''Ce soir'' ( English: Tonight), was a French daily newspaper founded by the French Communist Party and directed by Louis Aragon and Jean-Richard Bloch.

History

The newspaper was established on the initiative of the Communist Party general secretary Maurice Thorez in order to compete with '' Paris-soir''. The first issue was released on 1 March 1937. The newspaper was under the direction of two famous writers, Louis Aragon who is already known for his membership in the Communist Party became director of the newly established newspaper and Jean-Richard Bloch who was a very close sympathizer of the PCF and will eventually join the party in 1939 became co-director. Although ''Ce soir'' never managed to reach the ''Paris soir'' prints, it managed to reach a circulation of 260,000 by March 1939. Among the famous contributors to the newspaper were René Arcos, Julien Benda,

Jean Blanzat Jean Blanzat (6 January 1906, Domps, Haute-Vienne Haute-Vienne (; oc, Nauta Vinhana, ; English: Upper Vienne) is a department in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region in southwest-central France. Named after the Vienne River, it is one of the twelve dep ...

, Jean Cocteau,

Lise Deharme Lise Deharme (née Anne-Marie Hirtz; 5 May 1898 – 19 January 1980) was a French writer associated with the Surrealist movement. Biography Deharme was born in Paris in 1898. Her father was a famous doctor. In January 1925, she visited the Pari ...

, Robert Desnos, Luc Durtain, Yvette Guilbert,

Francis Jourdain Francis Jourdain (2 November 1876 – 31 December 1958) was a painter, furniture maker, interior designer, maker of ceramics, and other decorative arts, and a left-wing political activist. Early years Francis Jourdain was born on 2 November 18 ...

André Lhote André Lhote (5 July 1885 – 24 January 1962) was a French Cubist painter of figure subjects, portraits, landscapes and still life. He was also active and influential as a teacher and writer on art. Early life and education Lhote was born ...

, Darius Milhaud,

Georges Pillement Georges Pillement (23 March 1898 – 14 April 1984) was a French writer, translator and photographer. He was born in Mayet in the Loire region. He won the Prix des Deux Magots for his novel ''Plaisir d'amour'' in 1937.Tristan Rémy Tristan Rémy (born Raymond Marcel Desprez) (24 January 1897, Blérancourt – 23 November 1977, Mériel) was a French writer and circus historian. He was a proponent of proletarian literature. His father was a chef and he worked at the Porte de l ...

Jean Renoir Jean Renoir (; 15 September 1894 – 12 February 1979) was a French film director, screenwriter, actor, producer and author. As a film director and actor, he made more than forty films from the silent film, silent era to the end of the 1960s. ...

, Georges Sadoul, Elsa Triolet, Jean Wiener. Well known professional editors of the newspaper were

Édith Thomas Édith Thomas (23 January 1909, Montrouge – 7 December 1970, Paris) was a French novelist, archivist, historian, and journalist. A bisexual pioneer of women's history, she reputedly inspired a character of the erotic novel ''Story of O''.D ...

, Simone Téry and Andrée Viollis. The Spanish Civil War was covered by eighteen journalists and reporter-photographers. The big names in left-wing journalism follow one another to describe and illustrate the struggles on the Republican faction. Among them were Édith Thomas, Andrée Viollis, Simone Téry, already mentioned and Louis Parrot, Stéphane Manier, Georges Soria, Renaud de Jouvenel. Special Envoys of Ce soir were photographers who would later become famous for their coverage of the Spanish Civil War,

Gerda Taro Gerta Pohorylle (1 August 1910 – 26 July 1937), known professionally as Gerda Taro, was a German Jewish war photographer active during the Spanish Civil War. She is regarded as the first woman photojournalist to have died while covering the ...

, who was killed in the Battle of Brunete in July 1937, Robert Capa and Chim, aka

David Seymour David Seymour may refer to: * David Seymour (English politician) (died 1557/58), 14th-century Member of Parliament (MP) for Wareham and Great Bedwyn *David Seymour (New Zealand politician) (born 1983), leader of the ACT Party *David Seymour (photo ...

. The newspaper which was considered to be an organ of the French Communist Party the daily was banned on 25 August by French authorities in 1939, along with '' L'Humanité'' and all of the party's publications because they were suspected of supporting Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. The newspaper did not officially resume publication until 1944 under the editorship of Louis Parrot who was a pre-war editor of the newspaper. Louis Aragon re-assumed the position of director of the newspaper. He was succeeded by Bloch, however after his death in 1947 Aragon became the sole director of the newspaper. After the eviction of Communist ministers and the beginnings of the

Cold War The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because the ...

, gradually there was a call into questioning the existence of the newspaper, whose administration was similar with that of ''L'Humanité.'' In 1947, the headquarters of the two newspapers are united in the same building. The daily, which lost its autonomy, is then caught in a spiral of decline. On 28 February 1953 the newspaper ceased publication.Date of end of publication in accordance with the testimonies of Raymond Lavigne , then head of the political service, and of Pierre Daix , editor-in-chief and deputy director of the newspaper

Chief editors

* Elie Richard (1937–1939) * Louis Parrot (1944) * Gilbert Badia (1945–1949) *

André Stil André Stil (1 April 1921 – 3 September 2004) was a French novelist, short story writer, occasional poet, and political activist. A lifelong militant, he became a member of the French Communist Party in 1940, and remained loyal to the party. ...

(1949–1950)

References

{{Authority control Newspapers established in 1937 Publications disestablished in 1953 Defunct newspapers published in France Communist newspapers