The Rue d’Isly, Algiers, 26 March 1962

This article examines the memorial discourses surrounding the massacre that occurred on 26 March 1962 when, in the week following the Franco–FLN ceasefire, French soldiers opened fire on a demonstration of unarmed European settler civilians, killing forty-six and wounding two hundred. Largely unknown among wider French society, references to the massacre have become a staple of the pied-noir activist discourse of victimhood, often advanced as evidence that they had no choice but to leave Algeria in 1962. The article draws on French and Algerian press articles, as well as online, print, and film publications produced by the repatriated European population. It reveals how settlers’ narratives first dehistoricized the massacre and then invested it with a significance that drew on multidirectional memories borrowed from a range of sometimes jarring international contexts. The analysis accounts for why the massacre contributed to the repatriated settler community’s sense of identity and relationship to the wider French nation.

Addison and France

Born in 1672 in a climate of strong anti-Catholicism and Francophobia in England, yet aware that France was a great source of intellectual and cultural inspiration, Joseph Addison had a complex relationship with the French nation. His works reflect the tensions between his admiration for the rival country and his hatred of the French political regime. This chapter argues that French influence on Addison’s writings and Addison’s ambivalent attitude to France are nowhere more perceptible than in his way of handling the French ‘battle of the books’, the famous ‘querelle des anciens et des modernes’. It also contends that Addison’s ambivalent attitude to the French was not lost on the eighteenth-century French intellectuals who, though they celebrated him as ‘a friend of mankind’, often borrowed his ideas without acknowledging them.

One and Indivisible?

Histories of the French Revolution usually locate the origins of the “one and indivisible Republic” in a strictly metropolitan context. In contrast, this article argues that the French Revolution's debates surrounding federation, federalism, and the (re)foundation of the French nation-state were interwoven with colonial and transimperial matters. Between 1776 and 1792 federalism in a French imperial context went from an element of an academic conversation among bureaucrats and economists to a matter of violent struggle in Saint-Domingue that generated new agendas in the metropole. Going beyond the binary language of union and secession, the article examines the contest over federation and federalism in Saint-Domingue between free people of color and white planters who, taking inspiration from both metropolitan and non-French experiences with federalism, sought to alter the colony's relationship with the metropole while also maintaining the institution of slavery. Revolutionaries on both sides of the Atlantic, unsure which direction to take and without the benefit of hindsight, used the language of federalism to pursue rival interests despite a seemingly common vocabulary. This entangled history of conflicts, compromises, and misunderstandings blurred ideological delineations but decisively shaped the genesis of the French imperial republic. Généralement, les histoires de la Révolution française placent les origines de la « République une et indivisible » dans un contexte strictement métropolitain. Cet article soutient en revanche que les débats de la Révolution française sur la fédération, le fédéralisme et la (re)-fondation de l'Etat-nation français étaient liés à des questions coloniales et transimpériales. Dans le contexte impérial français, entre 1776 et 1792, le fédéralisme ne fut plus seulement un objet de débats académiques entre bureaucrates et économistes, mais devint un élément central dans une lutte violente à Saint-Domingue qui contribua à infléchir les choix politiques faits en métropole. Au-delà du langage binaire de l'union et de la sécession, l'article examine les conflits cristallisés par les notions de fédération et de fédéralisme entre des libres de couleur et des planteurs blancs qui, s'inspirant d'expériences fédéralistes métropolitaines et étrangères, cherchèrent à modifier la relation de la colonie avec la métropole tout en maintenant l'institution esclavagiste. Des deux côtés de l'Atlantique, les révolutionnaires, qui ne savaient quelle direction emprunter, employèrent le langage du fédéralisme pour défendre des intérêts contradictoires malgré l'usage d'un vocabulaire apparemment commun. Cette histoire faite de conflits, de compromis et de malentendus contribua à brouiller les partages idéologiques mais n'en influença pas moins la genèse de la République impériale française.

