Dominique Venner facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Dominique Venner
Born	(1935-04-16)16 April 1935 Paris, France
Died	21 May 2013(2013-05-21) (aged 78) Paris, France
Occupation	Writer, historian, editor, soldier, activist
Genre	Non-fiction (History)
Notable works	Le Cœur rebelle, Baltikum: dans le Reich de la défaite, le combat des corps-francs, 1918-1923, Histoire et Tradition des Européens: 30000 ans d'identité, Ernst Jünger: Un autre destin européen
Notable awards	Broquette Gonin Price, 1981 (issued by the Académie française)

Dominique Venner (French: [vɛnɛʁ]; 16 April 1935 – 21 May 2013) was a French historian, journalist and essayist. Venner was a member of the Organisation armée secrète and later became a European nationalist, founding Europe-Action, before withdrawing from politics to focus on a career as a historian. He specialized in military and political history. At the time of his death, he was the editor of the La Nouvelle Revue d'Histoire, a bimonthly history magazine. On 21 May 2013, Venner committed ... inside the cathedral of Notre Dame de Paris.

Youth

The son of an architect who had been a member of Doriot's Parti populaire français (the PPF), Venner volunteered to fight in the Algerian War, and served until October 1956. Upon his return to France he joined the Jeune Nation (Young Nation) movement. Following the violent suppression of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution he participated in the ransacking of the office of the French Communist Party on 7 November 1956. Along with Pierre Sidos, he helped found the short-lived Parti Nationaliste (Nationalist Party) and was involved with the Mouvement populaire du 13-mai (Popular Movement of May 13) led by General Chassin. As a member of the Organisation armée secrète, he was jailed for 18 months in La Santé Prison as a political undesirable. He was freed in 1962.

Political writing and activism

Upon his release from prison in the autumn of 1962, Venner wrote a manifesto entitled Pour une critique positive (Towards a positive critique), which has been compared by some to Vladimir Lenin's What is to be done?, as it became a "foundational text of a whole segment of the ultra-right". In the manifesto, Venner explored the reasons for the failure of the April 1961 coup and the divide that existed between "nationals" ("nationaux") and "nationalists" ("nationalistes") and called for the creation of a single revolutionary and nationalist organisation, which would be "monolithic and hierarchical" and composed of young, "disciplined and devoted" nationalist militants who would be ready for combat.

In January 1963, he created with Alain de Benoist a movement and magazine called Europe-Action, which he later led. He went on to found the Éditions Saint-Just, which operated in tandem with Europe-Action, and which was composed of nationalists, Europeanists, members of the Fédération des étudiants nationalistes ("Federation of Nationalist Students"), former OAS members, young militants and former collaborators like Lucien Rebatet. He was a member of Groupement de recherche et d'études pour la civilisation européenne (GRECE) (Research and Study Group for European Civilization) from its beginning until the 1970s. He also created, with Thierry Maulnier, the Institut d'études occidentales (IEO) (Institute of Western Studies), and its revue, Cité-Liberté (City-Liberty), founded in 1970. The IEO was an enterprise that worked in parallel and in tandem with GRECE, and the organisation attracted numerous intellectuals, including Robert Aron, Pierre Debray-Ritzen, Thomas Molnar, Jules Monnerot, Jules Romains, Louis Rougier, Raymond Ruyer and Paul Sérant. The IEO was anti-communist, pitted itself against what it saw as "mental subversion" and supported Western values. The IEO dissolved in 1971, the same year Venner ceased all political activities in order to focus on his career as an historian.

Career as historian

Venner was a specialist regarding weaponry and hunting and wrote several books on these subjects. His principal historical works were: Baltikum (1974), Le Blanc Soleil des vaincus (The White Sun of the Vanquished) (1975), Le Cœur rebelle (The Rebel Heart) (1994), Gettysburg (1995), Les Blancs et les Rouges (The Whites and the Reds) (1997), Histoire de la Collaboration (History of the Collaboration) (2000) and Histoire du terrorisme (History of Terrorism) (2002). His Histoire de l'Armée rouge (History of the Red Army) won the Prix Broquette-Gonin of history awarded by the Académie française in 1981.

In 1995, and with the advice of his friend François de Grossouvre, Venner published Histoire critique de la Résistance (Critical History of the Resistance), which highlighted the strong influence and presence of French nationalists in the Resistance (often called "vichysto-résistants"). The work was criticised by some for failing to probe Marshal Philippe Pétain's attitude towards the Resistance.

In 2002, Venner wrote Histoire et tradition des Européens (History and Tradition of the Europeans), in which he set out what he believed to be the common cultural bases of European civilisation, and outlined his theory of "traditionalism" (a concept that, inter alia, assesses the specificities of each society and civilisation).

