Charles de Gaulle (short biography). Charles de Gaulle is the clearest example of the role of the individual in history

Charles André Joseph Marie de Gaulle was a French general and politician, best known before World War II as a tank battle tactician. Leader of the Free French Forces in World War II, head of the provisional government 1944-46. Mastermind of the new constitution and first president of the Fifth Republic from 1958 to 1969.

Origin and early military career

Charles was the third child in a morally conservative but socially progressive Catholic bourgeois family. His father came from an old aristocratic family from Normandy. Mother belonged to a family of wealthy entrepreneurs from the industrial region of Lille in French Flanders.

The young de Gaulle chose a military career and studied for four years at the prestigious Saint-Cyr military school. During World War I, Captain de Gaulle was badly wounded at the Battle of Verdun in March 1916 and taken prisoner by the Germans.

After the end of the war, he remained in the army, where he served on the staff of General Maxime Weigand and then General Philippe Pétain. During the Polish-Soviet war of 1919-1920. de Gaulle served in the Polish Army as an infantry instructor. He was promoted to major and received an offer to build a further career in Poland, but chose to return to France.

The Second World War

By the start of World War II, de Gaulle remained a colonel, arousing hostility from the military authorities with his bold views. After the German breakthrough at Sedan on 10 May 1940, he was finally given command of the 4th Armored Division.
On May 28, de Gaulle's tanks stopped German armor at the Battle of Cowmont. The colonel became the only French commander to force the Germans to retreat during the invasion of France. Prime Minister Paul Reynaud promoted him to interim brigadier general.

On June 6, 1940, Reynaud appointed de Gaulle as Under-Secretary of State for National Defense and responsible for coordinating with Britain. As a member of the cabinet, the general resisted offers to surrender. Attempts to strengthen the resolve of those members of the French government who favored the continuation of the war failed, and Reynaud resigned. Pétain, who had become prime minister, intended to seek a truce with Germany.

On the morning of June 17, with 100,000 gold francs from secret funds provided to him the night before by Paul Reynaud, the general fled from Bordeaux by plane and landed in London. De Gaulle decided to abandon the surrender of France and start creating a resistance movement.

On July 4, 1940, a military tribunal in Toulouse sentenced de Gaulle in absentia to four years in prison. At the second military tribunal on August 2, 1940, the general was sentenced to death for treason.

In the liberation of France, he quickly established the authority of the Free French Forces, avoiding the Allied military government. Returning to Paris, the general proclaimed the succession of the Third Republic, denying the legitimacy of Vichy France.

After the end of the war, de Gaulle became president of the provisional government from September 1944, but resigned on January 20, 1946, complaining about the conflict between political parties and disapproving of the draft constitution for the Fourth Republic, which seemed to put too much power in the hands of parliament with its shifting party alliances.

1958: Collapse of the Fourth Republic

The Fourth Republic was tarnished by political instability, setbacks in Indochina, and failure to resolve the Algerian question.
On May 13, 1958, settlers seized government buildings in Algiers. The commander-in-chief, General Raul Salan, announced on the radio that the army had temporarily assumed responsibility for the fate of French Algeria.

The crisis deepened as French paratroopers from Algeria took over Corsica and discussed an amphibious landing near Paris. The political leaders of all parties agreed to support de Gaulle's return to power. An exception was the communist party of François Mitterrand, which condemned the general as an agent of a fascist coup.

De Gaulle remained determined to change the constitution of the Fourth Republic, blaming it on France's political weakness. The general set as a condition of his return the granting of broad emergency powers within 6 months and the adoption of a new constitution. On June 1, 1958, de Gaulle became prime minister.

On September 28, 1958, a referendum was held, and 79.2% of those who voted supported the new constitution and the creation of the Fifth Republic. The colonies (Algiers was officially part of France, not a colony) were given the choice between independence and a new constitution. All the colonies voted in favor of the new constitution, with the exception of Guinea, which became the first French African colony to gain independence, at the cost of an immediate end to all French aid.

1958-1962: Foundation of the Fifth Republic

In November 1958, de Gaulle and his supporters received a majority, in December the general was elected president with 78% of the vote. He promoted tough economic measures, including the issuance of a new franc. On August 22, 1962, the general and his wife narrowly escaped an assassination attempt.

At the international level, he maneuvered between the US and the USSR, promoting an independent France with its own nuclear weapons. De Gaulle set about building Franco-German cooperation as the cornerstone of the EEC, making the first state visit to Germany since the time of Napoleon by a French head of state.

1962-1968: the politics of greatness

In the conditions of the Algerian conflict, de Gaulle was able to achieve two main goals: to reform the French economy, and to maintain a strong position of France in foreign policy, the so-called "politics of greatness".

The government actively intervened in the economy, using five-year plans as the main instrument. Thanks to the unique combination of Western capitalism and a state-oriented economy, the largest projects were realized. In 1964, for the first time in 200 years, France's per capita GDP overtook Britain's.

De Gaulle was convinced that a strong France, acting as a balancing force in the dangerous rivalry between the US and the Soviet Union, was in the interests of the whole world. He always tried to find counterbalances to both the US and the USSR. In January 1964, France officially recognized the People's Republic of China, despite US opposition.

In December 1965, de Gaulle was elected president for a second seven-year term, defeating François Mitterrand. In February 1966, the country withdrew from the military structure of NATO. De Gaulle, building independent nuclear forces, did not want to depend on the decisions made in Washington.

In June 1967, he condemned the Israelis for their occupation of the West Bank and Gaza after the Six Day War. This was a major change in French policy towards Israel.

1968: leaving power

Demonstrations and strikes in May 1968 were a big problem for de Gaulle's presidency. He dissolved parliament, in which the government had almost lost its majority, and held new elections in June 1968, which were a great success for the Gaullists and their allies: the party won 358 out of 487 seats.

Charles de Gaulle resigned on April 28, 1969 after the failure of the referendum he initiated. He went to Colombey-les-deux-Églises, where he died in 1970 while working on his memoirs.

Charles André Joseph Marie de Gaulle (French Charles André Joseph Marie de Gaulle). Born on November 22, 1890 in Lille - died on November 9, 1970 in Colombey-les-Deux-Eglise (dep. Haute-Marne). French military and statesman, general. During World War II, it became a symbol of the French Resistance. Founder and first president of the Fifth Republic (1959-1969).

Charles de Gaulle was born on November 22, 1890 into a patriotic Catholic family. Although the de Gaulle family is noble, de in the surname is not a “particle” of noble families traditional for France, but the Flemish form of the article. Charles, like his three brothers and sister, was born in Lille at his grandmother's house, where his mother came every time before giving birth, although the family lived in Paris. His father, Henri de Gaulle, was a professor of philosophy and literature at a Jesuit school, which greatly influenced Charles. From early childhood he loved to read. The story struck him so much that he had an almost mystical concept of serving France.

In War Memoirs, de Gaulle wrote: “My father, an educated and thinking man, brought up in certain traditions, was full of faith in the high mission of France. He introduced me to her story for the first time. My mother had a feeling of boundless love for her homeland, which can only be compared with her piety. My three brothers, sister, myself - we were all proud of our homeland. This pride, which was mixed with a sense of anxiety for her fate, was our second nature..

Jacques Chaban-Delmas, the hero of the Liberation, then the permanent chairman of the National Assembly during the years of the General's presidency, recalls that this "second nature" surprised not only the younger generation, to which Chaban-Delmas himself belonged, but also de Gaulle's peers. Subsequently, 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”.

As a boy, he showed great interest in military affairs. After a year of preparatory exercises at the Stanislas College in Paris, he is admitted to the Special Military School in Saint-Cyr. He chooses infantry as his type of troops: it is more “military”, since it is closest to combat operations. After graduating from Saint-Cyr in 1912, 13th in academic achievement, de Gaulle serves in the 33rd Infantry Regiment under the command of the then Colonel Pétain.

On March 10, 1916, at the battle of Mesnil-le-Hurlu, he was wounded a second time. He returns to the 33rd regiment with the rank of captain and becomes a company commander. In the Battle of Verdun at the village of Douaumont in 1916, he was wounded for the third time. Left on the battlefield, he - already posthumously - receives honors from the army. However, Charles remains alive, is captured by the Germans; he is treated at the Mayenne hospital and kept in various fortresses.

De Gaulle makes six attempts to escape. Mikhail Tukhachevsky, the future marshal of the Red Army, was also in captivity with him; communication is established between them, including on military-theoretical topics.

Rejecting an offer to take a permanent position in the Polish Army and returning to his homeland, on April 6, 1921, he marries Yvonne Vandru. On December 28, 1921, his son Philippe was born, named after the chief - later the notorious collaborator and antagonist of de Gaulle, Marshal Philippe Pétain.

Captain de Gaulle teaches at the Saint-Cyr school, then in 1922 he was admitted to the Higher Military School.

On May 15, 1924, daughter Elizabeth is born. In 1928, the youngest daughter, Anna, was born, suffering from Down syndrome (Anna died in 1948; later de Gaulle was a trustee of the Foundation for Children with Down Syndrome).

In the 1930s, lieutenant colonel, and then colonel de Gaulle became widely known as the author of military-theoretical works, such as "For a professional army", "On the edge of a sword", "France and her army" . In his books, de Gaulle, in particular, pointed out the need for the comprehensive development of tank forces as the main weapon of a future war. In this, his work is close to the work of Germany's leading military theorist, Heinz Guderian. However, de Gaulle's proposals did not arouse understanding among the French military command and in political circles. In 1935, the National Assembly rejected the army reform bill prepared by the future Prime Minister Paul Reynaud according to de Gaulle's plans as "useless, undesirable and contrary to logic and history".

In 1932-1936 he was Secretary General of the Supreme Defense Council. In 1937-1939 he was commander of a tank regiment.

By the beginning of World War II, de Gaulle had the rank of colonel. The day before the start of the war (August 31, 1939), he was appointed commander of tank forces in the Saar, wrote on this occasion: “It fell to my lot to play a role in a terrible hoax ... Several dozen light tanks that I command are just a speck of dust. We will lose the war in the most miserable way if we don't act."

In January 1940 de Gaulle wrote an article "The phenomenon of mechanized troops", in which he emphasized the importance of the interaction of heterogeneous ground forces, primarily tank forces, and the Air Force.

On May 14, 1940, he was given command of the emerging 4th Panzer Division (initially 5,000 soldiers and 85 tanks). From June 1, he temporarily acted as a brigadier general (officially, they did not manage to approve him in this rank, and after the war he received only a colonel's pension from the Fourth Republic).

On June 6, Prime Minister Paul Reynaud appointed de Gaulle as deputy minister of war. The general invested with this position tried to counteract the plans for a truce, to which the leaders of the military department of France, and above all Minister Philippe Pétain, were inclined.

On June 14, de Gaulle traveled to London to negotiate ships for the evacuation of the French government to Africa; at the same time, he argued to British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, "that some dramatic step is required to provide Reynaud with the support he needs in order to induce the government to continue the war". However, on the same day, Paul Reynaud resigned, after which the government was headed by Pétain; immediately began negotiations with Germany on an armistice.

On June 17, 1940, de Gaulle flew out of Bordeaux, where the evacuated government was based, not wanting to participate in this process, and again arrived in London. According to the assessment, "on this plane, de Gaulle took with him the honor of France."

It was this moment that became a turning point in de Gaulle's biography. In Memoirs of Hope, he writes: “On June 18, 1940, answering the call of his homeland, deprived of any other help to save his soul and honor, de Gaulle, alone, unknown to anyone, had to take responsibility for France”. On this day, the BBC broadcast de Gaulle's radio address, a speech on 18 June calling for the creation of a French Resistance. Soon leaflets were distributed in which the general addressed "to all the French" (A tous les Français) with the statement:

"France lost the battle, but she did not lose the war! Nothing is lost, because this is a world war. The day will come when France will return freedom and greatness ... That is why I appeal to all the French to unite around me in the name of action, self-sacrifice and hope" .

