Henri Guilbeaux [SEP] native language
Henri Guilbeaux
Henri Guilbeaux (1885–1938) was a French socialist politician. Active in the Zimmerwald Anti-War Movement during World War I. He was a prominent figure of a group of intellectuals who fought in Geneva against the war; friend of Stefan Zweig, whose poems he translated in French. Zweig nonetheless criticizes him in "Die Welt von Gestern," saying that he "was not a gifted person" and that "I must frankly denominate his literary ability as inconsiderable. His command of language was not more than average
minimal, as he could speak neither Russian nor German (the two working languages of the Comintern).
Confirmed as the new leader, Sadoul was seconded by Henri Guilbeaux, who nevertheless resented his "Bonapartism" and complained that it was splitting the Communist Group. Serge recalls that the Group's was "completely demoralized" by the Guilbeaux–Sadoul conflict. He contrasts the two as irreconcilable characters: Guilbeaux was a "failure", while Sadoul embodied "a great charmer, a splendid raconteur, a sybarite, and