Alexandre Millerand

French lawyer and statesman (1859–1943)

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Lived 1859–1943, aged 84France

France PoliticiansPolitician

Wikipedia
60 languages
Cross-language footprint
Era
1859–1943
Aged 84
Awards
11
recognised works

Summary

Updated 2026-08-15

A socialist who crossed the floor to govern with the general who'd crushed the Paris Commune — the move that split the French left and forced the international workers' movement to decide whether power was worth the compromise.

Biography

About

Millerand was a lawyer who entered politics on the left, but in 1899 he joined Waldeck-Rousseau's cabinet alongside the Marquis de Galliffet, the man who had directed the brutal repression of the 1871 Paris Commune. The decision detonated a crisis in the French Section of the Workers' International and the Second International over whether socialists could serve in bourgeois governments. By 1912 he was Poincaré's war minister, then returned to the post during World War I's first year, shaping French strategy. After Clemenceau fell in 1920, Millerand formed his own cabinet, holding both the pre…

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