Nicolas Thomassin

A weaver in Rethel (Ardennes), Nicolas Thomassin corresponded in 1884 with the newspaper La défense des travailleurs. He was probably the author of the manifesto of the group Les Invincibles et les Avengeurs, of anarchist orientation, dated April 25, 1885 and published by this newspaper. In 1888 he wrote several articles to the socialist newspaper L’Emancipation, denouncing the working conditions in Rethel’s “bagnes”.

In February 1889 he attempted to establish a circle of social studies and that same year supported the candidacy of J.-B. Clement in the parliamentary elections. These activities earned him to lose his job as a weaver. The socialist circle L’Etincelle de Charleville made a solidarity collection in his favor and admitted it to it on 20 April 1889. Shortly after Thomassin was appointed collector in charge of receiving the contributions of the group. On 15 November 1890 he was elected to the commission of administration of the circle.

After losing his job, he had settled in Mézières, 26 rue Colette, and remained selling L’Emancipation and the anarchist newspapers Le Père Peinard and La Révolte to the shout. On 23 May 1891, the socialist circle, in the absence of the imprisoned Clement, forbid Thomassin from selling Le Père Peinard and decided to grant him financial compensation for the loss of profit. Thomassin refused this market and continued to sell Pouget’s newspaper at the shouting or carrying it at home. The socialist circle then took away the sale of L’Emancipation and put Le Père Peinard on the index, which put Thomassin in a difficult financial situation and became fond of his relations with the socialists.

He then published a note in La Révolte and in Le Père Peinard, inviting readers to a meeting at home to create an anarchist group, which materialized on October 18, 1891 by the creation of the group Les Sans Patrie de Charleville. On 29 April 1892 he was arrested along with three members of the group and charged with “association of criminals.” Eventually all of them benefited from a dismissal and were released on 16 May.

In the spring of 1891 he had begun to expand the spread of anarchist newspapers in Nouzon where soon he was to be at the origin of the founding, on May 14, 1892, of the group Les Déshhérités.

Nicolas Thomassin was the subject of several searches, notably on 21 November 1893, then on 19 February 1894 when the police seized 160 closets Le Père Peinard au popuo, 25 posters calling not to vote and signed by Gualbert*, an activist of Nouzon, 75 anarchist pamphlets and letters of Fortuné Henry and Sébastien Faure written from the prison of Clairvaux. He was again searched on 18 March 1894.

Thomassin continued to sell Le Père Peinard until 1899. In July 1906 he was one of the subscribers to the newspaper Le Cubilot (Aiglemont, 45 issues, from June 10, 1906 to December 29, 1908) edited by André Mounier and who wore in epigraph “Politicians are worn, which is why we appear”.

Nicolas Thomassin died in Haudrecy on October 7, 1919.

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