in World War II, the patriotic movement for the liberation of France from the fascist occupiers for national independence (until 1942 it was called “Free France”) was led by Charles de Gaulle. She joined the anti-fascist coalition and participated in a number of its military operations. Governing body - French National Committee (London), in 1943-1944. French National Liberation Committee.

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"FIGHTING FRANCE"

La France combattante") (in 1940-42 - "Free France") - during the 2nd World War, a collection of French territories and citizens who did not accept surrender and fought for the liberation of France. The first participants in "S. F." were French military personnel stationed in England. Gradually they became an attractive center for all the French who were striving for the liberation of their homeland. In the fall of 1940, to "S. F." joined a number of French colonies (Cameroon, Chad, Gabon and some others). "S. F." had armed forces (35 in the fall of 1940). The leadership of "S. F." from September 24, 1941, was carried out by the French National Committee created in London, headed by General Charles de Gaulle. The latter was recognized on September 26, 1941 by the Soviet government as "the leader of all free Frenchmen, wherever they were there." At the end of 1942, the Committee sent a group of pilots to the Soviet Union, later transformed into the Normandy-Niemen air regiment. On November 25, 1942, at a meeting of representatives of Charles de Gaulle and the PCF, an agreement was reached on cooperation in preparing a national uprising In January 1943, F. Grenier, a member of the Central Committee of the PCF, arrived in London as a representative of “S. F." To the success of the movement "S. F." was facilitated by his support from the Resistance Movement in France itself. On May 27, 1943, members of the Resistance formed the National Council of the Resistance, which united all Resistance organizations and recognized de Gaulle as the head of the Resistance Movement. On June 3, 1943 in Algeria it was formed headed by de Gaulle and A. O. Giraud French National Liberation Committee (FCNL), to whom the functions of the “S. F." From December 1943, General de Gaulle became the sole chairman of the FKNO, which included representatives of the FCP in April 1944. In June 1944, the FKNO was renamed the Provisional Government of the French Republic. The movement "S. F." played an objectively progressive role in the fight against Nazi Germany and contributed to the Franco-Soviet rapprochement. Lit.: Gaulle S. de, Military Memoirs, translated from French, vol. 1-2, M., 1957-60; Soviet-French relations during the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945, M., 1959; Grenier F., That's how it was, translated from French, M., 1960; Thorez M., France after the surrender in Retonde, Selected works, vol. 1, M., 1959. I. S. Kisselgof. Ufa.

On July 10, 1940, the Third Republic in France was destroyed and the Vichy government was created. The French Republic was called the "French State".

The economic policy of the Vichy government was aimed at turning France into an appendage of the German war economy. In October 1940, Pétain, during a meeting with Hitler in Montoir, officially proclaimed a policy of cooperation with Germany.

The German authorities exported up to 3/4 of France's raw materials to Germany. The forced deportation of the French to Germany began to be practiced, and in France itself forced labor was introduced in factories and construction sites. Over 2.5 million French, including prisoners of war, were forced to work in Germany.

In France, the working day was extended to 10-12 hours, wages were “frozen”, while prices for basic necessities issued by cards increased several times.

In order to “free up” workers to be sent to Germany, small and medium-sized enterprises were forcibly liquidated. In 1942 alone, about 10 thousand small enterprises were closed, employing up to 150 thousand workers. The same measures were taken in retail trade in the summer of 1943. As a result of this “concentration” of industry and trade, up to 50% of small industrial and commercial enterprises were closed in France in 1943. Significant layers of small and medium-sized entrepreneurs went bankrupt.

The situation of the peasants was no less difficult. The Germans siphoned off more than a third of France's agricultural products. The population of the country was starving.

The Resistance movement began from the first days of the occupation of the country. The first major protest was a large demonstration of students and working youth in Paris on November 11, 1940, on the anniversary of the victorious end of the First World War for France.

In April–May 1941, a powerful strike occurred, involving over 100 thousand miners in the Nord and Pas-de-Calais departments. It lasted until June 10, 1941. The Germans sent their troops and tanks against the strikers and installed up to two thousand workers in all areas.

Representatives of the intelligentsia also took part in the struggle for the liberation of France. An underground committee of knowledge workers was created. He began editing and distributing numerous leaflets and appeals calling on French teachers to participate in the Resistance. The writer Louis Argon, the world famous scientist Joliot-Curie and others fought against the occupation authorities. In the fall of 1942, many French writers united around the newspaper Lettre Française. Among them were Paul Eluard, Elsa Triolet, Georges Sadoul.

In May 1941, the anti-fascist National Front was created, which united the bulk of French patriots, representatives of various social strata and views. Local committees of the National Front were created throughout the country along territorial and professional lines.

Until September 1941, there were three main groups of military organizations in France: partisans, youth battalions and a group of emigrants. In October 1941, these organizations were united into one under the name “Special Organization”, and then it was renamed the organization “Frantiers and Partisans”.

“Frantirers and Partisans” was an armed organization of the National Front; workers, Catholics, socialists, minor employees, as well as representatives of the intelligentsia, the petty and middle bourgeoisie of the city and countryside fought in its ranks. “Frantirers and Partisans” was in fact for a long time the only organization that waged an armed struggle against the occupiers; it won universal sympathy in France.

By the end of the summer of 1942, the combat activities of the franc-tireurs and partisans reached great proportions. Every day there were several train wrecks, and enemy warehouses with various military materials were set on fire. In October 1942, major strikes took place in many factories against the call of French workers to Germany. The workers hiding from being sent to Germany went into the forests (the so-called poppies). During the occupation of France, the name “poppies” was given to the French who were hiding in hard-to-reach places from being sent to work in Germany. In the literature, the name “maquis” often refers to partisan detachments, the vast majority of whom joined the ranks of franc-tireurs and partisans.

Along with the National Front, other Resistance organizations of different composition and numbers arose in France. The largest of them were: in the southern zone - "Comba" ("Struggle"), "Frantirer" ("Free Shooter"), "Liberation" ("Liberation") and in the northern zone - "Liberation Nor" ("Liberation of the Northern zone"), "Se da la Liberation" ("People of Liberation"), "Se de la resistance" ("People of Resistance"), "Organization civil e militaire" ("Civil and military organization"). These organizations were headed by representatives of the intelligentsia, socialists, democratic leaders, some leaders of clerical circles and representatives of the big French bourgeoisie. These organizations printed and distributed underground newspapers and magazines, conducted anti-fascist propaganda, collected intelligence data for the Anglo-American troops, and created their own armed units, united at the beginning of 1943 into a “secret army.”

Until the beginning of 1944, the units of the “secret army” did not conduct an active armed struggle. They had to wait until D-Day, when the order to march would come. This tactic, called attantism (wait, expect), was carried out by de Gaulle and his representatives in the Resistance movement. It was believed that D-Day would mark the moment when the Allied armies would land in France and the Germans would leave.

The most anti-fascist positions were occupied by the Liberation group. This organization included lawyers, politicians, journalists, and professors. And subsequently, on the basis of an anti-fascist platform, underground trade unions, socialists and communists participated in it.

The Comba group arose at the end of 1941. It consisted mainly of Catholics and officers of the French army.

The group "Frantirer" originated in the southern zone of France.

These three largest organizations in the southern zone of France - “Liberation”, “Combat”, “Frantirer” - merged in the fall of 1942 and formed one large organization - the “United Resistance Movement”. During the liberation, this organization became known as the National Liberation Movement. After the National Front, "the United Resistance Movement was the largest."

In the northern zone of France, along with the National Front, several groups arose and operated. Of these, the most significant were the Liberation Nord and the Organization Civil et Militaire.

Along with the popular Resistance movement unfolding in France, London became the center of the anti-Hitler movement of the French who found themselves outside the country. The previously little-known General Charles de Gaulle became the head of the movement, called “Free France”, and from July 1942 – “Fighting France”. On June 23, 1940, the British government announced its refusal to have relations with the Pétain government and on June 28, 1940, recognized de Gaulle as the head of the “free French.” On August 7, 1940, an agreement was concluded between the British Prime Minister W. Churchill and de Gaulle, which defined the law and nature of the Free French movement and provided for financial and material support for this movement from England. Some French colonies went over to de Gaulle's side, declaring a break with Petain. In occupation France, most of the leaders of the Resistance organization were guided by him.

During 1943, partisans carried out 2,009 attacks and sabotage on the railways. The operations of franchisors and partisans to destroy power plants and electrical lines acquired a wide scope. Two main power lines from the Alps and the French Massif Central, supplying power to businesses in the Paris region, were out of action for a total of 320 days. In September, the Chalon-Sur-Saône electrical line was seriously damaged, resulting in 31 factories in the industrial region of Creuzot with 70 thousand workers being out of commission for a week.

Frantireurs and partisans of the northern zone from April 1 to September 30, 1943 carried out 270 operations on the railways. 183 trains were derailed, 357 locomotives were destroyed, and 1,689 carriages were disabled. In the same zone, from October 1 to December 31, 1943, partisans blew up 21 locks, disrupted river navigation, and carried out continuous sabotage at military enterprises.

In September 1943, franc-tireurs and partisans, with the active support of the entire population, liberated the island of Corsica.

The largest centers of the partisan movement were Savoy, Haute-Savoie, Corrèze, Dordogne and other departments, where the patriots, starting in 1943, inflicted serious blows and ultimately liberated these departments on their own.

In order to achieve the involvement of all Resistance organizations in the active struggle, it was necessary to unite and coordinate their actions. A major event that completed the unification of the Resistance movement in France was the creation of the National Council of the Resistance (NCR) on May 27, 1943. The NSS became the highest governing body of the Resistance movement: Combat, Libération, the National Front and its organization Frantireurs et Partisans, the reunited General Confederation of Labor and Christian trade unions, as well as representatives of six parties: Communist, Socialist, Radical, People's Democrats (Catholic), Democratic Alliance and Republican Federation.

The creation of the NSS and the adoption of a unified program for the entire Resistance movement made it possible to unite the combat units of all Resistance organizations into a single centralized army (FFI). The united anti-fascist army of the French internal forces numbered up to 500 thousand people in its ranks.

