Extraordinary and rare newspaper from the Libération resistance, evening of November 16, 1944. This clandestine resistance newspaper evokes General de Gaulle's visit to Moscow.
Extremely rare newspaper. Fascinating text on the liberation of Andorra.
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Source Wikipedia
daily (from August 1944)
GenreClandestine press of the French Resistance
After the Liberation, daily news newspaper
FounderEmmanuel d’Astier de la Vigerie
Jean Cavaillès
Founding dateJuly 1941
Date of last issue November 27, 1964
EditorLibération-Sud
Publishing cityLyon, Paris (1944-1964)
Publication DirectorGeorges E. Vallois
Editorial DirectorEmmanuel d’Astier de la Vigerie
ISSN2268-0292
edit See the template documentation
Libération is a French newspaper published from 1941, during the Second World War. Initially a clandestine periodical of the Libération-Sud resistance movement (to which Emmanuel d'Astier de La Vigerie, Lucie and Raymond Aubrac belonged, among others), the newspaper continued after the war. Its director then belonged to the so-called “fellow travelers” movement of the French Communist Party. It ceased publication in 1964.
In 1973, its title was taken up by Jean-Paul Sartre and Serge July for the creation of their newspaper.
History[edit | edit code]
Clandestine beginnings[edit | edit code]
In July 1941, Jean Cavaillès and Emmanuel d'Astier de La Vigerie launched Libération, the underground newspaper of the Libération-Sud resistance movement. The editorial adventure begins with a print run of ten thousand copies for the first issue, co-signed by André Lassagne, Raymond Aubrac and Jean Cavaillès1. Reaching a peak of two hundred thousand copies printed, it became one of the most important and most widely distributed Resistance newspapers, along with Combat. During the first six months of its existence, the “master builder” of the editorial team was an editor of the Clermont-based daily La Montagne, Jean Rochon2 From 1942 to April 1944, the date of his arrest, the editor-in-chief was the journalist- writer Louis Martin-Chauffier3. Like the movement from which the newspaper emerged, the editorial team brought together men from diverse political backgrounds: socialists, communists, CGT trade unionists and activists of Christian trade unionism4.
In cash flow difficulties from its first issues, the newspaper owes its survival only to the funds provided by Yvon Morandat, envoy of General de Gaulle, parachuted near Toulouse on the night of November 6 to 7, 1941. Subsequently, it benefited, like other clandestine organizations, from funds granted by the leader of Free France. They allowed publication every two weeks: thirty-five issues came out between November 1942 and August 19445 and the circulation increased from twenty thousand copies (no. 12, November 1942) to two hundred thousand in the summer of 1944. The title is printed in a printing network and distribution is organized by region. This organization was set up by Jules Meurillon6 with the help of the young Jean Dutourd.
In the euphoria of the Liberation[edit | edit code]
One from August 21, 1944.
When France was liberated, the newspaper appeared in broad daylight in Paris7. From August 21, 1944, in the haste to impose a title with a prestigious name, it became a daily newspaper. Emmanuel d'Astier, quickly released from his government functions on September 9, 19448, took over the management of the newspaper. This is in fact two-headed: Emmanuel d'Astier is assisted by Pierre Hervé9, pre-war leader of the Union of Communist Students. Several of his former resistance companions joined him, such as Pascal Copeau and Louis Martin-Chauffier. In December 1944 its circulation was one hundred and eighty thousand copies.
However, the existence of the newspaper was quickly linked to financial constraints. Libération carries the aspirations of a current of the left of the Resistance, for unity of action between movements originating from the non-communist Resistance and the French Communist Party (PCF). This unity did not materialize and, from 1946, after a circulation peak of two hundred thousand copies, the newspaper's readership declined as political ambiguities increased: Emmanuel d'Astier was elected deputy in October 1945 to the Assembly. constituent thanks to the support of the Communist Party. Despite its proclaimed freedom of action, it is difficult for it, in the context of the “passions” of the Fourth Republic, to assert an autonomous voice.
An editorial niche not found[edit | edit code]
In October 1948, in the grip of financial difficulties (circulation fell to one hundred and fifty thousand copies) the newspaper received reinforcements from journalists from another daily born in the Resistance, Franc-Tireur. The co-director of this newspaper, Georges-Eugène Vallois, became general director of Libération and remained so until the end of the daily, in 1964. But the newspaper continues to be in deficit. To survive, he receives hidden financial support from the PCF. Bonds of friendship had been established between Emmanuel d'Astier and Maurice Thorez. The printing works on Boulevard Poissonnière published the two titles, Libération and L'Humanité (they occupied the same seat at number 6 for a time, with Ce Soir and Regards)10.
The drop in sales is, however, much less severe - up to a third rather than half, for this daily carried by the personality of Emmanuel d'Astier de La Vigerie, close to the PCF - than for that belonging directly to the PCF. The period was when the dailies working with the French Information Union suffered an overall decline in the circulation of communist dailies11, following the Stalinist purges of 1949 and their consequences on the coverage of the UFI, including sporting as during the France-Yugoslavia match of October 30, 1949[unclear].
Year194911March 1950October 1952Variation
Humanity292,000200,000140,000Minus 52%
Liberation136 000104 00094 000Less 31%
The communist daily Ce Soir lost three-quarters of its readers between 1947 and 1952.
The political differences that arose between Emmanuel d'Astier and the PCF after the return of General de Gaulle to power in 1958, fewer and fewer readers (sixty thousand in 1964), the death of Maurice Thorez, are all factors which call into question into question the support of the Communist Party. Due to lack of this, the newspaper was forced to close on November 27, 196412.