R.A. Maslov on Franco-Burgundian Relations in the Second Half of the 15th Century

The characteristic of the Franco-Burgundian relations of the second half of the 15th century in the works of R. A. Maslov is considered. It is noted that the research problem does not need additional actualization: the time under study was a turning point in the history of France, the final stage in the formation of a centralized state. It is shown that the experience of many years of work of R. A. Maslov confirmed the conclusions that during several decades of the reign of Louis XI significant success was achieved in creating a modern French state, the foundations were created for the economic and political unification of its territory, for the cultural and linguistic community of the population and, accordingly, conditions are provided for the formation of the French nation. The attention of R. A. Maslov to the fact that the most important prerequisite for the formation of a nation was the achievement of political unity of the country, carried out on the basis of the creation of its economic community. It is indicated that in his studies Maslov argues the point of view according to which the fierce struggle for the elimination of feudal fragmentation reflected the process of economic consolidation of individual regions of the country into a single whole and the creation of an all-French internal market.

The position of the French aristocracy on the reform projects presented at the Assembly of notables in 1787

The paper is devoted to the position of the French aristocracy regarding the projects of the Controller General of Finance Calonne, presented for discussion at the Assembly of notables in 1787. The budget deficit by the end of the 80s of 18th century reached over 80 million livres a year, the country was on the verge of an economic crisis. The Controller General of Finance Calonne proposed to the king to convene in 1787 an Assembly of notables, prominent representatives of the French nation, to approve a plan of government reforms. Although the Assembly included notables from the three estates of the kingdom, the aristocracy, which was widely represented in it, played an important role. The titled French nobility at the end of the Old Order still retained influence in the state, thanks to their economic position, social status and positions at court, in the army and in the state apparatus. The Assembly of notables had no legislative force, but Calonne convinced the king that the reform plan approved by the assembly would break the resistance of parliaments and gain the approval of the whole society. The presented reforms affected the interests of the privileged estates, but the government expected that the notables would accept the proposals and vote for the reforms, which according to Calonne contributed to the huge budget deficit, educational ideas about equality, physiocrats projects announced earlier and the chosen composition of notables, many of which were occupied by liberal and pro-government position. The Notables put forward their ideas on taxation and the creation of provincial assemblies and expressed the idea of convening the States General as a body competent to adopt such significant reforms for French society.

Incriminating Empire

This article explores the political fallout from the 1766 execution of the comte de Lally, who oversaw the failed defense of France's Indian colonies during the Seven Years' War. Accused of treason by administrators of the French East India Company, Lally emerged as a source of controversy in the final decades of the Old Regime. As critics and apologists clashed over the legality of Lally's execution, questions about the nature of his “crime” gave way to a broader debate over the meaning and limits of company sovereignty under France's absolutist state. This conflict remained unresolved into the French Revolution. The Lally affair provides a window into the nebulous relationship that developed between the crown, the company, and the emergent French nation, laying bare the many faces of empire that confronted France during the eighteenth century. Cet article explore les retombées politiques de l'exécution du comte de Lally, l'homme qui commandait les colonies des Indes orientales françaises durant la guerre de Sept Ans. Accusé de trahison par la Compagnie des Indes, Lally représentait une source de controverse à la fin de l'Ancien Régime. Tandis que les critiques et les apologistes contestaient la légalité de son exécution, la question de la culpabilité de Lally incita un débat plus général sur la nature de la souveraineté de la Compagnie sous l'Etat absolutiste. Ce débat restait non résolu durant la Révolution française. L'affaire Lally souligne les liens nébuleux parmi la Compagnie, la monarchie, et la nation française. Elle révèle également les multiples incarnations de l'Empire français au cours du dix-huitième siècle.

Who Speaks through the Mouths of Babes? Children and Religious Violence in France. Review of: Crouzet, D. (2020). Les enfants bourreaux au temps des guerres de Religion. Paris: Albin Michel. 336 p. Izvestiya Uralskogo federalnogo universiteta. Seriya 2: Gumanitarnye nauki, 23(1), 293–306.