The most powerful areas of armed struggle of the Resistance movement were Brittany, Normandy, and the departments of the center, south and southeast of the country. French patriots were especially active in areas where the Allied troops were approaching. On the Brittany Peninsula alone, 45 thousand Frenchmen fought with weapons in their hands. Many areas along the path of the Anglo-American advance were liberated by detachments of French partisans.

Outside France, two French centers were created and existed separately: in London - the French National Committee headed by de Gaulle; in North Africa - an administration supported by the Allied military authorities, headed by General Giraud. De Gaulle was supported by the resistance movement organizations that fought in France and by some French colonies that joined his movement.

The national interests of France required the creation of a single French government body and the unification of the armed forces of de Gaulle and Giraud, and the mobilization of all human and material resources of France.

Giraud and de Gaulle came to an agreement on June 3, 1943. As a result of this agreement, the French Committee of National Liberation (FCNL) was created. Its representatives were alternately de Gaulle and Giraud. There was not a single representative of the organization of the Resistance movement from the metropolis in it.

In November 1943, de Gaulle, relying on the support of the NSS, reorganized and headed the FCNO, removing Giraud from it. Representatives of various parties and factions of the Resistance movement were included in the committee.

On June 6, 1944, the United States and England began landing their troops on the Normandy coast of France. The struggle of the French Resistance movement, which had developed widely even before the opening of the second front, now acquired even greater scope.

In mid-July 1944, the center of France and Brittany were actually liberated from German troops, and the rear of the invaders was paralyzed. The French Massif Central, Limousin, the Alps, Haute-Garonne, Dordogne, Drome, Jura, as well as Brittany, were at the disposal of the FFI. In many other departments the Germans actually lost power. Railways, canals, highways, telegraph, telephone were almost completely out of order.

On September 3, 1944, Lyon was liberated mainly by the forces of the internal Resistance, and on September 11, French and American troops moving from the south united in the Dijon area with the right flank of the 3rd American Army.

On June 2, 1944, the French Committee of National Liberation declared itself the Provisional Government of France. As the American-British troops advanced into French territory, the areas liberated by them came under the control and management of the administration of the headquarters of the main command of the expeditionary forces. Over time, management functions in France were transferred to French authorities. But the governments of the USA and England did not recognize the Provisional Government of France. De Gaulle could not achieve full recognition during his visit to Washington in July 1944, although Roosevelt said that the United States had decided to consider the French National Liberation Committee as the main political power in France. From mid-August 1944, with the flight of Petain and Laval to Germany, the Vichy government ceased to exist.

On August 26, 1944, the United States and England recognized the French National Liberation Committee as a de facto French government. In the agreement concluded with de Gaulle on civil administration, the liberated part of France was divided into a forward zone, which was under the control of the Commander-in-Chief of the Allied Expeditionary Forces, and an internal zone, which was in the hands of the French authorities.

On August 30, de Gaulle announced the creation of the government of the French Republic in Paris. Two weeks later, he announced that a referendum to decide on the form of government would take place as soon as French sovereignty was restored, its territories were liberated and French prisoners of war and deportees returned to their homeland. On October 23, the Soviet Union, the USA, England and five other European states recognized the French Provisional Government led by de Gaulle.

The government of General de Gaulle was a coalition government. It included representatives of three parties: the People's Republican Movement, the French Communist Party and the French Socialist Party (SFIO).

On August 28, de Gaulle issued a decree dissolving the FFI and all their headquarters and announced the dissolution of the police. The procedure for implementing this decree was determined by special instructions that provided for the use of force. The issuance of a decree on the dissolution of the FFI meant that de Gaulle decided to immediately disarm and demobilize 500 thousand members of the Resistance, despite the fact that the interests of the country required the creation of a large army to speed up the liberation from German troops.

According to the testimony of many prominent figures of the Resistance, the signing of the decree on the dissolution of the FFI in that situation was also premature because the German troops, which remained surrounded in some cities on the Atlantic coast of France, were held mainly by almost unarmed detachments of the French Internal Forces. In the south-east of France, the FFI provided security for the Franco-Italian and Franco-Spanish borders from August to the end of September 1944. The decree was condemned and rejected. De Gaulle was unable to carry it out by force.

By the fall of 1944, the French army, formed with the assistance of the United States and England, had eight divisions. In mid-November, the French government turned to the Allies with a request to create eight more divisions. This proposal was approved, but the new formations were supposed to be used not at the front, but to protect communications and maintain internal security.

At the end of October 1944, the Soviet government sent a memorandum to the British Foreign Office and the US State Department, proposing to include a French representative in the European Advisory Commission as the fourth permanent member. This was seen as the first official recognition of France's right to participate in all European affairs on an equal basis with the three great powers.

On December 10, 1944, a Soviet-French treaty on alliance and mutual assistance was concluded. It was a treaty that the French Provisional Government entered into with another great power on an equal footing.

Related information.

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"Vichy Resistance"

The term “Vichy Resistance” (French vichysto-résistance) was born in the French press to designate a number of prominent politicians of the Vichy regime who sympathized with the Resistance and secretly participated in its activities. These included the future President of France François Mitterrand, Protestant theologian Marc Besnier and a number of others.

Allied Intelligence Support

The activities of the Resistance were supported by the intelligence services of the United States and Great Britain: the first agent was trained by de Gaulle and delivered to France on January 1, 1941; in total, 375 US intelligence agents, 393 British intelligence agents and 868 de Gaulle agents were delivered to France. With the reserves of French-speaking agents exhausted by the end of 1943, the Allies began to form groups of three (consisting of one Englishman, one American and one Frenchman) who were dressed in military uniform and (unlike agents) acted openly together with the partisans.

An example is Jacqueline Nearn, who, after the occupation of northern France, went to England, at the end of 1941 she became an agent of the British secret services and, after special training, was sent to France in January 1943. Based on her performance, she was awarded the Order of the British Empire.

Participation of foreign citizens in the French Resistance movement

German anti-fascists

About three thousand German anti-fascists took an active part in armed resistance to the occupiers.

Spanish anti-fascists

Also, a significant role in the movement was played by Spanish anti-fascists (anarchists, communists, left-wing republicans, Basque nationalists), who evacuated from the defeated Spanish Republic and had military experience.

Russian emigrants and citizens of the USSR

3 thousand Soviet citizens who ended up in France took part in the Resistance movement, as well as Russian emigrants living in France (A. A. Scryabina, Z. A. Shakhovskaya, I. I. Troyan, Boris Vilde, V. A. Obolenskaya, I. A. Krivoshein, A. N. Levitsky, G. Gazdanov, D. G. Amilakhvari, A. B. Katlama, K. L. Feldzer, B. R. Khreshchatitsky, A. A. Bennigsen, G. L. Roshko, F.I. Eliseev and others).

Research workers at the Museum of Man in Paris, Boris Wilde and Anatoly Levitsky, organized a printing house in the basement of the museum, which at the end of 1940 published the first issue of a leaflet entitled “Resist!”, which gave the name to the entire patriotic movement in France. At the end of 1941, they were arrested and in February 1942, Vilde, Levitsky and five other people from this underground group were shot near the wall of Fort Mont Valerien.

On October 15, 1943, the Central Committee of Soviet Prisoners of War in France began its activities, uniting the activities of partisan and underground groups of Soviet citizens; on November 7, 1943, the committee began publishing the newspaper “Soviet Patriot” (in Russian). By the spring of 1944, 35 Soviet partisan detachments were operating in the occupied territory of France (Dede, Donbass, Zheleznyak, For Freedom, Catherine, Kovpak, Kotovsky, Paris Commune, Rodina ", "Sevastopol", "Svoboda", "Chapaev", etc.), and the Rodina detachment under the command of N. Lisovets consisted of women.

The 1st Soviet partisan regiment in France was created by order of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the USSR Armed Forces dated August 22, 1944 on the basis of Armenian partisan detachments in the city of Nimes and largely from former legionnaires of the Armenian Legion of the Wehrmacht. Major A. Ghazaryan was appointed commander of the regiment, L. Titanyan was appointed commissar of the regiment, D. Minasyan was appointed chief of staff, and deputy. commander of the combat unit - B. Petrosyan. On May 1, 1945, the French government awarded the 1st Soviet Partisan Regiment with a battle banner and the Order of the Military Cross with a silver star. In addition, the battalions of the partisan regiment were awarded three red banners (from the city communist party organizations of the cities of Leon, Marseille and Nimes), and 665 soldiers of the regiment were awarded French orders and medals.

According to incomplete data, only in the period from the beginning of February to the end of August 1944, Soviet partisan detachments in France took part in the battles for the liberation of Paris, the cities of Toulouse, Limoges, Clermont-Ferrand, Nimes and a number of departments, destroyed 3,500 and captured 650 Nazis and German accomplices, damaged 9 high-voltage power lines, blew up three railway bridges, derailed 65 military trains, destroyed 76 locomotives and over 1000 railway cars, platforms and tanks, captured 90 vehicles, three heavy guns, 15 mortars, 50 machine guns, as well as small arms and other trophies.

In 1960, for courage in the battles for the freedom of the French people, orders and medals of France were awarded to a group of Soviet citizens who participated in the Resistance Movement on French territory.

Kazakhstanis

During the Second World War, Kazakhs fought in the ranks of the Resistance movement of European countries. On French territory, two partisan regiments were formed from former Soviet prisoners of war.

The first operated in the Marseille area. Ukrainian Vasily Porik, former resident of the city of Balkhash Galina Temchenko and many others fought in this regiment.

In Southern France, in the Gard department and the Toulouse region, the second Soviet partisan regiment operated, which liberated the cities of Florent, Villefort, Ales, and Albi from the Nazis. Almost 300 Kazakhstanis fought in this regiment. Among them are former soldiers of the Red Army: deputy regiment commander Abu Moldagaliev, company commander, then deputy. battalion commander Uteuli Bisengaliev, S. Zhumashev (Atyrau), Kanysbaev, N. Kunaev (Saratov region), Western Kazakhstanis Zh. Katshikov, S. Karenov, D. Karazhumin, N. Uteshev, B. Edrisov, Z. Amangaliev, Sh. Balykov , Semipalatinsk residents N. Ilyasov, M. Nugmanov, G. M. Martynenko, K. Khangereev, B. Seksenbaev from Taldy-Kurgan, Shamil Khasanovich Khusainov (North Kazakhstan region) and others.