The general accused the Pétain government of betrayal and declared that "with full consciousness of duty he acts on behalf of France." Other appeals of de Gaulle also appeared.

So de Gaulle became the head of the "Free (later -" Fighting ") France"- an organization designed to resist the invaders and the Vichy collaborationist regime. The legitimacy of this organization was based, in his eyes, on the following principle: "The legitimacy of power is based on the feelings that it inspires, on its ability to ensure national unity and continuity when the homeland is in danger."

At first, he had to face considerable difficulties. “I ... at first did not represent anything ... In France - no one who could vouch for me, and I did not enjoy any fame in the country. Abroad - no trust and justification for my activities. The formation of the Free French organization was rather protracted. De Gaulle managed to enlist the support of Churchill. On June 24, 1940, Churchill reported to General H. L. Ismay: “It seems extremely important to create, now, while the trap has not yet closed, an organization that would allow French officers and soldiers, as well as prominent specialists who wish to continue the fight, to break into various ports. A kind of "underground railway" must be set up... I have no doubt that there will be a continuous stream of determined men - and we need to get everything we can - for the defense of the French colonies. The Navy Department and the Air Force must cooperate.

General de Gaulle and his committee will, of course, be an operational organ. The desire to create an alternative to the Vichy government led Churchill not only to a military, but also to a political decision: the recognition of de Gaulle as "the head of all free French" (June 28, 1940) and to help strengthen de Gaulle's position in the international plan.

Militarily, the main task was to transfer to the side of the French patriots the "French Empire" - vast colonial possessions in Africa, Indochina and Oceania.

After an unsuccessful attempt to capture Dakar, de Gaulle creates in Brazzaville (Congo) the Empire Defense Council, the manifesto on the creation of which began with the words: "We, General de Gaulle (nous général de Gaulle), head of the free French, decide" etc. The Council includes anti-fascist military governors of the French (as a rule, African) colonies: Generals Catrou, Eboue, Colonel Leclerc. From that moment on, de Gaulle emphasized the national and historical roots of his movement. He establishes the Order of the Liberation, the main sign of which is the Lorraine cross with two crossbars - an ancient, dating back to the era of feudalism, a symbol of the French nation. At the same time, adherence to the constitutional traditions of the French Republic was also emphasized, for example, the “Organic Declaration” (the legal document of the political regime of “Fighting France”), promulgated in Brazzaville, proved the illegitimacy of the Vichy regime, referring to the fact that he expelled “from his quasi-constitutional acts even the very the word "republic", giving the head of the so-called. "French State" unlimited power, similar to the power of an unlimited monarch.

The great success of the "Free France" was the establishment of direct ties with the USSR shortly after June 22, 1941 - without hesitation, the Soviet leadership decided to transfer A.E. Bogomolov - his plenipotentiary under the Vichy regime - to London. During 1941-1942, the network of partisan organizations in occupied France also grew. From October 1941, after the first mass executions of hostages by the Germans, de Gaulle called on all the French to a total strike and mass actions of disobedience.

Meanwhile, the actions of the "monarch" irritated the West. The apparatus spoke openly about the "so-called free French", "sowing poisonous propaganda" and interfering with the conduct of the war.

On November 8, 1942, American troops landed in Algiers and Morocco and negotiated with local French commanders who supported Vichy. De Gaulle tried to convince the leaders of England and the United States that cooperation with the Vichy in Algeria would lead to the loss of moral support for the allies in France. “The United States,” said de Gaulle, “introduces elementary feelings and complex politics into great things.”

The head of Algeria, Admiral Francois Darlan, who by that time had already defected to the side of the Allies, was killed on December 24, 1942 by the 20-year-old Frenchman Fernand Bonnier de La Chapelle, who, after a quick trial, was shot the next day. The Allied leadership appoints General of the Army Henri Giraud as the "civilian and military commander-in-chief" of Algeria. In January 1943, at a conference in Casablanca, de Gaulle became aware of the Allied plan: to replace the leadership of the "Fighting France" with a committee headed by Giraud, which was planned to include a large number of people who had supported the Pétain government at one time. In Casablanca, de Gaulle shows understandable intransigence towards such a plan. He insists on the unconditional observance of the national interests of the country (in the sense that they were understood in the "Fighting France"). This leads to a split in the "Fighting France" into two wings: nationalist, led by de Gaulle (supported by the British government, led by W. Churchill), and pro-American, grouped around Henri Giraud.

On May 27, 1943, the National Council of the Resistance gathers for a founding conspiratorial meeting in Paris, which (under the auspices of de Gaulle) assumes many powers to organize the internal struggle in the occupied country. De Gaulle's position was becoming more and more stronger, and Giraud was forced to compromise: almost simultaneously with the opening of the NSS, he invited the general to the ruling structures of Algeria. He demands the immediate submission of Giraud (commander of the troops) to civilian power. The situation is heating up. Finally, on June 3, 1943, the French National Liberation Committee was formed, headed by de Gaulle and Giraud on an equal footing. The majority in it, however, are received by Gaullists, and some adherents of his rival (including Couve de Murville - the future Prime Minister of the Fifth Republic) - go over to de Gaulle's side. In November 1943, Giraud was removed from the committee.

On June 4, 1944, de Gaulle was summoned by Churchill to London. The British Prime Minister announced the forthcoming landing of the Allied troops in Normandy and, at the same time, the full support of the Roosevelt line on the complete dictate of the will of the United States. De Gaulle was given to understand that his services were not needed. In a draft appeal written by General Dwight Eisenhower, the French people were ordered to comply with all the instructions of the Allied command "until the elections of legitimate authorities"; in Washington, the De Gaulle Committee was not considered as such. De Gaulle's sharp protest forced Churchill to give him the right to speak to the French on the radio separately (rather than join Eisenhower's text). In the address, the general declared the legitimacy of the government formed by the "Fighting France", and strongly opposed plans to subordinate it to American command.

On June 6, 1944, the Allied forces successfully landed in Normandy, thus opening a second front in Europe.

De Gaulle, after a short stay on liberated French soil, again went to Washington for negotiations with President Roosevelt, the goal of which is still the same - to restore the independence and greatness of France (the key expression in the political lexicon of the general). “Listening to the American President, I was finally convinced that in business relations between the two states, logic and feeling mean very little in comparison with real power, that one who is able to grab and hold what is captured is valued here; and if France wants to take its former place, it must rely only on itself,” writes de Gaulle.

After the rebels of the Resistance, led by Colonel Rolle-Tanguy, open the way to Paris for the tank troops of the military governor of Chad, Philippe de Otklok (who went down in history under the name Leclerc), de Gaulle arrives in the liberated capital. There is a grandiose performance - de Gaulle's solemn procession through the streets of Paris, with a huge crowd of people, to whom a lot of space is devoted in the General's "Military Memoirs". The procession passes by the historical places of the capital, consecrated by the heroic history of France; de Gaulle later spoke of these points: “With every step that I take, stepping on the most famous places in the world, it seems to me that the glory of the past, as it were, joins the glory of today”.

On the last day of this visit, the Kremlin and de Gaulle signed an agreement on "alliance and military assistance." The significance of this act was, first of all, in the return of France to the status of a great power and its recognition among the victorious states. The French General de Latre de Tassigny, together with the commanders of the Allied Powers, accepts the surrender of the German armed forces in Karlshorst on the night of May 8-9, 1945. France has occupation zones in Germany and Austria.

After the war, the standard of living remained low and unemployment rose. It was not even possible to properly define the political structure of the country. Elections to the Constituent Assembly did not give an advantage to any party (the Communists received a relative majority, Maurice Thorez became vice-premier), the draft Constitution was repeatedly rejected. After one of the next conflicts over the expansion of the military budget, de Gaulle on January 20, 1946 leaves the post of head of government and retires to Colombey-les-Deux-Églises (fr. Colombey-les-Deux-Églises), a small estate in Champagne (department of Haute Marne ). He himself compares his position with exile. But, unlike the idol of his youth, de Gaulle has the opportunity to observe French politics from the outside - not without the hope of returning to it.

The further political career of the general is connected with the “Unification of the French People” (according to the French abbreviation RPF), with the help of which de Gaulle planned to come to power by parliamentary means. The RPF staged a noisy campaign. The slogans are still the same: nationalism (the fight against US influence), observance of the traditions of the Resistance (the emblem of the RPF is the Cross of Lorraine, which once shone in the middle of the "Order of Liberation"), the fight against a significant communist faction in the National Assembly. Success, it would seem, accompanied de Gaulle.

In the fall of 1947, the RPF won the municipal elections. In 1951, 118 seats in the National Assembly were already at the disposal of the Gaullists. But the triumph that de Gaulle dreamed of is far away. These elections did not give the RPF an absolute majority, the communists strengthened their positions even more, and most importantly, de Gaulle's electoral strategy brought bad results.

Indeed, the general declared war on the Fourth Republic, constantly emphasizing his right to power in the country due to the fact that he and only he led it to liberation, devoted a significant part of his speeches to sharp criticism of the communists, etc. A large number of careerists joined de Gaulle , people who proved themselves not in the best way during the Vichy regime. Within the walls of the National Assembly, they joined the parliamentary "mouse fuss", casting their votes to the extreme right. Finally, the complete collapse of the RPF came - in the same municipal elections as those from which the story of its ascent began. On May 6, 1953, the general dissolved his party.

The least open period of de Gaulle's life came - the so-called "passage through the desert." He spent five years in seclusion in Colombey, working on the famous "War Memoirs" in three volumes ("Summon", "Unity" and "Salvation"). The general not only recounted the events that became history, but also sought to find in them the answer to the question: what brought him, an unknown brigadier general, to the role of national leader? Only a deep conviction that "our country in the face of other countries should strive for great goals and not bow to anything, otherwise it may be in mortal danger."

1957-1958 became the years of a deep political crisis of the IV Republic. A protracted war in Algeria, unsuccessful attempts to form a Council of Ministers, and finally an economic crisis. According to de Gaulle's later assessment, “many leaders of the regime were aware that the problem required a radical solution. But to take the tough decisions that this problem demanded, to demolish all the obstacles to their implementation ... was beyond the strength of unstable governments ... The regime limited itself to supporting the struggle that raged throughout Algeria and along the borders with the help of soldiers, weapons and money. Financially, it was very expensive, because it was necessary to keep armed forces there with a total number of 500 thousand people; it was also costly from the point of view of foreign policy, because the whole world condemned the hopeless drama. As for, finally, the authority of the state, it was literally destructive.”

The so-called. "far-right" military groups that exert strong pressure on the Algerian military leadership. On May 10, 1958, four Algerian generals turn to President René Coty with an essentially ultimatum to prevent the abandonment of Algeria. On May 13, the armed formations of the "ultra" seize the building of the colonial administration in the city of Algiers; the generals telegraph to Paris with a demand addressed to Charles de Gaulle to "break the silence" and make an appeal to the citizens of the country in order to create a "government of public confidence."

“For 12 years now, France has been trying to solve problems that are beyond the power of the party regime, and is heading towards disaster. Once, in a difficult hour, the country trusted me to lead it to salvation. Today, when new trials await the country, let it know that I am ready to assume all the powers of the Republic."

If this statement had been made a year ago, at the height of the economic crisis, it would have been taken as a call for a coup d'état. Now, in the face of the grave danger of a coup, both the centrists of Pflimlin, and the moderate socialists Guy Mollet, and - above all - the Algerian rebels, whom he did not directly condemn, place their hopes on de Gaulle. The scales tipped in favor of de Gaulle after the putschists captured the island of Corsica in a matter of hours. Rumors circulate about the landing of a parachute regiment in Paris. At this time, the general confidently addresses the rebels with a demand to obey his command. On May 27, Pierre Pflimlin's "ghost government" resigns. President Rene Coty, addressing the National Assembly, demands the election of de Gaulle as prime minister and the transfer of emergency powers to him to form a government and revise the Constitution. On June 1, de Gaulle was approved by 329 votes as Chairman of the Council of Ministers.

