Jacques Numa Sadoul,Full name as given in Brun & Ferretti, p. 101 commonly known as Captain Sadoul (, 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.
Biography
Early career The son of a magistrate,L. F., "Une affaire a élucider: Les bolsheviks français de Moscou. Sadoul, Pascal, Delafarre", in Le Petit Parisien, January 16, 1919, p. 1 Sadoul was born in Paris on May 22, 1881. B. Verny, RG‐43.029M. Inventaire analytique de 202 cotes des archives concernant les camps d'internement du Loiret, p. 147. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, 1996–1997; retrieved October 31, 2015 He was an alumnus of Lycée Condorcet. While studying there, he met and befriended Eugène Schueller, future founder of the L'Oréal cosmetics empire. Together with Marcel Cachin, they founded a socialist people's university in the settlement of La Chapelle. Ian Hamel, Fondateur de L'Oréal: le passé sulfureux d'Eugène Schueller, Atlantico, May 25, 2013 In 1903, Sadoul registered with the bar association and worked for the Court of Appeal of Paris.
A provincial lawyer assigned to the appellate court of Poitiers,Rouger, p. 97 and a reserve officer,Delmas, p. 209 Sadoul married Yvonne Mezzara (born 1889), who was distantly related to the historian Ernest Renan. "Livres. Tels qu'en mon souvenir par Yvonne Sadou", in L'Histoire, July 1978, p. 109Brun & Ferretti, p. 101 Their son, Ary, was born in 1908. Jacques soon entered party politics, joining the SFIO. He was its secretary in Vienne during the 1910s,Furet, p. 510 and also served as head of the local Confederation of Labor. In August 1912, the SFIO selected him to run for a vacated National Assembly seat in Montmorillon. He won some 3,900 votes, but lost to the Radical Party candidate.Rouger, pp. 95–96 He ran a second time in the legislative election of May 1914—the last vote before the outbreak of World War I later that summer. Jacques Chauvin, "Le départ des mobilisés «la fleur au fusil»", in La Nouvelle République du Centre-Ouest, August 16, 2014 For the next three years, he stood on the SFIO's center, but was sympathetic to its far-left wing, the "Committee for the Resumption of International Relations".Lejeune, p. 381
In 1916, Albert Thomas, the SFIO Minister of Armaments, appointed Sadoul as his Undersecretary of State for Artillery.Furet, p. 510; Lejeune, p. 381 Thomas obtained that Sadoul be assigned to General Henri Niessel's French Military Mission in Petrograd, where he arrived in late September 1917,Delmas, p. 209; Lejeune, p. 381 leaving behind his wife and son. He reached Russia by way of Scotland and Sweden, crossing in at Tornio.Lejeune, pp. 381–382 What Thomas hoped to obtain from Sadoul was a direct line of communication between the SFIO and the various socialist groups which either supported or opposed the Russian Provisional Government, and thus to keep Russia on the Entente side.Ducoulombier, pp. 41–42; Lejeune, pp. 379–386; Ulam, p. 411 The Thomas–Sadoul link remained especially strong, to the point where observers called him "Thomas' personal informant" Alfred Rosmer, Moscou sous Lénine. VIII: Moscou. Au Comité exécutif de l'Internationale Communiste Sadoul—Radek—Boukharine, Marxists Internet Archive or "Thomas' creature".Marcel Gillet, "Comptes rendus. Dr B. W. Schaper, Albert Thomas, Trente ans de réformisme social", in Revue du Nord, Vol. 42, Issue 168, 1960, p. 452 For the next year, Sadoul was to keep a political diary, described by historian Adam Ulam as "elegantly composed in the form of letters addressed to his French protector and fellow Socialist, Albert Thomas."Ulam, p. 404 Other Frenchmen also joined Sadoul in his diplomatic effort, including Lieutenant Pierre ("Piotr Karlovich") Pascal. A Russian studies scholar who was otherwise known as a Christian socialist and Thomist writer,Furet, pp. 102–106; Jean Séguy, "Bulletin des ouvrages. Pierre Pascal, Mon Journal en Russie", in Archives de sciences sociales des religions, Vol. 45, Issue 2, 1978, pp. 288–289 he had fought with distinction on the Western Front before being assigned to the military mission.Body, pp. 19–20
October Revolution
