Pierre Cot French politician. Date of Birth: 20.11.1895 Country: France

Biography of Pierre Cot

Pierre Cot was a French political figure and lawyer. He served as a member of the National Assembly from 1928 to 1940, representing the Radical Party and Radical-Socialists. In addition to his political career, Cot held various ministerial positions, including Minister of Aviation from 1933 to 1934 and 1936 to 1938, and Minister of Commerce from March 1938 to May 1939.

Following the occupation of France by Nazi Germany in 1940, Cot was forced to flee to the United Kingdom. According to Charles de Gaulle's memoirs, Cot, deeply affected by the events, pleaded to be employed in any capacity, even as a stair sweeper. However, de Gaulle, despite needing assistance at the time, believed it impossible to offer Cot any position due to his well-known leftist views.

During 1944 to 1945, Cot served as a member of the Temporary Consultative Assembly in Algeria. In 1945, he became a member of the Constituent Assembly, and from 1946 to 1958 and 1964 to 1968, he served as a member of the National Assembly representing the Union of Progressive Republicans.

Pierre Cot was one of the organizers of the "Movement of Supporters of Peace" and a member of the Bureau of the World Peace Council. He was one of the three chairmen of the International Association of Democratic Lawyers. Cot was a recipient of the International Stalin Peace Prize for "strengthening peace between nations" in 1953.

From 1960 to 1969, Cot was the head of the Department of Sociology of Law and International Relations at the School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences in Paris. Additionally, he served as the editor-in-chief of the international journal "Horizons" ("Horizons" in English, "In Defense of Peace" in Russian) from July 1951 to January 1962.

Cot is sarcastically mentioned in the third volume of Alexander Solzhenitsyn's "The Gulag Archipelago".