Decisive opponents of de Gaulle's coming to power were: radicals led by Mendes-France, left-wing socialists (including the future president Francois Mitterrand) and communists led by Thorez and Duclos. They insisted on the unconditional observance of the democratic foundations of the state, which de Gaulle wanted to revise as soon as possible.

Already in August, a draft of a new Constitution is placed on the table of the Prime Minister, according to which France has been living to this day. The powers of Parliament were significantly limited. The fundamental responsibility of the government to the National Assembly remained (it can declare a vote of no confidence in the government, but the president, when appointing the prime minister, does not have to submit his candidacy for approval to parliament). The President, according to Article 16, in the event that “the independence of the Republic, the integrity of its territory or the fulfillment of its international obligations is under serious and immediate threat, and the normal functioning of state institutions has been terminated” (what to bring under this concept is not specified), may temporarily take completely unlimited power in their hands.

The principle of electing the president has also fundamentally changed. From now on, the head of state was elected not at a meeting of Parliament, but by an electoral college consisting of 80 thousand people's deputies (since 1962, after the adoption of constitutional amendments in a referendum, by direct and universal vote of the French people).

On September 28, 1958, the twelve-year history of the IV Republic ended. The French people supported the Constitution with over 79% of the votes. It was a direct vote of confidence in the general. If before that, all his claims, starting from 1940, for the post of “head of the free French” were dictated by some subjective “vocation”, then the results of the referendum eloquently confirmed: yes, the people recognized de Gaulle as their leader, it is in him that they see a way out of the current situation.

On December 21, 1958, less than three months later, 76,000 electors in all French cities elect a president. 75.5% of electors cast their votes for the prime minister. January 8, 1959 is the solemn inauguration of de Gaulle.

The post of Prime Minister of France during the presidency of de Gaulle was held by such figures of the Gaullist movement as the “knight of Gaullism” Michel Debre (1959-1962), the “dauphin” Georges Pompidou (1962-1968) and his permanent foreign minister (1958-1968) Maurice Couve de Murville (1968-1969).

De Gaulle puts the problem of decolonization in the first place. Indeed, in the wake of the Algerian crisis, he came to power; now he must reaffirm his role as national leader by finding a way out of it. In an attempt to carry out this task, the president ran into a desperate confrontation not only between the Algerian commanders, but also the right-wing lobby in the government. Only on September 16, 1959, the head of state offers three options for resolving the Algerian issue: a break with France, "integration" with France (completely equate Algeria with the metropolis and extend the same rights and obligations to the population) and "association" (the Algerian government in terms of national composition , which relied on the help of France and has a close economic and foreign policy alliance with the mother country). The general clearly preferred the latter option, in which he met with the support of the National Assembly. However, this further consolidated the ultra-right, which was fueled by the unreplaced military authorities of Algeria.

On September 8, 1961, an assassination attempt on de Gaulle takes place - the first of fifteen organized by the right-wing "Organization of the Secret Army" (Organization de l'Armée Secrète) - abbreviated as OAS (OAS). The story of the assassination attempts on de Gaulle formed the basis of Frederick Forsythe's famous book The Day of the Jackal. Throughout his life, de Gaulle was assassinated 32 times.

The war in Algeria ended after the signing of bilateral agreements in Evian (March 18, 1962), which led to a referendum and the formation of an independent Algerian state. Significantly de Gaulle's statement: "The era of organized continents is succeeding the colonial era".

De Gaulle became the founder of the new French policy in the post-colonial space: the policy of cultural ties between Francophone (that is, French-speaking) states and territories. Algeria was not the only country that left the French Empire, for which de Gaulle fought in the forties. Behind 1960 ("Year of Africa") more than two dozen African states gained independence. Vietnam and Cambodia also became independent. In all these countries, there were thousands of French people who did not want to lose ties with the metropolis. The main goal was to ensure the influence of France in the world, the two poles of which - the USA and the USSR - had already been determined.

In 1959, the president transfers under the French command of the air defense, missile forces and troops withdrawn from Algeria. The decision, taken unilaterally, could not but cause friction with, and then with his successor, Kennedy. De Gaulle repeatedly asserts the right of France to do everything "as the mistress of her policy and on her own initiative." The first nuclear test, carried out in February 1960 in the Sahara desert, marked the beginning of a series of French nuclear explosions, which were stopped under Mitterrand and briefly resumed by Chirac. De Gaulle repeatedly personally visited nuclear facilities, paying great attention to both the peaceful and military development of the latest technologies.

1965 - the year of de Gaulle's re-election for a second presidential term - was the year of two blows to the policy of the NATO bloc. February 4 the general announces the refusal to use the dollar in international settlements and on the transition to a single gold standard. In the spring of 1965, a French ship delivered US$750 million to the US, the first tranche of the US$1.5 billion that France intended to exchange for gold.

On September 9, 1965, the president announces that France does not consider itself bound by obligations to the North Atlantic bloc.

On February 21, 1966, France withdrew from NATO., and the headquarters of the organization was urgently transferred from Paris to Brussels. In an official note, the Pompidou government announced the evacuation of 29 bases with 33,000 personnel from the country.

Since that time, the official position of France in international politics has become sharply anti-American. The general, during visits to the USSR and Cambodia in 1966, condemns the actions of the United States against the countries of Indochina, and later Israel in the Six-Day War of 1967.

In 1967, during a visit to Quebec (francophone province of Canada), de Gaulle, finishing his speech in front of a huge gathering of people, exclaimed: "Long live Quebec!", and then added the instantly famous words: "Long live free Quebec!" (fr. Vive le Québec libre!). A scandal erupted. De Gaulle and his official advisers subsequently offered a number of theories that allowed the charge of separatism to be deflected, among them that Quebec and Canada as a whole were meant to be free from foreign military blocs (that is, again, NATO). According to another version, based on the entire context of de Gaulle's speech, he had in mind the Quebec comrades in the Resistance, who fought for the freedom of the whole world from Nazism. One way or another, this incident has been referred to for a very long time by supporters of the independence of Quebec.

At the beginning of his reign, On November 23, 1959, de Gaulle delivered his famous speech on "Europe from the Atlantic to the Urals". In the coming political union of the countries of Europe (integration of the EEC was then connected mainly with the economic side of the issue), the president saw an alternative to the “Anglo-Saxon” NATO (Great Britain was not included in his concept of Europe). In his work to create European unity, he made a number of compromises that determined the further originality of France's foreign policy to the present day.

De Gaulle's first compromise concerns the Federal Republic of Germany that was formed in 1949. She quickly restored her economic and military potential, but in dire need, however, of the political legalization of her fortune through an agreement with the USSR. De Gaulle took from Chancellor Adenauer an obligation to oppose the British plan for a "European free trade area", which seized the initiative from de Gaulle, in exchange for intermediary services in relations with the USSR. De Gaulle's visit to the Federal Republic of Germany on September 4-9, 1962 shocked the world community with the open support of Germany from a man who had fought against her in two wars; but it was the first step in the reconciliation of countries and the creation of European unity.

The second compromise was due to the fact that in the fight against NATO it was natural for the general to enlist the support of the USSR - a country that he considered not so much as a "communist totalitarian empire" but as "eternal Russia" (cf. the establishment of diplomatic relations between the "Free France" and the leadership of the USSR in 1941-1942, the visit of 1944, pursuing one goal - to exclude the usurpation of power in post-war France by the Americans). De Gaulle's personal dislike of communism faded into the background for the sake of the country's national interests.

In 1964, the two countries conclude a trade agreement, then an agreement on scientific and technical cooperation. In 1966, at the invitation of the Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR N.V. Podgorny, de Gaulle paid an official visit to the USSR (June 20 - July 1, 1966). The President visited, in addition to the capital, Leningrad, Kyiv, Volgograd and Novosibirsk, where he visited the newly created Siberian Scientific Center - the Novosibirsk Academgorodok. The political successes of the visit included the conclusion of an agreement on the expansion of political, economic and cultural ties. Both sides condemned American interference in the internal affairs of Vietnam, founded a special political Franco-Russian commission. An agreement was even signed to create a direct line of communication between the Kremlin and the Elysee Palace.

De Gaulle's seven-year presidential term expired at the end of 1965. According to the Constitution of the 5th Republic, new elections were to be held by an enlarged electoral college. But the president, who was about to run for a second term, insisted on the popular election of the head of state, and the corresponding amendments were adopted at a referendum on October 28, 1962, for which de Gaulle had to use his powers and dissolve the National Assembly.

The 1965 elections were the second direct elections for a French president: the first took place more than a century ago, in 1848, and was won by Louis Napoleon Bonaparte, the future Napoleon III. There was no victory in the first round (December 5, 1965), which the general counted on so much. Second place, with 31%, came from the broad-bloc opposition socialist François Mitterrand, who consistently criticized the Fifth Republic as a "permanent coup d'état." Although in the second round on December 19, 1965, de Gaulle prevailed over Mitterrand (54% versus 45%), these elections were the first alarm signal.

The government monopoly on television and radio was unpopular (only print media were free). An important reason for the loss of confidence in de Gaulle was his socio-economic policy. The growing influence of domestic monopolies, the agrarian reform, which was expressed in the liquidation of a large number of peasant farms, and finally, the arms race led to the fact that the standard of living in the country not only did not rise, but in many respects became lower (the government called for self-restraint since 1963). Finally, the personality of de Gaulle himself gradually caused more and more irritation - he begins to seem to many, especially young people, an inadequately authoritarian and outdated politician. The May events in France in 1968 lead to the fall of de Gaulle's administration.

On May 2, 1968, in the Latin Quarter - the Parisian area where many institutes, faculties of the University of Paris, student hostels are located - a student rebellion breaks out. Students demand the opening of a sociology department in the Parisian suburb of Nanterre, which was closed after similar riots caused by old, "mechanical" methods of education and a number of domestic conflicts with the administration. Cars are set on fire. Barricades are erected around the Sorbonne. Police squads are urgently called in, in the fight against which several hundred students are injured. To the demands of the rebels is added the release of their arrested colleagues and the withdrawal of the police from the quarters. The government does not dare to satisfy these demands. Trade unions announce a daily strike. De Gaulle's position is tough: there can be no negotiations with the rebels. Prime Minister Georges Pompidou proposes to open the Sorbonne and meet the demands of the students. But the moment has already been lost.

On May 13, the unions come out in a grand demonstration that took place all over Paris. Ten years have passed since the day when, in the wake of the Algerian revolt, de Gaulle announced his readiness to take power. Now slogans are flying over the columns of demonstrators: "De Gaulle - to the archive!", "Farewell, de Gaulle!", "05/13/58-05/13/68 - it's time to leave, Charles!" Anarchist students fill the Sorbonne.

The strike not only does not stop, but develops into an indefinite one. 10 million people are on strike across the country. The country's economy is paralyzed. Everyone has already forgotten about the students who started it all. The workers are demanding a 40-hour week and an increase in the minimum wage to 1,000 francs. On May 24, the president speaks on television. He says that “the country is on the brink of civil war” and that the president should be given, through a referendum, broad powers for “renewal” (fr. rennouveau), and the latter concept was not specified. De Gaulle had no self-confidence. May 29, Pompidou holds a meeting of his cabinet. De Gaulle is expected at the meeting, but the shocked prime minister learns that the president, having taken the archives from the Elysee Palace, departed for Colombey. In the evening, the ministers learn that the helicopter with the general in Colombey has not landed. The President went to the occupation troops of France in the Federal Republic of Germany, in Baden-Baden, and almost immediately returned to Paris. The absurdity of the situation is at least indicated by the fact that Pompidou was forced to look for a boss with the help of air defense.

May 30, de Gaulle in the Elysee Palace reads another radio speech. He declares that he will not leave his post, dissolves the National Assembly and calls early elections. For the last time in his life, de Gaulle uses a chance with a firm hand to put an end to the "mutiny". Elections to the parliament are considered by him as putting his confidence to vote. The elections of June 23-30, 1968 brought the Gaullists (UNR, "Union for the Republic") 73.8% of the seats in the National Assembly. This meant that for the first time one party won an absolute majority in the lower house, and the overwhelming majority of the French expressed their confidence in General de Gaulle.

