fascism corruption economic hardship
ideological rivalry anti-semitism these
words can describe pretty much every
European country in the interwar years
France is no exception and in 1934 on
the night of February 6th this all comes
together to trigger the worst political
violence the country has seen for
generations
once the dust settles the battle lines
within France will be more stark than
ever
bullshit justly indy neidell and this is
unclear dude guerre a chronological
summary of the interwar years covering
all facets of life the uncertainty
hedonism and euphoria and ultimately
humanity's descent into the darkness of
the Second World War
if in the aftermath of the Great War
Germany is facing a national humiliation
and if Italy is facing a frustration and
victory then we may say that France is
facing a lost peace France emerged
victorious from the war sure but at a
cost of close to 5% of its population
nearly nine million men were mobilized
to fight for France and around 73
percent of them were either killed or
wounded those who survived are still
often a visible scar on the streets of
France and the staggering loss of young
men heightens fears over declining birth
rates the country is also in financial
ruin it has gone from a creditor nation
to a debtor nation vital industries in
the northeast were were utterly
obliterated during the war and the franc
has plummeted in value and such trauma
inevitably leads to political division
the brutalizing experience of the
trenches and the military patriotism of
the war years have created a whole
generation of radicalized veterans
ultra-nationalism such as this has
always been hostile to the political
left but the Bolshevik Revolution in
Russia has intensified hatred of the Red
Menace and any groups associated with it
have become targets this really comes to
a head in 1924 after the election of the
so called cartel de Guiche and electoral
alliance between the center-left radical
party and other more left-wing groups in
response several new leagues are formed
or grow in strength groups such as the
Jeunesse pay Clio and the fish hill
begin to develop a far-right agenda the
latter group is more overtly fascist
than the former indeed the fascio are
the first real fascist party to emerge
outside of Italy but both groups like
many others formed in this time see
veterans
as the men who will rejuvenate France
save her from Republican leftism and
preserve her conservative traditions
both groups also have paramilitary units
with their own uniforms and with big
parades alongside these newer groups is
the axial fan state founded during the
Dreyfus Affair in 1899 the group
promotes the principle of integral
nationalism a counter revolutionary and
royalist doctrine incorporating anti
parliamentarianism authoritarianism
Catholicism anti-semitism and
ultra-nationalism though already a
significant movement the rise of the
cartel has given it a golden opportunity
for publicity other less radical but
still right when groups are also
emerging the largest being de fédération
nationale Catholic led by general de
castle now it has mobilized math
Catholics support against the government
in 1926 its membership will rise to 1.8
million however that same year the
cartel government collapses and is
replaced by a more right-wing one under
veteran conservative Lyman Poincare a
general election in 1928 further secures
the political position of conservative
parties so the cries against the
degenerate leftists have kind of lost
their potency
however the ground is still fertile for
the far right to sow their seeds the
memories of war remain vivid especially
as France finds itself increasingly
isolated from Britain and the United
States the national sacrifice at Verdun
is compared bitterly by many to the
corrupt liberalism declining birth rates
and the new woman of the 1920s despite
the new Conservative government passing
effective legislation the political
class is becoming discredited you see
they're borrowing a fair amount from the
radical program this might win over the
typical voter sure might create a sense
of consensus but it angers the
nationalist right they are joined by an
increasing number of young intellectuals
frustrated at the lack of prospects in
the Republic though varied they share a
suspicion of
mechanism and materialism with an
accompanying veneration of French
traditionalism okay it is worth
mentioning that not every veteran or
young person has become a fluent
nationalist in fact pacifism has
actually been on the rise in France this
is expressed by both dominant socialist
parties and many veterans organizations
pledging themselves to peace
nevertheless as France enters the 1930s
shadowy forces on the horizon grow
clearer she has actually escaped the
worst parts of the worldwide depression
so far in fact French financial markets
are looking strong and the government
budget is in surplus but economic
technicalities do little to calm the
pessimism among the populace
conservative governments remain in power
until April 1932 when they are defeated
by another cartel de gauche
however the cartel fails to transform
its electoral alliance into a
governmental one and now like Germany
some years earlier French politics is
going through I guess what you'd call a
cascade of cabinets these socialists who
worked with the Radical Party are pretty
suspicious of bourgeois governments and
offer only conditional parliamentary
support this means that governments are
continually facing instability and
insecurity political deadlocks happen
again and again and successive cabinets
collapse fueling this political
turbulence is a growing public unrest
over a host of different grievances see
now a couple years later the depression
is hitting France harder and harder
there are mass protests against war
debts against pension cuts against
rising taxes against tumbling
agricultural prices and against slashed
wages it really does look like France
