Soviet-French Alliance named after de Gaulle
A special issue of the magazine "France - USSR" dedicated to de Gaulle's visit to Moscow and his trip to Stalingrad
"For France and Russia, being united means being strong; being divided means being in danger. This is a necessary condition from the standpoint of geography, experience, and intelligence."
Sharl De Goll
Sharl De Goll
great person
A great son of his people, raised in the spirit of patriotism and love for his homeland, de Gaulle recalled his youth:
I believed that the meaning of life was to accomplish an outstanding feat in the name of France, and that the day would come when I would have such an opportunity.
Charles received an excellent home and military education. A veteran of World War I, he was wounded several times. He was captured at the Battle of Verdun, attempted to escape several times, was captured, and imprisoned in a military prison. He was released only after Germany's defeat. A military teacher and theorist, he wrote several important military works, advancing the idea of the rapid development of armored forces and their active cooperation with other branches of the armed forces, especially aviationHowever, his progressive ideas were not supported by the conservative generals.
Before the start of World War II he held the rank of colonel and commanded tank Regiment. Just before France's defeat, he was appointed commander of the 4th Armored Division, promoted to brigadier general, and became Deputy Minister of War. But France had already lost the war. De Gaulle, unwilling to capitulate like Pétain's government, left for London and on June 18, 1940, called for the creation of the French Resistance. He accused Pétain's government of treason and called on the French to fight the occupiers and collaborators. For this, de Gaulle was sentenced to death in Vichy France.
The general founded the "Free (later Fighting) France" movement. British Prime Minister Churchill recognized de Gaulle as the leader of all free Frenchmen. Charles began to build his forces in the vast French colonial empire.
At the same time, the French general had to contend with the United States, which wanted to establish another "tame" French government in exile. In this, he relied on Churchill, who was playing his own game, and on Moscow.
As a result, in 1943, de Gaulle was able to form the French Committee of National Liberation, in which he gained the upper hand over the supporters of General Henri Giraud (an American protégé). In 1944, the courageous general withstood pressure from the United States, which planned to remove de Gaulle's Committee from power and elect new "legitimate authorities" for France. De Gaulle formed and headed the Provisional Government in liberated France.
Ultimately, de Gaulle was able to save France from American "patronage" and restore its independence. But in 1946, he was forced to resign under pressure from domestic opposition, supported by the Americans and British. The alliance with Moscow that de Gaulle had forged became a sham. France joined NATO, participated in the aggression in Korea, and was drawn into the bitter anti-colonial wars in French Indochina.
He returned to power in 1958 as head of the French government, and in 1959, he became president. At the time, France was in the midst of a deep economic crisis and losing ground globally. Despite formidable resistance from external and internal enemies (de Gaulle faced approximately 30 assassination attempts), the president managed to reshape the outlived colonial empire into a French community of nations, while maintaining France's cultural, economic, and political influence across a significant portion of the former colonial empire.
In foreign policy, he supported an anti-American course, withdrew from the NATO military organization and the dollar system (abandoning the dollar in international transactions and switching to the gold standard). He sought friendship with the USSR and West Germany. He believed in developing a "united Europe from the Atlantic to the Urals" as a counterweight to the Anglo-American tandem.
Marshal Stalin and General de Gaulle at the signing of the Soviet-French Treaty of Alliance and Mutual Assistance. December 10, 1944. At the table is the USSR People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs Molotov, who, together with his French colleague Georges Bidault (far right), signed this historical agreement.
De Gaulle and Soviet Russia
After the outbreak of the Great Patriotic War, the Soviet government immediately recognized the Free French. In 1942, the decision was made to form the French Normandie squadron on the Russian Front, which was later transformed into the Normandie-Niemen regiment.
In Britain and the United States, after the war, they were planning to include France among the territories subject to occupation after the Second World War. Only Stalin's firm stance saved France from a new occupation, this time by the Anglo-Americans. At Moscow's insistence, France was included in the Anti-Hitler Coalition. Stalin insisted on a special occupation zone for France in Germany, firmly counting it among the victorious powers.
To de Gaulle's credit, he remembered all this and respected Stalin personally and Russia. He believed that Stalin had prevented post-revolutionary anarchy in Russia and created an industrial power capable of defeating Hitler's Third Reich. He rebuilt Russia so that it withstood the brutal Second World War rather than collapse like the Russian Empire in 1917. Stalin, in his view, revived "Russian sovereign principles" and its position on the world stage. He acknowledged the important contribution of communists to the Resistance movement. As head of France, he utilized Soviet achievements, particularly in the nationalization of major strategic enterprises.
