Biography
Born in Paris, he attended the Naval Academy, but resigned from the French Navy in 1923. He became a journalist and a poet and was involved with the integralist and monarchist journal Action Française, but turned towards the Left after the Spanish Civil War (1936–39).
When the Second World War broke out, d'Astier re-enlisted into the French Navy and became the head of naval intelligence. However, after the fall of France and the proclamation of Vichy France, he was dismissed for his political dossier.
In Lyon, d'Astier joined a group of saboteurs and eventually formed the Resistant group of Libération-sud with Raymond Aubrac and Jean Cavailles. In July 1941 the group began to publish the underground newspaper Libération (or Libération-Sud).
In 1942 d'Astier met with Jean Moulin to discuss about unification of the Resistance and eventually joined forces into the Conseil National de la Résistance (CNR, National Council of Resistance). In 1943 he met Charles de Gaulle in Algiers and joined his Free French Forces government-in-exile as a Commissioner to the Interior.
While in London in 1943, he wrote the lyrics for the song La complainte du partisan, (known in English translation as The Partisan (recorded by Leonard Cohen, Joan Baez, and doubtless many others).
After the Liberation, d'Astier became Minister of Interior in the Provisional Government of the French Republic (GPRF). He continued to publish Libération and wrote books based on his experiences. He ran on a French Communist Party platform in the elections of 1946, and won a seat in the National Assembly for Ille-et-Vilaine. In 1958 he received the Lenin Peace Prize. D'Astier was one of the founders of the Stockholm Committee; he denounced the Soviet Union leadership under Nikita Khrushchev after the crushing of the Hungarian uprising, and broke ties with communists.
His brother, Henri d'Astier de la Vigerie, was from the far right, and, initially a member of the Action Française, may even have been involved with the Cagoule terrorist group. Ultimately, Henri d'Astier also took part in the Resistance.
Emmanuel d'Astier died in Paris in 1969. His wife Liubov was the second spouse of French politician Gaston Bergery (divorced in 1928) and the daughter of Bolshevik Leonid Krasin. They had three sons Jean Francois, Christophe and Jérôme.
Family friend Joan Baez wrote and recorded a song, "Luba the Baroness", about learning of the death of the oldest son, Jean-Francois.
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| Name | Astier de la Vigerie, Emmanuel d' |
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| Date of birth | 9 January 1900 |
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| Date of death | 12 June 1969 |
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Read more about this topic: Emmanuel D'Astier De La Vigerie
Famous quotes containing the word biography:
“In how few words, for instance, the Greeks would have told the story of Abelard and Heloise, making but a sentence of our classical dictionary.... We moderns, on the other hand, collect only the raw materials of biography and history, “memoirs to serve for a history,” which is but materials to serve for a mythology.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“As we approached the log house,... the projecting ends of the logs lapping over each other irregularly several feet at the corners gave it a very rich and picturesque look, far removed from the meanness of weather-boards. It was a very spacious, low building, about eighty feet long, with many large apartments ... a style of architecture not described by Vitruvius, I suspect, though possibly hinted at in the biography of Orpheus.”
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