Entre 1947 et 1964, Maurice Thorez, secrétaire général du Parti communiste français, assiste à 381 réunions du Bureau politique et prend des notes pendant la plupart d'entre elles. Présentant une édition critique des notes de cinq années cruciales pour le PCF, ce travail définit le rôle du Bureau politique comme groupe dirigeant dans le processus décisionnel au sein du parti communiste français. Il s'est agi de montrer comment, en s'appuyant sur les notes de Maurice Thorez et en les mettant en relation avec les autres sources disponibles, le Bureau politique joue le rôle de médiateur à la direction du PCF. Composé de dirigeants sélectionnés selon des critères précis spécifiques à une organisation communiste, loyaux envers l'URSS et leur secrétaire général, il se réunit au moins une fois chaque semaine pour traiter principalement de l'actualité politique, intérieure comme extérieure, mais aussi du mouvement communiste international, ainsi que des sujets de prédilection du parti communiste: mouvement de la paix, luttes syndicales et catégories sociales par exemple. Même si, souvent, la ligne est tracée par l'URSS, Maurice Thorez se charge de l'adapter au cadre national et il a besoin, pour ce faire, du Bureau politique. Celui-ci nourrit et enrichit sa réflexion, lui sert de vecteur de transmission. Il est une interface indispensable entre le secrétaire général, relais du mouvement communiste international, et la base militante communiste représentée par le Comité central. / Between 1947 and 1964, Maurice Thorez, general secretary of the French Communist Party (PCF), attended 381 meetings of the Politburo and took notes during most of them. This work reports commented notes of five crucial years for the PCF and defines the role of the Politburo as the directing organ in the decision-making process of the PCF. Relying on Maurice Thorez' notes and relating them to other available sources, the purpose was to demonstrate how the Politburo played a mediation role at the direction of the party. Composed of leaders selected on precise criteria, specific to communist organizations, faithful to the USSR and to their general secretary, the Politburo used to meet at least once a week for talking mainly about the political context - national and international, but also for discussing the international communist movement and brother parties, as well as favourite subjects of the communist party, i.e. the movement for peace, union struggles or social classes for instance. Even if the guidelines were often drawn by the USSR, Maurice Thorez used 10 adapt them to the French context, with the help of the Politburo. The latter fed and enriched the general secretary's thoughts and acted as a transmission vehicle. It was an essential intermediary between the general secretary, representing the international communist movement, and the grassroots represented by the Central Committee.

The master thesis -The Relations between the Polish United Workers' Party and the French Communist Party in 1956‖ deals with the relations between the Central European Polish United Workers' Party (PZPR) and the West European French Communist Party (PCF) in the crisis year of 1956. Analysing their mutual relations in 1956 is not only interesting from the point of view of East- West connections, but chiefly of the different approaches to Khrushchev's policy of destalinisation. Whereas the PCF was more or less under the Stalinist Maurice Thorez's control, which prevented Khrushchev's French supporters from influencing their party's politics, in case of the PZPR, the death of Bolesław Bierut in March 1956 made room for larger variety of opinions within the party. This master thesis describes not only the situation of both parties in 1956. It also analyses the images that the parties made about each other and the ways in which these images were spread and how they influenced the relations between them. The striking difference laid in the approach to the destalinisation. The parties perceived differently Khrushchev's -secret speech‖. The PCF leadership firstly denied its existence and later on claimed they did not know about it. The PZPR leadership decided to distribute the copies of the secret speech...