Jacques Numa Sadoul | |
|---|---|
&sq=&lang=&file=File:Proc%C3%A8s_Sadoul_%C3%A0_Orl%C3%A9ans._Capitaine_Sadoul.jpeg) Sadoul during his 1925 trial | |
| Member of the Comintern Executive Committee | |
| In office 1922 | |
| Delegate of the French Communist Group | |
| In office 1919–1920 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | May 22, 1881 Paris, France |
| Died | November 18, 1956 (aged 75) |
| Political party | French Section of the Workers' International French Communist Group French Communist Party |
| Spouse | Yvonne Mezzara (1889–1993) |
| Relations | Élie Faure (co-father-in-law) |
| Children | Ary Sadoul (1908–1936) |
| Profession | Lawyer, journalist, army organizer |
| Military service | |
| Allegiance |  Third French Republic Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic |
| Years of service | 1916–1918 |
| Rank | Captain |
| Battles/wars | |
Jacques Numa Sadoul,[1] commonly known as Captain Sadoul (Russian: Жак Саду́ль, Zhak Sadul; May 22, 1881 – November 18, 1956), was a French lawyer, communist politician, and writer, one of the founders of the Communist International. He began his career in the French Section of the Workers' International (SFIO) in Vienne, and, by the time of World War I, was serving under Albert Thomas, the Minister of Armaments. A French Army Captain, he was Thomas' envoy to the Russian Republic, keeping contact with the socialist circles and steering them toward the Entente Powers. After the October Revolution, he maintained close contacts with the Bolsheviks, pledging them his support against the Central Powers during the crisis of 1917–1918. He was unable to prevent Bolshevist Russia from signing the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, which took her out of the war, but, having established close contacts with Leon Trotsky and other communist leaders, became a communist himself.
Opting not to return to France during the Russian Civil War, Sadoul co-founded the French Communist Group in Russia, fighting for control of it against Pierre Pascal and Henri Guilbeaux. Helping to set up the Red Army, he was sent to Ukraine, where he instigated mutinies among the French intervention troops, and then to Germany, where he set up communist cells. Sadoul also mediated between the International and the SFIO's left-wing, attracting members for what became the French Communist Party (PCF), and contributed doctrinaire essays in L'Humanité. A French military court sentenced him to death in absentia, while the SFIO presented him, symbolically, as a candidate in the 1919 elections.
Finally moving back to France in 1924, and acquitted upon retrial, Sadoul remained at the center of controversy. He joined the PCF, but failed to win any elections, and was generally marginalized by the party leadership. A Stalinist apologist and Izvestia correspondent in the 1930s, he helped the Soviet Union maintain contacts with the French establishment, and represented Soviet interests in France. He was pressured into collaborationism with Vichy France during World War II, but openly returned to communism in 1944, and ended his career in politics as mayor of Sainte-Maxime.
- ^ Full name as given in Brun & Ferretti, p. 101