The creation of" conglomerates," or supermonopolies, puts a mask of anonymity on the crowned kings of big business. To such names as the Rothschilds and Morgans, the Rockefellers and Du Ponts, the Krupp de Vandels, which have long been household names for the lords of the capitalist world, the new Hunts and Getties in the United States, Dassault and Flouard in France, have been added relatively recently. Where did these new billionaires come from? Here is the career of one of those who is today arguably the richest man in France1 - Marcel Dassault.

"Small, frail, with a deathly pale face that suddenly becomes animated or petrified, with a misty, sad and cold look, a grin of teeth can turn into a smile or express arrogance or disdain. The balding owner always wears a small black felt hat, and a thick scarf is wrapped around his neck at all seasons of the year. He walks with small, careful, measured steps, rarely shakes someone's hand, and more often does not greet them at all. His voice is both nasal and strident. " 2 Such is the unattractive portrait of Dassault given by a Parisian bourgeois newspaper.

M. Dassault is not at all like a "book-rich" capitalist who has accumulated untold wealth through "moderate spending." Its main residence is located on Avenue Marshal Maunoury, in the fashionable quarter of Paris. From time to time, he stays in the former Duc de Morny mansion, or in the Hotel Leon on the Place des Champs-Elysees, where each meter of living space is valued at an average of 10,000 new francs3 . But even more magnificent are its "spare" villas. One of them is located in the resort city of Cannes. The one in Les Yvelines has 100 rooms and is surrounded by a 5-kilometer-long high stone wall.

Before the Second World War, the name of the aircraft engineer and entrepreneur Marcel Blok (real name Dassault) relatively little was known. The son of a doctor who received a diploma from the Higher National Aviation School, in 1914 he invented a new propeller installed on French fighters operating in the First World War, and in 1935 he designed a light bomber 4 . In the same year, Dassault became the owner of the Societe des Avions Marseille Block company. This company produced, among other things, a twin-engine Blok-200 aircraft, which claimed so many lives that it was dubbed the "flying coffin". The scandal over the profits received by the manufacturer grew so much that his company was nationalized.

1 See L'Humanite, 5. X. 1965.

2 Cit. by: Izvestia, 5. XI. 1964.

3 See L'Humanite, 9. V. 1969.

4 See L'Humanite, 18. II. 1967.

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government of the Popular Front. The businessman's activity slowed down somewhat. But after the Second World War, when French state-monopoly capital began to intensively develop the military-industrial complex, Dassault "got his chance." To a certain extent, it has even become a symbol that embodies this complex. The nationalized Dassault company was returned to him. Political connections helped. With the assistance of Marshall Plan loans, he modernized his main plant in Saint-Cloud, near Paris. American and French military orders allowed him to put the case "on a grand scale".

Dassault did not remain in debt to his political friends. Since 1947, he subsidized their groups, and in 1951 became a deputy from the Department of Alpes-Maritimes. In the 1956 parliamentary elections, he was blackballed, and only the following year, after another political deal, did he get into the Luxembourg Palace. During the events of spring and summer 1958, Dassault organized and financed the trip of the notorious reactionary Jean Soustel to join the rebel "ultra" in Algeria .6
When, in December 1960, the Debray government, despite the serious opposition of a significant part of the deputies of the National Assembly and contrary to the decision of the Senate, achieved the adoption of the first program for the construction of nuclear "strike forces", a significant share of military orders fell to Dassault. Only under the program of aircraft construction for 1960-1965. out of 4 billion rubles. 420 million new francs of state appropriations, his firm received 3 billion. 500 million 7 . Its Mirage IV bombers formed the first echelon of the French nuclear "strike force". Dassault now invests in rocket science and electronics.

It is impossible not to agree with the editor-in-chief of the newspaper "L'Humanite" Rene Andrieu, who revealed the" secret of the firm " of Dassault in the following words:: "His vast empire is based on the principle that the state is the first buyer in France and the best customer." 8 Indeed, the Ministry of Defense acquired M. Dassault's first patent; his own brother, P. Dassault, held high positions in the military hierarchy, ending his career with the rank of army general. However, M. Dassault has other "generals of his own" 9 . In capitalist countries, the practice of what the French call "pantouflage" - family relations-has long been known. It consists in the fact that the big capitalist "patron" sends his wives to the state apparatus, and they help him get profitable state orders. Having absorbed the oldest French aircraft manufacturer Breguet in early 1967, Dassault became the sole competitor of the nationalized Sud-Aviacion aircraft company. At the enterprises of his main firm, located in the Paris district and in Bordeaux, 12 thousand people work10 . Its contractors are some state-owned factories.

