Roosevelt Franklin short biography. New Deal as President of the United States

Franklin Delano Roosevelt is an outstanding leader of the American nation, the only head of state to win elections 4 times in a row, starting in 1933.

The politician has a number of important historical achievements, including the withdrawal of the United States from the Great Depression, which had dire consequences for society, the creation of the foundations for the country's economic prosperity, victory in World War II, the establishment of a special organization to strengthen peace, which he, as one of the leaders of the anti-Hitler coalition , suggested calling it the UN.

Franklin Roosevelt's childhood and family

The future president, who made his homeland a great power, was born on January 30, 1882 in the family estate of Hyde Park, located on the banks of the Hudson River in Dutchess County. His ancestors on his father's side, James, were of Dutch descent. They emigrated to America in the 17th century and achieved prosperity and high social status. Sarah's relatives, his mother, belonged to the no less eminent Delano family, descended from French settlers. The parents met and got married in 1880, when the father was a 52-year-old widower who had a 26-year-old son from his first marriage, the same age as his new young wife.

From an early age, relatives paid maximum attention to the development of their child, introduced him to the study of history, music, fine arts, literature, languages, and often took him on trips abroad.

Until 1896, he received his primary education, studying on the estate with visiting teachers. He was then sent to an elite boarding school in Groton, Massachusetts. Due to his high level of knowledge, he was immediately enrolled in the 3rd grade. There, along with the compulsory subjects, he finally acquired life principles (including denial of the possibility of mutual concessions with evil, the desire to acquire new knowledge, hard work), which, according to biographers, allowed him to subsequently achieve such large-scale success in repelling crisis phenomena.

In 1900, Franklin Roosevelt became a student at Harvard, where he continued to study the fundamentals of natural sciences, mastered jurisprudence, economic theory, rhetoric and other subjects. At the university, he was the editor-in-chief of the student newspaper and the organizer of the Fund for Assistance to the Descendants of Dutch Settlers. Having received a basic higher education, in 1905 Franklin became a student at Columbia University Law School.

The beginning of Franklin Roosevelt's career

In 1907, the aspiring lawyer, who nevertheless failed the graduation exams and did not receive an official document on graduation from Columbia, became an intern at a large law firm in Manhattan.

1910 marked the start of his career in big politics. His debut took place as a Democratic candidate for the New York State Legislature. Franklin Roosevelt with great zeal began a new interesting business, tirelessly traveled around his district, speaking to voters, and, as a result, won. While a senator, in 1911 he joined one of the Masonic lodges.

Since 1913, he was assistant to the head of the Department of the Navy under Democratic President Wilson for 7 years. During a dramatic period of world development, in a difficult international situation, Franklin was constantly on the move, visiting military bases, places of military clashes with the participation of the US fleet, dealing with issues of strengthening it, gaining authority among allies and compatriots.

In 1920, Roosevelt became the Democratic nominee for vice president. However, victory went to their Republican rivals. After this, the young politician, who became known to the general public during the election campaign, took the position of deputy head of a large financial company.

In 1921, his voyage in the Atlantic Ocean off Campobello at low water temperatures led to the most difficult results. Full of strength and ambition, the 39-year-old man lost the ability to walk after contracting polio. The illness did not break him, but, on the contrary, transformed him into an incredibly resilient person, capable of understanding the suffering of another person. Treatment and hard training did not lead to a final recovery; Franklin Roosevelt could hardly move without a wheelchair, but remained unusually active.

One evidence of the growth of his authority was the number of public posts he held (in addition to his business responsibilities). He served on the Harvard Board of Overseers, the Near Eastern Relief Committee, headed the New York Naval Club, and was among the organizers of the Wilson Foundation and members of the National Geographic Society.

Twice, in 1928 and 1930, Roosevelt was elected leader of New York State. Historians especially noted his creation of an administration of special assistance to victims of the economic crisis, invitation to management of professionals from Columbia and Harvard, and confidential radio speeches.

President Franklin Roosevelt

In the presidential elections of 1933, the politician won a landslide victory: 23 million adherents of his ideas versus 16 million for Herbert Hoover.

The situation in the USA was catastrophic. Industrial production was 1/2 the level of 1929, corporate incomes more than halved, over one hundred thousand businessmen went bankrupt, losses of banking institutions reached $2.5 billion, farmers' debt (due to a decrease in purchasing power) - $12 billion, unemployment rose to 25 percent - the number of citizens capable of radical action and riots has reached 12 million people.