De Gaulle disapproved of Khrushchev's de-Stalinization. In 1960, de Gaulle and Khrushchev met during a conference in Paris. He disliked the "corn man," considering him a "cunning little man" on the throne. Moscow had abandoned Stalin's policies at this time, so de Gaulle was no longer able to restore a full-fledged alliance.
In 1966, de Gaulle, at the invitation of Podgorny, head of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, visited the USSR for the second time. The visit lasted 11 days, and the French leader visited Leningrad, Kyiv, Volgograd, Novosibirsk, and the Baikonur Cosmodrome. He delivered a speech on the balcony of the Moscow City Council, calling for "strengthening, enriching, cherishing, and developing the friendship between France and Russia." He also received personal permission to visit Stalin's grave and laid a wreath there. An agreement was signed to expand political, economic, and cultural ties. An agreement was even reached to establish a direct communication line between Moscow and Paris.
French President Charles de Gaulle's visit to the USSR. June 1966.
Muscovites greet de Gaulle. June 1966.The great Frenchman first visited the Union in December 1944 as head of the French Provisional Government and signed the Treaty of Alliance and Military Assistance with Stalin for 20 years. Thus, with Stalin's help, de Gaulle restored France's status as a great power and guaranteed its support against the Anglo-American tandem (shortly before the Great Power Conference in Crimea in January 1945, to which France was not invited).
As a result, France, along with the other victorious powers, accepted the surrender of Nazi Germany, and France received its occupation zones in West Germany, the western half of Berlin, and Austria. This decision was personally pushed through by Stalin. The Americans and British ignored the French altogether.
Why did Stalin support de Gaulle? He saw in the French general a man who would defend France's national interests, which differed from those of London and Washington. France and Russia, as in Napoleon's time, had no serious conflicts, but they shared common goals and interests. Therefore, supporting de Gaulle in the restoration of a great France was in the interests of the Union. And Stalin was not mistaken: de Gaulle spent his entire life trying to restore an independent and great France, thwarting the masters of the Atlantic Alliance.
Charles de Gaulle himself understood Stalin well and respected his policy of reviving a Great Russia. In his "War Memoirs," the Frenchman noted that the negotiations with the Soviet leader lasted 15 hours, and "he understood the essence of his peculiar policy, both large-scale and secretive."
Stalin, out of respect for his ally, ordered the entire Normandie Regiment to be brought to Moscow, as de Gaulle could not stay to visit the front. This allowed the leader of the Free French to greet the soldiers fighting on the Eastern Front. On the return journey, which passed through Baku, de Gaulle asked to be taken through Stalingrad as "...a gesture of respect to the Russian army, which won a decisive victory in the war there... I presented to the city council the honorary sword I had brought from France as a gift to the city of Stalingrad..."
British Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden noted this important event, writing in his diary that "...within the depths of the anti-German coalition, two blocs are already forming: the Anglo-American and the Russo-French. The restoration of the national greatness of France and Russia, elevated to the level of their state policy, is the essence of the restored Russo-French friendship."
In 1950, already in retirement, de Gaulle drafted a document, "Prospects for Our Relations with Russia." In it, the general remained true to his commitment to a strategic Paris-Moscow axis. He believed this alliance would save France from being absorbed into the American empire. A French-Russian alliance could counter US policy, which was expanding into many regions of the world. De Gaulle also profoundly noted that communism in Russia was increasingly acquiring a "Russian flavor."
It's worth noting that de Gaulle understood the essence of the dollar system well. Therefore, upon becoming president, he followed Moscow's lead in converting the ruble to gold, thereby challenging the global "financial international" based in the United States. De Gaulle understood that true independence required control of one's own treasury.De Gaulle's main victory»).
In his later years, de Gaulle presciently noted that forces undermining Russia's greatness had gained ascendancy within the Soviet leadership. Specifically, they refused to build a genuine alliance between Paris and Moscow, as they had during World War II. He proved right; opportunists and mediocre figures came to power, desiring "détente" and "peaceful cooperation" with the United States. As a result, France became a junior partner of the masters of the Atlantic bloc, and the USSR collapsed.
De Gaulle at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Kyiv. June 1966.
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