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How far do you agree with the current policy of the Third International?

[Internal enquiry of political positions]

Manuscript

Author

Author André Breton
Person cited Joseph Staline

Description

Manuscript of an internal enquiry conducted by the surrealist group, dated 30 January 1934, in which Breton poses questions and formulates answers.

How should political activity be carried out? At a time when Nazism was prevailing, Breton firmly denounce the Third International’s procrastination and duplicity, which by demonizing social democracy contributed to giving fascism its opening. Dated January 1934 and published in the Inédits of the second volume of the Œuvres complètes, page 579, this response to an enquiry attests to the lucidity of a writer promising ‘a constant protest against all organised dupery’, and who was increasingly hostile to the petty games being played by organisations. The hypothesis of a ‘Club of revolutionary writers and artists’ still remains, and with it the feeling of a necessary federation of energies. But how to proceed? [Atelier André Breton website, 2005]

Handwritten manuscript signed, 30 January 1934.
‘Do we have to fight unstintingly against the cultural attitude of the USSR and the PCF as against that of Hitler's Germany and more generally against any state of mind tending to cause permanent resignation in individuals and their flight from any personal responsibility, leading to the total dehumanisation of those means of expression we uphold.’[sale catalogue, 2003]

*This entry was translated from the French by Michael Richardson.

Bibliography

André Breton (Édition de Marguerite Bonnet avec la collaboration de Philippe Bernier, Étienne-Alain Hubert et José Pierre), [Enquête intérieure sur les positions politiques], Inédits I, Œuvres complètes, Œuvres complètes, tome II, Bibliothèque de la Pléiade, Paris, Gallimard, 1992, p. 579-581, notes, p. 1657-1658.