U. Bisengaliev, called up for active service in 1939 from the current village of Akzhaik, Chapaevsky district, served in the cavalry at the beginning of the war as a deputy. squadron commander. In October 1941, in one of the difficult battles near Odessa, he was wounded and shell-shocked, and in this state he was captured. When he began to recover a little in the prisoner of war camp, he escaped and hid in a village, where he was captured by the police, handed over to the occupiers and sent to Germany along with other prisoners of war, and from 1943 to France to a prisoner of war camp.

Khusainov Shamil Khasanovich born December 7, 1918, Tatar, native of Petropavlovsk, North Kazakhstan region. Called up in March 1940 and registered in 1945 with the Petropavlovsk GVK. Served in the 747th Infantry Regiment, took part in the “Maquis” resistance movement in France, where he ended up after escaping from captivity at the Dachau concentration camp. Squad commander, senior sergeant. Injured. Awards: Order of the Patriotic War, 2nd degree, Order of Glory, 3rd degree, medals “For Victory over Germany”, “Grand French Cross for the Republic of France”, “Small French Cross for the Liberation of France”, anniversary medals. He died on May 28, 1993, and was buried in the city of Petropavlovsk, North Kazakhstan region.

The Nazis more than once trained prisoners so that they would join the legion to fight against the Red Army, but when they were finally convinced that they could not be persuaded to commit treason, they resorted to a trick, trying to use prisoners in the fight against partisans in France. However, upon arrival in France, the prisoners began to contact the Resistance movement and create an underground organization to escape from captivity.

2nd Ukrainian battalion named after Taras Shevchenko

In July 1944, as a result of the retreat of German troops from Belarus to France, the 115th and 118th security battalions, formed in occupied Ukraine from prisoners of war of the Red Army, were transferred to perform security functions. After being transferred to France, these formations were renamed, respectively, the 63rd and 62nd Schutzmannschaft battalions as part of the 30th SS Grenadier Division (2nd Russian).

On 21 August 1944, the 62nd and 63rd battalions were combined into a single formation; new German commanders were appointed. However, the new formation did not take part in the battles against the French partisans, since already on August 27 (the day appointed by the Germans to enter the anti-partisan positions) almost in its entirety went over to the side of the French resistance movement. From the French partisans who defected to the side, the 2nd Ukrainian battalion named after Taras Shevchenko (French) was formed. Le 2 Bataillon Ukrainien des Forces Francaices de L'Interier, Groupement Frontiere, Sous-Region D.2.) .

After the liberation of French territory, both battalions were included in the 13th demi-brigade of the French Foreign Legion, with which they fought until the end of the war. After the war, some of the fighters continued to serve in the Foreign Legion. A small part of the personnel nevertheless returned to the USSR.

Jewish militant organization

French Jews also fought in the ranks of the Resistance, creating the French organization. Organization Juive de Combat. Among them were many emigrants from Russia. In the partisan southern zone, under the name “Rezhin”, Sarah Knut (nee Ariadna Scriabina), the wife of the Jewish poet and member of the Resistance, Dovid Knut, fought and died in 1944. She was posthumously awarded the Military Cross and the Resistance Medal, and a monument to Sarah Knut was erected in Toulouse.

Participation of the Armenian community

The Armenian community of France played an active role in the Resistance. The Armenian poet and communist Misak Manushyan became one of the leaders of the Resistance and the commander of the Manushyan group (the family of chansonnier Charles Aznavour supported Misak and his wife Meline when they were in hiding). A group under the command of Manushyan made an attempt on the life of the commandant of Paris, General Schaumburg, who “distinguished himself” with mass executions, and eliminated SS Standartenführer Julius Ritter, responsible for sending 600,000 civilians to forced labor in Germany. The Nazi “Red Poster,” published in a circulation of 15,000 copies, depicted Manushyan: “ Manushyan, Armenian, gang leader, 56 attacks, 150 dead, 600 wounded" On November 16, 1943, Manushyan was arrested by the German command at the underground headquarters, tortured, and 3 months later he was executed along with 21 members of his group. Arpen Davityan, another executed member of Manushyan's group, industrialist Napoleon Bullukyan (1905-1984), poets Gegham Atmadzhyan (1910-1940) and Ruben Melik were among the most famous members of the French Resistance. Armenian-French writer Louise Aslanian (1906-1945), a Resistance activist, was arrested along with her husband in 1944, sent to a concentration camp and killed. Many of her manuscripts and diaries were confiscated by the Nazis. Alexander Ghazaryan and Bardukh Petrosyan were awarded the highest military orders of France by General Charles de Gaulle. Henri Karayan (1921-2011), a member of the Manouchian Group, participated in the underground distribution of L'Humanité in Paris and was involved in armed struggle before the Liberation. In 2012, 95-year-old Arsen Shakarian, the last survivor of the Manushian Group, was elevated to officer of the Legion of Honor by the President of France.

The “anti-fascist underground patriotic organization” operating in the territories of the USSR, Poland and France was led by a group of Armenian officers led by Major S. A. Yagjyan.

Participation of French citizens in the anti-fascist resistance of European countries

French citizens took part in the anti-fascist resistance in other European countries, including in the Soviet partisan movement in the occupied territory of the USSR:

Memory

Some patriotic resistance organizations

• United Resistance Movement
• Liberation-Sud

Famous figures

Notes

1. Writing without quotes with a lowercase letter in the first word resistance movement given according to the dictionary: Lopatin V. V., Nechaeva I. V., Cheltsova L. K. Uppercase or lowercase? Orthographic dictionary. - M.: Eksmo, 2009. - P. 414. - 512 p.
2. "The French resistance played a key role in the defeat of Nazi Germany in Europe."
   Historical speech de Gaulle // Russian service BBC, June 18, 2010.
3. Charles B. MacDonald. Ordeal. American military forces in the European theater during World War II. - M.: Military Publishing House, 1979. - P. 215-217.

CHAPTER III. FRANCE DURING THE SECOND WORLD WAR

On September 1, 1939, Nazi Germany attacked Poland. France and Great Britain declared war on Germany. The Second World War began. Poland did not receive any real military assistance from its “guarantors”, France and England. As a result, the Polish army was defeated by Germany in two weeks. On the Western Front, the Germans did not take any decisive action. Great Britain and France did not take the military initiative, hoping that Germany would deliver the main blow in the East. Since there was no fighting on the Western Front from September 1939 to May 1940, this period was called the “Phantom War” in France.

In the fall of 1939, the cabinet of Edouard Daladier was still in power. In March 1940, he was replaced by a government led by the famous right-wing politician Paul Reynaud (March - June 1940).

The cabinets of Daladier and Reynaud, citing wartime conditions, gradually eliminated democratic freedoms. In September 1939, martial law was introduced in France. Rallies, meetings, demonstrations and strikes were prohibited. The press and radio were subject to strict censorship. The 40-hour workweek and vacations were abolished. Wages were “frozen” at pre-war levels.

The conclusion of the Soviet-German non-aggression pact served as the reason for the launch of an anti-communist campaign in France. The communists were declared "agents of Moscow and Berlin." At the end of September 1939, the FKP was banned and began to operate underground.

In May 1940, Germany launched a rapid offensive on the Western Front. The Germans launched their first attack on French territory through neutral countries - Belgium and Holland. Then the main forces of Hitler's army attacked in the Sedan area, where the fortifications of the Maginot Line ended. The front was broken through, the Germans went to the rear of the Anglo-French troops and surrounded them near Dunkirk. With great difficulty, the Anglo-French fleet managed to evacuate the British Expeditionary Force without heavy weapons. The main forces of the French army, having lost the support of the British, hastily retreated. On June 10, Italy declared war on France, and German troops were already near Paris. Reynaud's government abandoned the capital and moved south, first to Tours and then to Bordeaux. On June 16, Reynaud's cabinet resigned. The new government was formed by 84-year-old Marshal Philippe Petain, a supporter of ending the war and concluding a truce with Germany. He immediately turned to the Germans with a request to stop hostilities and communicate peace terms.

The Franco-German armistice was signed on June 22, 1940 in Compiegne, the Franco-Italian one on June 25 in Rome.

According to the terms of the armistice, the French army and navy were disarmed and demobilized. France had to pay huge occupation payments of 400 million francs (from November 1942 - 500 million francs) daily. Two-thirds of the country, including Paris, was occupied by Germany. The southern part of France (the so-called free zone) and the colonies were not occupied and were controlled by the Pétain government. It settled in the small resort town of Vichy.

Formally, the Petain government retained the entire navy of the country. Great Britain, which continued the war, fearing that the French fleet might be captured by Germany, decided to disable it. On July 3, 1940, the English fleet attacked a French squadron stationed in the harbor of Mers el-Kebir (Algeria). Most of the ships were sunk or damaged. At the same time, the British captured French ships that found themselves in British ports and blocked the French squadron in the port of Alexandria (Egypt).

On French territory, both in the occupied and unoccupied zones, all political parties and major trade union associations were dissolved. Meetings, demonstrations and strikes were strictly prohibited.

In July 1940, in the unoccupied zone, Marshal Petain published “constitutional acts”, which effectively abolished the constitution of the Third Republic. The posts of President of the Republic and Chairman of the Council of Ministers were abolished. Parliament sessions were suspended. All executive and legislative power was transferred to Petain, who was declared the “head of state.” Pierre Laval became the second person in the Vichy government.

The Catholic Church gained great influence in the country. Religious congregations were given back the right to teach in private schools, which had been abolished by the 1905 law on the separation of church and state. State funding for private schools was also restored. Vichy propaganda quickly created for Marshal Petain the aura of the “savior of France,” who saved the French from continuing the war and returned peace and tranquility to the country.

Almost the entire French economy was put at the service of Germany. By the beginning of 1944, 80% of French enterprises carried out German military orders, which were paid for through occupation payments. Germany exported up to three-quarters of French raw materials and from 50 to 100% of the finished products of the main branches of French industry. Since 1942, the export of French workers for forced labor in Germany has become widespread. The occupiers deported about 1 million French people to Germany.

Simultaneously with the defeat of France, the history of its resistance to the occupiers began. It is associated, first of all, with the name of the outstanding French military, political and statesman of the 20th century. General Charles de Gaulle.