has lost the peace indeed marshal
Philippe Pathan himself known as the
Lion of Verdun amplifies this narrative
in a 1932 speech commemorating that
famous battle he expresses dismay that
the patriotism of the war has now given
way to bitter division and to top it all
off the ascendance of Hitler in Germany
in 1933 creates
hiding across much of France in terms of
both population and industrial capacity
Germany has basically double the size of
France and Hitler's withdrawal from a
rearmament conference heightens fears
that France is now in danger from both
internal and external enemies so like
most of inter warrior France is sitting
on a bonfire of political social and
economic problems that seems to be just
waiting for a match to set it all ablaze
for the Third Republic this will be the
political scandal known as the stavisky
affair
Serge Alexandre stavisky was born in
1886 to a Jewish family in what was then
the Russian Empire the family soon moved
to France and as he grew up Serge became
increasingly involved with fraudulent
enterprises from his teenage years he
has behind him a string of fake
companies bad checks stolen securities
now he's arrested in 1926 but 317 months
later on medical grounds and he
continues his shady career now status
key is nothing more than a petty crook
but he is also a real charmer and a true
socialite of his day he somehow bagged
himself a Chanel model for a wife and
has a knack for making friends in high
places but by the end of 1933 the law is
catching up with him on Christmas Day he
flees Paris after a lucrative scheme of
his begins to unravel it basically
involves local politicians and their
assistance in securing bad bonds faker
stolen jewelry and pawn shops once the
right-wing press gets wind of this
tangled web they declared a new republic
and scandal thing is only getting more
scandalous On January 8th when police
finds the Biscay dying from a gunshot
wound in a remote Alpine chalet it is
officially a suicide but speculation is
rife that the police murdered him as
part of a government cover-up now
scandals like this are not exactly new
in French politics and they have been
the ammunition of choice for anyone
looking to discredit
organisms as far back as the French
Revolution monarchist philosopher Joseph
de Maistre
said listening to these so-called
Republicans talk of liberty and virtue
is like watching some faded courtesan
feigning the modest blushes of a virgin
other more recent scandals though have
also fueled public mistrust of the
French Republic so there's nothing
particularly unique about the stavisky
affair only six politicians are directly
implicated and none of them are
exceptionally high ranking but the fact
that stavisky is Jewish and that several
of the ruling center-left politicians
are implicated and that France is in the
grip of depression make it a tailor-made
opportunity for the radical right calls
for action grow louder the minister of
qualities is forced to resign once it
becomes clear that he provided
assistance to stavisky
but the right-wing press does not stop
there and street demonstrations are on
the rise newspaper headlines screamed
down with the robbers down with the
assassins they now also call for Prime
Minister Camille Shelton to resign
he is already a hated figure for his
Masonic connections and right-wing
groups hold daily demonstrations against
him and the entire Republican
establishment protesters barricade the
streets with cars they even tear down
trees show Tom eventually is forced to
resign and is replaced by Edouard
Daladier on January 30th da-da-da is
conscious of the rising threat I mean
it'd be hard to miss it he knows he
needs to build a stronger alliance with
other left-wing groups to show that his
radical party is serious about this he
dismisses Paris police prefect and
far-right sympathizer Jean XI up from
his post but this only aggravates the
enemies of the Republic further who
accused da lady am attempting to
establish a left-wing dictatorship they
come together loosely that is to hold a
massive demonstration against the Third
Republic now I say loosely because there
isn't really any central aim or
coordination instead a variety of
leagues decide that on the night of
February 6 they will stage action
against the Republic and that's pretty
much all they agree on some want an
outright coup others are less clear
about what they want at all one of the
main groups is the good-old axial and
France A's
there are some suggestions they want to
overthrow the government but their
actions seem to prove otherwise
tonight they are primarily represented
by their youth wing with few of the
major leaders present in fact the
league's leader Sean Morris has chosen
to spend the night writing poems rather
than go out in the cold winter night and
overthrow the system now as you might be
thinking that's not really the tactics
of a group staging a full-blown
revolution the Jonas pop will have a
slightly more precise position they do
not wish to overthrow the Republic
itself but do very much want to replace
the current government with a more
authoritarian one also president of the
quad ever formed in 1927 and led by
Colonel Locke it is another League made
up of veterans around a hundred thousand
of them to be exact now about 61 percent
of this membership live in Paris and
many of them show up tonight but it's
tough to work out what they hope to
achieve indeed there are suggestions
that larocque had to be pressured from
the other leagues to join in the first
place there are also smaller fascist or
far-right oriented groups present such
as yes solidarity Frances and movement
Franck east even between their members
there is no consensus many want to
complete coop others just want to
demonstrate their anger right so to make
this heady mix just a little bit more
confusing communist groups have also got
themselves involved despite being
opposed to these far-right groups and
