Background
Thierry Wolton was born on February 14, 1951, in Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire to the family of Denis Wolton and Helene Dufour.
University of Paris, Paris, Ile-de-France, France
Thierry Wolton graduated from the University of Paris with a Master of Social Science degree in 1974. He also graduated from the Institute for the Study of Economic and Social Development in 1975.
Thierry Wolton was born on February 14, 1951, in Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire to the family of Denis Wolton and Helene Dufour.
Thierry Wolton graduated from the University of Paris with a Master of Social Science degree in 1974. He also graduated from the Institute for the Study of Economic and Social Development in 1975.
Thiery Wolton's main profession is journalism, he is currently writing in Libération, Le Point or Radio France Internationale. However, he is better known in the French intellectual milieu for his complete analysis of the consequences of applied Communist principles throughout the whole 20th century. He started publishing his two volumes in 2015 at the famous publishing house Editions Grasset, and the third part in 2017. Thierry Wolton divided his analysis in an elegant triad. In his first volume, he deals with the oppressors (Les Bourreaux), while in his second book he presents the victims (Les Victimes). The third part he deals with the collaborators of the system (Les Complices).
More than just trying to explain the main directions, Thierry Wolton also offers a pertinent understanding of the background games for power. For instance, he goes beyond the methods of the totalitarian historical school when he explains how Iossif Djougachvili achieved power. The totalitarian school was not particularly interested in the power games. What is more, in order to explain this issue he analyses a controversial document - the Testament of Lenin. This official paper caused many problems for Stalin because Lenin did not want him as his successor. The whole affair is explained in depth by the historian in the chapter called L’irrésistible ascension de Iossif Djougachvili.
As Wolton states, after World war II, Moscow's world domination of the Communism movement by Moscow lasted only a few years. Other centers of power emerged: China and Yugoslavia. In this chapter, the author moves with high ability between macro-history (the explanation of the framework of the Cold War) and micro-history (the increasing paranoia of Stalin and the reaction of his close group- Beria, Mikoian, Molotov and Malenkov).
Thierry Wolton offers a deep perspective on the Communist phenomenon, with strong academic arguments, both derived from primary sources (archives, testimonies) and from second sources (as indicated by the richness of his references). His thesis is that the Soviet pattern was expanded, with some variations, in the whole world.
Thierry Wolton is a controversial character in French historiography. This aspect is due to a specificity of the French elitist mentality. Up to this day, only the academic degree of a person lends credibility to the intellectual in the public sphere. While across the Ocean the issue of academic background is more relaxed, France is still dominated by a mentality of being-a-specialist-only-in-one's-own-graduating-field. Therefore, Thierry Wolton, who wrote an extensive analysis about the history of communism in Eastern Europe, has little credibility for French people, even though his volumes are very well documented and perhaps even unique researches.
Thiery Wolton first married Natalia Dioujeva who died on May 28, 1990. His second wife is a publisher Agnes Hirtz whom he married on December 9, 1995. He has a son Stephane.