This essay contains reflections on a new book by renowned historian Denis Crouzet on children’s violence, and, more broadly, on the image of children during the French Wars of Religion. In the book under review, the novelty lies in the fact that the images of ‘innocent infants’ make part of a separate plot. Just as novel are Denis Crouzet’s reflections on the ‘sources of inspiration’ of the young French persecutors of heretics. The author indicates the anthropological correspondences inherent in the culture of both Italian and French cities, such as the carnivalesque inversion of the ‘world inside out’ and the social function of youth associations taking part in the ‘charivari’ rites. Denis Crouzet pays attention to sources that are novel to him, like children’s Christmas chants, mystery plays, and ‘miracles’. While impersonating the Innocents persecuted by Herod but also angels carrying retaliation to this villain, urban children learnt what and how to do in the face of a carnival challenge. The ways to leave the eschatological activism are of particular interest. After 1572, the gangs of executioners-children left the scene. Only the murder of the Guises on Christmas Day, 1588, threw crowds of children into the streets of Paris. Now they were described differently, however, — as a disciplined mass, occupied not with outrages but with prayers. The author speaks of ‘Catholic consciousness’, but that was already a different reformed Catholicism, departing further and further from the old ‘corporate Catholicism’. The religious political activity of children would become a thing of the past, however. The image of an innocent child would once more be in demand only after the Revolution, when, this time in a desacralised context, children became the embodiment of the French nation.

The return visit of the President of the French Republic Emile Loubet and the Formation of the Image of a “Great Friend” of Russia

The article analyzes the visit of Emile Loubet, President of the French Republic, to the Russian Empire in 1902, as well as the specifics of its organization and representation. The visit was conceived as a demonstration of the inviolability of the Franco-Russian alliance. A whole complex of informational, ceremonial and commemorative methods was supposed to form the image of France not just as a “friend”, but as a “great friend” of Russia. Periodicals solved various tasks at once: attracting and maintaining attention, forming a certain image, creating and reflecting public opinion. The effect of the ceremonial part was enhanced by the active involvement of the urban population in the celebrations, symbolic decoration of the ceremonial space, and the production of souvenirs. As a result, it was possible to consolidate the “friendly” image of the French nation in Russia, enhance the positive effect of the meeting of the allies, and create favorable conditions for further cooperation. At this stage, the Franco-Russian alliance allowed maintaining the balance of power in Europe and paying attention to geopolitical interests in other regions. However, even greater rapprochement between the two powers entailed increased obligations and the necessity to coordinate further actions more carefully, while narrowing the opportunities for interaction with other states. In spite of the brilliant celebrations, the allies' desire to recover the maximum benefit from the «cordial» relationship has become increasingly evident.

‘L’antisémitisme est l’auxiliaire obligatoire du fascisme’: Jewish Communists, Antifascism and Antisemitism in France, 1944-1960s

This article studies the discursive construction by Jewish communists of the struggle against antisemitism in France between 1944 and the 1960s. It shows that after the Holocaust, without denying the racial aspect of Nazi antisemitism, Jewish communists adopted the French Communist Party and the ussr’s antifascist analysis of antisemitism according to which antisemitism was the corollary of fascism, a strategy to divide people and the working class. However, after the War, Jewish communists’ fight against antisemitism was also shaped by their experiences as Jews during the Holocaust, by their commitment to defend Jewish interests and by their desire to be (re)integrated into the French nation. The author argues that through a specific Jewish and communist antifascist fight against antisemitism, Jewish communists managed to remain faithful to their multiples allegiances – to Jews, to the pcf, and to French universalism – and to reach multiples audiences that identified, at least temporarily, with antifascism.

Writing Occupation

Why did some of the most brilliant—but often forgotten—Jewish émigré writers of the first half of the twentieth century choose to write in French as a second language, even as they faced a double exclusion as foreigners and as Jews under Vichy? Jewish writers of Eastern European origin who immigrated to France before the Second World War (including Benjamin Fondane, Romain Gary, Jean Malaquais, Irène Némirovsky, and Elsa Triolet) switched from writing in their languages of origin to writing primarily in French, even when their Frenchness was being violently denied by the state. In this manuscript, Julia Elsky argues that these Jewish émigré writers harnessed the potential multilingualism of French to express hybrid and shifting cultural, religious, and linguistic identities before and during the Occupation. When the Vichy regime and Nazi occupiers denied them their French identity through xenophobic and antisemitic laws, Jewish émigré authors from Eastern Europe began to re-examine, and in some cases, reassert their role in the French nation by exploring the possibilities of writing with a “Jewish voice” in the French language. In depicting key aspects of the war experience—the June 1940 civilian flight from Paris, life in the occupied and southern zones, the Resistance in France and in London—their work contests the boundaries between foreignness and belonging.