Lekuan, Louis

Born September 30, 1888 in a very poor peasant family. His parents were illiterate, and Louis did his own education. In 1905 he moved to Paris . He worked as a laborer, gardener, proofreader.

In 1910 he was drafted into the army and received, together with everyone, the first task - to disperse the strike of railway workers. Lekuan refused, for which he received 6 months in prison. Demobilized in 1912, he soon joined the anarchist movement and became an active anti-militarist .

During World War I , on December 18, 1917, he was sentenced to 5 years in a military prison for speaking out against compulsory military service and calling for desertion from the army. After his release, he was soon again arrested and convicted - this time for refusing to be drafted into the army . He was released only in 1920.

Lekuan's notes relate to his experience as a pacifist who was imprisoned during the First World War and released two years after its completion, and are factual in nature. This text talks about what happened, but reveals very little the personality of a person who survived the events described. This narrative clearly shows that the conditions in the French military prison of this period were much worse than in similar institutions in the United Kingdom and the United States .

Louis Lekuan participated in two campaigns of international importance. He spoke in support of N. Sacco and B. Vanzetti , executed in the USA on August 23, 1927. Later, disguised as an American soldier, he came to a meeting of soldiers from the American Legion and during his speech shouted “Vivat Sacco and Vanzetti!” Three times, for which and was arrested. In the 1930s, he undertook to defend three fighters from the Buenaventura Durutti detachment, who lived in France, who were accused of preparing for an attack on King of Spain Alfonso XIII , who was planning to visit France. These three people have never been extradited to the authorities.

On the eve of World War II, Lekuan was again imprisoned due to the publication of an anti-militaristic pamphlet, but remained unharmed during the war years.

Since 1958, Louis Lekuan, together with Albert Camus , Abbot Pierre and other public figures, began a long and, ultimately, successful campaign to give all true and convinced pacifists the right to refuse military service. He established the organizations “Assistance to Conscious objectors”, the “Center for the Defense of Refusers” and the Liberte magazine. It should be noted that during this period he fervently defended the rights of Jehovah's Witnesses to be exempted from military service, despite his disagreement with their religious views and contrary to the position of the leaders of this organization, who had a negative attitude to his own secular campaign in defense of the rights of pacifists .

On June 1, 1961, the French government promised to issue an alternative service law, but was in no hurry to implement it. In support of this law, Louis Lekuan went on a hunger strike , despite the fact that he was already 73 years old. At first the hunger strike was met with complete indifference from the authorities, but after Lekuana was supported by the press, he was forcibly hospitalized. On the 21st day, Prime Minister Georges Pompidou sent him a promise that the bill would be submitted to parliament. In August 1963, after the parliament had already rejected the fifth version of the law on the conscious refusal of military service, Lekuan threatened to resume the hunger strike. The government ceded, and on December 23, 1963, the law was proclaimed. All serving a sentence for refusing to serve in the army (about 200 people) were released.

In 1964, Louis Lekuan was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize , but he demanded that those who nominated him give up their intentions so that Martin Luther King had a better chance of receiving this prize.

On the whole, Lekuan was a consistent man in his adherence to his moral principles. His religion was anti-militarism and universal brotherhood, and he devoted his life to upholding these beliefs. Initially, he did not reject all forms of violence, but ultimately became an uncompromising advocate of non-violence .

Only a few pacifists, with the exception of the Tolstoyans in Stalinist Russia and opponents of the war in Nazi Germany , who gave their lives in the name of their principles, have done as much for the pacifist movement as Louis Lekuan. In total, for his strong resistance to militarism and war, he was forced to spend in prison, starting in 1910, twelve years. Making a living as a printer, proofreader, or construction worker, Lekuan remained an active anti-militarist until his death on June 21, 1971.

Obituary for the death of Louis Lekuan was published in one of the most influential American newspapers The New York Times on June 24, 1971. More than a thousand people attended the funeral, and there were famous personalities, including Yves Montand . The body is cremated and resting in the Pere Lachaise Cemetery .

• Peter Brock . “The prison experience of Louis Lekuan, an opponent of military service by conviction, in France during the First World War” // “From the history of peacekeeping and the intelligentsia. Collection of memory of T. A. Pavlova ”, M., IVI RAS, 2005, 176 p.
• "Alternative civil service: past, present, future ...". M., "Grail", 2000
• Louis Lecoin “De prison en prison” (édité à compte d'auteur, Paris), 1946 ISBN 33305-858
• Louis Lecoin , “Le cours d'une vie” (édité à compte d'auteur, Paris), 1965, ISBN 5477-572
• Louis Lecoin , La Nation face à l'armée, ISBN 34768-218
• Louis Lecoin , Écrits de Louis Lecoin, (Union pacifiste, Paris), 1974, ISBN 13134-807
• Sylvain Garel , “Louis Lecoin et le mouvement anarchiste”, (Volonté anarchiste, Fresnes), 1982.
• Jean-Claude Lemonnier , “Louis Lecoin combattant de la Paix”, (Anima, Saint-Amand-Montrond), 1991.
• Harold Josephson , ed. "Biographical Dictionary of Modern Peace leaders." Westport, 1985.

• P. Brock. “The prison experience of Louis Lekuan ...” // “Understanding the ideal: From the history of peacekeeping and the intelligentsia”. M., IVI RAS, 2005.
• Louis Lekuan on Increvables anarchistes (fr.)