CACHIN, MARCEL (1869— ), French politician, one of the principal leaders of the French Communist Party, was born at Paimpol, Brittany, and adopted teaching as a profession. He was a master in a Bordeaux lycee when he joined the Socialist movement. His party, thanks to common action between the re actionaries and the socialists against the moderate republicans, captured the municipal government of the city, and Cachin was nominated adjoint to the mayor. Later, he settled in Paris, and was elected to the municipal council of the city. In May 1914 he became one of the deputies for Paris in the Chamber, in which he sat continuously from that time forward. For many years he was one of the most moderate members of the Socialist group, and during the World War showed a patriotic spirit. In Dec. 1918 he accompanied Poincare and Clemenceau to Metz and Strasbourg. But shortly his attitude underwent a sudden change. Having be come director of the paper Humanite, he went to Moscow, and became a convert to Bolshevism. He is the principal leader in the Chamber of the Communist Party. In 1927 he was condemned to some months' imprisonment for inciting soldiers and sailors to revolt, and was incarcerated in the Sante prison with other deputies and Communist agitators sentenced for similar offences. (P. B.)