In the first 100 days of the reign of the leader of the nation, called by Thomas Mann the “tamer of the masses,” the most important reforms of the New Deal, developed by a “brains trust” of attracted university professors, were implemented. The banking system was restored, legislation was adopted on the revival of industry, agricultural production, on the refinancing of farm debt, and a fund to help the unemployed was created.

Franklin Roosevelt's reforms

The president's forte was his open radio communications with Americans, later published as a pamphlet called Fireside Chats. In November, the owner of the presidential residence restored diplomatic relations with the USSR.

Personal life of Franklin Roosevelt

The head of the United States, in his last year of study at Harvard, said goodbye to his bachelor life by marrying Eleanor, the daughter of Theodore Roosevelt’s younger brother. He felt deep respect for the ex-president and repeatedly asked his advice in making decisions. The couple had 6 children - daughter Anna (born 1906) and four sons: James (1907), Elliot in 1910, then Franklin Delano in 1914 and John Aspinwall in 1916. One child, Franklin Jr., died before he even lived a year in 1909.

The life partner of the head of state was a prominent social activist, self-sufficient and independent. She considered it her duty to live in the interests of her husband and played a significant role in his career. The First Lady took part in political debates and election campaigns, spoke in the press in support of her husband’s endeavors, met with publicists, visited prisons, and contributed to the formation of the women’s movement.

In 1974, Elliot's son made his memoirs public, where he announced his mother's sexual coldness, which became the reason for his father's infidelities, first with Lucy Page Maser, and later with Margaret Le Hand, who worked in the White House secretariat. There were also rumors about the president's affair with his relative Margaret Suckley.

According to information contained in the letters of Lorena Gicoc, who was engaged in journalism, she was a lesbian who allegedly had an affair with the wife of the head of state.

The First Lady passed away in 1962 at the age of 78.

The last years of life and death of Franklin Roosevelt

Even more triumphant in comparison with 1933 was the victory of the American leader in the elections in 1936 with 28 million votes in favor, including 5 million from Republican opponents. His second term was marked by his bold proposals for government regulation, stabilization of economic activity, social protection of the population, as well as maintaining a policy of neutrality.

Stalin, Churchill and Roosevelt divided Crimea (Stalin's joke)

In 1940, Franklin Roosevelt decided to resign from high office, which he announced at a meeting of his party. However, after the Democrats unanimously nominated him as their candidate, he agreed to run for a 3rd term. During the war period, he turned away from the “new course”, focusing his efforts on the task of winning the war, and introduced a policy of prioritizing government funding for the defense industry.

In 1944, being commander in chief and considering it impossible to leave this post, Roosevelt agreed to participate in the elections for the post of head of state for the 4th time, and won again. Historians have noted his invaluable contribution to the process of post-war peace settlement, the implementation of the idea of ​​​​establishing the UN, and to the historical decisions of the conference in Yalta.

Franklin Roosevelt's Four Victories

In early April 1945, Franklin decided to relax at the Warm Springs resort, where he was being treated for polio. There he contemplated his speech in San Francisco at the upcoming meeting of the United Nations, scheduled for the 23rd, believing that this structure would be a means of uniting countries and a guarantee of strengthening peace. However, on April 12 he died from a stroke. According to his will, he was buried in his homeland, in Hyde Park, where he spent his childhood.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt went down in history as the 32nd President of the United States, elected for 4 consecutive terms. The politician led the country out of the Great Depression, participated in the creation of the Anti-Hitler Coalition, and contributed to the birth of the UN.

The future politician was born on January 30, 1882 in the Hyde Park estate in New York. The family belonged to respectable circles in the capital. Father James Roosevelt, a descendant of the Dutch Rosenfeld family, who moved to the New World at the end of the 17th century, was engaged in commerce, farming, and owned several transport and coal mining companies. Mother, nee Sarah Delano, also belonged to an old European family of French Huguenots, settlers of de la Noix. The difference between the spouses was 26 years. This was James's second marriage after being widowed. From his first wife, Roosevelt Sr. had a son, the same age as his second wife.

