Protest against Maurice Thorez's retention in the Soviet Union, alleging that Soviet doctors are poisoning him. Colour lithograph, ca. 1953.

Maurice Thorez was a leading official of the French communist party. After suffering a mild stroke on 10 October 1950, he spent four weeks in a nursing home in Choisy-le-Roi. Soviet authorities offered to send over a specialist physician and to look after him in the Soviet Union, on the ground that the best medical and convalescence facilities would be found there. On 11 November 1950 a Soviet plane arrived in Paris to take him to Moscow. On 16 March 1951 he left Moscow for Suchumi (Soukhoum), capital of Abkhasia (Georgia), on the shores of the Black Sea, where he remained until April 1953. After 29 months in the Soviet Union he returned to France

This poster, and others like it issued by the anti-communist group Paix et Liberté, were referred to by Stalin in a telephone conversation with Thorez in 1952/1953: "Un soir, me trouvant sur les bords de la Mer Noire, j'eus par téléphone une conversation avec Staline: "Savez-vous, me dit-it en riant, que les ennemis de la classe ouvrière en France prétendent que je vous retiens de force en Union Soviétique? Ils placardent des affiches exigeant votre "libération" et votre retour en France! Ils seront sans doute moins contents quand ils vous verront arriver..."--Thorez, op. cit., p. 282. Stalin died on 5 March 1953

[Paris] (167 Rue de l'Université, Paris 7e) : Paix et Liberté (Paris : Imprimerie Spéciale de "Paix et Liberté", [1953?]

1 print : lithograph, printed in black on pink ; sheet 80 x 60 cm

Tout est clair ... la science médicale soviétique ne le guérit pas. Elle l'empoisonne lentement. Le peuple français exige le retour immédiat de Maurice Thorez!

Maurice Thorez, Fils du peuple, Paris: Editions Sociales, 1970, chapter IX

Wellcome Collection 642460i