Henri Alleg

Alleg, Henri 

(pseudonym of Henri Jean Salem). Born July 20, 1921, in London. Algerian writer and publicist. Member of the party of the socialist avant-garde of Algeria. Manager of the newspaper Alger Républicain, 1950–55. Participant in the Algerian revolution.

Alleg was arrested on June 12, 1957, by the French military authorities. He told of the horrors of the imperialists’ torture chambers and of the courage and determination of the Algerian prisoners in his documentary narratives The Interrogation (1958; Russian translation, 1958), Prisoners of War (1961; Russian translation, 1962), and My Little Breton Pal (1962; Russian translation, 1962). On Oct. 2, 1961, Alleg escaped from prison. In Moscow on May 5, 1962, he delivered a speech, “The Inspiring Example of Pravda.” In July 1962, Alleg revived Alger Républicain in his homeland as the organ of the National Liberation Front, supporting the socialist orientation of the country. Alleg visited Cuba (the book of essays Victorious Cuba, 1963) and Uzbekistan (the report How Socialism Triumphed Over the Desert, 1964).

Since 1965, Alleg has been living outside Algeria, continuing his struggle for the ideals of socialism (foreword to the testimonial Martyrs of El Arresh, 1966) and against the insidious tactics of imperialism (the work “Bourgeois Ideology in the Service of Neocolonialism” in Probleme des Friedens und des Sozialismus in [Problems of Peace and Socialism, 1968, no. 1]).

WORKS

“Quelle voie choisir?” France nouvelle, Jan. 15, 1969, no. 1210.
In Russian translation:
“Nashi uspekhi i nashi zadachi.” Inostrannaia literatura, 1964, no. 7.
Foreword. In M. Feraun, Zemlia i krov’. Moscow, 1965.

REFERENCES

Zand, N. M., and V. A. El’vova. Khudozhestvennaia literatura stran Afriki v sovetskoi pechati: Bibliografía, 1958–1964. Moscow, 1967.
Stil,A. “Prisonniers de guerre.” France nouvelle, May 10–16, 1961, no. 812.

V. P. BALASHOV