Waldeck Rochet | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Waldeck Rochet in 1968 | |
| Deputy of theNational Assembly | |
| In office October 21, 1945 – April 1, 1973 | |
| In office May 3, 1936 – January 21, 1940 | |
| General Secretary of theCommunist Party of France | |
| In office 17 May 1964 – 17 December 1972 | |
| Preceded by | Maurice Thorez |
| Succeeded by | Georges Marchais |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1905-04-05)April 5, 1905 |
| Died | February 17, 1983(1983-02-17) (aged 77) |
| Resting place | Père Lachaise Cemetery,Paris |
| Political party | Communist Party of France (1923–) |
| Military service | |
| Allegiance | .svg) Free France France |
| Branch/service | Free French Forces French Army |
| Years of service | 1943–1945 (Free France) 1926–1927 (France) |
| Battles/wars | |
Waldeck Rochet (5 April 1905 – 17 February 1983) was a Frenchcommunist politician. He was General Secretary of theFrench Communist Party (PCF) from 1964 to 1972.
The son of a cobbler, Rochet was named in honor of politicianPierre Waldeck-Rousseau. After completing his service in the army, he worked inmarket gardening. In 1923, he joined the youth wing of theFrench Communist Party (PCF), and the following year the Party itself. He was sent over to theSoviet Union, in order to receive political training atMoscow'sInternational Lenin School. Rochet was local Party secretary inLyon, then joined the central leadership inParis; from 1936 to 1940, he was a communist representative in the lower chamber (theThird Republic equivalent of today'sFrench National Assembly), elected inColombes-Nanterre. During those years, Waldeck Rochet founded and edited the periodicalLa Terre.
Charged by Party leaderMaurice Thorez with agricultural matters and reporting to thePolitburo, he took steps to ensure that divisions between peasants and urban dwellers were not to be encouraged within the Party structure. In 1939, he refused to condemn theMolotov–Ribbentrop Pact (as did the entire Party leadership), placing himself outside French law.[1] He was detained in the French colony ofAlgeria, passing into the custody ofVichy France after theGerman invasion of France (1940), being set free by theAllies on the wake of theNorth African Campaign.
In 1943, after joining theFree French Forces, he represented the communists inLondon and was elected to the provisional legislative body inAlgiers.[2] In late 1944, after theLiberation of Paris, Waldeck Rochet regained the French capital, where he carried on as representative.
In 1945, he became a member of the Politburo, and was elected deputy for Saône-et-Loire in the two successiveConstituent Assemblies; in 1946, he was a representative to the National Assembly – serving until 1958, the first year of theFrench Fifth Republic. From that moment on, Rochet was elected in otherconstituencies:Seine, thenSeine-Saint-Denis (forAubervilliers), until 1973. He was head of the Assembly's agriculture commission, as well as president of the communistparliamentary group.
During those years, Rochet rose to the third most important position within the Party, after Thorez andJacques Duclos. A deputygeneral secretary in 1961, he became the PCF leader in 1964.[3] Favorable toleft-wing cooperation, Rochet directed the PCF votes towardsFrançois Mitterrand in thepresidential elections of 1965. The problem he faced as general secretary was the balance between a needed rejuvenation of the PCF structure and maintaining an orthodoxMarxist-Leninist ideology. In consequence, he publicly stated his disregard for the leftist movement ofMay 1968, while later in the same year he had to deal with the Soviet crushing of thePrague Spring (when he tended to be favorable to the latter). The considerable stress of dealing with the latter event took a great toll on Rochet's nervous health.
In 1970, as Rochet had become too ill to attend to his duties,Georges Marchais became thede facto Party leader, while Rochet remained National Secretary until 1972, then honorary president until 1979. During the last portion of his life, Waldeck Rochet turned towardsRoman Catholicism, publicly displaying devotion forThe Virgin, an attitude which led several of his comrades to consider that he had become insane. He died in Paris.
| Party political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Secretary General of theFrench Communist Party 1964–1972 | Succeeded by |