Upon arrival, Sadoul noticed "the [Russians'] desire for an immediate peace, at any cost".Lejeune, p. 382 The October Revolution of late 1917 toppled the Provisional Government and brought in its stead a Council of People's Commissars entirely controlled by the Bolshevik faction. On November 8, Sadoul recorded the Red Guards' lynchings of their opponents, including Prince Tumanov, and rumors of war rape.M., "Grains de bon sens. Une correspondence suggestive", in Le Nouvelliste, November 29, 1919, p. 1 The new Russian Soviet Republic moved toward communism and proletarian internationalism, stating its intention to withdraw from the "imperialistic" war. Not dissuaded by the events, both Niessel and Sadoul gave free lectures on the French war effort at the Alliance Française.Vaucher, pp. 248–249 Days after the Revolution, Sadoul had established contact with the People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs, Leon Trotsky. Trotsky spoke to him about his efforts to pacify the Menshevik opposition on the left, while also quelling the Kerensky–Krasnov uprising. Sadoul believed that Trotsky intended to share power with the Mensheviks.Deutscher, pp. 336–337, 348–349 Recording Trotsky's modest demeanor, he claims that the Commissar had moved out of his home because the concierge threatened to have him killed.Deutscher, p. 345
During winter, the Bolshevik government approached the Central Powers for a peace deal, but the negotiations stalled when the Bolsheviks were confronted with the enemy's demands. Sadoul was enthusiastic about peace through nonresistance, but later switched to supporting partisan warfare against the Germans.Ducoulombier, pp. 43–44 Trotsky used his services to send out parallel offers to the Entente, in exchange for international recognition.Deutscher, p. 351 In February 1918, as the German Army began its punitive advance on Petrograd, Sadoul offered his expertise as a military saboteur to the Chairman of the Commissars, Vladimir Lenin. As noted by Lenin, Sadoul also brought with him French monarchist officers, including Guy Louis Jean de Lubersac, who agreed to fight under a communist banner "to secure the defeat of Germany".Vladimir Lenin, Letter to American Workers, Marxists Internet Archive, 2002 (originally published in Pravda, August 22, 1918). See also Delmas, pp. 225–226 Despite Sadoul's interventions, Lenin refused to work with Charles Dumas, personal envoy of the French Foreign Minister Stéphen Pichon.Lejeune, pp. 383–384
Eventually, on March 3, the Bolsheviks signed the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, which conceded a German victory on the Eastern Front. Sadoul held the Entente's "shortsightedness" as the main cause of this pact.Vincent Monteil, "Correspondance. Un témoin de la première heure", in Le Nouvel Observateur, No. 371, December 1971, p. 48 General Niessel's mission was not evacuated from Petrograd, but continued to negotiate its retreat with Trotsky, who took over as People's Commissar for Military and Naval Affairs. During such talks, Sadoul offered French material support for the Bolsheviks, prompting Niessel to suspect that his subordinate was turning communist, being "very much influenced by Trotsky."Delmas, pp. 220–221 David R. Francis, the American Ambassador, was more suspicious than Niessel, believing Sadoul to be an agent for the Bolshevik government.Dewitt Clinton Poole, An American Diplomat in Bolshevik Russia, p. 86. Madison & London: University of Wisconsin Press, 2014.
Niessel's departure Reportedly, Sadoul insisted to accompany Niessel as the latter decided to return to France,"Dernière heure. Deux anciens ministres, un ambassadeur des soviets deposent en faveur de Jacques Sadoul", in Le Petit Parisien, April 7, 1925, p. 3 but he was ordered to stay behind and assist Niessel's replacement, General Bernard Lavergne. Lavergne resented Sadoul's radicalized socialism. Nevertheless, he also pledged assistance for Trotsky, noting that the projected Red Army remained the only credible obstacle to German advances in the East.Delmas, pp. 221–226 Both Trotsky and Sadoul believed that the stage was set for an understanding between the "Russian bourgeoisie" and the Germans, which made the Bolsheviks natural allies of France."Le procès Sadoul", in Dimanche Illustré, No. 110, April 1925, p. 4 In his letters to Thomas, Sadoul also argued that the Bolshevik regime hoped to undo Brest-Litovsk, and therefore cheered for the Anglo–American–French forces during the German spring offensive on the Western Front.Delmas, p. 226 Decades later, he noted that "despite their [...] caste hatred for the [Bolshevik] regime of the masses, most of these officers [assigned to help Trotsky] still understood the material usefulness [...] of partaking in the construction of a new Russian army, one sooner or later capable of resuming the fight against Germany, as an Entente ally."Delmas, p. 225