Dea, Marseille

He came from a family of republicans and patriots, received appropriate education. He brilliantly graduated from the Higher Normal School in 1914. Joined the SFIO . He was drafted into the army, participated in the First World War . He graduated from the war with the rank of captain with the Order of the Legion of Honor . For the rest of his life he remained committed to the "trench fraternity", front-line partnership. He built his social concepts according to this model.

Returning from the war, Dea continued his studies, received a degree in philosophy and sociology. At the same time, he delved into socialist politics. Adjacent to the right wing of the Socialist Party, headed by Pierre Renaudel ^[1] . In 1925, he was first elected to the municipality of Reims , in 1926 - to the parliament. I could not achieve re-election in the elections of 1928, but became the secretary of the parliamentary group of the SFIO and the head of its information center. He was considered a close ally and potential successor to the leader of the French socialists, Leon Blum .

In 1930, Marcel Deaat published the work Perspectives socialistes ( "Socialist Perspective" ) - a detailed exposition of his theoretical views. He advocated the evolutionary socialist transformation of capitalism through the spread of labor property, especially peasant and small-scale property, the development of corporatism , a sharp expansion of the public sector and state regulation of the economy. This concept, most fully developed by the Belgian right-wing socialist Henri de Mans , was called Le planisme - “planism” ^[2] . These views also traced the influence of Italian fascism . In France, this set of ideas and the right-wing socialist movement were characterized as neo-socialism .

In the theoretical constructions of Dea, an important place was given to the creation of a public "anti-capitalist front", the main social force of which the French peasantry saw.

Since the peasant lives in an area where large differences in the amount of wealth are rare, since he knows from experience that it is impossible to “earn” millions, he has the instinct of equality, he does not accept the capitalist concentration of huge wealth in the hands of several individuals. The love of freedom, a keen sense of equality makes the French peasant a democrat to the bone.
Marcel Dea

Industry Dea proposed to build on the basis of a system of cartels, coordinated by government agencies. Without abandoning the idea of ​​the dictatorship of the proletariat, he interpreted it as "a democracy closely concerned with social problems." The creation of a broad populist “planning” movement by Dea considered the only opportunity to “overtake fascism” ^[3] - to strengthen state power and carry out social transformations by the forces of socialists on a democratic basis.

At the same time, Dea held extremely anti-communist positions. Vividly and with pathos, he condemned Marxism and especially Bolshevism ^[4] . This doctrine and this system was considered by the neo-socialist as the worst enemy of European civilization and the principles of the French Revolution .

At the SFIO congress in November 1933, Marcel Dea, Adrien Marche and Barthelemy Montagnon presented a neo-socialist program. Along with theoretical innovations, they demanded that the party actively penetrate into power - coalitions with the right-wing forces, and obtain government posts. These attitudes did not receive the support of the Marxist majority of delegates. The neo-socialists withdrew from the SFIO and established the Socialist Party of France - the Union of Jean Jaurès . In 1935-1940, the party entered the Socialist Republican Union and joined the broad center-left coalition of the Popular Front .

From January to June 1936, Marcel Dea served as Minister of Aviation in the center-left government of the radical Albert Sarro . Dea did not enter the government of the Popular Front, formed by Leon Blum, but to a certain extent influenced his policy through a group of “planning” ministers.

Marcel Deaay is undoubtedly a great talent and great authority. I think we will see how he rises very high.
Charles de Gaulle

In the 1930s, Marcel Dea spoke from anti-Nazi positions. He condemned the Hitler regime, was part of the organization of anti - fascist intelligentsia. He protested against racist campaigns and anti-Semitic persecution in Germany ^[5] , was a member of the Jewish Defense Committee. Being a purebred Frenchman, out of solidarity he called himself “a man of mixed race” ^[6] .