The general's fate was sealed. A short "respite" did not bear any fruit, except for the replacement of Pompidou with Maurice Couve de Murville and the announced plans for the reorganization of the Senate - the upper house of parliament - into an economic and social body representing the interests of entrepreneurs and trade unions. In February 1969, the general put this reform to a referendum, announcing in advance that he would leave if he lost. On the eve of the referendum, de Gaulle, with all the documents, moved from Paris to Colombey and waited for the results of the vote, about which he had, perhaps, no illusions. After defeat became apparent at 10 pm on April 27, 1969, after midnight on April 28, the President telephoned Couve de Murville the following document: “I cease to exercise the office of President of the Republic. This decision takes effect today at noon.”

After his resignation, de Gaulle and his wife went to Ireland, then rested in Spain, worked in Colombey on "Memoirs of Hope" (not completed, reach 1962). He criticized the new authorities as having "completed" the greatness of France.

On November 9, 1970, at seven o'clock in the evening, Charles de Gaulle died suddenly in Colombey-les-deux-Eglises from a ruptured aorta. At the funeral on November 12 (at the village cemetery in Colombe next to her daughter Anna), according to the general’s will drawn up back in 1952, only the closest relatives and comrades in the Resistance were present.

After the resignation and death of de Gaulle, his temporary unpopularity remained in the past, he is recognized primarily as a major historical figure, a national leader, on a par with such figures as Napoleon I. More often than during his presidency, the French associate his name with activities during World War II, calling him usually "General de Gaulle", and not just by his first and last name. The rejection of the figure of de Gaulle in our time is characteristic mainly of the extreme left.

The Rally in Support of the Republic party, created by de Gaulle, after a series of reorganizations and renamings, continues to be an influential force in France. The party, now known as the Union for a Presidential Majority, or with the same acronym, the Union for a Popular Movement (UMP), is represented by former President Nicolas Sarkozy, who said in his inaugural speech in 2007: "Assuming the functions of President of the Republic , I think of General de Gaulle, who twice saved the Republic, restored France's independence, and the state - its prestige. During the lifetime of the general, the name Gaullists was assigned to the supporters of this center-right course. Deviations from the principles of Gaullism (in particular, towards the restoration of relations with NATO) were characteristic of the socialist government under Francois Mitterrand (1981-1995); Sarkozy was often accused by critics of a similar "atlantization" of the course.

Reporting on de Gaulle's death on television, his successor Pompidou said: "General de Gaulle is dead, France is widowed." The Paris airport (Fr. Roissy-Charles-de-Gaulle, Charles de Gaulle International Airport), the Parisian Place de la Zvezda and a number of other memorable places, as well as the nuclear aircraft carrier of the French Navy are named in his honor. Near the Champs Elysees in Paris, a monument was erected to the general. In 1990, the square in front of the Cosmos Hotel in Moscow was named after him, and in 2005, a monument to de Gaulle was erected on it in the presence of Jacques Chirac.

In 2014, a monument was erected to the general in Astana. The city also has a Charles de Gaulle street, where the French quarter is concentrated.

General de Gaulle's awards:

Grand Master of the Legion of Honor (as President of France)
Grand Cross of the Order of Merit (France)
Grand Master of the Order of Liberation (as founder of the order)
War Cross 1939-1945 (France)
Order of the Elephant (Denmark)
Order of the Seraphim (Sweden)
Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order (UK)
Grand Cross decorated with the Ribbon of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic
Grand Cross of the Order of Military Merit (Poland)
Grand Cross of the Order of St. Olaf (Norway)
Order of the Royal House of Chakri (Thailand)
Grand Cross of the Order of the White Rose of Finland
Grand Cross of the Order of Merit (Republic of the Congo, 01/20/1962).

Charles André Joseph Marie de Gaulle was born in Lille on November 22, 1890 and died in Colombay-les-Deux-Église on November 9, 1970. In the eighty years of his life, this man managed to become the greatest hero of France after Joan of Arc. He managed to lead the country twice, both times taking leadership at the peak of a national catastrophe and leaving the state in a state of economic recovery and growth in international prestige. At the same time, he wrote more than a dozen books - memoirs and theoretical works on military art, some of which remain bestsellers to this day.

Being, admittedly, an utterly authoritarian person himself, de Gaulle, possessing, in fact, sovereign powers, twice voluntarily renounced his power and resigned. Moreover, this man, who was feared by the Allies as a potential new Hitler-type dictator, left to posterity one of the most stable political systems among European democracies, called the Fifth Republic, under the constitution of which France lives today.

The mysterious, mystical hero de Gaulle - the savior of France, the unifier of the French people, the liberator of Algeria and other colonies of the empire - is still one of the most controversial figures in the recent history of Europe. Many figures of the political scene used his techniques more than once, his life, attitude towards himself, towards duty, aspirations and convictions became a model for many generations.

An aura of mystery has surrounded de Gaulle ever since his voice was first heard on British radio in 1940 in Nazi-occupied France, and for many French people for several years de Gaulle remained just a voice - the voice of freedom, saying twice a day five-minute speeches, remained the name of hope that members of the Resistance movement passed on to each other. De Gaulle himself used this secrecy more than once to achieve certain political goals. However, in practice, Charles de Gaulle was not at all such a mysterious person. Ambiguous - yes. But all the "secrets" of the general are hidden in his biography. After all, first of all, the figure of the great general was a product of the extraordinary circumstances in which all of France found itself. And one of her soldiers in particular.

Jeanne d'Arc complex

Charles de Gaulle was born into a wealthy family, his parents were right-wing Catholics. His father, Henri de Gaulle, was a professor of philosophy and history at the Jesuit College on Rue Vaugirard. Charles received a religious education, read a lot, showed great interest in literature from childhood, even wrote poetry. Having become the winner at the school poetry competition, the young de Gaulle chose the latter from two possible prizes - a cash prize or a publication. De Gaulle was fond of history, especially since the de Gaulle family was proud not only of their noble origin and deep roots, but also of the exploits of their ancestors: according to family legend, one of the de Gaulle family, Zhegan, participated in the campaign of Joan of Arc. Little de Gaulle listened his father's stories about the glorious past of his family with burning eyes.Many, such as Winston Churchill, later laughed at de Gaulle, saying that he suffered from the "Joan of Arc complex." But the most revered French saint dreamed of the future general in childhood, in a dream he fought side by side with her for the salvation of France.

Even as a child, de Gaulle's character showed obsessive persistence and the ability to manage people. So, he taught himself and forced his brothers and sister to learn a coded language in which the words were read backwards. It must be said that this is much more difficult for French orthography than for Russian, English or German, and yet Charles could speak such a language without hesitation in long phrases. He constantly trained his memory, the phenomenal qualities of which amazed those around him later, when he recited speeches of 30-40 pages by heart, without changing a single word compared to the text outlined the day before.

From his youth, de Gaulle had an interest in four disciplines: literature, history, philosophy, and the art of war. The philosopher who had the greatest influence on him was Henri Bergson, from whose teaching the young man could draw two important points that determined not only his general outlook, but also practical actions in everyday life. The first is what Bergson considered natural, the natural division of people into a privileged class and an oppressed people, on which he based the advantages of dictatorship over democracy. The second is the philosophy of intuitionism, according to which human activity was a combination of instinct and reason. The principle of acting on a hunch after precise calculation was used by de Gaulle many times when making the most important decisions that led him to the heights, as well as overthrown him from them.

Family atmosphere and hobbies shaped de Gaulle's attitude to his homeland, to its history, to his mission. However, the desire for military affairs forced de Gaulle to carry out in practice the fulfillment of that duty to the motherland, which for many generations of philosophers and teachers of de Gaulle remained a pure theorem. In 1909, Charles went to the Military Academy in Saint-Cyr.

It is widely believed that military service deprives a person of the ability to think independently, teaches him only to follow orders that are not subject to discussion, prepares martinet. There is hardly a more graphic refutation of such nonsense than the example of Charles de Gaulle. Every day of service was not wasted for him. Without ceasing to read, to educate himself, he carefully observed the life of the French army, noticing all the shortcomings in its structure. Being a diligent cadet, without violating the charter in any way, he remained a strict judge of what he saw. Classmates at the academy considered de Gaulle to be arrogant. For his high growth and character, he was dubbed "long asparagus." The same height, I think, played a significant role in his self-awareness. And then to say: every day in the formation, when the corporal shouted "equal!", He was the only one who did not turn his head - everyone was equal to him.

In 1913, with the rank of second lieutenant, he entered the service in an infantry regiment under the command of the then Colonel Philippe Pétain (who was destined to raise de Gaulle to commanding heights, so that later, in 1945, to be pardoned by his own former protégé and thereby avoid death executions). At the very beginning of the war, Charles was twice wounded, after which he was taken prisoner, where he stayed until the conclusion of a truce and from where he tried to escape five times - each time unsuccessfully.

After the war, de Gaulle participated in the intervention in Soviet Russia as an instructor officer in the Polish troops. After that, he served in the occupying forces in the Rhineland and participated in the operation to invade the French troops in the Ruhr, in an adventure from which he warned the authorities and which ended in a resounding failure - under pressure from Germany and the allies, France was forced to retreat, and its share in the reparations payments have been reduced. At this time, he wrote several books, among which it is worth highlighting "Discord in the Camp of the Enemy", a commentary on the actions of the German army and government during the First World War, begun in captivity. The actions of the German headquarters in this work were subjected to sharp criticism. De Gaulle did not dwell on the objective reasons for the defeat of Germany, but gave an analysis from which it followed that the internal and military policy of the German government and the General Staff led to the defeat, almost in the first place. It must be said that at that time in France, paradoxically, the organization of the military machine of the Wehrmacht was considered a model. De Gaulle also pointed to the significant miscalculations of the Germans.

The book was subsequently appreciated for its many fresh ideas. For example, de Gaulle argued that even in times of war, the military administration of a state must be subordinate to the civil administration. Now this statement, which follows directly from the thesis that wars are won in the home front, seems obvious enough. In the 1920s in France, it was sedition. It was not useful for a career military man to express such judgments. De Gaulle, in his views on the structure of the army, on the tactics and strategy of the war, was very different from the mass of the French military establishment. At that time, his former commander, the winner at Verdun, Marshal Pétain was an indisputable authority in the army. In 1925, Pétain turned his attention to the fact that de Gaulle did not take a worthy place in the headquarters, and appointed him his adjutant, instructing him to soon prepare a report on the system of defensive measures in France.

De Gaulle prepared this report, but it came as a surprise to the patron, since it was completely at odds with his own views. Where the marshal's protagonists relied on the line of fortified defense, based on the strategic and tactical lessons learned from the "positional" World War I, de Gaulle spoke of the need to create mobile tactical formations, proved the uselessness of defensive structures in the conditions of modern technological development, especially considering that the borders of France were completely unprotected by nature, passing mostly through open plains. As a result, relations with Pétain were spoiled, and the headquarters headed for the infamous Maginot Line. The very first days of the new war proved that de Gaulle was right.

At the same time, de Gaulle first showed himself as a politician: despite the fact that he was unofficially in disgrace, he managed to continue the implementation of his undertakings and, at the same time, career growth. Firstly, he was the only career military man who allowed himself open speeches in the press. This was by no means welcomed by the military authorities, but it significantly increased popularity in the country. Secondly, faced with obstacles in the military environment, he immediately turned to politicians, and did not at all hesitate to compromise his principles in order to achieve his goals. In 1934, he turned to the far-right politician Paul Reynaud, who liked de Gaulle's army reform project. Reynaud tried to push the bill through parliament, but was unsuccessful. Then in 1936, Captain de Gaulle, with the same initiative, went personally to the leader of the Socialists, Leon Blum. It is difficult for us now to imagine how much this step contradicted at that time the very essence of a man of such upbringing and habits as de Gaulle. Nevertheless, Leon Blum, although he became interested in the captain's projects, practically did not resort to his opportunities in parliament to implement them.

