1. Waldeck Rochet was a French communist politician.
10 Facts About Waldeck Rochet
1. 2.
Waldeck Rochet was General Secretary of the French Communist Party from 1964 to 1972.
3.
The son of a cobbler, Rochet was named in honor of politician Pierre Waldeck-Rousseau.
4.
Waldeck Rochet was sent over to the Soviet Union, in order to receive political training at Moscow's International Lenin School.
5.
Waldeck Rochet was detained in the French colony of Algeria, passing into the custody of Vichy France after the German invasion of France, being set free by the Allies on the wake of the North African Campaign.
6.
In late 1944, after the Liberation of Paris, Waldeck Rochet regained the French capital, where he carried on as representative.
7.
From that moment on, Waldeck Rochet was elected in other constituencies: Seine, then Seine-Saint-Denis, until 1973.
8.
Waldeck Rochet was head of the Assembly's agriculture commission, as well as president of the communist parliamentary group.
9.
Favorable to left-wing cooperation, Waldeck Rochet directed the PCF votes towards Francois Mitterrand in the presidential elections of 1965.
10.
In 1970, as Waldeck Rochet had become too ill to attend to his duties, Georges Marchais became the de facto Party leader, while Waldeck Rochet remained National Secretary until 1972, then honorary president until 1979.