Maîtres Isabelle GOXE & Laurent BELAÏSCH
36
-
PRESSENSÉ (Francis Charles Dehault de), French journalist an…
See original version (French)
36
-
PRESSENSÉ (Francis Charles Dehault de), French journalist an…
See original version (French)
Estimate €400 - €450
Voluntary lot
Description
PRESSENSÉ (Francis Charles Dehault de), French journalist and politician, Socialist Member of Parliament, Dreyfusard, President of the League for Human Rights (1853–1914). Signed autograph manuscript entitled ‘France, Russia, Tsarism’. 12 pp. in-8. Erasures and corrections. Adhesive tape on the left-hand edge of the pages, which does not affect the text. A scathing critique of Foreign Secretary Delcassé’s pro-Russian policy at the time of the 1905 Russian Revolution and the massacre of workers in St Petersburg. ‘There was, in the Chamber… a sense of bewilderment, then indignation, when we heard the head of our foreign affairs department launch into a mad and abominable defence of the Tsar’s crimes… The situation went too far when Mr Delcassé, more tsarist than a minister of the Tsar, dared… to act as advocate… for an attack on the rights of humanity. What! Witte (the President of the Russian Council)… does not dare to defend his own actions: he remains silent, he waits, ready to shift the blame for the massacre onto the clique of grand dukes… Everyone… condemns the mixture of cowardice and cruelty that dictated Nicholas II’s conduct… There is something broken—irreparably broken—in the Franco-Tsarist alliance… Today, the all-too-deserved disasters of a war (the war against Japan) foolishly undertaken and foolishly waged have begun to open the eyes of the naïve supporters of a fantasy version of Russia. He criticises the Tsar for having sought to deceive public opinion. ‘May fate decree that Russia need not wait too long for its 10 August! Until then, it would be a monstrous attack on the Republic and on the Revolution of which it is the offspring, should our leaders have the audacity to encourage and support the autocrat in his sacrilegious struggle…’.
See original version (French)
Auto-translation. Refer to original language for legal validity.
Ref. : 212821/765
Pictures credits: Contact the Auction House
You may also like