Already at this stage, one can identify at least two features of de Gaulle, which manifested themselves even more fully in his managerial practice: this is the desire to bypass small tactical defeats to win in the main and the passion for innovation as an administrative tool. Perseverance, energy, inflexibility of will, loyalty to convictions (however, doubtful) - all these qualities have been repeatedly described and sung by historians. However, the most important components of de Gaulle's methodology, which are often overlooked, are undoubtedly the breadth of strategic intent and innovation. For him there was one scale - the scale of France.

De Gaulle's efforts were not in vain, but their effect was scanty: in general, the minor reorganization carried out did not affect the state of the army. De Gaulle, after moving up the staff career ladder, achieved that, with the rank of colonel, he was appointed to command the only tank regiment, for the formation of which he so advocated. The regiment was incomplete. The tanks were completely outdated. On September 1, 1939, Germany attacked Poland, and France and Great Britain declared war on Germany. In a matter of days, a significant part of French territory was occupied.

This affected de Gaulle's career. He was immediately promoted to brigadier general (he preferred to keep this title for the rest of his life) and led the hastily formed 4th Panzer Division. At the cost of incredible efforts, de Gaulle even managed to stop the enemy's advance from the north and put some of his units to flight, but this could not affect the overall course of the war. In June 1940, in a situation where surrender was almost inevitable, Paul Reynaud appointed him to a high position in the Ministry of Defense. But it was already too late. Despite de Gaulle's efforts to continue the struggle by France, the Reynaud government resigned, and Marshal Pétain, who took his place, signed the capitulation.

At a time when the British were negotiating with the French government preparing for surrender about the fate of its colonies, de Gaulle first met Churchill. After the surrender, de Gaulle flew to London, where he immediately created the Free French organization and demanded that he be given airtime on British radio, which broadcast in the occupied territory and in the possessions of the Vichy regime. On June 18, 1940, de Gaulle's first address to the nation was made.

quarrelsome frenchman

The French say: "De Gaulle will remain in the history of France as a sacred person, since he was the first to draw his sword." However, the situation in which de Gaulle found himself was not easy. According to the historian Grosse, the Free French fought on three fronts: against German and Japanese enemies, against Vichy, whose spirit of surrender it exposed, and against the Anglo-Americans. Sometimes it was not clear who the main enemy was."

Churchill hoped, by sheltering the fugitive general, to get into his hands a person with the help of whom he could influence the policy of internal resistance, on free colonies, but this was a cruel delusion. With astonishing speed, de Gaulle practically from scratch created a centralized, completely independent organization from the allies and anyone else, with its own information headquarters, the armed forces. Around him, he gathered people practically unknown to him before. At the same time, everyone who signed the Act of Accession, which meant joining the "Free France", necessarily signed the obligation to unconditionally obey de Gaulle.

“I believed,” de Gaulle wrote in his “War Memoirs,” that the honor, unity and independence of France would be forever lost if in this world war France alone capitulates and comes to terms with such an outcome. For in this case, no matter how the war ends whether the conquered nation be liberated from invaders by foreign armies or remain enslaved, the contempt it would inspire in other nations would poison its soul and the life of many generations of Frenchmen for a long time." He was convinced: "Before you philosophize, you need to win the right to life, that is, to win."

From 1940 to 1942, the number of soldiers alone fighting under the banner of "Free (later - Fighting) France" increased from 7 to 70 thousand. The Americans had already printed the occupying currency and expected to transfer power to the Supreme Allied Commander in Europe, General Eisenhower, but as a result of the political and military struggle, by the time D-Day, as the Allies called the day of the landing in Normandy on June 7, 1944, de Gaulle achieved international recognition of his subordinate Committee of National Liberation as the provisional government of France. Moreover, thanks to the efforts of this man, France, formally under the leadership of the Vichy government, was an alliance with Nazi Germany, practically "occupied" by the Allies, received the right to its own occupation zone in Germany as a victorious country, and a little later - a seat in the UN Security Council. Without exaggeration, such successes can be called phenomenal, given that at the beginning of this struggle he was just a deserter of the French army warmed by Britain, whom a military tribunal in his homeland sentenced to death for treason.

To what did Brigadier General de Gaulle owe such success? First, the idea of creating a "Free France" and broadcasting daily in the occupied territory. Free French emissaries toured all the free French colonies and countries of the present "Third World", trying to get de Gaulle recognized as a representative of the "free French". And, it must be said, the methodical work of de Gaulle's secret agents eventually yielded results. Secondly, de Gaulle immediately established close contact with the Resistance, supplying it with what little means he had. Thirdly, from the very beginning he positioned himself as an equal in relation to the allies. Often de Gaulle's arrogance infuriated Churchill. Everything went well if their positions converged, but if disagreements arose, then they began to argue. At the same time, de Gaulle accused Churchill of drinking too much and whiskey hit him in the head. Churchill, in response, stated that de Gaulle imagines himself Joan of Arc. Once this almost ended with de Gaulle's deportation from the island. However, stubbornness, arrogance, which gave de Gaulle's figure authority in the eyes of his fellow citizens, helped him defend France's rights to former colonies, avoid literally their rejection.

Churchill and Roosevelt were extremely annoyed by the obstinate general. Roosevelt called him a "capricious bride" and angrily suggested to Churchill that de Gaulle be sent as "governor to Madagascar." Churchill shared Roosevelt's dislike for the "arrogant Frenchman", calling him a "hidden fascist", "an absurd person who imagines himself the savior of France", saying that "the unbearable rudeness and impudence in the behavior of this man are complemented by an active Anglophobia". Secret English archives were recently opened, and it turned out that Churchill even sent a cipher from Washington to London: “I ask my colleagues to immediately answer whether we can, without postponing this question, eliminate de Gaulle as a political force ... Personally I am ready to defend this position in Parliament and I can prove to everyone that the French resistance movement, around which the legend of de Gaulle is created, and he himself - a vain and malicious man - have nothing in common ... He hates England and everywhere sows this hatred ... Therefore, proceeding from our vital interests, which consist in maintaining good relations with the United States, it seems to me unacceptable to allow henceforth this quarrelsome and hostile person to continue to do evil. Further, Churchill justifies his attitude towards de Gaulle (it should be noted that it was Roosevelt who supplied Churchill with compromising evidence on de Gaulle - information from the American special services): dictatorial manners, hidden fascist tendencies in actions and plans, the desire behind the back of the allies to come to an agreement with Moscow and in a separate way " settle things with Germany." Allegedly, de Gaulle was especially fond of the USSR, and Stalin had already twice suggested that he move his residence from London to Moscow. However, the game of Roosevelt, inciting Churchill against de Gaulle, stumbled upon the position of the British Cabinet, which answered its prime minister: report that any propaganda efforts on our part against de Gaulle will not convince the French that their idol has feet of clay.Moreover, we run the risk of allowing completely unjustified from any point of view interference in the purely internal affairs of the French, and we are simply accused of trying to turn France into an Anglo-American protectorate."

The "anglophobe with dictatorial manners" himself always emphasized his respect for Churchill. Only once did he slip up in annoyance. Offended that he was not invited to a conference of three leaders in Yalta, when asked which of them he would like to spend the weekend with, he answered: "Of course, with Roosevelt! Or, in extreme cases, with Stalin ..." A little he later told Eisenhower: "Churchill thinks I take myself for Joan of Arc. But he is wrong. I take myself only for General de Gaulle."

When American and British troops occupied Algiers, they attempted to remove de Gaulle from power and form a government in exile headed by General Giraud. De Gaulle acted swiftly. Relying on the forces of the Resistance and, importantly, on Moscow, he immediately flew to Algeria, where he proposed to organize a National Liberation Committee under the co-chairmanship of Giraud and himself. Giro agreed. Churchill and Roosevelt were also forced to agree. Soon de Gaulle pushes Giraud into the background, and then removes him from the leadership without any problems.

In general, de Gaulle constantly played on the contradictions of his allies. In particular, both the occupation zone and the seat in the Security Council went to France mainly thanks to Stalin's support. Sympathizing with Stalin, de Gaulle convinced him that France would help establish a balance of power in the UN, which leaned more towards the Soviets.

After the provisional government under the leadership of de Gaulle came to power in France, he proclaimed the slogan "Order, law, justice" in domestic policy, and the greatness of France in foreign policy. De Gaulle's tasks included not only the restoration of the economy, but also the political restructuring of the country. De Gaulle achieved the first: he nationalized the largest enterprises, carried out social reforms, while purposefully developing the most important industries. The second one went worse. From the very beginning, de Gaulle resorted to the political device "over the fight." He openly did not support any of the parties, including the "Gaullists" - the movement of the general's supporters, believing that, being above the political struggle, he would be able to win the sympathy of all voters. However, despite his high personal authority among the people, he was defeated in the main battle - the battle for a new constitution.

The "Gaullist" party, not personally supported by the general, did not receive a majority in the elections to the Constituent Assembly, which was called upon to develop a constitution. The provisional parliament, through compromises, developed the constitution of the Fourth Republic, which had a unicameral parliament that appointed the government, and a president with limited power functions. De Gaulle waited until recently and in the end proposed his own version of the constitution with strong executive power in the person of the president. He counted on massive propaganda and the effect of surprise to beat the parliamentarians. But the variant of the Constitution of the Fourth Republic, proposed by the parliament at a referendum, gathered 52.5% in favor and 45.5% against. So de Gaulle himself became a victim of "above-class arbitrage," as he called it. In the elections to the National Assembly, the "Gaullists" won only 3% of the vote. In January 1946, de Gaulle resigned, and his political career was on leave for 12 years.

Solitaire is patience

To say that at the age of 68 de Gaulle again came into politics from a complete social non-existence is an exaggeration. Of course, while retired, he led public activities. But the main thing was the expectation. De Gaulle lived in the family home in Colombey-les-Deux-Église with his wife: he wrote memoirs, gave interviews, walked a lot. In 1947, he tried to organize a new political movement using the old method of coalition "above parties and movements", but the movement was not successful, and in 1953 he retired completely. De Gaulle liked to play solitaire. "Solitaire" in French means patience.

Many say that Colombey was Napoleonic Elbe for de Gaulle. In this case, we can say that the time in power is in progressive proportion in relation to the time in exile. Napoleon spent a year on the Elbe, and stayed in power for 100 days. De Gaulle spent 12 years in Colombey. He remained in power from 1958 to 1969, after which he voluntarily retired, earning general respect.

In the 1950s, France was torn apart by crises. In 1954, France suffered a brutal defeat in Indochina from national liberation movements. De Gaulle did not comment. Unrest began in Algeria and other countries of North Africa, where the bulk of the former or actual French colonies were located. Despite economic growth, the population suffered severely from the devaluation of the franc, from inflation. Waves of strikes swept across the country. Governments have changed. De Gaulle was silent. By 1957, the situation worsened: both left- and right-wing extremist tendencies in society intensified. The fascist military in Algeria, fighting against the rebels, threatened a coup. On May 13, 1958, such a coup almost happened. Newspapers began to write about the "need for responsibility." In the conditions of the most acute government crisis, on May 16, the president turned to de Gaulle with a proposal to take the post of prime minister with the approval of parliament. After that, in December 1958, de Gaulle himself was elected president with an unusually wide (for France of that time) range of powers: in case of emergency, he could dissolve parliament and call new elections, and also personally oversaw defense, foreign policy and the most important domestic ministries. Interestingly, the text of the Russian constitution, approved by citizens in a referendum in 1993, largely coincides with the de Gaulle constitution, which, by all accounts, Russian reformers took as a model.