De Gaulle was born on November 22, 1890 into an aristocratic family and was raised in the spirit of patriotism and Catholicism. After graduating from the Saint-Cyr Higher Military School, he fought on the fields of the First World War and graduated with the rank of captain. During the interwar period, de Gaulle continued his military career. However, already from the mid-20s, his activities went far beyond the scope of military service. He wrote and gave talks a lot. In four of de Gaulle's books - "Discord in the Enemy's Camp" (1924), "On the Edge of the Sword" (1932), "For a Professional Army" (1934) and "France and Its Army" (1938). ) - reflected the author’s own military doctrine and his life credo. He was essentially the first in France to predict the decisive role of tank forces in a future war and presented himself as an adherent of French nationalism and a supporter of a strong executive branch.

De Gaulle was a staunch opponent of the defensive tactics developed by the General Staff of the French Army, which was based on the idea that the Maginot Line was inaccessible. He warned about the destructiveness of such views and called for strengthening the country's defense capability. De Gaulle considered it necessary, first of all, to form additional tank corps in France, equipped with the latest types of vehicles. He sought supporters in military and political circles. In 1934, he even managed to meet Paul Reynaud, but de Gaulle did not achieve effective support for his ideas.

At the beginning of World War II, de Gaulle, who served with the rank of colonel, was appointed commander of tank forces in Alsace. When Germany launched a rapid offensive on the Western Front in 1940, he was ordered to lead a hastily raised armored division. Throughout May, she fought selflessly, suffering heavy losses. The enemy had a huge advantage in tanks, artillery and aviation. For his military services, de Gaulle was promoted to the rank of brigadier general.

In Paris, Paul Reynaud, when reorganizing his cabinet, appointed de Gaulle deputy minister of war. The general immediately arrived in the capital. He stubbornly insisted on continuing the war and tried to convince Reynaud of this. De Gaulle invited the government to move to France's North African possessions and fight, relying on the country's huge colonial empire. However, the chairman of the Council of Ministers chose to transfer power to Marshal Petain. Then de Gaulle committed an unprecedented act. He resolutely refused to submit to the new French authorities, who were heading for surrender, and on June 17, 1940, he flew on a military plane to London.

In the English capital, the rebel general immediately met with British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and assured him of his firm intention to continue the fight. On June 18, on London radio, de Gaulle made a famous speech addressed to his compatriots. In it, he argued that the situation in France was far from hopeless, because the war that had begun was of a global nature and its outcome would not be decided only by the battle for France. The speech ended with the following words: “I, General de Gaulle, now in London, invite French officers and soldiers who are on British territory or who may be there to establish contact with me. Whatever happens, the flame of the French Resistance must not and will not go out.” So already in June 1940 the flag of French resistance to the enemy was raised.

In London, de Gaulle founded the Free France organization, designed to fight against Nazi Germany on the side of Great Britain. The Vichy government sentenced de Gaulle to death in absentia for “desertion” and “treason.” Nevertheless, both military and civilians of a wide variety of political views and beliefs began to join the Free French. At the end of 1940 there were only 7 thousand people, less than two years later this number increased tenfold.

On August 7, 1940, de Gaulle and Churchill signed an agreement regarding the organization and use of French volunteer forces in England. De Gaulle undertook to form and exercise supreme command of these forces in accordance with the general directives of the British Government. Great Britain did not recognize de Gaulle's rights to exercise state power and considered the “free French” only as volunteers in their service. However, it provided de Gaulle with regular financial support and gave him the opportunity to create a civilian body in addition to the military one. The English BBC radio station was also placed at de Gaulle's disposal. Through it, Free France broadcast propaganda to France.

First of all, de Gaulle directed his efforts towards taking possession of French colonies, mainly African ones. With the help of his supporters, he began active propaganda there in favor of continuing the war and joining the Free French. The North African administration categorically rejected such proposals and remained loyal to the Vichy government. The colonies of French Equatorial Africa behaved differently. Already in August 1940, Chad joined de Gaulle. After some time, Congo, Ubangi-Shari, Gabon, and Cameroon went over to the general’s side. Several small French possessions in the Pacific declared its recognition. This was the first big success. True, in September 1940 the Gaullists suffered a serious defeat. The expedition of the Anglo-French squadron, which aimed to capture the most important port of French West Africa - Dakar, ended in failure. The city garrison remained on the Vichy side. Yet Free France now had its own territorial base on the African continent. This allowed de Gaulle to begin creating his “state apparatus” and decisively disassociate himself from the Vichy government.

On October 27, 1940, de Gaulle issued a Manifesto regarding the leadership of the French during the war. In it, he condemned the activities of Petain’s cabinet, spoke about the illegality of its existence and called the collaborationists “accidental leaders” who submitted to the enemy. De Gaulle declared that on behalf of France he would exercise power for the sole purpose of protecting the country from the enemy.

At the very end of 1940, the Free French Department of Political Affairs was created. Its work was supervised by de Gaulle himself. He also defined the tasks of the Directorate: “Create and use information services that collect materials about the political situation in France and the Empire. Organize and support the Free France movement in France and the Empire and try to extend its activities to old and new political, social, religious, economic, professional and intellectual organizations and convince them of the need at the moment to subordinate all personal interests to one - the national one.” . The Directorate consisted of the General Staff and the Information Service. Three bureaus were subordinate to them. The first defined specific tasks. The second was to carry them out on the territory of France and the colonial empire. It subsequently grew into the famous Central Bureau of Awareness and Action (CBRA). The third was engaged in establishing contacts with foreign countries. Its representatives were sent by de Gaulle to various regions of the world in order to achieve recognition of the Free French by foreign governments.

In September 1941, de Gaulle issued the Free French Ordinance. He established the National Committee, which temporarily exercised the functions of state power. It was called upon to exist until “until a representation of the French people is created, capable of expressing the will of the nation, regardless of the enemy.” The National Committee included commissioners appointed by its chairman, General de Gaulle: Rene Pleven (coordinating the activities of the committee), Maurice Dejean (foreign affairs), Rene Cassin (justice and public education), General Legentille (military affairs), Admiral Muselier ( military and merchant marine), General Valen (aviation affairs), André Dietelme (internal affairs). The commissioners headed the national commissariats. So, within the framework of Free France, some semblance of a government was created.

The cooperation of Free France (from July 1942 - Fighting France) with its allies in the anti-Hitler coalition was not easy at first. First of all, this concerned the development of de Gaulle’s relations with the British government, before which he defended French national interests. The head of the Free French sought to prevent the spread of English influence in the French colonial possessions.

In the summer of 1941, as a result of a joint military operation between the British and the “free French”, the Vichy regime in the French colonies in the Middle East - Syria and Lebanon - was overthrown. In the spring of 1942, Great Britain captured the island of Madagascar and eliminated the Vichy administration there. The British wanted to establish their power in these French possessions. De Gaulle categorically opposed this and, at the cost of enormous efforts and difficult diplomatic negotiations, annexed Syria, Lebanon and Madagascar to the Free French movement.

Immediately after the start of the Great Patriotic War, de Gaulle, on behalf of the Free French, initiated cooperation with the USSR, which had previously maintained diplomatic relations with Vichy.

The events of June 22, 1941 found the general in Africa. On June 30, the Vichy government announced the severance of diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union. The plenipotentiary representative of the USSR under Vichy, A.E. Bogomolov, was immediately recalled from France. But already on July 1, the Ambassador of the Soviet Union to Great Britain I.M. Maisky telegraphed from London to Moscow that even before the break with Vichy, he was privately visited by de Gaulle’s representative Cassin, “who on behalf of the general conveyed sympathies and best wishes to the USSR.” and at the same time “raised the question of establishing some kind of relationship between the Soviet government and de Gaulle’s forces.” In August, Cassin and Dejean again raised the same question with I.M. Maisky. And on September 26, 1941, the USSR Ambassador to Great Britain conveyed an official written response to de Gaulle: “On behalf of my government, I have the honor to notify you that it recognizes you as the leader of all free Frenchmen, wherever they are, who have rallied around you , supporting the Allied cause."

Both sides decided to exchange official representatives. At the beginning of November 1941, A.E. Bogomolov was sent to Great Britain with the rank of Ambassador Extraordinary Plenipotentiary of the USSR to the Allied governments in London. The Soviet government entrusted him with the functions of maintaining contact with the Free France. Roger Garro, Raymond Schmittlen and the military representative General Ernest Petit, appointed by de Gaulle, left for Moscow.

The United States maintained diplomatic relations with Vichy before entering World War II. However, the Americans were interested in using the French island colonies in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, controlled by the Free French, as their military naval and air bases.

After the United States entered the war on the side of the Allies in December 1941, de Gaulle approached the United States with a proposal to establish diplomatic relations. Official Washington did not give the head of Free France a positive answer for a long time. It was not until March 1942 that the United States recognized the authority of De Gaulle's National Committee in the Pacific Islands. In July 1942, the US government published a communiqué recognizing the organization headed by de Gaulle.

From the second half of 1940, the first Resistance groups began to form in the territory of occupied France and in the so-called free zone.

The most active role in the process of countering the occupiers was played by the French Communist Party. The Manifesto published by her on July 10, illegally distributed throughout the country, defined the main goals of the struggle in the current conditions - the national and social liberation and revival of France, the conquest of freedom and independence by the French people. The communists launched extensive activities to publish the underground newspaper L'Humanité, brochures and leaflets. They organized acts of sabotage and assassination attempts on the occupiers.

In 1941, in some cities of the country (Paris, Lyon, Marseille, Clermont-Ferrand, etc.), in addition to communist groups, bourgeois-patriotic Resistance groups also operated. They conducted anti-fascist propaganda, published illegal leaflets and newspapers, and collected intelligence data.

By the end of 1941, the Resistance movement in France had become an impressive effective force. Almost all sectors of French society were represented.

General de Gaulle set himself the task of uniting the scattered forces of the Resistance around the Free French. In this regard, he made a number of speeches, where he outlined the program of the organization he headed. In one of them, he stated that to the original motto of the Free France, “Honor and Homeland,” another “Freedom” is now added. Equality. Brotherhood". “We want to remain faithful,” de Gaulle emphasized, “to the democratic principles that the genius of our nation gave to our ancestors and which are the stakes in this life-and-death war.” In order to practically begin to unite the various Resistance groups under his leadership, the general began sending special “political missions” to France. The main one was entrusted to the outstanding figure of the French Resistance, Jean Moulin.

