Paris - Jeannette Vermeersch, a prominent French communist who married party leader Maurice Thorez and never renounced her faith in Stalin, died yesterday at her home aged 91.
Ms Veermersch finally left the party in 1968 because she rejected its condemnation of the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia. She consistently denied the accusations of mass murder made against Stalin. "Stalin made mistakes, but he was a reasonable person," she said as recently as 1998.