Despite the apparent swiftness and ease with which de Gaulle came to power for the second time, this event was preceded by the hard work of the general himself and his supporters. De Gaulle constantly conducted secret negotiations through intermediaries with the political leaders of the ultra-right parties, with parliamentarians, and organized a new "Gaullist" movement. Finally, having chosen the moment when the threat of civil war had reached its apogee, de Gaulle spoke on the radio on May 15, and before parliament on the 16th. The first of these speeches was full of fog: "Once in a difficult hour, the country trusted me to lead it to salvation. Today, when the country faces new trials, let it know that I am ready to assume all the powers of the Republic." In the texts of both speeches, even the word "Algeria" never appeared. If the first was intimidating, then the speech in parliament could even be called amiable. Such was the method of "carrot and stick" - for the people and for the leaders of the socialists, who had to approve his candidacy for the post of prime minister in parliament, and then elect him president.

Mysteriousness, secrecy, brevity, emotionality - this was also de Gaulle's weapon this time. He relied not on this or that political inclination, but on the psychology of subordinating the crowd to the mysterious charm of the leader. Politicians in the government and the presidential apparatus were replaced by economists, lawyers, and managers. "I am a lonely man," de Gaulle told the people in front of the parliament building, "who does not confuse himself with any of the parties, with any organization. I am a man who does not belong to anyone and belongs to everyone." This is the whole point of the general's tactics. Given that at that time, in parallel with the demonstrations of the ultra-right, rallies of "Gaullists" were taking place all over Paris, directly calling on the government to resign in favor of the general, there was a fair amount of slyness in his words.

In the relationship between de Gaulle and the Gaullists, as well as in de Gaulle himself in 1958, one can see similarities with Vladimir Putin and the Unity movement. All the less, such an analogy seems a stretch, given that both of them came to power at the time of the urgent need of society for the immediate resolution of colonial problems and the growth of nationalist sentiments in society.

The new constitution, approved in a referendum by a majority of almost 80%, introduced a presidential system of government for the first time in French history. With the strengthening of the executive power, the parliament was limited in legislative rights. It was supposed to work 2 sessions a year: autumn (October-December) was devoted to the consideration of the budget, spring (April-June) - legislative activities. The government set the agenda. Voting was carried out on the budget as a whole, while discussing the draft, the deputies did not have the right to make amendments that provide for a reduction in revenues or an increase in state spending.

Parliament was "pushed": de Gaulle communicated directly with the people through referendums, which he could appoint on his own.

Gold instead of dollars

The authority of de Gaulle was quite high. Not looking up from resolving the internal political crisis, he took up the economy and foreign policy, where he achieved some success. He was not concerned with problems, but with a problem: how to make France a great power. One of the psychological measures was the denomination: de Gaulle issued a new franc in denominations of 100 old ones. De Gaulle did not have a central bank. Money multiplied by credit issue. A handful of bankers fed on inflation. De Gaulle suggested that French banks should not exceed the 10% lending rate. The franc became a hard currency for the first time in a long time.

According to the results of 1960, the economy showed rapid growth, the fastest in all the post-war years. De Gaulle's course in foreign policy was aimed at gaining independence for Europe from two superpowers: the USSR and the USA. A European Common Market was created, but de Gaulle blocked the admission of Great Britain into it. Apparently, Churchill's wartime words, thrown during one of the disputes about the status of France and its colonies, - "Remember, whenever I have to choose between free Europe and the sea, I will always choose the sea. Whenever I have to choose between Roosevelt and you, I will choose Roosevelt!" - sunk deep into de Gaulle's soul, and now he refused to recognize the British islanders as Europeans.

France successfully tested an atomic bomb in the Pacific in 1960. During these years, de Gaulle's administrative abilities did not manifest themselves in all their glory - the general needed a crisis to show the whole world what he was really capable of. He easily held a referendum on the issue of presidential elections by direct universal suffrage, although for this he had to dissolve parliament. In 1965 he was re-elected, although this time the vote was held in two rounds - a direct consequence of the new electoral system.

On February 4, he announces that his country will now switch to real gold in international settlements. De Gaulle's attitude to the dollar as to a "green paper" was formed under the impression of an anecdote told to him a long time ago by the finance minister in the Clemenceau government. “A Raphael painting is being sold at an auction. An Arab offers oil, a Russian offers gold, and an American lays out a stack of one hundred dollar bills and buys Raphael for $10,000. As a result, the American got Raphael for three dollars, because the cost of paper for one hundred dollar bill is three cents! ".

De Gaulle called the de-dollarization of France his "economic Austerlitz". He declared: “We consider it necessary that international exchange should be established, as it was before the great misfortunes of the world, on an indisputable basis, not bearing the seal of any particular country. On what basis? In truth, it is difficult to imagine that there could be some other standard than gold. Yes, gold does not change its nature: it can be in ingots, bars, coins; it has no nationality, it has long been accepted by the whole world as an unchanging value. Undoubtedly, even today the value of any currency is determined on the basis of direct or indirect, real or perceived links with gold.In international exchange, the supreme law, the golden rule (it is appropriate to say here), the rule to be restored is the obligation to balance the balance of payments of different currency areas through effective receipts and gold costs.

And he demanded from the United States, in accordance with the Bretton Woods agreement, living gold: at $35 per ounce to exchange $1.5 billion. In case of refusal, de Gaulle's forceful argument was the threat of France's withdrawal from NATO, the elimination of all 189 NATO bases in France and the withdrawal of 35,000 NATO soldiers. The militant general suggested that other countries follow the example of France - to turn dollar reserves into gold ones. The US capitulated. The general in power, even in the economy, acted by military methods. He said: "The commissariat will follow."

Can't edit with "but"

However, his "dirigisme" in the economy, which led to the crisis of 1967, and an aggressive foreign policy - opposition to NATO, Great Britain, sharp criticism of the Vietnam War, support for Quebec separatists, sympathy for the Arabs in the Middle East - undermined his position in the domestic political arena. During the "revolution" in May 1968, when Paris was blocked by barricades, and posters "05/13/58 - 05/13/68 - it's time to leave, Charles!" hung on the walls, de Gaulle was at a loss. He was rescued by the faithful Prime Minister Georges Pompidou, a supporter of a softer, advisory policy of the state in the economy, the unrest more or less subsided, new social reforms were carried out, but after that de Gaulle for some reason dismissed Pompidou. When the general's next legislative initiatives were rejected by parliament, he could not stand it and on April 28, 1969, ahead of schedule, voluntarily resigned from his post.

Summing up the information that can be obtained from a brief analysis of the biography of Charles de Gaulle, we see several prerequisites that determined his career from his youth. First of all, a brilliant education and a constant craving for knowledge, for self-improvement in the intellectual sense. De Gaulle himself once said: "The true school, which gives the ability to command, is a common culture." As examples, he cited Alexander the Great, whose teacher was Aristotle, and Caesar, who was brought up on the works and speeches of Cicero. De Gaulle could repeat: "To manage means to foresee, and to foresee means to know a lot." Another prerequisite, of course, is purposefulness, faith in one's destiny, born in childhood. In Saint-Cyr, a classmate told him before graduation: "Charles, I feel that you are destined for a great destiny." Someone else in de Gaulle's place would naturally have laughed it off, but he answered without a shadow of a smile: "Yes, I think so too." For the most part, such people make up the clientele of psychiatric clinics, but some of them succeed - they become the de Gaulles.

De Gaulle earned the ironic nickname "the king in exile" from his superior at the Military Academy for his dryness, demeanor and "turning up his nose". A later biographer, describing de Gaulle in Britain in the 1940s, used the same expression without any irony, rather with admiration. Of course, to be de Gaulle, one had to look like de Gaulle. Here is what Jacques Chastenet writes: "Very tall, thin, monumental build, with a long nose over a small mustache, a slightly escaping chin, an imperious look, he seemed much younger than fifty years old. Dressed in a khaki uniform and a headdress of the same color, decorated two stars of a brigadier general, he always walked with a wide step, usually holding his hands at his sides. He spoke slowly, sharply, sometimes with sarcasm. His memory was amazing. He simply breathed the power of the monarch, and now, more than ever, he justified the epithet "king in exile"

"Arrogant," they said about de Gaulle. Here is what he himself wrote about this in the 1930s: “A person of action cannot be imagined without a fair amount of egoism, arrogance, cruelty and cunning, but all this is forgiven him, and he even somehow rises more if he uses these qualities for doing great things." And later: "A true leader keeps others at a distance, for there is no power without prestige, and no prestige without distance." Characteristically, de Gaulle sympathized with Stalin. Although he understood that they had little in common in political, social beliefs, he believed that as leaders, as people, they were similar to each other.

As for the qualities of de Gaulle as a leader and politician, to the extent that political activity is the art of managing people, here we can distinguish five defining features, five properties of de Gaulle, which, first of all, allowed him to become one of the largest figures in France.

First, de Gaulle was both phenomenally authoritarian as a leader and excessively independent as a subordinate. It is worth noting, however, that this authoritarianism was strictly related to action. De Gaulle, the chief, never asked - he ordered. Independence, on the other hand, belonged entirely to the area lying outside the military regulations. He carried out orders unquestioningly, everything that was outside of them - at his own discretion. De Gaulle, the guest, did not ask the British government - he demanded and got his way.

Secondly, de Gaulle never became obsolete. Both his rationalization proposals and his methods of political and military struggle were characterized by freshness and novelty. As already mentioned, the characteristic feature of his method was innovation. He remained true to this principle both when he turned from a promising officer into a freethinker and oppositionist, in order to soon take one of the leading posts in the headquarters and confirm his innocence, and when in 1968, a few days before his resignation, he tried to achieve the adoption of a new law on Senate, which radically changed the relationship between the central and municipal authorities in the Republic.

Thirdly, de Gaulle combined a long wait for the moment with the impetuosity of the initiative, covert, intense, painstaking work to prepare any serious step with truly hussar pressure and the apparent ease with which he was given an assault on each new bastion, whether it was the organization of the National Liberation Committee, a triumph in Paris or return to big politics in 1958. This lightness gave him a romantic, heroic aura with a mystical tinge, raised his already high authority, instilled faith in his power.

Fourthly, de Gaulle was distinguished by mystery and closeness, dedicating few people to his plans, committing inexplicable, from the point of view of an outsider, actions, listening carefully to his comrades-in-arms, but never consulting, and, finally, delivering exciting speeches, being able to say everything and nothing at the same time. .

And finally, fifthly, de Gaulle always strove to remain above the situation, giving himself the status of a "supra-class arbiter": on the one hand, he never openly took sides, allowing the situation to be resolved without his intervention, on the other hand, he sought support at the same time from everyone who could only support him, and in general diligently cared for the prestige of a person who rises above the vanity of this world. Even in relation to the allies, on whom he was completely dependent, he behaved not only as an equal, but even at times condescendingly. Their goal was to win the war, his was to put France on a pedestal of greatness. Ultimately, this method played a bad game with him twice: during the elections of 1946 and in 1968, when he himself did not find support from any of the political groups.

Much can be said about de Gaulle's services to the fatherland, as well as about his mistakes. He, being a talented theoretician of military art, did not conduct a single historically important battle, but managed to lead his country to victory where it was threatened with defeat from everywhere. Not being closely familiar with the economy, he successfully managed the country twice and twice brought it out of a deep crisis - I think, solely due to his ability to competently organize the work of the structure entrusted to him, whether it be a rebel committee or the government of a multi-million state.

Charles de Gaulle quit smoking at 63. He was very proud of both this fact and the method that helped him get rid of a bad habit. The General's private secretary, Guichard, decided to follow the patron's example and asked him how he had done it. De Gaulle replied: "Very simply: tell your boss, your wife, your secretary, that from tomorrow you don't smoke. That's enough."

Algeria: between two fires.

Algiers was not just a French colony. The north of the country is practically Europeanized, the main civil and military posts here were occupied by immigrants from Europe. De Gaulle promised the Algerian French what they expected from him: "Algeria will remain French forever." Throughout Algeria, demonstrations of the French and loyal Algerians took place in support of the general. But the supporters of independence (TNF) started a guerrilla war, attacked government agencies, police stations, banks. Help and weapons came from neighboring countries: Morocco, Egypt and Tunisia. The French, on the other hand, transferred to Algeria more and more military formations, special forces, mercenaries, paratroopers from Indochina. But the clashes didn't stop.

