Jacques Doriot

Jacques Doriot ( French: [ʒak dɔʁjo]; 26 September 1898) is a French politician and soldier serving as the Army Commander of the II. Armée.

Biography
Jacques Doriot was born on September 26, 1898 in Bresles (Oise). He belonged to a working class family: his father was a blacksmith and his mother a seamstress. As a child he attended the Somasco school in Creil where one of his teachers was the Guadeloupean Gratien Candace with whom he continued to exchange letters after he left. He started working at the age of fifteen in a factory and then found a job in a nearby dairy farm. In 1915, at the age of 17, he moved to Saint-Denis and worked in several factories as a metal worker. In 1916, he joined the local section of the Jeunesses Socialistes which shared the pacifist ideas of the minority in the SFIO.

In 1917 he was conscripted into the French army and served on the front lines of the Weltkrieg. In 1918 after the Battle of Chemin des Dames he was awarded the Crosse de Geurre after carrying an injured comrade to an army hospital from the front lines. However his socialist politics frequently put him in trouble with the officers and he was put in prison for one month for poor discipline. In 1919 he was captured by the Germans and spent two months as a prisoner of war before being released with the end of the Weltkireg. Upon release he quickly joined the CGT's revolutionary army and his military record earned him quick promotion through the ranks. By the end of the civil war he was serving as the Commander of an Artillery division in the South of France and served in the final battle of Toulouse before the Nationalist's fled to Algeria.

After the civil war Doriot remained in the army and was awarded a scholarship to the École Militaire d'Paris. Here Doirot became more active in French politics, becoming a founding member of the Youth Communists who supported Leninist ideals. He became a confident of many of the Russian emigres and an active member of the Jacobin faction. In 1925 he was elected to the BGT while still serving in the army, which caused a public controversy. While he was privately supported by many of his fellow Jacobins in public their lack of support shook him and he began to distance himself from the faction.

Since that time Doriot has maintained high levels of activity both in national politics and in the Revolutionary Army. He currently sits as an independent member of the BGT and is a supporter of Inessa Armand's current government Some of Doirot's critics point out his friendship with leading Sorelians and say that he has Totalist sympathies. Others point to Doirot's long record as a staunch soicalist and as an ally of the LICA and the Jewish community and say he would never ally with the anti-Semetic Sorelians. However by all Doirot is considered a man of ambition who has managed to climb high in the ladder of French politics.