Communist Resistance leader who directed the Paris uprising
On 21 August 1944, he ordered posters put up across Paris calling for barricades.
Henri Rol-Tanguy was a French communist metalworker and veteran of the International Brigades whose military experience shaped his work in the anti-Nazi Resistance. As commander of the Paris-area French Forces of the Interior in August 1944, he organized and directed the uprising before the Allied entry. His importance lies in combining labour-movement organization with armed resistance to drive the capital’s liberation from within. After the war he remained active in the army and the French Communist Party, publicly defending the Resistance’s independent role.
Activities and affiliations
Career Timeline
- 1925Metalworker at Talbot; joined the Young Communists
- 1936Secretary of the Paris-region metalworkers’ CGT
- 1937–1938Political commissar in the International Brigades’ XIV Brigade; fought at the Ebro
- 1941–1942Organizer of armed groups in Paris; part of the FTP’s founding leadership
- 1943Reorganized the Paris FTP and joined the regional FFI staff
- 1944Commander of the Paris-area FFI; directed the Paris uprising
- 1945–1962Lieutenant-colonel in the French Army; held postwar military assignments
- 1962–1987Member of the French Communist Party Central Committee
Related historical events
- 1936–1939The Spanish Civil WarInternational Brigades political commissar and Ebro veteranHe served as political commissar in the International Brigades’ XIV Brigade and fought at the Ebro.
- 1940–1944The Fall of France and the Vichy Regimecommander of the Paris uprisingHe commanded the Paris FFI uprising and issued the mobilization call before Allied forces entered the city.
- 1940–1944The French Resistance and the Liberation of FranceCommander of the Paris-area FFIIn August 1944, he organized and directed the Paris uprising before the Allied entry.
A Communist officer in the Cold War army and veterans' organizing
After the war Rol-Tanguy kept his commission: in April 1947 he was assigned to the military cabinet of defence minister François Billoux, and from 1948 to 1951 he headed the 3rd bureau of the Mans subdivision staff. From 1952 to 1962 he was relegated to the Dépôt central des isolés at Versailles, left without a posting because of his communist convictions. Denied the resources the army could have provided, he still ran his own courses in strategy and military tactics until his retirement in 1962. That same year he entered the central committee of the French Communist Party, serving until 1987 and, until 1979, overseeing several departmental federations. He presided over both the National Association of Resistance Veterans (ANACR) and the association of French volunteers in republican Spain, publicly defending the independent role of the Resistance and the International Brigades. After his death on 8 September 2002, a national homage presided over by Jacques Chirac was held at the Invalides on 13 September. His record in these decades was not uniform. In March 1980 he publicly backed Georges Marchais when L'Express revived the question of Marchais's wartime work in Germany, yet in October 1991 he signed the petition of former resisters asking that Marchais not preside over the commemorations of the Châteaubriant shootings.