De Gaulle began to understand that sooner or later France would have to part with the Maghreb. Algiers is too expensive for Paris. On September 19, 1959, the president recognized Algeria's right to self-determination, but did not say anything specific about the timing of independence. The answer was the toughening of the actions of the TNF rebels and the rebellion of the French "ultra", whose leaders were military generals, recent heroes of the war, once loyal soldiers of the republic - Salan, Schall, Zhuo and Zeller. The military, who had ceased to hope for help from Paris, themselves switched to the tactics of retaliatory terror. The Secret Armed Organization (OAS) created by the Alan was a real army: 110 battle groups, 60 armories, 119 safe houses. The SLA began to carry out the tactics of "scorched earth" in Algeria. The soldiers of the OAS now considered de Gaulle to be their natural enemy, a traitor to France. But the independence of Algeria was by that time a matter already decided. The referendum held in France only confirmed this. On March 18, 1962, agreements were signed in the resort town of Evian that guaranteed (under certain conditions, however) full independence to Algeria. The response from the OAS was the death sentence imposed on General de Gaulle.

There were six "big" assassination attempts on de Gaulle. The most famous is the case of the Bastien-Thieri group. On August 22, 1962, two groups of SLA activists took up positions on the Rue Petit-Clomart. The first detachment was to stop the presidential motorcade, the second to shoot de Gaulle and his bodyguards at point-blank range. The organizer of the assassination, Lieutenant Colonel Bastien, measured the angles of fire, calculated the speed of the motorcade, distributed everything by seconds, but used the old calendar in preparation. On August 22, it got dark in Paris 25 minutes earlier than Bastien thought, so at dusk the terrorists did not see the approaching motorcade and started shooting too late. Saved de Gaulle and the mistake of their own security service. Usually two motorcyclists with headlights on were moving in front of the cortege. Their terrorists would see from afar. This time, for some reason, the motorcycle escort group ended up at the back. And when de Gaulle's car rushed forward at high speed, the militants barely had time to fire at the wheels and the rear window. The car skidded, and some of the bullets missed. The president was also saved by the driver Francois Marra, who managed to take the car to the side. Colonel Alain de Boissier, who was sitting in front of the president, shouted to Yvonne and Charles de Gaulles: "Quickly, heads down!" It seemed that the president was really waiting for the assassination attempt, when the first shots rang out, he grumbled to his wife: "What, again?"

The main organizers and perpetrators of the assassination attempt were soon captured. Some managed to escape abroad. But the fifth department of the special service SDEKE ("Counteraction Service") worked with its own methods, and if an OAS activist suddenly died under mysterious circumstances in some European country, it was clear to everyone whose hand it was.

Charles de Gaulle himself seriously thought about the guarantees of his security. Victor Lucien Ott, hero of Indochina, landing officer, captured at Dien Bien Phu and six months later, escaped from captivity became the main bodyguard of the president. The young veteran was downright obsessed with safety. "The bodyguard's first weapon is his brain," said Major Ott. According to his directives, all the "siloviki" - from the guards in the provinces to the prefects of the gendarmerie - were supposed to feel like "secret agents." Ott's tactics paid off. In February 1963, Bastien-Thieri's successor in the SLA, Antoine Argot, staged another assassination attempt. Sniper Georges Vaten was supposed to shoot at the president coming out of the central entrance of the Military Academy on the Champ de Mars. To get on the roof, the OAS "recruited" a guard of the academy. He, of course, turned out to be "Ott's man." The assassination plan failed again.

All the main leaders of the OAS were killed and executed (as, for example, who appeared before the guillotine in the orders of Bastien-Thierry) or sat under heavy guard in prison (as Captain Antoine Argo). With the destruction of the SLA, "patriotic terror" in Europe for some time receded into history.

Pavel Chernomorsky

French military and public figure. Full name - Charles André Joseph Marie de Gaulle (fr. Charles André Joseph Marie de Gaulle). During World War II, it became a symbol of the French Resistance. First President of the Fifth Republic (1959-1969).

Childhood. Carier start

Charles de Gaulle was born on November 22, 1890 into a patriotic Catholic family. Although the de Gaulle family is noble, de in the surname is not a “particle” of noble families traditional for France, but the Flemish form of the article. Charles, like his three brothers and sister, was born in Lille in his grandmother's house, where his mother came every time before giving birth, although the family lived in Paris. His father, Henri de Gaulle, was a professor of philosophy and literature at a Jesuit school, which greatly influenced Charles. From early childhood he loved to read. The story struck him so much that he had an almost mystical concept of serving France.

As a boy, he showed great interest in military affairs. After a year of preparatory exercises at the Stanislas College in Paris, he is admitted to the Special Military School in Saint-Cyr. He chooses infantry as his type of troops: it is more “military”, since it is closest to combat operations. The training took place in the 33rd Infantry Regiment under the command of the then Colonel Pétain. He graduated from the military college in 1912 at the 13th rank.

World War I

Since the outbreak of the First World War on August 12, 1914, Lieutenant de Gaulle has been taking part in hostilities as part of the 5th Army of Charles Lanrezac, located in the northeast. Already on August 15 in Dinan, he received the first wound, he returned to duty after treatment only in October. On March 10, 1915, at the battle of Mesnil-le-Hurlu, he was wounded a second time. He returns to the 33rd regiment with the rank of captain and becomes a company commander. In the Battle of Verdun at the village of Douaumont in 1916, he was wounded for the third time. Left on the battlefield, he - already posthumously - receives honors from the army. However, Charles remains alive, is captured by the Germans; he is treated at the Mayenne hospital and kept in various fortresses.

De Gaulle makes five attempts to escape. Together with him, M.N. Tukhachevsky, the future marshal of the Red Army, was also in captivity; communication is established between them, including on military-theoretical topics. In captivity, de Gaulle reads German authors, learns more and more about Germany, which later helped him a lot in military command. It was then that he wrote his first book, Discord in the Camp of the Enemy (published in 1916).

1920s. Family

De Gaulle is released from captivity only after the armistice on November 11, 1918. From 1919 to 1921, de Gaulle was in Poland, where he taught the theory of tactics at the former school of the Imperial Guard in Rembertow near Warsaw, and in July-August 1920 he fought for a short time on the front of the Soviet-Polish war of 1919-1921 with the rank of major (with the troops of the RSFSR in this conflict, it is Tukhachevsky who is in command, ironically). Having rejected the offer of a permanent position in the Polish Army and returning to his homeland, on April 6, 1921, he marries Yvonne Vandru. On December 28 of the following year, his son Philip is born, named after the chief - later the notorious traitor and antagonist of de Gaulle, Marshal Philippe Pétain. Captain de Gaulle teaches at the Saint-Cyr school, then in 1922 he was admitted to the Higher Military School. May 15, 1924 daughter Elizabeth is born. In 1928, the youngest daughter, Anna, was born, suffering from Down syndrome (the girl died in 1948; later de Gaulle was a trustee of the Foundation for Children with Down Syndrome).

Military theorist

The Second World War. Leader of the Resistance

First declarations

By the beginning of World War II, de Gaulle had the rank of colonel. On May 14, 1940, he was given command of the new 4th Regiment (5,000 soldiers and 85 tanks). From June 1, he temporarily acted as a brigadier general (officially, they did not manage to approve him in this rank, and after the war he received only a colonel's pension from the Fourth Republic). On June 6, Prime Minister Paul Reynaud appointed de Gaulle as Deputy Foreign Minister during the war. The general, vested with this position, did not accept the terms of the armistice, and on June 15, after the transfer of power to Marshal Pétain, he emigrated to Great Britain.

It was this moment that became a turning point in de Gaulle's biography. In "Memoirs of Hope" he writes: "On June 18, 1940, answering the call of his homeland, deprived of any other help to save his soul and honor, de Gaulle, alone, unknown to anyone, had to take responsibility for France ". On this day, the BBC broadcasts de Gaulle's radio speech calling for the creation of the Resistance. Soon, leaflets were distributed in which the general addressed "To all the French" (A tous les Français) with the statement:

“France lost the battle, but she did not lose the war! Nothing is lost, because this war is a world war. The day will come when France will return freedom and greatness ... That is why I appeal to all French people to unite around me in the name of action, self-sacrifice and hope.

The general accused the Pétain government of betrayal and declared that "with full consciousness of duty he acts on behalf of France." Other appeals of de Gaulle also appeared.

So de Gaulle became the head of the Free (later “Fighting”) France, an organization designed to resist the invaders and the Vichy collaborationist regime.

At first, he had to face considerable difficulties. “I ... at first did not represent anything ... In France - no one who could vouch for me, and I did not enjoy any fame in the country. Abroad - no trust and justification for my activities. The formation of the Free French organization was rather protracted. Who knows what de Gaulle's fate would have been if he had not enlisted the support of British Prime Minister Winston Churchill. The desire to create an alternative to the Vichy government led Churchill to recognize de Gaulle as "the head of all free French" (June 28, 1940) and to help de Gaulle "promote" internationally. Nevertheless, in his memoirs about the Second World War, Churchill does not give a very high assessment of de Gaulle, and considers his cooperation with him forced - there was simply no other alternative.

control of the colonies. Development of the Resistance

Militarily, the main task was to transfer to the side of the French patriots the "French Empire" - vast colonial possessions in Africa, Indochina and Oceania. After an unsuccessful attempt to capture Dakar, de Gaulle creates in Brazzaville (Congo) the Council of the Defense of the Empire, the manifesto on the creation of which began with the words: “We, General de Gaulle (nous général de Gaulle), head of the free French, decide,” etc. The Council includes anti-fascist military governors of the French (as a rule, African) colonies: Generals Catru, Eboue, Colonel Leclerc. From that moment on, de Gaulle emphasized the national and historical roots of his movement. He establishes the Order of the Liberation, the main sign of which is the Lorraine cross with two crossbars - an ancient, dating back to the era of feudalism, a symbol of the French nation. The decree on the creation of the order resembles the statutes of the orders of the times of royal France.

The great success of Free France was the establishment of direct ties with the USSR shortly after June 22, 1941 (the Soviet leadership decided without hesitation to transfer Bogomolov, their ambassador under the Vichy regime, to London). For 1941-1942 the network of partisan organizations in occupied France also grew. From October 1941, after the first mass executions of hostages by the Germans, de Gaulle called on all the French to a total strike and mass actions of disobedience.

Conflict with allies

Meanwhile, the actions of the "monarch" irritated the West. Roosevelt's apparatus spoke openly about the "so-called free French" who were "sowing poisonous propaganda" and interfering with the conduct of the war. On November 7, 1942, American troops landed in Algiers and Morocco and negotiated with local French commanders who supported Vichy. De Gaulle tried to convince the leaders of England and the United States that cooperation with the Vichy in Algeria would lead to the loss of moral support for the allies in France. “The United States,” said de Gaulle, “introduces elementary feelings and complex politics into great things.” The contradiction between de Gaulle's patriotic ideals and Roosevelt's indifference in the choice of supporters ("all those who help solve my problems are suitable for me," as he openly declared) became one of the most important obstacles in conducting coordinated actions in North Africa.

The head of Algeria, Admiral Darlan, who by that time had already gone over to the side of the Allies, was killed on December 24, 1942 by the 20-year-old Frenchman Fernand Bonnier de La Chapelle. The suspiciously quick investigation ended with the hasty execution of La Chapelle just a day after Darlan's murder. The Allied leadership appoints General of the Army Henri Giraud as the "civilian and military commander-in-chief" of Algeria. In January 1943, at a conference in Casablanca, de Gaulle became aware of the Allied plan: to replace the leadership of the "Fighting France" with a committee headed by Giraud, which was planned to include a large number of people who had supported the Pétain government at one time. In Casablanca, de Gaulle shows understandable intransigence towards such a plan. He insists on the unconditional observance of the national interests of the country (in the sense that they were understood in the "Fighting France"). This leads to a split in the "Fighting France" into two wings: nationalist, led by de Gaulle (supported by the British government, led by W. Churchill), and pro-American, grouped around Henri Giraud.