Little Franklin was born when his father was 54 years old. The parents tried to give the child the best. In addition to visiting the opera and ballet theaters, the Roosevelts and their son often traveled to Europe, to the sea coast of Maine, where they were engaged in shipping on their own yachts. Having received an excellent education at home, at the age of 14 Franklin entered the Groton School in Massachusetts, where he studied for 3 years. The young man received his higher education and bachelor's degree at Harvard, after which he became a student at Columbia University Law School. After completing his studies, Roosevelt began practicing law in a law office in Manhattan.

Policy

Being a relative of the 26th US President Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin himself aspired to politics. And such an opportunity presented itself in 1910, when the young lawyer was offered a position as a senator in the New York State Legislature. Roosevelt won the local elections and became the representative of the Democratic Party in the local government legislature. A year after taking office, Franklin accepted an invitation from the Holland Masonic Lodge and became a member of the organization. Roosevelt would subsequently reach the 32nd Degree of the Scottish Rite and enter the Grand Lodge of Georgia.

In 1912, Roosevelt distinguished himself in the US presidential elections and, after the victory of the Democratic candidate Thomas Woodrow Wilson, received the position of Deputy Secretary of the Navy. The politician worked in this post until 1921. He dealt with issues of strengthening the US Air Force flotilla, improving the combat capability of warships, and also supported the political line of the president.

Young politician Franklin Roosevelt

Continuing to work in the government apparatus, Roosevelt ran for the Senate in 1914, but did not pass the vote. In 1920, Franklin suffered another setback. This time in the presidential election, in which he participated as a vice-presidential candidate for the Democratic team led by James Cox. The political situation did not favor the democratic bloc, and the conservatives won. For 8 years, Roosevelt went into the shadows. This was also facilitated by the onset of disability, which occurred after suffering from polio in 1921.

Franklin Roosevelt's illness confined him to a wheelchair

The illness did not break Franklin, and already in 1928 the politician won the election for governor from the state of New York, where he managed to hold out for two terms. Roosevelt used the acquired leadership experience in his further presidential work.

Before the presidential election in 1932, the governor of New York creates a government agency that provides temporary emergency assistance to those affected by unemployment during the years of economic crisis, thereby earning the sympathy of future voters. In addition, a well-conducted PR campaign, which consisted of daily “Fireside Chats” radio broadcasts with the participation of candidate Franklin Roosevelt, made his personality popular among the entire US population. Later all the recordings were published in the form of small books.

President of the U.S.A

The main elections in Roosevelt's biography - the US presidential elections - took place in 1933. They were preceded by an election campaign, as a result of which Roosevelt developed and presented the theses of the New Deal. The reform program was aimed at eradicating the shortcomings of the US economy that had developed at the beginning of the 30s and entailed a global commodity and monetary crisis.

Voters believed the politician and were not mistaken in their choice. In the first three months of his administration, Roosevelt put the banking system in order. One of the president's first laws was a decree on refinancing farm debts. Franklin took state control of the agricultural complex, additionally passing the Agricultural Recovery Act.

Participation in reforming the country's industrial complex played a major role in the president's domestic policy. Necessary laws to improve the investment climate in the country were also adopted in the first days of the presidency. The new representative of the White House will stabilize the situation in the country, reduce unemployment, and tame the dissatisfied masses of farmers, workers and bank clerks.

Roosevelt began to introduce programs that were designed to improve the condition of socially vulnerable children and the elderly. Trade unions are being created, mechanisms for stabilizing wages are being developed, and the tax system is being brought into a reasonable framework. Within six months, Roosevelt restored diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union.

Personal life

While studying in his last year at Harvard University, Franklin married his distant relative Anna Eleanor Roosevelt, who was two years younger than the young man. Over the course of 10 years, the Roosevelt family had 6 children, one of whom died in infancy. In 1906, daughter Anna appeared, followed by sons James, Elliot, Franklin Delano and John Aspinwall. The wife gradually turned from a housewife and caring mother into Franklin's personal assistant, and then, due to her husband's illness, Eleanor had to take on a lot of her husband's political and social responsibilities.

Eleanor Roosevelt participated in the propaganda of her husband's first presidential election campaign, defending and explaining the reform course. The president's wife dealt with issues of employment and social protection of women, becoming a prominent representative of the first wave of feminists. Madame Roosevelt came under the care of vulnerable layers of citizens: the unemployed, teachers, journalists. At the end of the 30s, the popularity ratings of the president's wife were an order of magnitude higher than those of the head of state.