Venner served as editor in chief of the revue Enquête sur l'histoire (Study of History, or Historical Inquest) until its dissolution in the late 1990s. In 2002, he created La Nouvelle Revue d'Histoire (The New Historical Revue, temporarily renamed the NRH in 2006), a bimonthly magazine devoted to historical topics. The Revue has featured Bernard Lugan, Jean Tulard, Aymeric Chauprade, Jean Mabire, François-Georges Dreyfus, Jacqueline de Romilly and former ministers Max Gallo and Alain Decaux. He was a co-host of a radio program on Radio Courtoisie.

Some of his books have been translated into English, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Russian and Ukrainian.

Works

• Guide de la contestation: les hommes, les faits, les événements, Robert Laffont, Paris, 1968, 256 p. [pas d'ISBN]
• Ils sont fous, ces gauchistes ! Pensées. Choisies et parfois commentées par Dominique Venner, Éd. de la Pensée moderne, Paris, 1970, 251 p. [pas d'ISBN]
• Guide de la politique, Balland, Paris, 1972, 447 p. + 12 p. [pas d'ISBN]
• Pistolets et revolvers, Éd. de la Pensée moderne et Jacques Grancher, coll. " Le Livre des armes " n° 1, Paris, 1972, 326 p. [pas d'ISBN]
• Les Corps d'élite du passé (dir.), Balland, Paris, 1972, 391 p. [pas d'ISBN] – Réunit : Les Chevaliers teutoniques, par Jean-Jacques Mourreau, Janissaires, par Philippe Conrad, Mousquetaires, par Arnaud Jacomet, Grenadiers de la Garde, par Jean Piverd, et Cadets, par Claude Jacquemart.
• Monsieur Colt, Balland, coll. " Un Homme, une arme ", Paris, 1972, 242 p. + 40 p. [pas d'ISBN]
• Carabines et fusils de chasse, Éd. de la Pensée moderne et Jacques Grancher, coll. " Le Livre des armes " n° 2, Paris, 1973, 310 p. [pas d'ISBN]
• Baltikum: dans le Reich de la défaite, le combat des corps-francs, 1918-1923, Robert Laffont, coll. " L'Histoire que nous vivons ", Paris, 1974, 365 p. + 16 p. [pas d'ISBN]
• Armes de combat individuelles, Éd. de la Pensée moderne et Jacques Grancher, coll. " Le Livre des armes " n° 3, Paris, 1974, 310 p. [pas d'ISBN]
• Le Blanc Soleil des vaincus: l'épopée sudiste et la guerre de Sécession, 1607-1865, La Table ronde, Paris, 1975, 300 p. [pas d'ISBN]
• Les Armes de la Résistance, Éd. de la Pensée moderne et Jacques Grancher, coll. " Le Livre des armes " n° 4, Paris, 1976, 330 p. [pas d'ISBN]
• [Collectif], Les Armes de cavalerie (dir.), Argout, Paris, 1977, 144 p. ISBN: 2-902297-05-X. Hors-série n° 4 de la revue Gazette des armes
• Les Armes blanches du III^e Reich, Éd. de la Pensée moderne et Jacques Grancher, coll. " Le Livre des armes " n° 5, Paris, 1977, 298 p. [pas d'ISBN]
• Westerling: guérilla story, Hachette, coll. " Les Grands aventuriers ", Paris, 1977, 319 p. ISBN: 2-01-002908-9.
• Les Armes américaines, Éd. de la Pensée moderne et Jacques Grancher, coll. " Le Livre des armes " n° 6, Paris, 1978, 309 p. [pas d'ISBN]
• Les Corps-francs allemands de la Baltique: la naissance du nazisme, Le Livre de poche, n° 5136, Paris, 1978, 508 p. ISBN: 2-253-01992-5.
• Dominique Venner, Thomas Schreiber et Jérôme Brisset, Grandes énigmes de notre temps, Famot, Genève, 1978, 248 p. + 24 p. [pas d'ISBN]
• Les Armes à feu françaises, Éd. de la Pensée moderne et Jacques Grancher, coll. " Le Livre des armes " n° 7, Paris, 1979, 334 p. [pas d'ISBN]
• Les Armes russes et soviétiques, Éd. de la Pensée moderne et Jacques Grancher, coll. " Le Livre des armes " n° 8, Paris, 1980, 276 p. [pas d'ISBN]
• Le Grand livre des armes, Jacques Grancher, Paris, 1980, 79 p. [pas d'ISBN]
