Editing Louis Aragon (section)

=== ''Les Lettres françaises'' (1953–1972) ===
In the days following the disappearance of ''Ce soir'', in March 1953, Aragon became the director of ''L'Humanité''{{'}}s literary supplement, ''[[French Letters|Les Lettres françaises]]''. After Khrushchev's "[[On the Cult of Personality and Its Consequences|Secret Speech]]" about Stalin delivered in 1956, Aragon suffered a deep personal crisis, but it was not until the 1960s when he started openly criticizing the Soviet regime.<ref>{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wb9rEAAAQBAJ | isbn=978-1-5381-6858-5 | title=Historical Dictionary of French Literature | date=15 May 2022 | publisher=Rowman & Littlefield }}</ref><ref>{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lblcBR7uDoYC | isbn=978-1-4381-0837-7 | title=The Facts on File Companion to World Poetry: 1900 to the Present | date=2008 | publisher=Infobase }}</ref> In 1956, Aragon didn't support the [[Hungarian Revolution of 1956|Hungarian Revolution]],<ref>{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lblcBR7uDoYC | isbn=978-1-4381-0837-7 | title=The Facts on File Companion to World Poetry: 1900 to the Present | date=16 March 2024 | publisher=Infobase }}</ref><ref>{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ef4OEAAAQBAJ | isbn=978-963-386-304-6 | title=Ideological Storms: Intellectuals, Dictators, and the Totalitarian Temptation | date=12 June 2019 | publisher=Central European University Press }}</ref> provoking the dissolution of the ''Comité national des écrivains'', which [[Vercors (writer)|Vercors]] quit, and was granted the [[Lenin Peace Prize]], but later he condemned Soviet totalitarianism and authoritarianism, opened his magazines to dissidents, and condemned [[show trial]]s against intellectuals (in particular the 1966 [[Sinyavsky–Daniel trial]]). 

Assisted by [[Pierre Daix]], Aragon started in the 1960s a struggle against Soviet policies and its consequences in Eastern Europe. He published the writings of dissidents such as [[Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn]] or [[Milan Kundera]]. He strongly supported the student movement of [[May 68]], although the PCF was sceptical about it. The crushing of the [[Prague Spring]] in 1968 led him to a critical preface published in a translation of one of [[Milan Kundera]]'s books (''La Plaisanterie'').<ref>French: ''« Et voilà qu'une fin de nuit, au transistor, nous avons entendu la condamnation de nos illusions perpétuelles... »''</ref> In 1970, he supported the Nobel Prize awarded to Solzhenitsyn.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Obolensky |first1=Alexander P. |date=16 March 1971 |title=Solzhenitsyn in the Mainstream of Russian Literature |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/40866341 |journal=Canadian Slavonic Papers / Revue Canadienne des Slavistes |volume=13 |issue=2/3 |pages=131–139 |doi=10.1080/00085006.1971.11091233 |jstor=40866341}}</ref> Despite his criticisms, Aragon remained an official member of the PCF's central committee until his death.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Courte biographie de Louis Aragon |url=https://www.toupie.org/Biographies/Aragon.htm |access-date=2025-05-04 |website=www.toupie.org}}</ref> The monetary loss caused by ''Les Lettres françaises'' led to its ceasing publication in 1972. It was later re-founded.