Franklin Roosevelt with his wife and 13 grandchildren

During the tense confrontation with fascism, Eleanor took the post of Assistant Secretary of Defense of the United States. Roosevelt contributed to the creation of the UN, and the first lady made a great contribution to the development of the organization’s provisions for the protection of human rights, including those of non-white US citizens. After the death of her husband, Eleanor continued her political career in the administrations of subsequent presidents. The experience and analytical skills of Roosevelt's wife were valued by the state apparatus of Truman and.

The Second World War

With the states of Europe and Latin America, Roosevelt chose a neutral line of foreign policy. This position was dictated by the US President’s reluctance to intervene in global interstate conflicts, but ultimately led to a decrease in arms exports, which had a negative impact on the barely strengthened US economy. Therefore, with the emergence of the Blitzkrieg in Germany, Roosevelt creates a military alliance with Great Britain and begins to supply weapons to the European partner.

With the outbreak of World War II, the Americans delayed open conflict with Japan, but after the December 7, 1941 attack by Japanese military aircraft on a US Air Force base in the Pacific, Franklin Roosevelt jointly declared war on the land of the rising sun. Three days later, Germany and fascist Italy declared war on the North Atlantic coalition. For three years, Roosevelt did not dare to take military action on the European continent, and only after the obvious victories of the USSR, which turned the tide of hostilities, did the American president and his allies open the Western Front.

One of the responses to the aggression of fascism was the idea of ​​​​creating an organization consisting of representatives of four police states who would guard peace throughout the world. Roosevelt nurtured the idea of ​​uniting Great Britain, the USA, the USSR and China from the first days of the war, and in January 1942 Franklin managed to create the UN by signing a declaration of alliance.

Winston Churchill, Franklin Roosevelt and Joseph Stalin

Roosevelt repeatedly participated in joint meetings with Churchill, which took place in Tehran, Quebec, Moscow and Washington. At the 1945 conference of three world leaders in Yalta, Roosevelt managed to gain the support of the Soviet leader for joint operations against Japan, as well as advance the Soviet-American friendship. The famous photos of Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin at their dacha in Crimea spread around the world and became harbingers of a warming in relations between countries.

Death

After returning from the Yalta Conference to Washington, Roosevelt continued to work on preparing the opening of the UN Assembly, as well as the conference in Potsdam. But unexpectedly, on April 12, 1945, the president suffered a cerebral hemorrhage, which took the life of Franklin Roosevelt. According to his will, the grave of the head of the United States is located in Hyde Park, not far from the places where the 32 US presidents spent their happy childhood years.

Despite the fact that most of Franklin’s abandoned affairs were not completed (the alliance of four was not created, the strengthening of ties with the USSR was not achieved, the world market did not begin to develop according to liberal capitalist laws), Roosevelt’s name is on a par with outstanding US leaders , such as , and .

• Not many people know that Roosevelt also tried his hand at writing. At the beginning of 1945, the US President completed the literary work “The Baker Street Folio: Five Notes on Sherlock Holmes from Franklin Delano Roosevelt,” which was based on the stories of Arthur Conan Doyle.
• From the age of 8, Franklin Roosevelt was interested in collecting postage stamps. The future politician was instilled with a love of philately by his parents, who traveled all over the world. Every day before going to bed, Roosevelt looked at the collection of memorabilia collected over several decades.

• After his death, an autopsy of Franklin Roosevelt's body, contrary to the laws, was not performed, and the burial itself was carried out in a closed coffin. The grave of the 32nd US president was guarded by an armed escort for many months after the funeral.
• The Virgin Islands annually celebrates Franklin Roosevelt's birthday; this holiday has been an official holiday for more than half a century.
• Franklin Roosevelt more than once became the hero of Soviet films about the war. 6 films were shot, among which the most famous are “The Battle of Stalingrad”, “The Fall of Berlin”, “Liberation”, “Selecting a Target”. The American president was played by Nikolai Cherkasov, Oleg Frelikh, Stanislav Yaskevich,.

Quotes

• Having a little inflation is like being a little pregnant.
• Kindness has never taken away the strength and strength of free people. To be strong, a nation does not have to become cruel.
• The only obstacle to the implementation of our plans for tomorrow can be our doubts today.
• Give me $10 million and I will defeat any constitutional amendment.
• War is a crude, inhumane and completely impractical method of sorting out relations between governments.
• We have always known that reckless selfishness is a sign of bad character; and now we realized that this is also a sign of a bad economy.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt is the most outstanding, powerful and effective US politician in the 20th century. He was a wartime president. The most severe economic crisis from the beginning of the industrial revolution to the present day, the largest war in world history, gave him a double chance for historical greatness.