On May 27, 1943, the National Council of the Resistance convenes for a founding conspiratorial meeting in Paris, which (under the auspices of de Gaulle) assumes many powers in organizing the internal struggle in the occupied country. De Gaulle's position was becoming stronger and stronger, and Giraud was forced to compromise: almost simultaneously with the opening of the NSS, he invited the general to the ruling structures of Algeria. He demands the immediate submission of Giraud (commander of the troops) to civilian power. The situation is heating up. Finally, on June 3, 1943, the French National Liberation Committee was formed, headed by de Gaulle and Giraud on an equal footing. The majority in it, however, are received by the Gaullists, and some adherents of his rival (including Couve de Murville - the future Prime Minister of the Fifth Republic) - go over to the side of de Gaulle. In November 1943 Giraud was removed from the committee. The story of Giraud is precisely the moment when the military leader de Gaulle becomes a politician. For the first time he faces the question of political struggle: "Either I, or he." For the first time, de Gaulle uses effective political means of struggle, and not declarations.

On June 4, 1944, de Gaulle was summoned by Churchill to London. The British Prime Minister announced the forthcoming landing of the Allied troops in Normandy and, at the same time, the full support of the Roosevelt line on the complete dictate of the will of the United States. De Gaulle was given to understand that his services were not needed. In a draft appeal written by Gen. D. D. Eisenhower ordered the French people to comply with all the instructions of the allied command until the elections of legitimate authorities. It is clear that in Washington the De Gaulle Committee was not regarded as such. De Gaulle's sharp protest forced Churchill to give him the right to speak to the French on the radio separately (rather than join Eisenhower's text). In the address, the general declared the legitimacy of the government formed by the "Fighting France", and strongly opposed plans to subordinate it to American command.

Liberation of France

On June 6, 1944, the Allied forces successfully landed in Normandy, thus opening a second front in Europe. De Gaulle, after a short stay on liberated French soil, again went to Washington for negotiations with President Roosevelt, the goal of which is still the same - to restore the independence and greatness of France (the key expression in the political lexicon of the general). “Listening to the American President, I was finally convinced that in business relations between the two states, logic and feeling mean very little in comparison with real power, that one who is able to grab and hold what is captured is valued here; and if France wants to take its former place, it must rely only on itself,” writes de Gaulle.

After the rebels of the Resistance, led by Colonel Rolle-Tanguy, open the way to Paris for the tank troops of one of de Gaulle's most faithful associates, the military governor of Chad, Philippe de Hauteklok (who went down in history under the name Leclerc), de Gaulle arrives in the liberated capital. There is a grandiose performance - de Gaulle's solemn procession through the streets of Paris, with a huge crowd of people, to whom a lot of space is devoted in the General's "Military Memoirs". The procession passes the historical places of the capital, consecrated by the heroic history of France, and the general admits: “With every step that I take, stepping on the most famous places in the world, it seems to me that the glory of the past, as it were, joins the glory of today.” De Gaulle never considered himself a politician only of his time, did not put himself on a par with such figures as Churchill or Roosevelt, but was aware of his significance, his mission in the context of centuries-old French history.

Post-war government

Since August 1944, de Gaulle - Chairman of the Council of Ministers of France (Provisional Government). He subsequently characterizes his short, one and a half year activity in this post as “salvation”. France had to be "saved" from the plans of the Anglo-American bloc: the partial remilitarization of Germany, the exclusion of France from the ranks of the great powers. Both in Dumbarton Oaks, at the conference of the Great Powers on the creation of the UN, and at the Yalta conference in January 1945, representatives of France are absent. Shortly before the Yalta meeting, de Gaulle went to Moscow with the aim of concluding an alliance with the USSR in the face of the Anglo-American danger. The general visited Moscow for the first time from December 2 to 10, 1944. On the last day of this visit in the Kremlin, JV Stalin and de Gaulle signed an agreement on "alliance and military assistance." The significance of this act was primarily in the return of France to the status of a great power and its recognition among the victorious states. The French General Delattre de Tassigny, together with the commanders of the Allied Powers, accepts the surrender of the German armed forces in Karlshorst on the night of May 8-9, 1945. France has occupation zones in Germany and Austria.

This period was marked by an aggravated contradiction between the foreign policy "greatness" of the country and not the best internal situation. After the war, a low standard of living remained, unemployment grew against the backdrop of a strengthening military-industrial complex. It was not even possible to properly define the political structure of the country. Elections to the Constituent Assembly did not give an advantage to any party (the relative majority - which eloquently indicates the situation - were received by the Communists, Maurice Thorez became vice-premier), the draft Constitution was repeatedly rejected. After one of the next conflicts over the expansion of the military budget, de Gaulle left the post of head of government on January 20, 1946 and retired to Colombey-les-Deux-Églises, a small estate in Champagne (department of Upper Marne). He himself compares his position with the exile of Napoleon. But, unlike the idol of his youth, de Gaulle has the opportunity to observe French politics from the outside - not without the hope of returning to it.

Charles de Gaulle (Gaulle) (1890-1970) - French politician and statesman, founder and first president (1959-1969) of the Fifth Republic. In 1940, he founded in London the patriotic movement "Free France" (since 1942 "Fighting France"), which joined the anti-Hitler coalition; in 1941 he became the head of the French National Committee, in 1943 - the French Committee of National Liberation, created in Algeria. In 1944 - January 1946 de Gaulle - head of the Provisional Government of France. After the war, the founder and leader of the party "Unification of the French people." In 1958, Prime Minister of France. On the initiative of de Gaulle, a new constitution was prepared (1958), which expanded the rights of the president. During the years of his presidency, France carried out plans to create its own nuclear forces, withdrew from the military organization of NATO; Soviet-French cooperation has received significant development.

Charles de Gaulle was born on November 22, 1890, in Lille, into an aristocratic family and brought up in the spirit of patriotism and Catholicism. In 1912 he graduated from the military school of Saint-Cyr, becoming a professional military man. He fought on the fields of the First World War 1914-1918 (World War I), was taken prisoner, was released in 1918.

De Gaulle's worldview was influenced by such contemporaries as the philosophers Henri Bergson and Emile Butroux, the writer Maurice Barres, the poet and publicist Charles Péguy.

Even in the interwar period, Charles became an adherent of French nationalism and a supporter of a strong executive power. This is confirmed by the books published by de Gaulle in the 1920s and 1930s - Discord in the Land of the Enemy (1924), On the Edge of the Sword (1932), For a Professional Army (1934), France and its Army (1938). In these works devoted to military problems, de Gaulle was essentially the first in France to predict the decisive role of tank troops in a future war.

The Second World War, at the beginning of which Charles de Gaulle received the rank of general, turned his whole life upside down. He resolutely refused the truce concluded by Marshal Henri Philippe Pétain with Nazi Germany, and flew to England to organize the struggle for the liberation of France. On June 18, 1940, de Gaulle addressed his compatriots on London radio, in which he urged them not to lay down their arms and join the Free French association founded by him in exile (after 1942, Fighting France).

At the first stage of the war, de Gaulle directed his main efforts to establishing control over the French colonies, which were under the rule of the pro-fascist Vichy government. As a result, Chad, Congo, Ubangi-Shari, Gabon, Cameroon, and later other colonies joined the Free French. The officers and soldiers of the "Free French" constantly took part in the military operations of the allies. De Gaulle sought to build relations with England, the USA and the USSR on the basis of equality and upholding the national interests of France. After the landing of the Anglo-American troops in North Africa in June 1943, the French Committee of National Liberation (FKNO) was created in the city of Algiers. Charles de Gaulle was appointed its co-chairman (along with General Henri Giraud) and later sole chairman.

In June 1944, the FKNO was renamed the Provisional Government of the French Republic. De Gaulle became its first head. Under his leadership, the government restored democratic freedoms in France and carried out social and economic reforms. In January 1946, de Gaulle left the post of prime minister, having diverged in views on major domestic political issues with representatives of the French left parties.

In the same year, the Fourth Republic was established in France. According to the Constitution of 1946, the real power in the country belonged not to the president of the republic (as de Gaulle proposed), but to the National Assembly. In 1947 de Gaulle again became involved in the political life of France. He founded the Rally of the French People (RPF). The main goal of the RPF was the struggle for the abolition of the Constitution of 1946 and the conquest of power by parliamentary means to establish a new political regime in the spirit of de Gaulle's ideas. Initially, the RPF was a great success. 1 million people joined its ranks. But the Gaullists failed to achieve their goal. In 1953, de Gaulle dissolved the RPF and retired from political activity. During this period, Gaullism finally took shape as an ideological and political trend (the ideas of the state and the "national greatness" of France, social policy).

The Algerian crisis of 1958 (Algeria's struggle for independence) paved the way for de Gaulle to power. Under his direct leadership, the Constitution of 1958 was developed, which significantly expanded the prerogatives of the country's president (executive power) at the expense of parliament. This is how the Fifth Republic, which still exists today, began its history. Charles de Gaulle was elected its first president for a seven-year term. The first priority of the President and the Government was the settlement of the "Algiers problem".

De Gaulle firmly pursued a policy of self-determination for Algeria, despite the most serious opposition (revolts by the French army and ultra-colonialists in 1960-1961, the terrorist activities of the OAS, a number of assassination attempts on de Gaulle). Algeria was granted independence after the signing of the Evian Accords in April 1962. In October of the same year, the most important amendment to the Constitution of 1958 was adopted at a general referendum - on the election of the president of the republic by universal suffrage. On its basis, in 1965, de Gaulle was re-elected president for a new seven-year term.

Charles de Gaulle sought to carry out foreign policy in line with his idea of "national greatness" of France. He insisted on the equality of France, the United States and Great Britain within the framework of NATO. Having not achieved success, the president in 1966 withdrew France from the NATO military organization. In relations with the FRG, de Gaulle managed to achieve notable results. In 1963, a Franco-German cooperation agreement was signed. De Gaulle was one of the first to put forward the idea of a "united Europe". He thought of it as a "Europe of the Fatherland", in which each country would retain its political independence and national identity. De Gaulle was a supporter of the idea of detente in international tension. He directed his country on the path of cooperation with the USSR, China and third world countries.

Charles de Gaulle paid less attention to domestic policy than to foreign policy. Student unrest in May 1968 testified to a serious crisis that had engulfed French society. Soon the president put forward a draft on a new administrative division of France and reform of the Senate to a general referendum. However, the project did not receive the approval of the majority of the French. In April 1969, de Gaulle voluntarily resigned, finally giving up political activity.

In 1965, General Charles de Gaulle flew to the United States and, at a meeting with US President Lyndon Johnson, announced that he intended to exchange 1.5 billion paper dollars for gold at the official rate of $35 per ounce. Johnson was informed that a French ship loaded with dollars was in New York port, and a French plane had landed at the airport with the same cargo on board. Johnson promised the French president serious problems. De Gaulle responded by announcing the evacuation of the NATO headquarters, 29 NATO and US military bases from France, and the withdrawal of 33,000 alliance troops.

In the end, both were done.

France over the next 2 years managed to buy more than 3 thousand tons of gold from the United States in exchange for dollars.

What happened to those dollars and gold?

De Gaulle is said to have been greatly impressed by an anecdote told to him by a former finance minister in the Clemenceau government. At an auction for a painting by Raphael, an Arab offers oil, a Russian offers gold, and an American takes out a bundle of banknotes and buys it for 10,000 dollars. In response to de Gaulle's bewildered question, the minister explains to him that the American bought the painting for only $3, because the cost of printing one $100 bill is 3 cents. And de Gaulle unequivocally and finally believed in gold and only in gold. In 1965, de Gaulle decided that he did not need these papers.

De Gaulle's victory was pyrrhic. He himself lost his post. And the dollar took the place of gold in the world monetary system. Just a dollar. Without any gold content.

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