Alfred-Georges Gressent better known as Georges Valois, is one of the main antagonists of Kaiserreich: Legacy of the Weltkrieg.
He is a revanchist French politician and leader of the Sorelien faction, a totalist convinced of becoming the leader of France and leading the annihilation of Germany.
Biography[]
Early Years[]
He was born on October 7, 1878 in the 14th arrondissement of Paris, into a working-class peasant family. His father, a Norman butcher established in Montrouge, died accidentally shortly after his birth, leaving Georges in the care of his grandparents. Raised in humble surroundings, Valois dropped out of the Boulle professional school at the age of 15, showing early on a restless mind and a penchant for radical ideas.
At the age of 17, in 1895, Valois undertook a trip to Singapore, where he worked in various trades and absorbed influences from Asian social movements. He returned to Paris in 1898, immersed in the political fervor of the Third Republic. In his early years, he identified himself as an anarcho-syndicalist, collaborating as secretary in L'Humanité Nouvelle, a publication directed by Augustin Hamon. It was there that he met Georges Sorel, the theorist of revolutionary syndicalism, whose vision of a society transformed by direct action left an indelible mark on Valois.
After a brief period in imperial Russia in 1903, where he studied the social dynamics of an autocratic regime, Valois returned to France and worked as a secretary at the Armand Colin publishing house. In 1906, he published his first book, L'Homme Qui Vient, a philosophical treatise with Nietzschean overtones that advocated a “new man” capable of overcoming class divisions. That same year, attracted by the promise of order and unity, he joined Charles Maurras' Action Française, adopting the pseudonym Georges Valois to protect his job. In 1910, together with Sorel, he founded La Cité Française, a newspaper that sought to synthesize revolutionary socialism with nationalism, although the publication was short-lived.
In 1911, Valois created the Cercle Proudhon, a think tank that brought together syndicalists, nationalists and anti-democrats, inspired by the ideas of Pierre-Joseph Proudhon and Sorel. Although the group attracted figures such as Édouard Berth and Henri Lagrange, its anti-Semitism and its rejection of parliamentary democracy aligned it with the more radical currents of the right. Valois assumed in 1912 the direction of Nouvelle Librairie Nationale, the publishing house of Action Française, consolidating himself as an influential intellectual, although his synthesis of nationalism and socialism already pointed to a break with the orthodox monarchism of Maurras.
French Revolution and Civil War[]
The outbreak of the Weltkrieg in 1914 marked a turning point in Valois' life. Although there are no detailed records of his direct involvement in the conflict, his career suggests that he remained active in intellectual and political circles in Paris, analyzing the war as an opportunity to transform French society. The French defeat in 1919, after the fall of Paris to German and Austro-Hungarian forces, plunged the country into chaos. Valois, then 41 years old, saw in the national humiliation not a tragedy, but a historical necessity to overthrow bourgeois rule and build a new order.
The French Revolution of 1919 and the subsequent French Civil War (November 10, 1919 - June 22, 1920) arose from the defeat in the Weltkrieg and the collapse of the Third Republic. The German occupation of Paris and the armistice of Copenhagen in 1919 unleashed widespread discontent. The General Confederation of Labor (CGT), led by Émile Pouget, capitalized on the power vacuum, inspired by the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia. As the government of Georges Clemenceau resigned, a provisional government under Aristide Briand attempted to maintain control from the south of France, but the insurrection quickly spread.
Valois, disenchanted with the Action Française for its decision to support the government in exile, broke with Maurras for good in 1919. The German occupation and the collapse of republican institutions led him to join the general revolt in Paris, where workers, demobilized soldiers and left-wing radicals seized power. Although not initially a central figure, his experience as an organizer and his ability to articulate a vision that combined nationalism and socialism made him a key player in the revolutionary events.
