The phenomenon of French collaborationism (collaboration) during the Second World War and the German occupation of France remains insufficiently studied in Russian historiography, partially due to the continuing influence of ideologic dogmas of the Soviet period. The negative assessment of collaborationism seems indisputable, but the specific content of the concept and the attribution of certain personalities and institutions to it remains the subject of discussion. The authors propose a system of criteria for determining main types of ideological and political collaborationism (without considering military, economic and ‘domestic’ one), based on the degree of ideological proximity to National Socialism and of the understanding the common political goals of France and Germany. Alphonse de Châteaubriant (1877–1951), Marcel Déat (1894–1955), Lucien Rebatet (1903–1972) accepted the ideology of German National Socialism as a whole and sought to create its counterpart in France. Some collaborators as Fernand de Brinon (1885–1947), Georges Suarez (1894–1944) and Jean Luchaire (1901–1946) were greatly influenced by the ideas of European cooperation and security, in which the alliance of France and Germany played a major role, going back to A. Briand. Jacques Doriot (1898–1945) and his colleagues in the French Popular Party, Joseph Darnand (1897–1945) and Philippe Henriot (1889–1944) considered Germany to be the main ally in the struggle against the “Bolshevik threat” and for the creation of a “new Europe”, based on the unity of goals, and not on a common ideology. “Fellow-travellers” like Pierre Drieu La Rochelle (1891–1945) and Robert Brasillach (1909–1945), who accepted only some elements of Nazi ideology as useful for France, must be separated from ideological collaborationism.