In October 1941, Moulin, on his own initiative, came to de Gaulle in London. He presented him with a report on the situation in France. Moulin considered immediate and comprehensive assistance from the British government and General de Gaulle to be the decisive condition for all further successes of the Resistance. He asked to provide political and moral support to the Resistance organizations, to provide them with means of communication and financial assistance. Moulin made a strong impression on the head of the Free French. Thanks to him, for the first time he received reliable information about the movement unfolding in his homeland. De Gaulle decided to entrust this man with a responsible mission - to unite all Resistance groups and ensure their submission to his leadership. In January 1942, Moulin parachuted into southern France.

Beginning in 1942, the London organization’s connections with the Resistance movement began to become systematic. A Commissariat for Information was created under the London National Committee, headed by Jacques Soustelle. His functions were mainly to supply information about the activities of Free France to various radio stations around the world, as well as underground publications published in France.

At first, not all Resistance figures advocated subordination to the Free French. However, gradually many began to lean towards this. The leaders of various Resistance groups sought to get to London to personally meet de Gaulle. During 1942, he was visited by representatives of political parties that had gone underground, socialists Pierre Brossolet, Felix Gouin, Christian Pinault, Andre Philip, and radical Pierre Mendes-France.

Pinault's visit to the English capital in the spring of 1942 was of great importance. In the draft Manifesto he compiled, the head of Free France was called the representative of the French people. De Gaulle personally revised the Manifesto, and Pinault took it to France. In June 1942 it was published in the underground press. The Manifesto condemned the regime of the Third Republic, which led the country to disaster, and the Vichy regime, which collaborated with the fascists. The restoration of the integrity of the territory of France and its empire at the end of the war was declared. “As soon as the French are freed from enemy oppression,” the document emphasized, “all their internal freedoms must be returned to them. After the enemy has been driven from our territory, all men and women will elect a National Assembly, which will itself decide the fate of our country." Essentially, the text testified to the recognition by the head of Free France of basic democratic principles. It promised to convene a plenipotentiary parliament after liberation and restore democratic freedoms in the country.

The appearance of the Manifesto had the most positive impact on the relations of the Free French with the internal Resistance. Non-communist organizations now joined de Gaulle one after another. The general also sought to enlist the support of the communists, realizing that it was the PCF that was the effective force of the Resistance. At de Gaulle's insistence, the Communists sent their representative Fernand Grenier to him in London at the end of 1942. The general did not share many of the views of the communists, but he cooperated with them, realizing that at the moment it was absolutely necessary.

After the defeat of the Nazi troops at Stalingrad, a radical turning point in the course of the war was outlined. The defeat of Germany and its allies on the Eastern Front created favorable conditions for the opening of a second front in Western Europe, which England and the United States promised to do back in 1942. However, instead they decided to land troops in Algeria and Morocco, where Vichy troops were stationed. The Americans believed that it was necessary to act in harmony with the Vichy authorities, and sought to find some high-ranking French military man who could carry the Vichy administration and army with him. The commander of the French fleet, Admiral Darlan, was quite suitable for such a role. At the beginning of November he was in Algeria. The Americans also worried about a backup option - another French military man, Army General Giraud, was at the ready. The allies intended one or the other to replace de Gaulle, who, in their opinion, was too intractable and ambitious. He was not even warned about the impending military operation.

On November 8, 1942, large Anglo-American forces landed on the territory of Algeria and Morocco. The Vichy troops, after a short resistance, laid down their arms. In response, Germany occupied the southern, “free” zone of France. The American command proclaimed Admiral Darlan High Commissioner of North Africa. However, on December 24 he was shot dead. A few days later, General Giraud was appointed to replace Darlan, receiving the title of “civil and military commander in chief.” His entourage consisted mainly of Vichyists who went over to the US side. The general himself was clearly sympathetic to the Vichy regime. He saw his main task only in winning the war.

Giraud had no objection to uniting with Fighting France, but, commanding a large army and far outranking Brigadier General de Gaulle, he took it for granted that the comparatively weak forces of Fighting France should come under his command. Giraud took a clearly pro-American position, acted on the orders of US President Franklin Roosevelt and was supported by him in his intentions regarding the London organization. In January 1943, Roosevelt and Churchill held a conference in Casablanca (Morocco). At it, in particular, the “French question” was considered. The American President and the British Prime Minister decided to unite the groups led by de Gaulle and Giraud, but encountered serious difficulties. Both generals met in Casablanca, but did not come to an agreement, since de Gaulle categorically refused to allow the National Committee he headed to be in a subordinate position. Thus, Giraud continued to be the sole head of administration in North Africa, and de Gaulle had to return to London.

As a result, in the spring of 1943, the head of “Fighting France” again began the fight for recognition. He decided that he could count on success only by enlisting the support of his most important ally in the anti-Hitler coalition - the USSR - and the Resistance movement.

De Gaulle sought to visit the Soviet Union and see J.V. Stalin. Moscow has so far refused to accept the head of Fighting France. However, the USSR government made it clear that it preferred de Gaulle over Giraud.

De Gaulle's contacts with representatives of various groups and political trends of the Resistance were constantly expanding. In the first half of 1943, socialists Vincent Auriol and Andre Le Trocoeur, radical Henri Kay, and leader of the Republican Federation Louis Marin visited the general in London.

A new important political mission was entrusted by de Gaulle to Moulins. He was supposed to unite all Resistance organizations and parties that opposed the occupiers and Vichy into a single National Council of the Resistance. He managed to do this in May 1943. The National Council of the Resistance included representatives of 16 main organizations that fought for the liberation of France. Among them were the Communist and Socialist parties, the General Confederation of Labor, Christian trade unions, and the main bourgeois-patriotic groups. The first chairman of the council was Jean Moulin. After his arrest and tragic death in the dungeons of the Gestapo, this post was taken by the head of the Combat Resistance group, Georges Bidault.

Having secured support from the internal Resistance, de Gaulle began negotiations with Giraud about the need for their meeting and unification. The governments of the USA and England advised Giraud to agree, and he invited de Gaulle to Algeria. Just before leaving London, the head of Fighting France received a telegram from Moulin, which stated that preparations for the creation of the National Council of the Resistance had been completed. It also stated that “the French people will never allow General de Gaulle to be subordinated to General Giraud and demands the rapid establishment of a Provisional Government in Algeria under the chairmanship of General de Gaulle.” Thus, appearing before public opinion as a national leader enjoying the support of the Resistance movement, the general came to Algeria at the end of May 1943.

De Gaulle and his supporters initiated the creation of a government body headed by two chairmen. The leaders of the USA and England, as well as General Giraud, agreed to this proposal. As a result, on June 3, 1943, in Algeria, de Gaulle and Giraud signed an order establishing the French Committee for National Liberation (FCNL). The committee included de Gaulle and Giraud as chairmen, as well as 5 other people - Generals Catroux and Georges, Andre Philippe, Rene Massigli and Jean Monnet.

The FCNO saw its tasks as continuing to fight together with its allies “until the complete liberation of French territories and the territories of the allies, until victory over all hostile powers.” The FCNO pledged to “restore all French liberties, the laws of the republic and the republican regime.”

On June 7, the commissariats (ministries) of the FKNO were formed, and its composition was expanded. At the suggestion of de Gaulle, it included Rene Pleven, Henri Bonnet, André Diethelme and Adrien Tixier, and at the suggestion of Giraud - Maurice Couve de Murville and Jules Abadie. Now there were 14 committee members, and 9 of them belonged to “Fighting France”. Monnet and Couve de Murville also declared their support for de Gaulle. Thus, the balance of power was in his favor. During 1943, de Gaulle gradually removed Giraud from business and became the sole chairman of the FKNO.

Under the leadership of de Gaulle, the FCNO took a number of measures to eliminate the Vichy order in French North Africa. This increased his prestige in the eyes of the Resistance. This circumstance predetermined the issue of its diplomatic recognition. At the end of August 1943, statements on recognition of the FKNO were published simultaneously by the USSR, England, the USA, and over the following weeks by 19 more states.

At the initiative of de Gaulle, in September 1943, the FKNO adopted an ordinance establishing a representative body similar to parliament in the Algerian capital - the Provisional Consultative Assembly. It was formed of 94 people, representatives of Resistance organizations, former parliamentarians and delegates from the population of the liberated territories.

In early November, the FKNO decided to include representatives of the main political movements and organizations of the Resistance into its composition. It now included from the Resistance organizations Emmanuel d'Astier, François de Manton, Henri Frenet, Rene Captain, Andre Philip, Andre Le Trocoeur, Pierre Mendes-France, Henri Kay and others. The question of the inclusion of communists in the FCNO was discussed. But he was decided only after some time.Representatives of the PCF, François Billoux and Fernand Grenier, became members of the committee only in mid-1944.

At the first meeting of the assembly in early November 1943, de Gaulle made a speech to the assembled deputies. In it, he announced the reform program that he intended to implement after the liberation of France.

In January 1944, de Gaulle signed an order creating the institution of regional commissars of the republic, which authorized the division of the entire territory of France into regional commissariats headed by commissioners, corresponding to the previously existing regional prefectures. “The regional commissioners,” the ordinance stated, “are entrusted with taking all necessary measures, with the exception of the functions within the competence of the military authorities, to ensure the security of the French and allied armies, to organize the administration of the territory, to restore republican legality, as well as to take care of meeting the needs of population." The commissars were supposed to replace the Vichy prefects throughout the country. It was on them that de Gaulle hoped to rely on in the provinces.

The chairman of the FKNO was finally recognized by the National Council of the Resistance, which published its program in March. In it, along with an indication of the need for fundamental democratic changes in France, the demand for the creation of a Provisional Government of the Republic headed by de Gaulle was put forward.