An important element of Dea’s political program was pacifism , very convincing in the mouth of a military officer awarded for military prowess. Together with other neo-socialists, he categorically opposed the intervention of France in the Spanish civil war on the side of the Republicans - and thereby actually supported the Francoists . In 1939, Dea published the acclaimed article Mourir pour Dantzig ^[7] ( “ Why die for Danzig? ” ). He condemned the Anglo-French military guarantees to Poland, advocated the neutrality of France. Moreover, he proceeded from social motives: "French workers and peasants should not shed their blood for someone else's business." Dea considered the anti-Hitler collective security system a British project of imperial-economic competition with Germany.

The joint protection of our territories, our industries, our freedoms with our Polish friends is a perspective that will help to contribute to peacekeeping. But to die for Danzig - no!
Marcel Dea

It was on the basis of pacifism that Dea began to reorient toward rapprochement with Hitler's Reich. In addition, the authoritarian-corporatist views of Dea and the close aesthetics of military collectivism resembled some elements of the ideology of the NSDAP ^[8] (especially with a superficial reading).

After the defeat of the French troops in the spring and summer of 1940, Dea strongly supported the Petain - Laval collaboration course (although he was extremely skeptical of them personally). During the time, Marcel Dea established the National People’s Party, which advocated from the perspective of neo-socialism, but with an unambiguous fascist bias. Dea planned to create a single "party of the French National Socialist Revolution." However, this project failed due to intense competition in a collaborative environment.

Dea's neo-socialist views contradicted the conservatism of the Vichy government . Marshal Petain strongly objected to Dea’s political projects. An irreconcilable feud divided Marcel Dea with Jacques Doriot , leader of the French People’s Party , a former prominent communist and a much more consistent fascist. ^[9] Dea’s relationship with ultra-right-wing terrorist Eugene Delonclay was even tighter .

The Dea party, completely loyal to the Nazi occupiers, still retained elements of French patriotism. The membership was composed mainly of representatives of the intelligentsia, employees, and the bourgeois. (Unlike the Dorio party, which focuses on lumpenized youth and criminal circles.) Often, activists of the National People's Union came from the Socialist Party, sometimes from the Communist Party (even more former communists were in the more radical Dorio party.) They held ceremonial events and defended the French symbols, for example, images of Marianne . This party was the least active in collaboration, and therefore lost to Dorio in competition for closeness to the German authorities.

Attempts were made twice on Marcel Dea. On August 27, 1941, he was wounded by a resistance fighter , Paul Colette (during the assassination attempt on Prime Minister Laval). A second attempt was made on March 16, 1942 , but by accident did not cause Dea harm. After the second incident, the Gestapo carried out a series of arrests, followed by executions.

At the request of the occupation authorities, on March 16, 1944, Dea joined the Vichy government and took the post of Minister of Labor and National Solidarity. From that moment, he lost the last signs of independence. In the last months of the occupation, Dea pursued a course of comprehensive cooperation with Germany. At the same time, Petain and especially Laval in every possible way blocked his social initiatives. Dea's only major step in the ministerial post is an attempt to establish a Workers' University.

In the summer of 1944, Dea, along with other prominent collaborators, moved to Sigmaringen . In April 1945, under an assumed name, he fled from Germany to Italy. Marcel Dea converted to Catholicism and settled in the monastery of San Vito, near Turin . A French court sentenced him in absentia to death for treason, but Dea was not tracked down and died a decade after the liberation of France.

Marcel Dea was remembered in history mainly as a French collaborator of World War II. However, it is worth noting that his cooperation with the Nazi invaders was mostly abstract-political and propaganda, and not operational (like Dorio or Darnan ).

In the political biography of Dea of ​​the interwar period, there were many constructive moments. However, they were crowded out and faded against the backdrop of his activities in the 1940s. Interest in the ideological and political heritage of Dea began to awaken only recently and mainly outside of France.

• Zalessky, K. A. Who was Who: Allies of Germany. - 2nd ed. - M .: AST, 2003 .-- 500 p. - ISBN 5-17-015753-3 .
• Panteleev M. M. Marcel Dea and his “revolutionary evolution” // History. - 2012. - No. 9. - P. 123-136.
• Kondratiev A.G. Marcel Dea: an intellectual and politician in the service of National Socialism // New and modern history. - 2016. - No. 5. - S. 224—229.