French Expectations
VICTOR SERGE
THE
"LIBERATION" of France came in answer to vast anxiety.
Oppression, pillage, rationing and terror had been making national
humiliation seem even heavier to bear. And I tend to believe that, on
the morrow of defeat, a majority of Frenchmen believed in reconcilia–
tion with the victors who then seemed invincible, and in the need for
a "National Revolution" that would be reactionary
i~
its political institu–
tions but progressive in its economic innovations. The Molotov-Ribben–
trop pact at that time, forced the Communists to encourage or tolerate
this state of mind. Disappointment came towards the end of 1940, when
people saw, during the winter, the results of the systematic pillaging of
France. The first attempts at resistance date from that time. In June
1941, the Russo-German war changed everything; Marshal Petain's
"National Revolution" sank into discredit and panic while the Com–
munist Party, recovering its strength, directed its excellent organization
towards armed resistance to Nazi occupation. From the time the United
States entered the war, some official circles in Vichy strove to play a
double game and the man in the street began believing that the Second
World War would end as the first one had.
Complete refusal to collaborate with the enemy-with the author–
ities in power-means suicide, under a totalitarian domination. As long
as it was still possible to entertain some illusions, a strong minority of
Frenchmen collaborated sincerely with the Germans, while a large
majority resigned themselves to collaborating. It was necessary to live,
to work and to avoid being thrown into a concentration camp. A
former French deputy recently estimated that nine out of every ten
French citizens could be charged with collaboration. France, with its
critical mind and common sense, thus entered upon an
era of duplicity.
I had seen this modern ailment's birth in Russia, during the years 1927-
1930, when absolutism asserted itself. Official lies, moral reservations
and clandestine resistance then became commonplace: They are among
the basic traits of totalitarian regimes, when people seek to reassure
themselves by invoking an historical predestination that, in the long run,
is beneficial.
In France, the wealthy classes had, in general, been friendly
towards Nazism: only by associating themselves with the "New Order"
could they keep their factories and businesses going and their fortunes
intact. Now these same classes are emerging from German occupation
with their plants pillaged and worn, with their fortunes invested in in-