The general, while in Algeria, also outlined his political program of action. Speaking to members of the Assembly in March 1944, he declared that “the essence and form of the French society of tomorrow ... can only be determined by a representative body of the nation, elected on the basis of general, direct and free elections ... As for the government, which national representation entrusts the functions of the executive power, then in order to carry them out it must have the strength and stability, as required by the authority of the state and the role of France in international affairs.” Four months later, on the eve of the liberation of the country, de Gaulle even more specifically defined the immediate tasks for France. “With regard to the political system,” he emphasized, “we have made our choice. We chose democracy and a republic. Letting the people speak, in other words, laying the foundations of freedom, order and respect for rights in the shortest possible time and thereby creating the conditions for general elections that will lead to the convening of a National Constituent Assembly, is the goal to which we strive.”

In June 1944, groups of Anglo-American troops under the command of General Eisenhower landed in northern France, and in August - in the south. De Gaulle obtained the consent of England and the United States to participate in the liberation of the country by FCNO troops and was given the opportunity to introduce their representatives into the inter-allied command. They were the French generals Koenig, Cochet and Leclerc. Following the Anglo-American troops, military units of the FKNO entered French soil. The French Committee for National Liberation itself was renamed the Provisional Government of the French Republic in August 1944. De Gaulle became its chairman.

The news of the landing of the Allied armies served as a signal for the national uprising advocated by the French Communist Party. This idea was also supported by General de Gaulle, who feared that otherwise the Allies would want to control liberated France with the help of their military administration. The national uprising quickly spread to 40 of the country's 90 departments.

Under the leadership of the communists, preparations were also being made for an armed uprising in Paris. This fact excited de Gaulle, who believed that the PCF could “stand at the head of the uprising like a kind of Commune.” De Gaulle's representatives operating in France also feared this. They concentrated combat groups of bourgeois-patriotic organizations in Paris and agreed on their support by the Parisian police and gendarmerie, who had already agreed to go over to the side of the Provisional Government. De Gaulle's supporters wanted Allied troops to approach Paris as quickly as possible and prevent an uprising. However, it began before their appearance in the French capital.

On August 24, when Leclerc's tanks entered Paris, the main part of it had already been liberated by French patriots. The next day, the commander of the troops of the Paris region, the communist Rolle-Tanguy, and General Leclerc accepted the official surrender of the German garrison. On the same day, de Gaulle arrived in Paris.

From the station, the head of the Provisional Government went to the War Ministry to meet with the official authorities of the city and from there give the order to restore public order and supplies in the capital. After this, he went to the town hall, where representatives of the National Council of the Resistance and the Paris Liberation Committee were waiting for him.

On August 26, Paris rejoiced. A grandiose demonstration took place on the Champs Elysees to mark the liberation. A crowd of thousands filled the entire avenue. De Gaulle, accompanied by General Leclerc, drove up to the Arc de Triomphe, where, in the presence of members of the government and the National Council of the Resistance, he lit a fire at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, extinguished more than four years ago by the occupiers.

During the autumn, almost the entire territory of France was liberated. In October 1944, the Provisional Government headed by de Gaulle was recognized by the USSR, England and the USA. After this, de Gaulle directed his efforts to strengthening France's position on the world stage.

In November-December 1944, a French government delegation led by de Gaulle paid an official visit to the Soviet Union. Negotiations between the Chairman of the Provisional Government of France and J.V. Stalin ended with the signing of the Treaty of Alliance and Mutual Assistance between the two countries.

At the conference of the three victorious countries in Yalta, held in February 1945, it was decided to allocate a zone of occupation in Germany for France and include it in the Allied Control Council along with the USSR, the USA and England. France also received one of the five seats as permanent members of the Security Council of the newly created United Nations. At the Berlin (Potsdam) Conference (July-August 1945), France, along with the three great powers, was introduced into the Council of Foreign Ministers, which was supposed to solve the problems of a peaceful settlement.

After Germany's attack on the USSR, the underground activities of the Communist Party sharply intensified. The dual situation was over. Putting aside questions of social structure, the Communist Party launched, first of all, patriotic propaganda, appealing to the traditions and exploits of Joan of Arc, the heroes of the Great French Revolution and the Franco-Prussian War. Already in July 1941, the underground communist “Humanité” wrote: “Frantirers of 1941! Arise "to expel the enemy from the sacred land of our Motherland! Now is the right moment, because our brothers from the Red Army are holding the main forces of the Nazis in the USSR. To arms, citizens! " Since the summer of 1941, the Communist Party has intensified organizational work to create the National Front. Home The task of the National Front should be “anti-German actions with the aim of liberating the Motherland from foreign oppression and treason,” L'Humanité pointed out. In its ranks “Gaullists, communists, atheists, believers, workers, peasants, intellectuals; French people belonging to any social strata - in general, all patriots in the aggregate." The leadership of the Communist Party held negotiations with former leaders of the Socialist Party, Christian trade unions, and influential intelligentsia. At the beginning of July 1941, the founding meeting of the Organizing Committee of the National Front took place. The organizing committee refused to recognize the Vichy government, condemned the policy of attantism (waiting) and called on all French people to immediately begin the fight against the occupiers and traitors. “This is not about just expecting the country to be liberated from the victories of Russia or England. Yes, these victories will ensure our freedom, but every Frenchman must strive to bring this hour closer in the interests of France,” the Committee’s appeal stated. In the summer and autumn of 1941, local committees and professional sections of the National Front (student, youth, railway workers, etc.) began to emerge locally. During 1942, organizations under the auspices of the National Front continued to develop actively. One of the leaders of the National Front was the outstanding scientist, Nobel Prize laureate F. Joliot-Curie.

Frederic Joliot-Curie (1900-1958), physicist, Nobel Prize laureate, one of the leaders of the National Front during the war, member of the PCF since 1942. Retaining his posts at the Radium Institute and the Collège de France, he used his laboratory to manufacture explosives and radio equipment for Resistance fighters until 1944, when he himself had to go into hiding.

Non-communist Resistance groups also began to strive for unity in the struggle. The newspaper “Liberation-Nord” wrote on September 21, 1941: “The only fundamental question on which no compromise is possible is the question of the independence of the Motherland and, consequently, the liberation of the territory... This liberation requires the cooperation of everyone: England, the USSR, the United States, the Democrats , communists, everyone who is threatened by the hegemony of Nazi Germany and who intends to resist it; finally, all those who still retained a sense of honor.”
On July 14, 1942, the national holiday, the National Front, together with other resistance groups, organized mass demonstrations in several major cities.

In the second half of 1941, the first acts of armed struggle took place in France, mainly organized by the communists and the Resistance structures created under the auspices of the communists. The communists began to expand the scale of operations of their sabotage groups (whose number by the summer of 1941 amounted to several hundred people). At the same time, under the auspices of the PCF, international sabotage groups of anti-fascist emigrants were created, along with the French communists, representatives of various nationalities fought in them: Spaniards, Germans, Italians, Poles, Armenians, Jewish refugees from different countries. In August 1941, the communists organized a series of assassination attempts on Germans in order to give the armed struggle a wider political resonance. On August 21, 1941, in Paris, at the Barbès-Rochechouart metro station, communist Pierre Georges (“Colonel Fabien”) shot and killed a German officer.

Pierre Georges (1919-1944), known under the pseudonym "Colonel Fabien", French communist, member of the International Brigade, organizer and executor of the first successful attempt on the life of a Nazi officer in France. Died at the end of the war under unclear circumstances

In October 1941, combat groups organized further successful assassination attempts on German officers in the cities of Nantes and Bordeaux. Communist terrorist attacks were used as a pretext to intensify repression. A system of hostages was officially introduced, responsible with their lives for the safety of German soldiers and officers. In October 1941, 50 hostages were shot near Nantes (in a concentration camp near Chateaubriand) and two days later another 50 hostages were shot in Bordeaux. Most of those executed were communists arrested and extradited by the Vichy police. The shootings in Chateaubriand and Bordeaux deeply shocked the whole of France. In total, during the years of occupation, about 30 thousand hostages were shot in France, of which about 11 thousand were in Paris and the surrounding area.

An order from the German military commandant to shoot hostages in response to attempts on the lives of German soldiers. October 1941

After the first assassination attempts and the first executions of hostages, the issue of armed struggle became especially acute. The executions of the hostages caused an outburst of indignation and a desire to take revenge on the executioners. The entire illegal press expressed outrage at the position of the Vichy government, which “covered itself with shame and cowardice.” However, many underground organizations opposed individual terror. Thus, one of the newspapers wrote: “We consider isolated assassination attempts absolutely useless... the murder of a German soldier somewhere at night at a crossroads cannot in any way affect the fate of the war. This act cannot in any way be compared with the necessary sabotage of equipment, transport and especially military production.” The Free French leadership issued an appeal - on the one hand, it admitted that “it is absolutely justified that the French are killing Germans,” but still gave advice to wait and not risk people in vain. Ethical problems also faced the communists. Many accused them of needlessly shedding the blood of their own comrades. One of the leaders of the Communist Party recalled: “Not all the guys have yet clearly understood that war consists of destroying the enemy. And that, before having the opportunity to destroy it with entire regiments, it was necessary to act on our own and deal with the enemies one by one.” The leadership of the PCF either called on its supporters to carry out terrorist attacks, or renounced them, which put ordinary communists in a difficult position.

At the beginning of 1942, the combat organizations of the Communist Party were reorganized into a single military organization, called the French Frantireurs and Partisans (FTP). In order to give the partisan movement a more massive character, it was decided to accept not only communists, but also patriots of different persuasions into the FTP detachments.
Already in the spring of 1942, the leadership of the Communist Party began to call for the organization of a mass armed uprising against the occupiers. “Let the earth burn everywhere under the feet of the invaders, let their patrols on the demarcation line feel unsafe, let their sentries hear elusive enemies roaming around them at night; let the factories burn, let the cars explode, let the trains derail, let the blood of the Boches flow, let the punishment of traitors begin,” called the underground “Humanité.” The FTP detachments organized the main acts of sabotage on railways and canals, trying to paralyze German military transport. Since there was a catastrophic shortage of weapons, most often the franchisors used the simplest means of sabotage: they unscrewed nuts on railways, damaged switches, brakes and other parts. In June 1942, the first partisan camp was created in the Paris region - a prototype of future Maquis camps. Initially there were only about a dozen partisans there.

