Joseph Douillet
Encyclopedia
Joseph Douillet was a Belgian diplomat to the USSR known as the author of Moscou sans Voiles: Neuf ans de travail au pays des Soviets (Moscow Unmasked: A Record of Nine Years Work in Soviet Russia) published in 1928.
He lived in Russia from 1891 to 1926. He served as the Belgian consul in Rostov-on-Don. It has been said that he "had spent so long in the country that he was almost more Russian than Belgian."
In 1925 he was arrested in the USSR and was imprisoned for nine months before being expelled from the country.
In 1928 he published a book Moscou sans Voiles: Neuf ans de travail au pays des Soviets, which condemned the Bolshevik regime.
Among the charges recorded in the book are that the Soviet government created false factories to deceive foreign visitors. "The first part of Douillet's book was called: 'How the red paradise is portrayed', and is full of examples of how foreign visitors are deceived."
Another part of the book recorded how one Oebijkon coerced people into assenting for Communist rule during an election. "We see the communist comrade Oebijkon (who is resigning from the presidency) delivering a speech. This is what he says: 'We have tree lists: one of these comes from the communist party. Let anyone who is against this list raise their hand!' At the same moment Oebijkon and four of his comrades pull their revolvers and direct them menacingly at the peasant audience. Oebijkon continued: 'Who votes against this list? No one? Then I declare that anyone voted for the communist list. There is no need to vote for the other two lists anymore.'" This episode would later be used in Tintin in the Land of the Soviets.
Another charge made was that the USSR presented a deceptive perspective of the state of the USSR to foreign visitors.
"Joseph Douillet, in his Moscou sans Voiles: Neuf ans de travail au pays des Soviets, published in Paris in 1928, noticed a very similar thing. He had been Belgian consul in Russia, and had spent so long in the country that he was almost more Russian than Belgian. He says:
""The Soviet government has, over the last few years, methodically pursued a campaign in workers’ circles in the West to invite them to visit Soviet Russia in groups, offering them easy visas, free transport and other attractive privileges. The Soviets state that only a personal visit by the worker permits him to realise how mendacious and unmerited are the attacks in the capitalist press which speak of the discontent of the Russian people, of the breakdown and the poverty of the country under the Soviet regime. The purpose of this campaign is the following: the foreign delegations are shown a series of factories, hospitals, daycare centers, retirement homes, carefully chosen and meticulously arranged in advance, with the intention of demonstrating the perfection of such institutions in the USSR."
"He goes on to give examples of the fatuous credulity of the foreign visitors."
It was translated into English by Albert William King and published by The Pilot Press (London) in 1930.
In the end of the 1920s he founded Centre International de Lutte Active Contre le Communisme (CILACC), an anti-Communist group. "Founded at the end of the 1920's by Joseph Douillet (1878-1954), CILACC and its founder were never to enjoy full confidence of the EIA [Entente Internationale Anticommuniste, another anti-Communist organization]. Douillet author of the famous Moscou sans Voiles (1926), [sic] had lived in Russia and liked to engage Russian in his enterprise"
He died in 1954.
, editor of Le Petit Vingtième
, gave Douillet's book to Hergé
to study in order to create Tintin in the Land of the Soviets
. It was the only book Hergé drew upon to write that story.
Some specific episodes from Douillet's book are included by Hergé in Tintin in the Land of the Soviets, including coerced elections, imitating Douillet's account of Oebijkon, and fake factories made to deceive foreign visitors, in Tintin's case English Communists. "In Hergé's story, Tintin watches English communists visiting working factories, which are actually stage sets: 'And this is how those Soviets fool people who still believe in the red paradise.'" Hergé also included an incident depicting state requisitioning of kulaks
' grain. Similar events occurred under War Communism
and later dekulakization
campaign during the collectivization.
Douillet portrayed Communists in the USSR in a very negative light and this influenced the portrayal of Communists in this book. [Moscou sans Voiles] is highly critical of the Soviet regime, although Hergé contextualised this by noting that in Belgium, at the time a devout Catholic nation, "Anything Bolshevik was atheist".
Hergé later dismissed the failings of this first story as "a transgression of my youth". By 1999, some part of this presentation was being noted as far more reasonable, The Economist
declaring: "In retrospect, however, the land of hunger and tyranny painted by Hergé was uncannily accurate". This assertion is further supported here. "However, future events exonerated his vision of Soviet-era Russia. "In retrospect . . . the land of hunger and tyranny painted by Hergé was uncannily accurate," declared The Economist magazine in 1999."
He lived in Russia from 1891 to 1926. He served as the Belgian consul in Rostov-on-Don. It has been said that he "had spent so long in the country that he was almost more Russian than Belgian."
In 1925 he was arrested in the USSR and was imprisoned for nine months before being expelled from the country.
In 1928 he published a book Moscou sans Voiles: Neuf ans de travail au pays des Soviets, which condemned the Bolshevik regime.
Among the charges recorded in the book are that the Soviet government created false factories to deceive foreign visitors. "The first part of Douillet's book was called: 'How the red paradise is portrayed', and is full of examples of how foreign visitors are deceived."
