Challenge: Communist revolution in 1930s France

[Sol Zagato]

With a POD after the start of the Great Depression, either make the government of France communist (or borderline communist) before 1940, or create a civil war where the strongest faction is the communists. This should be a French movement, not an external invasion.

 

[David T]

This is hard to see, because after the events of February 6, 1934, the last thing Stalin wanted was a revolution in France. Stopping fascism (or what was seen as such) had to be the priority--not revolution, which in any event the PCF was too small to being about. Hence the United Front and later the Popular Front (which embraced not only the SFIO but even the Radicals).

Yes, there was the strike wave of May-June 1936. But it did not aim at revolution--the factories were occupied not to "seize the means of production" but to be sure the owners could not ignore the workers' demands by using strikebreakers. And the PCF did everything to convince the strikers to go back to work once the Matignon Agreements were reached. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matignon_Agreements_(1936)