Word: gambetta
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...Pascaud decided to make a gesture of obeisance to his masters in the Kremlin. Tottering old Communist Leader Marcel Cachin paid a visit to Saint-Junien. To mark the occasion, Mayor Pascaud marched a party of 100 local Communists down Saint-Junien's main street, the Boulevard Leon Gambetta, to hang new signs on each corner rechristening the street Boulevard Joseph Staline. When the street was thoroughly renamed, the mayor and his friends marched out to the football stadium to nail up a large wooden sign reading "Stade Maurice Thorez," in honor of France's top Communist...
Next day in Paris the Interior Ministry instructed Saint-Junien's postmaster to deliver no mail addressed to the Boulevard Staline. Mayor Pascaud countered by adding the old Boulevard Gambetta signs to the new Boulevard Staline signs, thus giving the street two names. Then, just before the start of the first game of the rugby season, six members of the local team went on strike, refusing to play ball in the stadium. "We didn't come here to play politics," explained Center Forward Jean Colombier. "Le sport est mort a Saint-Junien," sobbed a heartbroken referee...