M. Dassault equips the air forces of not only France, but also Switzerland, Austria, Spain, India, Pakistan, Libya, Brazil, Argentina, Colombia and the Republic of South Africa. Under the conditions of capitalist concentration of production, his firm developed into a super-monopoly, which took on extensive roots in banking, electronics, rocket science, construction and printing. The Who's Who in France bibliographic guide gives a very incomplete picture of the real power of Dassault's "empire", listing only some of the functions of this billionaire: managing director of Societe d'etude Marcel Dassault, technical director of Societe des Avions Marcel Dassault, administrator of the company Dassault Belgique Aviation, editor-in-chief and publisher of a weekly magazine "Jours de France", managing director of Societe immobiliere du Rhone-Pointe de Chanz-Elise. Even if we add to this list the positions of Dassault's son, Serge (President and CEO of Societe Electronique Marcel Dassault, administrator of Compagnie d'envestisman Franse Immobillier, administrator of Breguet-Aviacion, positions that duplicate the positions of his father), then this list will remain incomplete, because the core of the Dassault financial group is not listed in the Bank of Commerce de Paris directory.

Dassault firm is firmly established in the " Ob-

5 "France and Trusts", Moscow, 1954, p. 489.

6 "L'Humanite", 31.I.1967.

7 Ibid.

8 R. Andrieu. Les communistes et la revolution. P. 1968, p. 162.

9 "L'Humanite", 25.V.1964.

10 "L'Humanite", 28.XI1.1967.

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schem market", having concluded agreements with the Dutch company "Fokker" on participation in the activities of its branch-the Belgian aircraft manufacturing company "Sabka", with the West German company "Dornier"; with the Italian automobile and aircraft manufacturing company "Fiat" 11. Dassault also decided to establish himself in the newspaper and magazine business In 1954, he became the owner of the illustrious weekly "Jours de franee", and in 1955 he bought up half of the shares of the capital's newspaper" Paris-Jour " 12 . Two years later, he purchased the provincial newspaper Oise libere. [13] On September 23, 1965, in the midst of the presidential election campaign, Dassault launched a new weekly Paris newspaper, Vingt-quatre leures, with 24 pages devoted to advertisements, four to photographs, two to novels with sequels, and the rest to information 14 The political direction of this publication is quite clearly defined by the French journalist Pierre Durand: "The goal is not to disturb readers, not to aggravate their thoughts, to convince them that everything is going well and that they should not make a fuss. We live in France, the best country... with the best aircraft designer for the best "strike force". Therefore, it is useless to "play politics" 15 .

To promote the "depoliticization" of public life-this is the attitude Dassault gave his newspaper. However, neither the financial resources of the owner nor the extremely extensive advertising provided it with a solid place in the French newspaper market. The circulation of Vingt-quatre heures failed to rise above a few thousand copies, and the newspaper ceased to exist in less than a year.

Dassault spent millions of francs on Vingt-quatre heures. As for the workers, he shows himself to be a greedy and cruel master. In February 1967. Dassault has locked out 2,000 workers employed at his enterprises in Bordeaux for "daring" to demand equal pay with workers at his own enterprises in Paris ' district 16 .

On January 1, 1970, two nationalized companies of the aviation and space industry - Sud-Aviacion and Nord-Aviacion, and a mixed company-Sereb (with Dassault's participation) merged into a single company - Societe National Aerospace. In the new company, the state retained 2/3 of the shares, and gave a third to private capital .17 Dassault actually took over the monopoly on the production of military aircraft.

The French Communist Party insists on nationalizing the Dassault factories. As early as November 15, 1963, its deputies made a proposal to nationalize all private aircraft building and air transport companies18 . The memorable May 1968 speeches showed the determination of the French working class to fight for radical change, for the elimination of the omnipotence of monopolies, for the overthrow of the "uncrowned kings" - Dassault, the Rothschilds, Dreyfus, Broussac, Prouvot, de Vandel, Flouard, the Levant family and others like them.

V. F. Kolomiytsev

11 "L'Humanite", 25.XII.1968.

12 "L'Humanite", 5.X. 1965.

13 "L'Humanite", 31.I.1967.

14 "France nouvelle", 6 - 12.Х. 1965, p. 2.

15 "L'Humanite", 5.X.1965.

16 "L'Humanite", 3.II.1967.

17 "L'Humanite", 9.X.1969.

18 "L'Humanite", 10.II.1967.

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