Another part of the book recorded how one Oebijkon coerced people into assenting for Communist rule during an election. "We see the communist comrade Oebijkon (who is resigning from the presidency) delivering a speech. This is what he says: 'We have tree lists: one of these comes from the communist party. Let anyone who is against this list raise their hand!' At the same moment Oebijkon and four of his comrades pull their revolvers and direct them menacingly at the peasant audience. Oebijkon continued: 'Who votes against this list? No one? Then I declare that anyone voted for the communist list. There is no need to vote for the other two lists anymore.'" This episode would later be used in Tintin in the Land of the Soviets.
Another charge made was that the USSR presented a deceptive perspective of the state of the USSR to foreign visitors.
"Joseph Douillet, in his Moscou sans Voiles: Neuf ans de travail au pays des Soviets, published in Paris in 1928, noticed a very similar thing. He had been Belgian consul in Russia, and had spent so long in the country that he was almost more Russian than Belgian. He says:
""The Soviet government has, over the last few years, methodically pursued a campaign in workers’ circles in the West to invite them to visit Soviet Russia in groups, offering them easy visas, free transport and other attractive privileges. The Soviets state that only a personal visit by the worker permits him to realise how mendacious and unmerited are the attacks in the capitalist press which speak of the discontent of the Russian people, of the breakdown and the poverty of the country under the Soviet regime. The purpose of this campaign is the following: the foreign delegations are shown a series of factories, hospitals, daycare centers, retirement homes, carefully chosen and meticulously arranged in advance, with the intention of demonstrating the perfection of such institutions in the USSR."
"He goes on to give examples of the fatuous credulity of the foreign visitors."
It was translated into English by Albert William King and published by The Pilot Press (London) in 1930.
In the end of the 1920s he founded Centre International de Lutte Active Contre le Communisme (CILACC), an anti-Communist group. "Founded at the end of the 1920's by Joseph Douillet (1878-1954), CILACC and its founder were never to enjoy full confidence of the EIA [Entente Internationale Anticommuniste, another anti-Communist organization]. Douillet author of the famous Moscou sans Voiles (1926), [sic] had lived in Russia and liked to engage Russian in his enterprise"
He died in 1954.
Influence on Tintin in the Land of the Soviets
Abbe Norbert WallezNorbert Wallez
Abbé Norbert Wallez was a Belgian priest and journalist. He was the editor of the newspaper Le Vingtième Siècle , whose youth supplement, Le Petit Vingtième, first published The Adventures of Tintin.Wallez studied at the University of Leuven...
, editor of Le Petit Vingtième
Le Petit Vingtième
Le Petit Vingtième was the weekly youth supplement to the Belgian newspaper Le Vingtième Siècle from 1928 to 1940. The comics series The Adventures of Tintin first appeared in its pages.-History:...
, gave Douillet's book to Hergé
Hergé
Georges Prosper Remi , better known by the pen name Hergé, was a Belgian comics writer and artist. His best known and most substantial work is the 23 completed comic books in The Adventures of Tintin series, which he wrote and illustrated from 1929 until his death in 1983, although he was also...
to study in order to create Tintin in the Land of the Soviets
Tintin in the Land of the Soviets
Tintin in the Land of the Soviets is the first title in the comic book series The Adventures of Tintin, written and drawn by Belgian cartoonist Hergé...
. It was the only book Hergé drew upon to write that story.
Some specific episodes from Douillet's book are included by Hergé in Tintin in the Land of the Soviets, including coerced elections, imitating Douillet's account of Oebijkon, and fake factories made to deceive foreign visitors, in Tintin's case English Communists. "In Hergé's story, Tintin watches English communists visiting working factories, which are actually stage sets: 'And this is how those Soviets fool people who still believe in the red paradise.'" Hergé also included an incident depicting state requisitioning of kulaks
Kulak
Kulaks were a category of relatively affluent peasants in the later Russian Empire, Soviet Russia, and early Soviet Union...
' grain. Similar events occurred under War Communism
War communism
War communism or military communism was the economic and political system that existed in Soviet Russia during the Russian Civil War, from 1918 to 1921...
and later dekulakization
Dekulakization
Dekulakization was the Soviet campaign of political repressions, including arrests, deportations, and executions of millions of the better-off peasants and their families in 1929-1932. The richer peasants were labeled kulaks and considered class enemies...
campaign during the collectivization.
Douillet portrayed Communists in the USSR in a very negative light and this influenced the portrayal of Communists in this book. [Moscou sans Voiles] is highly critical of the Soviet regime, although Hergé contextualised this by noting that in Belgium, at the time a devout Catholic nation, "Anything Bolshevik was atheist".
Hergé later dismissed the failings of this first story as "a transgression of my youth". By 1999, some part of this presentation was being noted as far more reasonable, The Economist
The Economist
The Economist is an English-language weekly news and international affairs publication owned by The Economist Newspaper Ltd. and edited in offices in the City of Westminster, London, England. Continuous publication began under founder James Wilson in September 1843...
declaring: "In retrospect, however, the land of hunger and tyranny painted by Hergé was uncannily accurate". This assertion is further supported here. "However, future events exonerated his vision of Soviet-era Russia. "In retrospect . . . the land of hunger and tyranny painted by Hergé was uncannily accurate," declared The Economist magazine in 1999."