The Far Right French Revolution - The 6 February Crisis | BETWEEN 2 WARS I 1934 Part 4 of 4 - YouTube (1)
fascism corruption economic hardship ideological rivalry anti-semitism these
words can describe pretty much every European country in the interwar years
France is no exception and in 1934 on the night of February 6th this all comes
together to trigger the worst political violence the country has seen for
generations once the dust settles the battle lines
within France will be more stark than ever
bullshit justly indy neidell and this is unclear dude guerre a chronological
summary of the interwar years covering all facets of life the uncertainty
hedonism and euphoria and ultimately humanity's descent into the darkness of
the Second World War if in the aftermath of the Great War
Germany is facing a national humiliation and if Italy is facing a frustration and
victory then we may say that France is facing a lost peace France emerged
victorious from the war sure but at a cost of close to 5% of its population
nearly nine million men were mobilized to fight for France and around 73
percent of them were either killed or wounded those who survived are still
often a visible scar on the streets of France and the staggering loss of young
men heightens fears over declining birth rates the country is also in financial
ruin it has gone from a creditor nation to a debtor nation vital industries in
the northeast were were utterly obliterated during the war and the franc
has plummeted in value and such trauma inevitably leads to political division
the brutalizing experience of the trenches and the military patriotism of
the war years have created a whole generation of radicalized veterans
ultra-nationalism such as this has always been hostile to the political
left but the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia has intensified hatred of the Red
Menace and any groups associated with it have become targets this really comes to
a head in 1924 after the election of the so called cartel de Guiche and electoral
alliance between the center-left radical party and other more left-wing groups in
response several new leagues are formed or grow in strength groups such as the
Jeunesse pay Clio and the fish hill begin to develop a far-right agenda the
latter group is more overtly fascist than the former indeed the fascio are
the first real fascist party to emerge outside of Italy but both groups like
many others formed in this time see veterans
as the men who will rejuvenate France save her from Republican leftism and
preserve her conservative traditions both groups also have paramilitary units
with their own uniforms and with big parades alongside these newer groups is
the axial fan state founded during the Dreyfus Affair in 1899 the group
promotes the principle of integral nationalism a counter revolutionary and
royalist doctrine incorporating anti parliamentarianism authoritarianism
Catholicism anti-semitism and ultra-nationalism though already a
significant movement the rise of the cartel has given it a golden opportunity
for publicity other less radical but still right when groups are also
emerging the largest being de fédération nationale Catholic led by general de
castle now it has mobilized math Catholics support against the government
in 1926 its membership will rise to 1.8 million however that same year the
cartel government collapses and is replaced by a more right-wing one under
veteran conservative Lyman Poincare a general election in 1928 further secures
the political position of conservative parties so the cries against the
degenerate leftists have kind of lost their potency
however the ground is still fertile for the far right to sow their seeds the
memories of war remain vivid especially as France finds itself increasingly
isolated from Britain and the United States the national sacrifice at Verdun
is compared bitterly by many to the corrupt liberalism declining birth rates
and the new woman of the 1920s despite the new Conservative government passing
effective legislation the political class is becoming discredited you see
they're borrowing a fair amount from the radical program this might win over the
typical voter sure might create a sense of consensus but it angers the
nationalist right they are joined by an increasing number of young intellectuals
frustrated at the lack of prospects in the Republic though varied they share a
suspicion of mechanism and materialism with an
accompanying veneration of French traditionalism okay it is worth
mentioning that not every veteran or young person has become a fluent
nationalist in fact pacifism has actually been on the rise in France this
is expressed by both dominant socialist parties and many veterans organizations
pledging themselves to peace nevertheless as France enters the 1930s
shadowy forces on the horizon grow clearer she has actually escaped the
worst parts of the worldwide depression so far in fact French financial markets
are looking strong and the government budget is in surplus but economic
technicalities do little to calm the pessimism among the populace
conservative governments remain in power until April 1932 when they are defeated
by another cartel de gauche however the cartel fails to transform
its electoral alliance into a governmental one and now like Germany
some years earlier French politics is going through I guess what you'd call a
cascade of cabinets these socialists who worked with the Radical Party are pretty
suspicious of bourgeois governments and offer only conditional parliamentary
support this means that governments are continually facing instability and
insecurity political deadlocks happen again and again and successive cabinets
collapse fueling this political turbulence is a growing public unrest
over a host of different grievances see now a couple years later the depression
is hitting France harder and harder there are mass protests against war
debts against pension cuts against rising taxes against tumbling
