Albert Camus - Cold War assassination by KGB/French intel?

[David Andrews]

There have been rumors for some time.

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/dec/05/albert-camus-murdered-by-the-kgb-giovanni-catelli

"Camus had sided publicly with the Hungarian uprising since autumn 1956, and was highly critical of Soviet actions. He also publicly praised and supported the Russian author Boris Pasternak, who was seen as anti-Soviet."

He also leaned toward a peaceful Algerian independence:

https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2013/nov/19/the-outsider-camus-algeria-reading-group

https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2013/nov/07/albert-camus-centenary-honour-google-france-algeria

"It's also worth noting that Camus was writing in sympathy with the Arab population in Algeria even before the second world war. After the war, he stridently denounced France's refusal to honour promises to grant citizenship and equal rights to all Arabs in Algeria and warned presciently: 'if you are unwilling to change quickly enough, you lose control of the situation.' He also wrote: 'We must convince ourselves that in north Africa as elsewhere, we will preserve nothing that is French unless we preserve justice as well.'"

Edited December 5, 2019 by David Andrews

[W. Niederhut]

         I read Camus' autobiographical novel, Le Premier Homme, when it was finally published by his family in the mid 90s-- which was, apparently, found in the wreckage of the motor vehicle accident that killed him.  He was, certainly, sympathetic toward the plight of the oppressed Algerian Arab population and the working class French "colonials"-- hoping that they could peacefully co-exist as co-equal citizens in Algeria.

        In some ways, his position on race relations in Algeria was analogous to liberals in the nascent civil rights movement in the U.S. at the time.

        His growing distrust of Soviet totalitarianism paralleled that of the Yugoslavian dissident Milovan Djilas-- one of the "godfathers" of democratic socialism in Europe.

        Pasternak's Doctor Zhivago was first published in Italy in 1957, at a time when Western intellectuals were only dimly aware of the horrors of the Stalinist gulags.

Edited December 5, 2019 by W. Niederhut

[Ron Ecker]

"It is the job of thinking people not to be on the side of the executioners." - Albert Camus