In the summer of 1942, the Comba group, which already had small “volunteer groups”, began organizing the so-called “Secret Army”. Initially, it was assumed that the members of the “Secret Army” would not participate in current military operations; they only made a promise to take up arms at the right time.
By this time, the leadership of the Free French also began to advocate intensifying armed methods of struggle. “The duty of every Frenchman and every Frenchwoman is to actively fight with all the means at their disposal, simultaneously against the enemy himself and against the Vichys who are accomplices of the enemies,” said de Gaulle in April 1942. “National liberation is not can be separated from the national uprising." However, the Free French leadership postponed the start of a broad armed struggle until the landing of Allied troops in Europe, fearing otherwise an excessive number of casualties. Until then, patriots had been advised to limit themselves to sabotage, to maintain “methodical, deliberate, disciplined patience,” expecting that “weapons will arrive in time on the day we need them,” along with the corresponding orders.

By this time, Free France under the leadership of de Gaulle had also achieved some success. Already in the summer of 1941, it had significant territories in Africa and the Pacific Ocean, had a small army, and conducted successful propaganda. On 26 September 1941, the British government recognized the Free French National Committee as "the representative of all free Frenchmen, wherever they may be found." At the same time, a message was published about the recognition of General de Gaulle and his movement by the Soviet government. This was followed by recognition from the exile governments of Belgium, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Greece, Yugoslavia and Holland located in London. The US government did not officially recognize the Free French National Committee, but maintained informal contacts with it; The Lend-Lease law was extended to the Free French. However, de Gaulle's relations with the allies developed uneasy and conflicts arose periodically. This showed de Gaulle the need to seek more active contacts within the country. The first information about the internal Resistance movement began to penetrate London in the summer of 1941. In his speech on October 2, 1941, de Gaulle already said: “Little by little, a broad French Resistance is being created, and we have the right to believe that it will have more and more influence on military operations.” At the same time, wanting to bring the Resistance under his control, de Gaulle emphasized that “the National Committee must unite the entire French Resistance inside and outside the country.” Back in the spring of 1941, the “Central Bureau of Information and Action” (BCRA) was created on the basis of de Gaulle’s headquarters. His task was to “develop the resistance of the French people” with the goal in the future of carrying out “general sabotage of the enemy rear in order to facilitate the Allied landings on the continent.” From July 1941, the BSRA began to transfer “action groups” to France, one of their tasks was to establish contacts and control over local Resistance organizations. However, the first “action groups” failed: local organizations, which at that time had complete independence, were not eager to obey orders from London. In addition, it was necessary to develop a unified political program that could serve as a unifying basis. In a speech on November 15, 1941, de Gaulle for the first time officially used the traditional slogan of the French revolutions: “We say “Liberty, Equality, Fraternity” because we want to remain faithful to the democratic principles that the genius of our nation gave to our ancestors and which are the stakes in this war not for life, but for death.”
To begin the unification of the various Resistance factions under the leadership of the Free French, de Gaulle sent special “political missions” to France. The first of these was the mission of Morand, a former Christian trade unionist who, after the defeat of France, reached London and joined de Gaulle. On November 5, 1941, Moranda was parachuted into the southern zone. He was tasked with finding out the views and intentions of the Resistance groups in order to prepare for their unification and accession to General de Gaulle. Moranda managed to establish contacts with former leaders of the Socialist Party and part of the trade unions, but was unable to achieve the accession of the main Resistance groups to de Gaulle, whose leaders were wary of the intentions of the head of the Free France. The solution to this problem fell to the lot of the outstanding figure of the French Resistance, Jean Moulin (the story of Jean Moulin can be read in more detail here: and further on the links)

Moulin, a former prefect and leader of the Popular Front, in the spring of 1941 established contacts with a number of Resistance figures in the southern zone and decided to get to London to personally report to de Gaulle about the situation in the country. On October 20, 1941, Moulin arrived in London and presented his report on the state of the French Resistance to the British authorities and personally to de Gaulle. Moulin considered the decisive condition for further successes of the Resistance to be immediate and comprehensive assistance from the English government and the Free French. He asked to provide moral, political and financial support to the Resistance organizations, to provide them with means of communication and to begin supplying weapons. Moulin's report and his personality made a strong impression on both the British authorities and General de Gaulle. He was the first representative of the internal Resistance to arrive in London. On December 24, 1941, de Gaulle handed Moulin an order: “I appoint Prefect J. Moulin as my representative and representative of the National Committee in the unoccupied ... metropolitan zone. Moulin is entrusted with implementing in this zone the unity of actions of all persons resisting the enemy... In carrying out his task, Moulin reports personally to me.” Thus, having arrived in London as a representative of the internal Resistance, Moulin returned to France as an official delegate of de Gaulle with the task of uniting all Resistance groups and ensuring their subordination to the leadership of the Free French. Moulin had at his disposal significant financial resources, a radio station, communications agents and was subordinate only to de Gaulle. On January 1, 1942, Moulin parachuted into southern France.

Jean Moulin (1899-1943), legendary hero and unifier of the French Resistance, emissary of de Gaulle, creator and first leader of the National Council of the Resistance. Died under torture by the Gestapo

Jean Moulin quickly came into contact with the resistance figures in the southern zone he already knew, to whom he promised financial support and connections with London. Most Resistance leaders did not immediately agree to Moulin's demands. While they sympathized with the Free French, they still did not intend to “stand at attention”, carrying out other people’s orders. Nevertheless, Moulin showed rare persistence. Meeting with the leaders of various organizations, he convinced them to “direct the activities of their groups in accordance with the plan of military operations on Day X, which will be developed in London by agreement between the headquarters of General de Gaulle and the headquarters of the Allies.” He tried to ensure that certain serious operations were undertaken only with the consent of London. Moulin promised to arm the members of the Resistance, but on the condition that only half of the weapons received from London were used to arm combat groups and immediate action; the other half was to remain in reserve to prepare extensive actions at hour X.
Moulin created several specialized organizations that served the entire Resistance, but reported directly to Moulin as de Gaulle's delegate. The main one, the Air and Maritime Operations Service, was in charge of connections with London. She had radio stations and secret airfields at her disposal, and was responsible for sending, receiving and distributing all cargo arriving from London. The second organization was the Information and Press Bureau. The tasks of this service included distributing propaganda materials received from London, as well as collecting information of interest to the Free France. Staffed by experienced journalists, the Bureau quickly grew into a major illegal press agency with ties to all Resistance organizations. The third specialized organization was the so-called General Research Committee. Its main goal was to recruit personnel and develop plans for the seizure of power and the post-war structure of France.
Moulin established connections with the leaders of the trade union movement. Now many prominent figures of the Resistance from different groups sought to secretly get to London in order to personally meet de Gaulle. In February 1942, the underground newspaper Libération-Sud declared for the first time that “at present there is only one leader - General de Gaulle, the symbol of French unity and will.” Underground newspapers wrote that de Gaulle “represents the will of the French people and symbolizes their resistance to the oppressors.” During meetings with the leaders of the Resistance, many emphasized that unification was possible only on the basis of a clear political program, because not all members of the Resistance were satisfied with de Gaulle’s vague declarations and they did not agree “to entrust their future to a person with an unknown political past without sufficient guarantees.” In response, de Gaulle presented a draft Manifesto addressed to all forces of the Resistance, which in the summer of 1942 was published in the underground press and then announced on the radio. The Manifesto assumed that “the eternal French ideal of Liberty, Equality and Fraternity would henceforth find such an implementation in our country that every person at the beginning of his social activity would have an equal chance of success with others; so that everyone enjoys the respect of everyone, and, if necessary, help from them.” The manifesto largely dispelled doubts about the relativity of de Gaulle's personality and plans.
In June 1942, the leaders of the Free French conveyed to the allies (England, the USSR and the USA) an official proposal to rename the Free France to the Fighting France, proposing to include all French citizens “waging the liberation struggle, wherever they are” in the movement. .
Some prominent figures of the Third Republic began to join Fighting France. On May 5, 1942, Leon Blum, who was in Riom prison, illegally sent a letter to London, claiming that de Gaulle “was the first to awaken the will to Resistance in France and continues to personify it,” and therefore should lead the future “transitional government” of France. Blum defended de Gaulle from accusations of dictatorial aspirations. At the same time, a number of leaders of the right-wing nationalist group “Combat Crosses” expressed support for “Fighting France”.

The practical unification of the Resistance organizations took place under the leadership of Jean Moulin. At the beginning of August 1942, Moulin received a directive from London to create a Coordination Committee uniting the Resistance organizations of the southern zone.
By the fall of 1942, Moulin obtained the consent of the leaders of Combes, Franc-Tirer and Libération-Sud to unite. Arriving in London, the leaders of all groups signed a protocol in which they recognized the power of de Gaulle “as the political and military leader of Fighting France” and expressed their readiness to coordinate their actions. It was agreed that each of the three main organizations in the southern zone would create its own paramilitary groups and merge them into the “Secret Army,” the head of which would be appointed by General de Gaulle. General Delestrain, who had not previously participated in the Resistance movement, but was known for his patriotic sentiments, was appointed to the post of commander of the Secret Army. The leadership of “Fighting France” committed itself to funding all Resistance organizations, supplying them with communications equipment, instructors and weapons. The unification of the Resistance forces of the southern zone occurred on the basis of recognition of the power of de Gaulle and on the basis of the policy of Attantism. The “Secret Army” was supposed to begin hostilities only on the day of the Allied landing (“X-Day”) and act on instructions from London.

Throughout 1942, the prestige of the Vichy government and Petain personally declined continuously. The cooperation of the Vichy authorities with the Germans caused increasing dissatisfaction. In July 1942, General Oberg issued an order for the execution of relatives of members of the Resistance. In August-October 1942, the Gestapo and Vichy police jointly developed and carried out a number of operations against the Resistance forces. The head of the German military administration officially expressed gratitude to the Vichy government “for the assistance provided by the French police in arresting the terrorists.” Massive roundups of Jews and Resistance members, as well as Laval's frank admission that he wanted Germany to win, caused serious murmurs even among those sections of the population that had previously supported Vichy.
After the occupation of the southern zone, masses of the population began to emerge from their state of stupor. Even part of the Vichy administration began to secretly go over to the side of the Resistance. The halo of “patriot” and “father of the nation” created around Petain began to dissipate. A particularly severe blow to the prestige of the authorities was dealt by the deportation of French workers and youth to Germany, which affected hundreds of thousands and then millions of families.

