"La guerre du Maroc, suite": Painlevé orders forged Zinoviev letters (L'Humanité, 21 June 1925)
A newspaper cutting from the Communist daily L'Humanite headed 'La guerre du Maroc, suite': a signboard reads 'Fabrication des documents diplomatiques' and the premier, Paul Painleve, seated at a desk, tells a visitor 'Make me a few letters from Zinoviev to Abd el Krim'. The tell is the label: a government's case about Moscow's links to the Rif leader is dismissed in advance by pinning the word forger on its head through a caricatured scene, with no document or evidence shown.
- Date
- June 21, 1925
- Period
- Interwar
- Made by
- L'Humanité (organ of the Parti communiste français)
- Country
- France
- Medium
- Cartoon
- Issuer type
- Party
- Regime
- Painleve Government
- Leader
- Paul Painleve
- Audience
- Domestic public
- Purpose
- Persuade or win support
- Event
- Rif War
- Techniques
- Name-calling
- Source
- Identified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they are
- Source
- Wikimedia Commons (Archives nationales, France, 313AP/20), retrieved October 2, 2026
- Rights
- Public domain (Paris newspaper, 1925, before 1931); Commons tag PD-old-100-1923
L'Humanité, 21 June 1925, cutting in Archives nationales 313AP/20 (313AP/20); via Wikimedia Commons
Text on the object
[handwritten, top right: Humanité 21.6.1925] LA GUERRE DU MAROC — SUITE — FABRICATION DES DOCUMENTS DIPLOMATIQUES PAINLEVÉ. — Faites-moi quelques lettres de Zinoviev à Abd el Krim....
THE WAR IN MOROCCO - CONTINUED - MANUFACTURE OF DIPLOMATIC DOCUMENTS PAINLEVÉ. - Make me a few letters from Zinoviev to Abd el Krim....
Read from a 960 px scan; the handwritten annotation is the least certain. The printed name appears as 'Abd et Krim' (sic, for Abd el Krim) and is transcribed as it appears; the 'Abd el Krim' in the translation is the person meant. Translation is literal and machine-made, not checked by a fluent reader.
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