 26 . A few days after the signing of the pact, the same 20 CANDO, Charles Lamarque In Le Travailleurs Landais, 17 décembre 1939. 21 Le Démocrate, tribunes de L.Bardette des 5-7 septembre, 17-24 septembre, 1 er et 22 octobre 22 Le Démocrate, art. Mauvaise foi, L.Barbedette, 5-7 septembre 1939. 23 Le Travailleurs Landais, Editorial du 26 août 1939. 24 Déclaration de Harmel, CGT, Le Travailleurs Landais 26 août 1939. 25 Charles Lamarque Cando, in Le Travailleurs Landais, 17 décembre 1939. 26 Le Démocrate, art. Mauvaise foi, L.Barbedette, 5-7 septembre 1939. 150
writer affirmed that radicals „had never trusted Stalin or his lackeys” 27 . By „his lackeys” he meant French Communist leaders like Duclos and Thorez or Gilbert Vital 28 in the department. Beyond the fear of Bolsheviks, he couldn't accept that the same party which had led antifascist resistance a few years before now approved of this pact. There was no chance for communists to find support from the socialists' side. The split of Tours in 1920 was still noticeable. Lamarque Cando's conclusions were final: „Is there still anyone, who yesterday was a sincere communist, to believe in the superiority of dictatorship?” 29 He denounced communist leaders. „Between Stalin’s servants, Thorez, Duclos, today in the pay of Hitler and us there is a moral incompatibility”. „Between them (Stalin's lackeys) and us, there is a murdered peace” 30 . Lamarque Cando was a wellknown anticommunist in the department. Pierre Brossollette 31 , another member of the SFIO incriminated communist writers like Aragon in Le Travailleurs Landais. He reproached them for celebrating the pact as an act of peace in their newspapers such as „Ce Soir”. He denounced their „blind and aggressive commitment” 32 . He underlined their lack of humility, their lack of decency for people who were in antifascist sections and who now applauded „the coming together of communism and Nazism” 33 . Socialists didn’t believe the communist excuse that if the USSR chose Germany’s side it was to blackmail France and Britain and because of their negligence. Politicians were aware that something important had happened in the country's political life. Le Démocrate published a press release from La Dépêche: „it’s an event which will affect in their consciences those who believed in Stalin like you believe in Christ” 34 . (Festival du Film from Pessac: Once upon a faith the communism). Jacques Lemoine dares to say that „there is just a definitive collapse for the party who linked his life to a foreign pawn” 35 . Besides outside criticism, something was broken inside the PCF itself. Indeed, two main political lines were decided upon. One chose to follow 27 Idem. 28 From the Sarthe he was hurt during the First World War. He came in the department in 1930 like electrician. He left the SFIO to the PC. He lost the Council Department election in 1934. He was elected town councilor of Soorts-Hossegor in 1935. He allowed the win of the Popular Front in the department giving his points to the left candidate. In 1937 he became member of the Council department. In 1941 he was summed to stay in his house like the other dangerous communist. In 1944 he led the Council department of liberation with Lamarque Cando. 29 CANDO, Charles Lamarque, In Le Travailleurs Landais, 17 décembre 1939. 30 CANDO, Charles Lamarque, In Le Travailleurs Landais, 17 décembre 1939. 31 Member of the SFIO in 1929, he started as journalist in Le Populaire. Lieutenant in 1940, he went to London and De Gaulle and became a leader of The Resistance in France. He worked in the BCRA. In February, 1944, he was taken by German and without talking he committed a suicide. 32 BROSSOLETTE, Pierre In Le Populaire, in Le Travailleurs Landais, 26 août 1939. 33 Idem. 34 Extrait de La Dépêche, in Le Démocrate, 27 août 1939. 35 La Petite Gironde, 23 août 1939. 151
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ISBN 978-963-284-164-9
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Unknown Clauses: The Background Dea
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CONTENTS Foreword (István MAJOROS,
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Foreword The world remembers in 200
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The Historical Judgement of the Mol
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went often on emotional instead of
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What is much more interesting is th
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such an international agreement as
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Text of the Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggress
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Done in duplicate, in the German an
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Lachaise, Bernard Historiography of
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Relations) are the focus of special
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Russian agreement (…) would allow
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Europe and on the French communists
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adopted a stance of denying the fac
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Ortolan, Guillaume The 70 th annive
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government (more than twenty) came,
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War. On the contrary, it shows that
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this anniversary and more widely of
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interesting: „Illusions. In summe
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Kretschmann, Vasco The ideological
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One of the most influential associa
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Germanness in the provinces of West
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Prętkiewicz, Przemysław The syste
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interwar period and the treaty was
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situation of rising danger accepted
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Manchukuo and broke relations with
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I would like to finish my article w
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party itself but for the whole Slov
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In summary, the group of the „Mod
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make proposals or suggestions. 6 In
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(Aland), Hanko and the islands of t
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have had a less serious effect on t
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not expect strong resistance and ho
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Winkler, Paul Adolf Eichmann’s Vi
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individual offenders, 10 who used h
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esearch. But how could the suppress
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expert of this matter 29 and had as
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Arendt on the contrary is in the op
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the „matter”, where there was a
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adoption of the model it became cle
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of Eichmann. For that Heydrich deli
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esistance […] but of logistics. N
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British government refused to give
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ole in the defence of Madrid in Nov
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public doubt the democratic idea of
Page 102 and 103: Republicans. In the refugee camps i
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Page 106 and 107: iron? Where can one find more nicke
Page 108 and 109: According to his diaries, the main
Page 110 and 111: announced: „We have no active all
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Page 114 and 115: negative, an analysis of the disapp
Page 116 and 117: can let think of an imminent war po
Page 118 and 119: de la guerre [il] ne fait que l'agg
Page 120 and 121: Party), the enemy of the inside. Of
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Page 124 and 125: Before the Pact M. Coulondre, the F
Page 126 and 127: Lets us skip a few decades and list
Page 128 and 129: argain with. Hitler had an offer th
Page 130 and 131: secret protocol clarified that the
Page 132 and 133: to reach out for Russia through the
Page 134 and 135: of a war interesting rather on civi
Page 136 and 137: At the same moment, we can note an
Page 138 and 139: Faure 2 , remains hostile to war. I
Page 140 and 141: war can still be avoided in June 19
Page 142 and 143: acked by a „belligerent” coalit
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Page 146 and 147: agreement” sound anachronistic. E
Page 148 and 149: 1939 between Germany and the Soviet
Page 150 and 151: Two ideas emerge from the press: on
Page 154 and 155: Moscow's line, with the national an
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Page 158 and 159: 2.000 German speaking inhabitants).
Page 160 and 161: The Eastern Polish border was not r
Page 162 and 163: Army. The mayor of Lviv did not wan
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Page 166 and 167: Budapest, and for Warsaw. The two c
Page 168 and 169: could not destroy the Polish Air Fo
Page 170 and 171: independence, Romania was forced to
Page 172 and 173: importance for the events considere
Page 174 and 175: possible future opposition to the S
Page 176 and 177: ate of communists within the Jews o
Page 178 and 179: the initial positive feeling toward
Page 180 and 181: wanted to take revenge for the NKVD
Page 182 and 183: German Reactions A last point that
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