agricultural prices and against slashed wages it really does look like France
has lost the peace indeed marshal Philippe Pathan himself known as the
Lion of Verdun amplifies this narrative in a 1932 speech commemorating that
famous battle he expresses dismay that the patriotism of the war has now given
way to bitter division and to top it all off the ascendance of Hitler in Germany
in 1933 creates hiding across much of France in terms of
both population and industrial capacity Germany has basically double the size of
France and Hitler's withdrawal from a rearmament conference heightens fears
that France is now in danger from both internal and external enemies so like
most of inter warrior France is sitting on a bonfire of political social and
economic problems that seems to be just waiting for a match to set it all ablaze
for the Third Republic this will be the political scandal known as the stavisky
affair Serge Alexandre stavisky was born in
1886 to a Jewish family in what was then the Russian Empire the family soon moved
to France and as he grew up Serge became increasingly involved with fraudulent
enterprises from his teenage years he has behind him a string of fake
companies bad checks stolen securities now he's arrested in 1926 but 317 months
later on medical grounds and he continues his shady career now status
key is nothing more than a petty crook but he is also a real charmer and a true
socialite of his day he somehow bagged himself a Chanel model for a wife and
has a knack for making friends in high places but by the end of 1933 the law is
catching up with him on Christmas Day he flees Paris after a lucrative scheme of
his begins to unravel it basically involves local politicians and their
assistance in securing bad bonds faker stolen jewelry and pawn shops once the
right-wing press gets wind of this tangled web they declared a new republic
and scandal thing is only getting more scandalous On January 8th when police
finds the Biscay dying from a gunshot wound in a remote Alpine chalet it is
officially a suicide but speculation is rife that the police murdered him as
part of a government cover-up now scandals like this are not exactly new
in French politics and they have been the ammunition of choice for anyone
looking to discredit organisms as far back as the French
Revolution monarchist philosopher Joseph de Maistre
said listening to these so-called Republicans talk of liberty and virtue
is like watching some faded courtesan feigning the modest blushes of a virgin
other more recent scandals though have also fueled public mistrust of the
French Republic so there's nothing particularly unique about the stavisky
affair only six politicians are directly implicated and none of them are
exceptionally high ranking but the fact that stavisky is Jewish and that several
of the ruling center-left politicians are implicated and that France is in the
grip of depression make it a tailor-made opportunity for the radical right calls
for action grow louder the minister of qualities is forced to resign once it
becomes clear that he provided assistance to stavisky
but the right-wing press does not stop there and street demonstrations are on
the rise newspaper headlines screamed down with the robbers down with the
assassins they now also call for Prime Minister Camille Shelton to resign
he is already a hated figure for his Masonic connections and right-wing
groups hold daily demonstrations against him and the entire Republican
establishment protesters barricade the streets with cars they even tear down
trees show Tom eventually is forced to resign and is replaced by Edouard
Daladier on January 30th da-da-da is conscious of the rising threat I mean
it'd be hard to miss it he knows he needs to build a stronger alliance with
other left-wing groups to show that his radical party is serious about this he
dismisses Paris police prefect and far-right sympathizer Jean XI up from
his post but this only aggravates the enemies of the Republic further who
accused da lady am attempting to establish a left-wing dictatorship they
come together loosely that is to hold a massive demonstration against the Third
Republic now I say loosely because there isn't really any central aim or
coordination instead a variety of leagues decide that on the night of
February 6 they will stage action against the Republic and that's pretty
much all they agree on some want an outright coup others are less clear
about what they want at all one of the main groups is the good-old axial and
France A's there are some suggestions they want to
overthrow the government but their actions seem to prove otherwise
tonight they are primarily represented by their youth wing with few of the
major leaders present in fact the league's leader Sean Morris has chosen
to spend the night writing poems rather than go out in the cold winter night and
overthrow the system now as you might be thinking that's not really the tactics
of a group staging a full-blown revolution the Jonas pop will have a
slightly more precise position they do not wish to overthrow the Republic
itself but do very much want to replace the current government with a more
authoritarian one also president of the quad ever formed in 1927 and led by
Colonel Locke it is another League made up of veterans around a hundred thousand
of them to be exact now about 61 percent of this membership live in Paris and
many of them show up tonight but it's tough to work out what they hope to
achieve indeed there are suggestions that larocque had to be pressured from
the other leagues to join in the first place there are also smaller fascist or
far-right oriented groups present such as yes solidarity Frances and movement
Franck east even between their members there is no consensus many want to
complete coop others just want to demonstrate their anger right so to make
this heady mix just a little bit more confusing communist groups have also got
themselves involved despite being opposed to these far-right groups and