At one time, his contemporaries not only respected him boundlessly, but also sharply criticized and even hated him, but in the light of distance, his weight increases for three reasons: firstly, with rare unanimity, historians and political scientists share the point of view that “F.D.R. " is the founder of the modern American Institute of Presidents. Second: Since his presidency, the interventionist state and the mixed economy, in which the federal government in Washington intervenes to regulate, correct, plan and manage, belong to the everyday life of Americans. Third: in foreign policy, with an unbending will, he accepted the challenge of German National Socialism, Japanese imperialism and Italian fascism earlier than most Americans. When the future of Western civilization was at stake in 1940/41, he was the Democrats' last hope and a direct alternative to Hitler. Through an unusual combination of sense of power and calling, strong nerves and tactical subtleties, he prevented the United States from becoming isolated in the Western Hemisphere. Roosevelt was the great winner of World War II, and when he died, the United States became the world's new superpower.

His plans for a post-war order failed. Neither the United Nations, nor cooperation with the Soviet Union, nor the cooperation of the four "policemen of the world" of the USA, the Soviet Union, Great Britain and China became the determining factors of post-war politics. Likewise, the indivisible, liberal-capitalist world market remained an illusion.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt was born on January 30, 1882, on the sunny side of society. The house where he was born was in Hyde Park, a spacious estate on the Hudson River between New York and Albany. Franklin was the only child of his then 54-year-old father James Roosevelt's second marriage to Sarah, who was 26 years younger than her husband and brought a dowry of one million dollars. The father led the measured life of a rural nobleman from the best New England families of Dutch origin. He was at once a farmer, a merchant and a socialite who was as fond of opera and theater as he was of regular trips to Europe. Although the Roosevelts' wealth did not compare with the newly rich Vanderbilts and Rockefellers, their social position among the leading families of New England was invulnerable.

James and Sarah gave their only and beloved son an upbringing appropriate to his position, careful and at the same time rich in events and ideas. The natural reliability that radiated from the parents and the parental home carried over into the son's perception of life and laid the foundation for his unshakable confidence in himself and the world.

This self-confidence and extreme self-discipline helped him when he became seriously ill with polio in 1921. Despite vigorous efforts over many years to overcome the disease, Roosevelt remained paralyzed and confined to a wheelchair. Without the help of ten-pound steel tires, he could not stand; he could only move slowly and little by little on crutches. No matter how inwardly he grumbled at fate, outwardly he put on an impeccable mask, full of hope and confidence. He forbade himself any thought of disappointment and self-pity, and his surroundings - any sentimental gesture.

The disease also changed his wife Eleanor and the nature of their marriage. Roosevelt married Eleanor Roosevelt, a distant fifth-degree relative from the Hudson Valley and niece of President Theodore Roosevelt, in 1905. The first child, a daughter, was born in 1906; over the next 10 years, 5 more sons were born, one of whom died at the age of 8 months. From an initially shy and modest housewife and mother, step by step, "Eleanor" was shaped into perhaps the most admired woman in the United States during the 1930s and 1940s. Along with her many-sided socio-political activities, her tireless advocacy for women's equality and the trade union movement, in general for the oppressed, humiliated and poor in American society, along with her activities as a teacher, editorial writer, speaker and organizer, she to 1928, became Roosevelt's deputy and contact person with the Democratic Party. The marriage turned into a political workers' community in which Eleanor, guided by Christian social convictions, embodied Roosevelt's “left conscience” and in which her own authority increased over the years, but she always recognized the political primacy of her husband. For Eleanor, this change of role simultaneously meant an escape from inner loneliness. Because Roosevelt's World War I affair with Lucy Mercer, Eleanor's attractive secretary, caused a crack in their marriage that was never mended. With her assumption of the presidency in 1933, Eleanor was forced to abandon hope that her husband would carve out for her the place in his life that she so desired: a place as an equal confidant and partner who shared her deepest hopes and disappointments. Brilliant, witty and charming, Roosevelt, who even before his presidency attracted men and women like a magnet, used them for his political ambitions and expected absolute loyalty from them, revealing his innermost feelings to no one, not even his wife.