often coming to blows with them they
also have a desire to overthrow the
liberal democratic system it is
important to note that the Communist
Party has also called on its members to
fight fascists tonight as well as
government forces but
despite the complex disunity these
groups are a severe threat to French
damar
krisi the ever sensationalist paris
press has published detailed
descriptions of the league plans and the
league manifestos and such publicity
leads to large crowds gathering at
points throughout the city in the
evening they start to march on the + de
la Concorde as night comes things start
to get violent police block the Concorde
bridge and the mob begins hurling debris
and rocks in response cavalry are sent
in as reinforcements and charge at the
demonstrators but the mob have brought
with them sticks with razor blades
attached if they succeed in cutting down
a horse they leap upon the Fallen rider
and beat him savagely the first shots
are soon fired now no one knows from
where or from whom but they heighten the
panic the fighting intensifies communist
demonstrators now also break away and
pillage the Rue Royale and buildings
government or otherwise in the area are
set ablaze rocks are thrown at
firefighters battling the flames
meanwhile an equal amount of chaos has
taken place in the Chamber of Deputies
itself since 3 p.m. de la da has
consistently been prevented from reading
his ministerial declaration
conservatives keep breaking into
choruses of the Marseillaise and
communists keep belting out the
International knowledge this fights
occur between rival deputies the
speaker's been forced to suspend the
session several times and just when
things settled down the deputies hear
the first shots ring out and many flees
hurrying past the injured police treated
by doctors in the corridors by the time
things are finally adjourned at around
8:30 p.m. there were only about 5 non
cabinet member Deputies left in the
chamber back outside much of the mob has
turned towards the presidential palace
and the Ministry of the Interior
after some bloody fighting they are
beaten back and retreat to the Concorde
once again then at about 10:30
rioters unaware that the deputies have
left begin a full assault on the bridge
in front of the Assembly Building
11:30 they seemed to be breaking through
the last police barricade the guards
panic and shoot indiscriminately without
warning at the charging mob halting it
in its tracks as midnight comes around
demonstrators are finally beaten back
fires are now being taken care of and
police take control of the situation by
2:30 in the morning the riots seem to be
over for now but the following week sees
further chaos and further violence admit
day the next day anyhow de la dia is
forced to resign after the cartel falls
once again and the police and judiciary
challenged his authority in his place
now is former president Gaston doumergue
and a new right-wing cabinet street
fights demonstrations and strikes will
take place throughout the next few days
adding to the worst civil bloodshed
France has seen since the days of the
Paris Commune it is widely believed by
the left that this has all been a
fascist coup again that the press do
little to calm these fears later in the
week socialist and communist groups come
together to protest against the fascist
threat now obviously I just detailed how
Communist rioters fought alongside
fascist ones but this seems to be the
result more of organizational confusion
and mob mentality rather than any
ideological cause in fact Moscow has
been pressuring the communist parties to
adopt a more conciliatory stance towards
left-wing and moderate groups they are
advised now to form popular fronts
against the ultimate enemy Nazi Germany
anti-fascism is the priority of
international communism now and in the
coming years it will join forces with
even the radicals to form a bulwark
against the radical right speaking of
the radical right February 6 has in many
ways been a success for them they have
successfully forced a center-left
cabinet out of government a first in the
Third Republic tens of thousands of new
members are now also swelling the ranks
of the league's like the quad therefore
many of the parliamentary right-wing
have now also been radicalized adding to
the political stratification
we could of course look at this and see
France as a nation full of people just
waiting for either a new war or a
dictatorship but it's important to
remember that leaving aside the
extremist forces of the time much of
public opinion leans towards pacifist
democracy and pacifist groups most
literally millions of members at the
same time however the battle lines have
been well and truly drawn the political
turbulence of the 1920s and 1930s has
shown that many of the men in charge of
running and defending the Third Republic
despise it the formation of a Popular
Front may be desirable for the ordinary
citizen who has no wish to see a fascist
third but two conservative generals of
the army it reeks of entry-level
communism this is also mirrored in the
massive growth of the far-right leagues
after February 6 and their work to
undermine the Third Republic continues
and who knows if a united Popular Front
will be able to survive and fight off
the fascist threats any help by this
point pretty much every communist party
in Europe defers to Moscow and if
Stalin's position of Nazi Germany
changes so will everyone else's the
unity of Verdun is now but a distant
memory things have fallen apart will the
centre be able to hold if you'd like to
learn more about the global rise of
fascism and understand what it actually
is a little bit better and have a look
at our video on the rise of evil you can
click on it right here should be any
minute now
our patron of the week is Yorick Crone
or crow net thanks to people like Yorick
good name York we can now enjoy the
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