In the space of twenty years, circulation fell from two hundred to sixty thousand. There lies deeper the cause of the death of the daily newspaper which was unable to find a “progressive” editorial niche between the political blocs and parties born during the Cold War. In 1966, Emmanuel d'Astier, in a book of interviews with the journalist Francis Crémieux13, looked back on his experience as director of the newspaper. He then thought he could keep a periodical, L'Événement: “Starting something else”. But he doesn't succeed.
For twenty-three years, and with 6,287 issues14, the pluralist editorial staff of this newspaper, which proclaims itself in the subtitle “The Republican Daily of Paris”, brings together journalists from various horizons of the left. Some had also engaged in attempts to create a “unitary” socialist party, between the two great forces of the left, the PCF and the SFIO.
A pluralist editorial team, from the entire left-wing press[edit | edit code]
François Fonvieille-Alquier (1915-2003), former director of L'Écho du Center, quietly left the PCF after 1956. He was one of the newspaper's regular columnists until 1964.
Marcel Fourrier (1895-1966), former companion of Henri Barbusse at the newspaper Clarté, had a political career strewn with ruptures. Excluded from the PC in 1928, joined the SFIO, he was also excluded in 1948 and participated in the creation of an ephemeral Unitary Socialist Party (known as the "first PSU"). At Libération, he is one of the editorialists.
Henri Bordage (1922-1968) is still a member of the PCF to which he had joined during the Resistance. Joining Libération after having been a journalist in several titles of the abundant communist press of the beginnings of the Fourth Republic (La Voix des Charentes, then Les Nouvelles de Bordeaux), he was its editor-in-chief from 1958 to 1964.
Claude Estier (1925-2016), also editor at France Observateur, left Le Monde in 1958 to join Libération. He would subsequently have a political career with François Mitterrand.
Jean-Maurice Hermann (1905-1988), from the International section, had been before 1939 editor of the SFIO daily, Le Populaire. He was one of those from Franc-Tireur who joined Libération in 1949.
Albert-Paul Lentin (1922-1993), is also a contributor to France Observateur. He is a senior reporter, specialist in Maghreb countries, covering the Algerian War.
Jacques Derogy (1925-1997), was an investigative journalist at Libération, before writing for L'Express.
Andrée Marty-Capgras (1898-1963), who delivered the newspaper entry: If all the women in the world, had been a socialist and feminist activist. A member of the unity movement of the SFIO, she joined Libération in 1948.
Madeleine Jacob (1896-1985), covered multiple post-war legal cases. She had a long journalistic career behind her, at Vogue , Lu, l'Œuvre, Messidor, and Franc-Tireur, when she joined Libération in 1948.
Paulette Péju (1919-1979), years 1959-1964
André Sauger, is one of the editorialists. He too had been in Messidor, the CGT's weekly newspaper before 1939. He also collaborates with Le Canard chainé
Among the many satirical cartoonists who illustrated the pages of Libération, the young André Escaro (born in 1928) provided the drawings for the front page from 1957 to 1964, before devoting himself to Le Canard chainé. He was also the caricature artist of the riders during the Tour de France. His predecessors, often ephemeral, having worked for Libération are Louis Berings, Jean Effel, Jacques Naret, Mittelberg, Robert Fuzier...
Numbers of other journalists worked at Libération: Jean Freire, Louis de Villefosse, Jean Avran, Michel Hincker. Among them also we note René Fallet and Robert Scipion, François Cavanna as a designer and Irène Allier made her debut there.
Literary and leisure sections[edit | edit code]
Shows and literature, page 2 of the newspaper is dedicated to them, are commented on by writers recognized in their specialty:
Jeander, is the film critic.
Jacqueline Fabre (1916-1996), takes care of the cinema and shows section. When Libération fell, she first joined Paris-Jour, then Télé-7 Jours until her retirement.
René Dazy, takes care of the show section.
Guy Dornand is the theater critic.
Paul Morelle (1917-2007), heads the cultural department and writes literary criticism and theater criticism. He joined Le Monde in 1969.
Claude Roy (1915-1997), chronicles literature, as he does regularly in the pages of France Observateur, after his break with the Communist Party, following the events in Hungary in 1956.
The SPORTS department occupies a full page of the daily, for an average pagination of 6 pages, which indicates a certain interest on the part of readers. The head of this domain is André Chaillot. Specialized in basketball, leading trade unionist among sports journalists, he has specialized collaborators:
Louis Crombez and François Thébaud for football,
Maurice Vidal and Claude Parmentier for cycling,
Robert Barran for rugby,
Maurice Ragonneau for athletics,
Henri Quiqueré, etc.
Most also write for the sports weekly Miroir Sprint. To complete this inventory of the newspaper's contributors, we must cite AE Mars Valett, the specialist in a very regular and undoubtedly widely read "here we fish" section.
Journal Legacy[edit | edit code]
Shortly after the newspaper ceased publication, its emblematic director called, during the presidential elections of 1965, to vote for General de Gaulle. Most of the former journalists15 made it known in a letter published in Le Monde that they “categorically condemned Emmanuel d’Astier’s initiative” and that they “have always fought for the unity of the French left”. The political destiny of Emmanuel d'Astier in fact blurs the retrospective vision of a newspaper which lived, during the short Fourth Republic, in a "progressive" attitude, on the edge of the Communist Party, to which Emmanuel d'Astier owed his mandate as deputy for Ille-et-Vilaine16 and the forces which formed in 1960 into a Unified Socialist Party (PSU).
The editorial heritage of the title further disrupts the panorama.
Its title was in fact taken up in 1973 by Jean-Paul Sartre and Serge July for the creation of their journal. To do this, they obtained the agreement of d'Astier's widow, at the insistence of Michel-Antoine Burnier. But the two newspapers, published in different historical periods, have little in common.
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