Le Crapouillot was a French

French language

French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...

 magazine started by Jean Galtier-Boissière

Jean Galtier-Boissière

Jean Galtier-Boissière was a writer, polemist, and journalist from Paris, France. He founded Le Crapouillot and wrote for Le Canard enchaîné.-Bibliography:* Croquis De Tranchées. 1917...

 as a satiric publication in France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

, during World War I

World War I

World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

. In the trench

Trench

A trench is a type of excavation or depression in the ground. Trenches are generally defined by being deeper than they are wide , and by being narrow compared to their length ....

es during WWI, the affectionate term for le petit crapaud, "the little toad

Common Toad

The common toad or European toad is an amphibian widespread throughout Europe, with the exception of Iceland, Ireland and some Mediterranean islands...

" was used by French soldiers, the poilu

Poilu

Poilu is a warmly informal term for a French World War I infantryman, meaning, literally, hairy one. The term came into popular usage in France during the era of Napoleon Bonaparte and his massive citizen armies, though the term grognard was also common. It is still widely used as a term of...

s, to designate small trench-mortars

Mortar (weapon)

A mortar is an indirect fire weapon that fires explosive projectiles known as bombs at low velocities, short ranges, and high-arcing ballistic trajectories. It is typically muzzle-loading and has a barrel length less than 15 times its caliber....

.

Muckraking and satirical period

The first issue of Le Crapouillot was published in August 1915, carrying the subtitle "Courage les civils!" ("Take heart, civilians!"). It was distributed at first, by Boissière, to his fellow soldiers. It was "insolent", "non-conformist" and carried the spirit of "both the avant-garde

Avant-garde

Avant-garde means "advance guard" or "vanguard". The adjective form is used in English to refer to people or works that are experimental or innovative, particularly with respect to art, culture, and politics....

 of the belle époque

Belle Époque

The Belle Époque or La Belle Époque was a period in European social history that began during the late 19th century and lasted until World War I. Occurring during the era of the French Third Republic and the German Empire, it was a period characterised by optimism and new technological and medical...

 and libertarian

Libertarianism

Libertarianism, in the strictest sense, is the political philosophy that holds individual liberty as the basic moral principle of society. In the broadest sense, it is any political philosophy which approximates this view...

 politics". It was also a muckraking publication, focusing on sensitive subjects of its such as the origins and causes of the Great War; French soldiers' mutinies; wartime homosexuality and prostitution in the Army; Entente

Allies of World War I

The Entente Powers were the countries at war with the Central Powers during World War I. The members of the Triple Entente were the United Kingdom, France, and the Russian Empire; Italy entered the war on their side in 1915...

 propaganda; etc.

Political period

After France was liberated from the German occupation in 1944, the magazine took a stand against the purge

Purge

In history, religion, and political science, a purge is the removal of people who are considered undesirable by those in power from a government, from another organization, or from society as a whole. Purges can be peaceful or violent; many will end with the imprisonment or exile of those purged,...

s conducted against collaborators among the nationalist inteligentsia, such as the trial and execution of Robert Brasillach

Robert Brasillach

Robert Brasillach was a French author and journalist. Brasillach is best known as the editor of Je suis partout, a nationalist newspaper which came to advocate various fascist movements and supported Jacques Doriot...

. Throughout the Fourth

French Fourth Republic

The French Fourth Republic was the republican government of France between 1946 and 1958, governed by the fourth republican constitution. It was in many ways a revival of the Third Republic, which was in place before World War II, and suffered many of the same problems...

 and early French Fifth Republic

French Fifth Republic

The Fifth Republic is the fifth and current republican constitution of France, introduced on 4 October 1958. The Fifth Republic emerged from the collapse of the French Fourth Republic, replacing the prior parliamentary government with a semi-presidential system...

s, and until its creator's death in 1966, the publication gradually became a forum for articles, reports and editorials written by French nationalists, including ex-Vichy collaborators, Holocaust deniers, right-wing anarchists

National-Anarchism

National-Anarchism is a radical, anti-capitalist, anti-statist, right-wing political and cultural ideology which emphasizes ethnic tribalism. As a prelude to an anticipated racial civil war and a collapse of the capitalist system, National-Anarchists seek to establish autonomous villages for...

, and neo-fascists, culminating in its final years, into a magazine strictly of the Extreme Right.

The publication of Le Crapouillot continued until 1996. The nationalist journalist Roland Gaucher

Roland Gaucher

Roland Gaucher was the pseudonym of Roland Goguillot, a French far-right journalist and politician. One of the main thinkers of the French far-right, he had participated in Marcel Déat's fascist party Rassemblement National Populaire under the Vichy regime...

was its owner and chief editor between from 1991 to 1994

External links

• Le Crapouillot; Paris ; library search Website about Le Crapouillot