Export of French workers to work in Germany. Historical photo, 1942

Those evading mobilization enjoyed the support and sympathy of the entire population. Workers staged strikes and protest demonstrations. The peasants supplied the draft dodgers with food. Patriotic entrepreneurs submitted incorrect lists of available personnel to the police. Even Vichy officials sometimes obtained false documents for draft dodgers. At this time, many draft dodgers began to run away from cities and hide in the countryside. In the language of the time, this was called “going into the poppies” (from the Corsican word “maqui” - a dense bush in which in former times Corsicans escaped from the police). From late 1942 to early 1943, the first Maquis camps appeared in sparsely populated forest and mountainous areas, created mainly by young workers and students hiding from deportation. Persons who went into maki (makisars) found themselves in an illegal or semi-legal position. They willingly established connections with the Resistance, and sometimes even formed their own armed units. Changes in the mood of the population led to the rapid growth of all Resistance organizations, and new illegal organizations appeared. The new situation contributed to the rapid growth of armed struggle. The partisan movement began to actively develop in the southern zone, where previously it was very weak. In April 1943, the underground communist newspaper L'Humanité published "General Directives for the Preparation of an Armed Uprising." Based on the assumption that the uprising “would occur simultaneously with the landing of the Allies on the continent” (which at that time was expected in the summer of 1943), the Communist Party proposed preparing a massive popular uprising in advance. The “General Directives” advised all Resistance organizations upon news of the Allied landings to “immediately mobilize their members, declare a general strike, arm the population, arrest or destroy gendarmes and police officers, occupy public buildings - prefectures, city halls, post offices, radios, etc., remove representatives Vichy authorities and replace them with delegations of patriotic groups." From the beginning of 1943, L'Humanité was published under the slogan: “Unite, arm, fight!” Under the auspices of the Communist Party, the National Front, FTC detachments, the Communist Youth Union and other organizations operated. Calls for armed struggle began to appear in the press of various Resistance organizations. “We are fighting and will fight with arms in hand,” said, for example, the Libération-Sud action program published on January 10, 1943. By the beginning of 1943, almost all the main Resistance groups had their own military organizations and “were ready to immediately arm existing groups.” In February 1943, the Communist Party, the National Front, the FTP, Combat, Libération and several other Resistance groups signed a joint appeal in which they promised to “join their efforts to support the workers in their resistance, whatever form it may take.” . They recommended that workers “join the ranks of militant patriotic organizations to fight against the invaders and prepare to support the actions of the landing troops when a second front is created in Europe.”
On November 27, 1942, the Coordination Committee of the Southern Zone met for the first time in Lyon. Soon Combat, Frant-Tirer and Libération-Sud merged into one organization: the United Resistance Movement (MUR). Moulin remained chairman, Frenet became commissioner for military affairs, d'Astier - commissioner for political affairs, Lévy - commissioner for intelligence, security and technical means. Delestrain and Frenet began organizing the Secret Army. At the same time, Delestrain, being an ardent supporter of the unification of all patriotic forces, established regular contacts with the leadership of the communist detachments of franc-tireurs and partisans (FTP) and agreed to coordinate actions between the military committee of the FTP and the “Secret Army” in the southern zone.

General Charles Delestrain (1879-1945), first commander of the Secret Army, one of the main military organizations of the French Resistance. Died in the Dachau concentration camp

In the northern zone, unification proceeded at a slower pace. In the spring of 1943, de Gaulle sent his representatives to the northern zone, who were instructed to form the Coordination Committee and headquarters of the Secret Army, modeled on the southern zone. After lengthy negotiations with the leaders of the Resistance, de Gaulle’s delegates achieved a decision to unite the paramilitary Resistance groups of the northern zone into the “Secret Army” under the subordination of General Delestrain. Representatives of the FTC who participated in these negotiations agreed to become part of the “Secret Army”, but objected to the imposed tactics of Attantism.

Political conflicts with the allies forced de Gaulle to unite all the Resistance forces as quickly as possible in order to have support within the country. To ensure wider support for Fighting France, political and trade unionists from various parties with authority in France and abroad were invited to London. Soberly assessing the influence of the Communist Party, de Gaulle wanted to attract this powerful force to his side, while retaining the overall leadership. De Gaulle himself wrote about it this way: “I believed that their participation would be a significant contribution to that peculiar war that was waged under occupation. But it was necessary to ensure that they acted as part of a single organization and, to put it bluntly, under my leadership.” In January 1943, a representative of the Communist Party, Fernand Grenier, arrived in England, authorized by the Central Committee of the PCF “to represent the party in the Fighting France movement led by General de Gaulle with the aim of collaborating in strengthening the struggle for the liberation of France.” In London, Grenier was officially appointed as an adviser to the Commissariat of Internal Affairs and Labor in Fighting France. He was given the opportunity to speak on behalf of the Communists on English radio, although his speeches were censored by the BSRA services.
According to one of the leaders of the PCF, J. Duclos, “the agreement reached between the party and General de Gaulle regarding a program of joint action contained two main points: the need for a national uprising in order to liberate France; The people have the full right to decide their own fate after victory.”

Clandestine meeting of the secretariat of the French Communist Party, 1943. From left to right: Benoit Franchon, Auguste Lecoeur, Jacques Duclos and Charles Tillon. Historical drawing

On June 3, 1943, the French Committee of National Liberation (FCNL) was established in Algeria and its founding declaration was adopted. The objectives of the FCNO were defined as follows: “In close cooperation with all allies, the Committee will continue the joint struggle for the complete liberation of French and Allied territories until victory over all hostile powers. The Committee solemnly undertakes to restore all French liberties, the laws of the republic and the republican regime, completely destroying the regime of arbitrariness and personal power currently imposed on the country.” Essentially, the FKNO took over the functions of the Provisional Government, although it did not officially call itself that. On August 27, 1943, England, the USA and the USSR simultaneously published statements recognizing the FKNO; within a few weeks the Committee was recognized by 19 more governments. On September 3, 1943, the FCNO, at the initiative of de Gaulle, made a fundamental decision “to bring to justice Marshal Pétain, as well as members or former members of the so-called government of the French State.” Having become the sole leader of the FKNO, de Gaulle sought to unite the Resistance under his leadership and rely on it. In order to give the FKNO a more democratic appearance, it was decided to include representatives of the Resistance movement and political parties in its composition, as well as to create a Provisional Consultative Assembly in Algeria, in which, among others, representatives of the Communist, Socialist and Radical parties, prominent leaders of the Resistance movement sat. However, de Gaulle did not allow the General Secretary of the PCF, M. Thorez, who was then in the USSR, to enter Algeria.

At the beginning of 1943, the leadership of Fighting France returned to their previous idea: to create something like a “Parliament of the Resistance”, which would include representatives of all its organizations and could support de Gaulle in the struggle for power. Moulin was entrusted with an extremely important political mission: to unite all Resistance organizations and parties that opposed the occupiers and Vichy into a single National Council of the Resistance (NCR) under the auspices of de Gaulle. To give the NSS the necessary authority, it was intended to include all the main political parties, the main Resistance organizations and trade unions. De Gaulle's instructions to Moulin stated: "The unification must be carried out on the basis of the following principles:
Against the Germans, their allies and accomplices, by all means, and especially with weapons in their hands;
Against all dictatorships, especially against the dictatorship of Vichy, whatever form it may take;
For freedom;
Together with de Gaulle in the battle that he is leading for the liberation of the territory for the restoration of the rights of the French people."
Returning to France, Moulin, together with de Gaulle's delegates in the northern zone, began consultations with the leaders of Resistance organizations, parties and trade unions, inviting them to unite on the basis of these principles. As a result, the National Council of the Resistance included 16 groups: among them 8 Resistance organizations (“National Front”, OSM, “Saint de la Resistance”, “Saint de la Liberation”, “Liberation-Nor”, “Comba”, “Fran-Tirer” ", "Liberation-Sud"), 6 political parties (Communist, Socialist, Republican Federation, Democratic Alliance, etc.), as well as 2 trade union associations: the General Confederation of Labor and the French Confederation of Christian Trade Unions. Each group, regardless of its influence, had one vote. On May 27, 1943, the first meeting of the National Resistance Council took place in Paris. Moulin read out a prepared message from General de Gaulle, stating that the NSS “is an integral part of Fighting France” (and therefore must obey its leadership).

The first underground meeting of the National Resistance Council (NRC). May 27, 1943. Historical photo

The further process of unification of the Resistance was temporarily interrupted due to the arrest and tragic death of Jean Moulin and General Delestrain. Despite the torture, Moulin, who knew all the secrets of the Resistance, did not betray his comrades and was tortured to death by the Gestapo. General Delestrain was deported to a German concentration camp, where he also soon died. After a short break, the National Council of the Resistance (of which J. Bidot now became the chairman) resumed its activities. In the summer of 1943, the NSS issued a “Call to the Nation,” advocating immediate action to prepare “the uprising of the entire nation which, together with the general Allied offensive, will liberate the Motherland.” From that time on, the political role of the National Resistance Council began to increase. Gradually, local NSS bodies began to be organized, which usually bore the name of Liberation Committees.
The growing influence of the NSS and its local bodies worried the leaders of Fighting France. Fearing that the internal Resistance movement would get out of control, they quickly began to create their own special apparatus to control the Resistance and ensure the seizure of power at the time of the liberation of France. The main link was de Gaulle's General Delegation to France. The General Delegation considered financial subsidies to be the main means of influencing Resistance organizations. Funds were distributed primarily among those Resistance organizations that were considered loyal to de Gaulle. The problem of arms supplies also became acute. While the armed struggle was carried out by relatively few FTP detachments and “volunteer groups”, they mainly used homemade weapons or weapons captured from the enemy. With the rise of guerrilla warfare, this was no longer enough. The arming of significant partisan forces could only be ensured with the help of arms supplies from London or Algeria. However, de Gaulle's services, which were in charge of delivering weapons, armed internal Resistance units with caution. As a rule, they supplied weapons (and even then in insufficient quantities) only to the Secret Army organizations, which stored these weapons in warehouses in anticipation of “Day X” (that is, the expected landing of the Allies). The General Delegation feared the growing influence of communists in the local organs of the Resistance, especially in the Paris region.