The word radical is to be understood within the context of French politics of the Third Republic. A radical was a republican (partisan of the republic form of government) leaning to the left of the political spectrum, generally anticlerical and/or a supporter to the separation between Church and State, and a “spiritual heir” to the ideals of 1789. They were ardent defenders of universal suffrage (only for men for most of them) and of progressive and social reforms. After June 1901, a radical was a member of the Parti républicain, radical et radical-socialiste, a party leaning to center once the socialists became the incarnation of the left. Although they had a very unclear political program which helped them to attract many members of diverse affiliations and sympathies, the program of the Parti Radical throughout its history until WW2, could be described as follows:

- The defence of the Republic and republicanism as it exists since the crisis of 1877 and the victory of parliamentarism.

- The promotion of patriotism and of the défense nationale but without the excesses of aggressive nationalism.

- The protection of private property.

- A vast program of social, economical and political reforms that would grant the government more power and control. It should be the State’s prerogative to nationalise industries to help correct inequalities between the people. If I may say, almost a proto-welfare state before the hour.

So as you can see, a radical is a precise term to describe a political position in France. It shouldn’t be understood with its dictionary definition.

Paul Doumer was a member of the Parti Radical, the second and last radical to become President of the Republic. But this is not why he was assassinated. I will quickly introduce you to Paul Doumer before explaining how he was murdered, by whom and why.

If there should be one example of personal republican success, then one should mention Doumer. He was considered as the perfect example of how one man could rise in society thanks to republican freedom and opportunities. He enjoyed immense prestige and considerations, even with his political adversaries. Doumer came from a family of labourers. His father was a railroad worker. Paul began his social rise by being a brilliant student in new republican national school system. His job as mathematics teacher allowed him to marry into a family of professors and teachers, helping him to confirm his social status as a public figure. He was close to several circles of intellectuals. All this lead him to start his political career and he was elected deputy for a first time in 1888. He also had a short career in colonial administration in the 1890s. A family tragedy also considerably increased his popularity. Already a well known politician when WW1 broke out (he had been President of the Chamber of Deputies), Paul Doumer suffered the loss of four out of his five so ns. Three were killed in action and one died in 1922 due to gas injuries. I am not saying his profiteered from this tragedy, but it helped him. The Doumer family had become synonymous to republican martyrdom during the Great War. When he became President of the Republic, Doumer was a 75 years old prestigious and well-respected man. Also, the President of the Third Republic was not as powerful as it is now in the 5th Republic but instead was more a figurehead embodying the nation and the Republic.

May 6th 1932. Doumer was visiting writers at the hôtel Salomon, all of them veterans of the Great War. A solemn event. Doumer was shot four times by a man armed with a gun. He did not die immediately but one bullet went through his neck to back of his head. The crowd was enraged, and it was with great difficulties that the police managed to arrest (and save) the man who shot the President. The assassin is a Russian migrant named Paul or Pavel Gorgulov (Gorguloff). Interrogated, he claimed to be a military doctor which he was, a poet, and the president of a Russian fascist party. Everything he says is very confusing for the investigators, not to mention he was seriously wounded by the crowd. He also claimed to be a president and sole member of a Russian Green/Agrarian Party. One thing is clear, Gorguloff is a former member of the Russian White Army, a supporter of a Tsarist restauration and he hated the Soviets. He told the police was he had nothing against Paul Doumer as a person but that by shooting him he was killing France which he blamed for failing to support the White Army during the Russian Civil War and abandoning his motherland to the Bolsheviks. Doumer’s death seemed to be a political assassination, perpetrated by a deranged veteran (Gorguloff was shot in the head during the war, his French was very confused, and he sometimes started to talk as if he was reading poetry). Doumer’s death was the most important event in France at the time, everyone was talking about it and the press was all over it. From his interrogations, Gorguloff’s motive seemed clear. He acted for revenge in the name of his country. But that was before the press had something to say about it. The event was a godsend for the far-right especially with the second turn of the legislative elections coming in a few days.

Since Gorguloff was a migrant, and Russian, the far-right took the opportunity to profess their xenophobic and anti-communist political ideas. Gorguloff was presented as a red terrorist and anarchist. This is the headline of the far-right newspaper L’Ami du Peuple, created by François Coty, boasting of being the most read newspaper in the entire world (really?). The headline means: An terror attack against Mr. Paul Doumer, a Soviet agitator shot thrice on the President of the Republic who is in critical condition. The article present goes on about the “people in Moscow” and their ‘attacks against the civilized world” and the need for a “crusade”. The communists didn’t remain silent as well, although they answered more than they made theories about Gorguloff. They accused the right or the imperialists in France to have organised the crime to start a war against the Soviet Union. That did not prevent some of them to claim that Gorguloff might have been a fascist agent from Berlin or Rome.

Gorguloff’s lawyers tried to have him declared mentally ill and unfit to be sentenced to death. Whether he was or not is hard to say. Politically, this crime against a man such as President Doumer could not go unpunished, more so since the situation was escalating throughout France and several cases of xenophobic attacks were reported in the country. One worker brutally murdered his Russian colleague in the factory while one White Russian was reported to have killed himself for belonging to the same people as the murderer of President Doumer. Gorguloff was certainly not an agent of Moscow, nor of Rome or Berlin. These seem like conspiracy theories created in the context of electoral tensions between various political ideologies and of a national traumatism. Doumer was not killed for his political ideas, had it been another Gorguloff would have probably still committed his crime if he could.

There is probably more than what you asked for in this answer, but I hope I answered everything you needed.

Sources:

Bernstein Serge, Milza Pierre, Histoire de la France au XXe siècle, 1900-1930, Paris, Perrin, 2009.

Thomazo Renaud, Les Grands Crimes de l’histoire de France, Larousse, 2014.