l’Humanité

l’Humanité, newspaper published in Paris, the organ of the French Communist Party (Parti Communiste Franƈais; PCF), and historically one of the most influential communist papers published in a noncommunist country. It was established in 1904 by the socialist Jean Jaurès (1859–1914) and in 1920 came under the control of the newly organized Communist Party. As a party journal, l’Humanité has seen its fortunes shift along with those of its parent. In August 1939 it was dissolved along with the party in reaction to the German-Soviet Nonaggression Pact. During World War II it was published clandestinely. Immediately after the war, with the Communist Party at its greatest popularity, the paper had a readership of approximately 1,000,000, but within a few years it was publishing fewer than 200,000 copies daily. Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, l’Humanité sought to broaden its appeal by publishing views from a variety of left-oriented perspectives—a practice unthinkable during the Cold War. Those efforts failed, however, and, by the time of the paper’s centennial in 2004, its circulation had dropped below 50,000.