Marion, Paul

Since 1922 he was a member of the French Communist Party . He was distinguished by radical views, was one of the leading publicists of Humanite . In 1926 he became a member of the Central Committee of the FKP, oversaw the party propaganda. For some time he lived in Moscow , served in the propaganda system of the Comintern .

By the end of the 1920s, Paul Marion moved to the position of right-wing socialism , close to Marcel Dea . In 1929, he defiantly broke with the Communist Party and joined the Social Democratic SFIO . In 1935, together with a group, Dea joined the Socialist Republican Union . The next year, continuing evolution to the right, Marion joined the French People’s Party ( PPF ) ^[1] , led by Jacques Doriot - in the recent past, an equally radical communist ^[2] , a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party and functionary of the Comintern.

In 1936-1938, Paul Marion acted as the main ideologist of the fascist PPF ^[3] . Fierce anti-communism came to the fore in the worldview of the former communist Marion - like Dorio. He stated that the PPF “will enter into an alliance with the devil himself and his grandmother in order to defeat communism” ^[4] . Moreover, the communist past of Marion (like Dorio) was reflected in the radicalism of the social and ideological attitudes of the PPF.

In 1938, Paul Marion published the PPF program based on fascist corporatism ^[5] . Edited by the party weekly L'Émancipation nationale and the newspaper La Liberté . He also wrote articles for right-wing publications, including Jean Luscher's Notre Temps ^[6] . At the same time, since 1938, Marion had been in conflict with Dorio over the openly pro-Hitler position of the PPF leader. In addition, a group of former associates of Dorio accused the leader of using party powers for personal enrichment ^[7] . In 1939, Marion left the PPF, but in 1941 he reconciled with Dorio (largely under the influence of the German political representative in France, Otto Abets ).

In 1939-1941 he published the essay Leur combat (from the French - “Their Fight”), in which he gave a comparative analysis of the ideologies of Lenin , Hitler , Mussolini and Franco .

The evolution of Paul Marion, who for several years moved from the extreme left to the extreme right , was characteristic of many French radical politicians of the 1920-1940s, especially for PPF figures ^[8] . Former communists such as Dorio and Marion stood at the forefront of the fascist movement in France in the second half of the 1930s.

After the Nazi occupation of France in 1940, Paul Marion - like Dorio and Dea - took a collaborative position. From 1941 to 1944, Marion was the Minister of Information of the Vichy government .

The powers of Marion increased after the election of French volunteers against Bolshevism to the control committee of the Legion . Together with J. Benoit-Meschen, Marion proposed to Pierre Laval to constitute the Legion as the official army of the Vichy regime ^[9] . He contributed to the creation of the Association of Friends of the SS Forces , which recruited recruits in the SS formations ^[10] . He directed the propaganda apparatus of Vichy, without much success he tried to politicize youth organizations in a fascist spirit ^[11] .

In 1944, a group of pro-Nazi radicals achieved the removal of Marion and the appointment of Philip Henriot as Minister of Information ^[12] . However, after the murder of Anrio by the resistance fighters , Marion returned to his former post. Together with the Vichy government, he moved to Belfort , then to Sigmaringen , but by then he had practically no authority ^[13] .

Paul Marion was not directly involved in the repression and punitive actions, but after the liberation of France he was arrested for collaboration and in 1948 sentenced to 10 years in prison. In 1953, he was prematurely released for health reasons.

In post-war France, Paul Marion did not play any political role, but spoke out in support of General de Gaulle and called for a vote for the Gaullist Union of the French people ^[14] .

• Henri Barbe

• David Littlejohn. The Patriotic Traitors: [ eng. ] . - London: William Heinemann Ltd, 1972.- 391 p. - ISBN 043442725X . - ISBN 978-0434427253 .
• Robert Soucy. French Fascism: The Second Wave, 1933-1939: [ eng. ] . - Yale University Press, 1995 .-- 366 p. - ISBN 0300059965 . - ISBN 978-0300059960 .
• William Fortescue. The Third Republic in France, 1870-1940: [ eng. ] . - London, New York: Routledge, 2000 .-- 258 p. - ISBN 0415169445 . - ISBN 0415169453 .
• Charles Williams. Petain: How the Hero of France Became a Convicted Traitor and Changed the Course of History: [ eng. ] . - Palgrave MacMillan, 2005 .-- 298 p. - ISBN 1403970114 . - ISBN 978-1403970114 .
• Malcolm Anderson. Conservative Politics in France: [ eng. ] . - George Allen & Unwin Ltd, 1974.- 381 p. - ISBN 0043200931 . - ISBN 978-0043200933 .
• Yu. I. Rubinsky. The Troubled Years of France: The Struggle of Classes and Parties from Versailles to Munich (1919-1939). - M .: Thought , 1973.- 453 p. - 10,000 copies.
• Sergey Kara-Murza. Communism and fascism. Brothers or enemies? : Anthology / Comp. I.V. Pykhalov. - M .: Yauza-Press, 2008 .-- 608 p. - (Manipulation of consciousness). - 5,000 copies. - ISBN 978-5-903339-03-7 .