French Peasant Fascism: Henry Dorgère's Greenshirts and the Crises of French Agriculture, 1929-1939

257 Pages·1997·15.57 MB·English

by  Robert O. Paxton

French Peasant Fascism

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p
French Peasant Fascism
Henry Dorgeres's
Greenshirts
and the
Crises of
French
Agriculture,
1929-1939
ROBERT O. PAXTON
NEW YORK OXFORD * OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS 1997
Oxford University Press
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Copyright © 1997 by Oxford University Press, Inc.
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Pax ton, Robert O.
French peasant fascism : Henry Dotgeres's Greenshirts and the
crises of French agriculture, 1929—1939 / Robert O. Pax torn.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-19-511188-5; 0-19-511189-3 (pbk.)
1. Peasantry—France—Political activity—History—20th century.
2. Fascism— -France—History—20th century. 3. Dorgcres, Henry,
1897-1985. 4. Fascists—France—Biography. 5, France—Politics and
government—1914—1940, I. Title.
HD1536.F8P385 1997
320.5 3'3'0886 3—dc2i 96-46864
Frontispiece photo: A peasant demonstration protesting the judicial sale of cattle
for back taxes in Quimper on I February 1936. Reprinted with permission.
1 3 5 7 9 8 6 42
Printed in the United States of America
on acid-free paper
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
HENRY DORGERES, the main rightwing peasant agitator of 1930s France,
was a conspicuous figure in his day, but I had great difficulty finding
substantial traces of him and his movement on paper. Many public ar-
chives were closed, private ones were rare, and even when the documents
lay before me, the police or prefectoral agents who wrote them seemed
poorly attuned to the peasants they were describing. Few of Dorgeres's
principal followers were still alive to give me their eye-witness testimony.
Such an accumulation of obstacles makes me particularly grateful to
the many people who helped me to get around them. I hope I have
included them all here. The unwillingness of a few people to let me see
the archives they supervise encourages me to think that these matters are
still capable of arousing passion.
I wish to thank, first, the then Director-General of the Archives de
France, M. Jean Favier; the then head of the Section Contemporaine of
the Archives Nationales, Mme. Chantal de Tourtier Bonazzi; and her suc-
cessor, Mme. Paule Rene-Bazin. They helped me to navigate the compli-
cated process of gaining access to French public archives of the 1930s.
I was able to work usefully in the departmental archives of the
Aisne, Bouches-du-Rhone, Calvados, Charente-Maritime, Correze, Cotes
d'Armor, Eure, Eure-et-Loir, Finistere, Ille-et-Vilaine, Loir-et-Cher, Loire -
Atlantique, Oise, Pas-de-Calais, Seine-Maritime, Seine-et-Marne, Seine-et-
Oise, and Somme. Almost all the directeurs des services d'archives of these
departments and their staffs assisted me efficiently and courteously.
A few local archivists went far beyond their normal duties to aid my
project. I am particularly grateful to Daniel Collet, archivist at the Ar-
vi * ACKNOWI,EDGMENTS
chives Departementales du Finistere, who guided me to precious papers
and interviews. Alain Droguet, directeur of the Archives Departementales
des Cotes-d'Armor; Eliane Carouge of the Eure; and Guy Quincy of the
Correze were also outstandingly helpful. Corentin Renot, mayor of Pleu-
vcn, let me consult his town's archives.
A number of other persons helped me locate local materials. Mme.
Dominique Arnould, archivist of the Chambre d'Agriculture of the Aisne,
and Christian Bougeard, in the Cotes-d'Armor, offered me both hospital-
ity and local knowledge. I am also indebted to Jean-Pierre Le Crom in
the Loire-Atlantique, Jacqueline Sainclivier and David Bensassoun in the
Ille-et-Vilaine, Gabriel Desert in the Calvados, Yves Le Mancr in the Pas-
de-Calais, and Julien Papp in the Eure. Dominique Lerch made available
his documentation about Joseph Bilger's Bauernbund in Alsace, and
Freddy Raphael and Mme. Genevieve Flerberich-Marx shared their deep
knowledge of Alsatian politics.
Mme. Mireille Tanguy-Prigent and Mme. Michel Geistdorfer in the Fi-