• Histoire de l'Armée rouge. Tome 1: La Révolution et la guerre civile: 1917-1924, Plon, Paris, 1981, 301 p. + 16 p. ISBN: 2-259-00717-1.
• Le Mauser 96, Éd. du Guépard, Paris, 1982, 94 p. ISBN: 2-86527-027-0.
• Dagues et couteaux, Éd. de la Pensée moderne et Jacques Grancher, coll. " Le Livre des armes " n° 9, Paris, 1983, 318 p. [pas d'ISBN]
• Histoire des armes de chasse, Jacques Grancher, Paris, 1984, 219 p. + 16 p. [pas d'ISBN]
• Le Guide de l'aventure, Pygmalion, Paris, 1986, [pagination non connue] ISBN: 2-85704-215-9.
• Les Armes blanches: sabres et épées, Éd. de la Pensée moderne et Jacques Grancher, coll. " Le Livre des armes " n° 10, Paris, 1986, 317 p. [pas d'ISBN]
• Les Armes de poing: de 1850 à nos jours, Larousse, Paris, 1988, 198 p. ISBN: 2-03-506214-4.
• Treize meurtres exemplaires: terreur et crimes politiques au XX^e siècle, Plon, Paris, 1988, 299 p. ISBN: 2-259-01858-0.
• L'Assassin du président Kennedy, Perrin, coll. "Vérités et légendes", Paris, 1989, 196 p. + 8 p. ISBN: 2-262-00646-6.
• L'Arme de chasse aujourd'hui, Jacques Grancher, coll. " Le Livre des armes " n° 11, Paris, 1990, 350 p. [pas d'ISBN]
• Les Beaux-arts de la chasse, Jacques Grancher, coll. " Passions ", Paris, 1992, 241 p. [ISBN erroné]
• Le Couteau de chasse, Crépin-Leblond, coll. "  Saga des armes et de l'armement ", Paris, 1992, 134 p. ISBN: 2-7030-0099-5.
• Le Cœur rebelle, Les Belles-Lettres, Paris, 1994, 201 p. ISBN: 2-251-44032-1.
• Gettysburg, Éd. du Rocher, Monaco et Paris, 1995, 321 p. ISBN: 2-268-01910-1.
• Histoire critique de la Résistance, Pygmalion, Collection rouge et blanche, Paris, 1995, 500 p. ISBN: 2-85704-444-5.
• Les armes qui ont fait l'histoire. Tome 1, Crépin-Leblond, coll. " Saga des armes et de l'armement ", Montrouge, 1996, 174 p. ISBN: 2-7030-0148-7.
• Revolvers et pistolets américains: l'univers des armes (avec la collaboration de Philippe Fossat et Rudy Holst), Solar, coll. " L'Univers des armes ", 1996, 141 p. ISBN: 2-263-02429-8.
• Histoire d'un fascisme allemand: les corps-francs du Baltikum et la révolution (sous-titré du Reich de la défaite à la nuit des longs couteaux 1918-1934), Pygmalion, Collection rouge et blanche, Paris, 1996, 380 p. + 16 p. ISBN: 2-85704-479-8.
• Les Blancs et les Rouges: histoire de la guerre civile russe, 1917-1921, Pygmalion, Collection rouge et blanche, Paris, 1997, 396 p. + 16 p. ISBN: 2-85704-518-2.
• Encyclopédie des armes de chasse: carabines, fusils, optique, munitions, Maloine, Paris, 1997, 444 p. ISBN: 2-224-02363-4.
• Dictionnaire amoureux de la chasse, Plon, coll. " Dictionnaire amoureux ", Paris, 2000, 586 p. ISBN: 2-259-19198-3.
• Histoire de la Collaboration (suivi des dictionnaires des acteurs, partis et journaux), Pygmalion, Paris, 2000, 766 p. ISBN: 2-85704-642-1.
• Histoire du terrorisme, Pygmalion et Gérard Watelet, Paris, 2002, 248 p. ISBN: 2-85704-749-5.
• Histoire et tradition des Européens: 30 000 ans d'identité, Éd. du Rocher, Monaco et Paris, 2002, 273 p. ISBN: 2-268-04162-X.
• De Gaulle: la grandeur et le néant: essai, Éd. du Rocher, Monaco et Paris, 2004, 304 p. ISBN: 2-268-05202-8.
• Le Siècle de 1914. Utopies, guerres et révolutions en Europe au XXe siècle, Pygmalion, Paris, 2006, 408 p. ISBN: 2-85704-832-7.
• Le Choc de l’Histoire: Religion, mémoire, identité. Via Romana, Versailles, 2011. 179 p. ISBN: 979-1090029071.
• Pourquoi je me suis tué, Avant-propos par un dernier verre, Last Litany Livres, La Chaire, 2013, 2 p. ISBN: 1-61173-616-1.

See also

In Spanish: Dominique Venner para niños