In November 1919, when the CGT declared a general revolt, Valois joined the barricades in Paris, not as a front-line fighter, but as an ideologue and propagandist. From the cafes and makeshift workshops of the Latin Quarter, Valois drafted pamphlets calling for the creation of a “revolutionary state” that would unite workers and patriots against the bourgeoisie and the German occupiers. His rhetoric, influenced by Sorel, emphasized “creative violence” as a means to forge a new France, free from republican decadence and foreign domination.
Valois was prominent in the organization of workers' committees in the industrial districts of Paris, where he advocated the creation of workers' councils inspired by the Russian Soviets, but with a nationalist tinge that differentiated his vision from the internationalism of the anarchists and Jacobins. During the first months of the revolution, he collaborated closely with leaders such as Émile Pouget and Léon Jouhaux, although his ideas on a centralized state clashed with the more libertarian currents of the CGT. In December 1919, Valois participated in the seizure of the Hôtel de Ville, a symbolic moment that consolidated revolutionary control over Paris.
As the revolution spread, Briand's provisional government, entrenched in Marseilles, launched an offensive in January 1920 to recapture the north. Valois, now a recognized figure in the provisional Commune, helped coordinate the defense of Lyon, where revolutionary forces halted the Republican advance. His role was primarily logistical: he organized the distribution of food and weapons, and worked with the unions to keep production in the factories under workers' control. In Lyon, Valois delivered an incendiary speech calling for the “sacred union” of all Frenchmen against the “traitorous regime” of Briand, winning the support of patriotic sectors suspicious of socialist internationalism.
In May 1920, after intense fighting, the provisional government collapsed and fled to Algiers, where Ferdinand Foch established the Fourth French Republic in exile. Republican resistance on the mainland crumbled, and by June, revolutionary forces controlled all of mainland France except Corsica, which fell in July. Valois, present in Paris during the proclamation of the French Commune on June 22, 1920, saw in this moment the fulfillment of his vision of a national renaissance. However, he also recognized that the victory was fragile, threatened by internal divisions and hostility from Germany.
During the civil war, Valois began to develop the foundations of what would later become known as Sorelianism, an ideology that combined revolutionary syndicalism with aggressive nationalism. Inspired by Sorel's death in 1922, Valois named his faction after his mentor, laying the groundwork for his future role in the Commune.
Role in the French Commune[]
After the revolutionary victory, Georges Valois emerged as one of the most influential leaders of the French Commune, heading the Sorelian faction within the Bureau Général du Travail (BGT), the governing body of the new syndicalist republic. His vision of a centralized, militarized, nationalist state placed him in opposition to the anarchists, led by figures such as Sébastien Faure, and the Jacobins, who advocated a more orthodox socialism.
In 1925, Valois founded Le Nouveau Siècle, a weekly that became the main medium for disseminating Sorelian ideas. Through his columns, he advocated the creation of a “Guide de la Nation Française,” an authoritarian figure who would lead the Commune toward industrialization and preparation for a future war against Germany. Valois made no secret of his desire for revenge against the Reichspakt, blaming Wilhelm II and his allies for the humiliation of 1919. His proposal included the creation of a modern war industry and a professional army, breaking with the tradition of the popular militias championed by the anarchists.
Under his leadership, the Sorelians became one of the most radical factions of the Commune. Valois supported the expansion of the powers of the Comité de Salut Publique, a body that oversaw security and the economy, seeing in it the nucleus of a strong state capable of unifying the French. Although his ideas on economic corporatism generated criticism from anarchists, who accused him of flirting with fascism, Valois argued that only a centralized state could guarantee social justice and national sovereignty.
On the political scene of 1936, Valois, at 58, was a polarizing but influential figure. His Sorelianism appealed to workers disillusioned with the syndicalist bureaucracy and to patriots eager to restore French pride. Valois dreamed of a France that would not only challenge Germany, but lead a new Europe based on the synthesis of nationalism and socialism. His warmongering rhetoric and his emphasis on discipline made him both a visionary and a threat to the fragile coalitions of the Commune.
External Links[]
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