nistere let me see materials from, respectively, their father and husband,
well-known opponents of Dorgeres.
Several authors of memoires de maitrise generously brought me their work
and discussed their findings: Clement Lepine, "La Naissance du mouve-
ment Dorgeriste," Universite de Paris Nord, Paris XIII, 1992—93; Nicolas
Varin, "Dorgeres et le dorgerisme en Picardie," Universite de Paris I,
Pantheon Sorbonne, 1993—94; Jean-Luc Allais, "Dorgeres et ses hommes:
la Defense Paysanne en Basse-Normandie," Universite de Caen, 1992—93;
and Jose Arnoux, "Milieux ruraux et urbains dans le Pas-de-Calais dans la
tourmente nationaliste de I'entre deux guerres: le Dorgerisme et le P.S.F.,
Universite Charles De Gaulle, Lille III, 1990—91.
The following persons were willing to talk to me about Dorgeres or
his major lieutenants: Joseph Argouarc'h, Rene Bourrigaud, Jean-Louis
Chalony, Mme. Louis Divanac'h, Robert Fiche, Mme. Poriel (daughter of
Joseph Divanac'h), Jean Suplice, and Raymond Triboulet.
I received valuable scholarly assistance from Gilles Postel-Vinay, Isa-
belle Boussard, Patrick Friclenson, Michel Cepede, Gilbert Carrier, and
John T. S. Keeler. Pascal Ory, this subject's trailblazer, gave me crucial
initial encouragement.
Justice Minister Robert Badinter granted permission to consult Dor-
geres's trial records. Ezra Suleiman, Jean-Noel Jeanneney, and Louis Joxe
helped me to obtain permission to see Dorgeres's Ministry of the Interior
file, and Antoine Prost helped me over a momentary difficulty in the
Loir-et-Cher. Jean-Paul Brunet kindly helped me to gain access to the
archives of the Prefecture of Police.
At the Musee Henri Queuille at Neuvic d'Ussel (Correze), where the
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS * vii
papers of the longest-serving minister of agriculture of the Third and
Fourth Republics are housed, Marcel Barbanceys, mnservaleur, and Jean
Chastrusse, directeur des archives, received rne with enthusiasm, although the
Queuille archives are richer for the postwar period than for the 1930s.
The librarian of the Ecole d'Agriculture at Beauvais let. me consult a
valuable memoire on the agricultural strikes of 1936. Mile. Isabelle Riche-
fort, of the Service d'Archives at the Ministry of Agriculture, gave me
access to the valuable clipping file of Michel Auge-Laribe (no interwar
minister left any archives). Mile. Monique Genay let me use the library of
the Asscmblee des Presidents ties Chambres d'Agriculture. 1 also thank
M. Bruno Jourdan for permission to consult the papers of Andre Tardieu,
the peasants' favorite minister of agriculture between the wars, in the
Archives Nationales. I also thank Denis Lefevre and the Office Universi-
taire de Recherches Sodalistes for access to the clipping file of Michel
Cepede.
Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie let me read the manuscript of the autobiog-
raphy that his father was reworking right up to his death, but he has not
been willing to open his father's important archive to any scholar.
Financial support from the German Marshall Fund of the United States
and Columbia University permitted me to take some time off from teach-
ing and administrative duties to pursue this subject in Paris and in the
archives of eighteen rural French departments. Finally, but certainly not
least, Sarah Plimpton gave wise editorial advice and encouragement over
the years.
None of these helpers and friends is in any way responsible for the
way in which I have interpreted this material or for any errors, which are
entirely my responsibility.
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CONTENTS
Abbreviations xi
Intruduction n 3
IN SEARCH OF HENRY DORGERES 3
One
One THE TRIPLE CRISIS OF THE FRENCH PEASANTRY, 1929—39
The Depression 12
A Vanishing Way of Life 27
A Crisis of Representation 36
Two
THE RISE OF DORGERISM 51
The Creation of Henry Dorgeres 51
Dorgeres and the Agrarian Press 54
Dorgeres, the Peasant Tribune 57
Dorgeres against the Republic 61
Three
FIVE SCENARIOS OF PEASANT ACTION 69
Giving the Peasants a Voice: The Market-day Rally 70
Pushing Back the State: The Battle of
Bray-sur-Somme, 18 June 1953 78
Pushing Back the Reds 84