After attending one of the country's finest private schools in Groton, Roosevelt attended Harvard College from 1900 to 1904 and then was a law student at Columbia University from 1904 to 1907.

He abandoned the academic completion of his studies, passed the New York bar examination and entered the service of a famous New York law office as a moderately paid trainee. Since he had no desire to delve into the details of economic and cartel law and already had financial security and social recognition, politics became the only object of his pronounced ambition. In addition, there was the example of Theodore Roosevelt, whom Franklin and Eleanor visited many times in the White House. Without any irony during the conversation, Roosevelt developed a clear timetable for moving up: in a favorable election year for the Democratic Party, he wanted to try to become a member of the House of Representatives in New York State, then his career should follow the path of Theodore Roosevelt: Secretary of State in the Department of the Navy , Governor of New York State, President.

His career developed according to this pattern. In November 1910, he became secretary of the state of New York, in whose parliament he cast in his lot with the “progressive” Democrats. In March 1913, A was appointed Secretary of State for the Ministry of the Navy, a position which he filled with enthusiasm for seven years. In 1920, the Democratic Party even nominated him as a candidate for vice president. A year after the Democratic presidential defeat and his bout with polio, he tied his hope for a final recovery to a plan to return to politics. Roosevelt became governor of New York in 1928 and 1930, and on November 8, 1932, after a bitter election battle against incumbent President Herbert Hoover, he was elected president of the United States.

"This election fight is more than a fight between two men. It is more than a fight between two parties. It is a fight between two points of view about the purpose and objectives of government." This election statement by President Hoover could, word for word, belong to Roosevelt, since in essence he stated the same thing during his election campaign. In a passionate debate about the causes and overcoming of the economic crisis, which the Hoover government clearly failed to cope with, the question is whether the federal government, led by the President, has the right and responsibility, and to what extent, to intervene to regulate and restore order in the US economy with the goal of eliminating crisis and need, was the decisive contrast between both candidates. The question touched on the core of American self-understanding. The deep and lifelong antagonism between Roosevelt and Hoover was based on their incompatible views on the function of government.

While Hoover appealed to the classic American virtues of individualism and voluntariness and warned against the tyranny of the state, Roosevelt was agitating for the most radical state-interventionist planning program yet to be articulated in peacetime by a presidential candidate. Already in the spring of 1930, he wrote: “For me there is no doubt that the country must be quite radical, at least for one generation. History teaches that nations in which this happens from time to time are spared revolutions.” He understood himself as a preserver and an innovator, as a supporter of tradition and progress at the same time. I never intended to question the fundamentals of the American system such as private property, the profit motive, regional and functional division of power, freedom of the press and freedom of religion. Despite his sharp attacks against the self-interested people at the top of the social pyramid, he was not an ideologist of class struggle. This would be deeply at odds with his core belief that the president is a champion of the public interest. He was certainly not a Marxist or a socialist, as Hoover claimed in the final phase of the election campaign. Just as little wanted to be classified as a capitalist. When asked about his political beliefs, he could say with disarming simplicity that he was a Christian and a democrat. But if the American system cannot do what Roosevelt thought it should do, which is to serve the common good and provide every American with a decent food supply, then the government must intervene. Common sense and human decency require this. Hoover's deeply un-American government philosophy spreads only doubt, hopelessness and fear among millions of people who languish at the bottom of the social pyramid without money, power or social status. Roosevelt promised a “new course” in the election campaign and meant by this concept from the vocabulary of card players that the United States was facing a new beginning.

The severity of the crisis and Roosevelt's convictions led to a quantitative and qualitative leap in the importance of the institution of presidents. On a larger scale than even under Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson, the White House became the energy center of the entire American governmental system, the source of new ideas, the engine of commerce, the engine of social transformation and thus, in Roosevelt's vision, the embodiment of the common good. For the mass of the American population, the federal government and the President became for the first time a recognizable part of their daily lives, the center of their expectations and hopes.

The formation of the modern American institution of presidents is explained by the fact that Roosevelt consistently led the entire country out of the global economic crisis and out of the greatest war in history. In a sense, the United States was constantly at war these twelve years, first with economic need, then with external enemies. The double emergency became the hour of executive power. It is noteworthy that in overcoming economic distress, the metaphor of “war” played a paramount role.

“Roosevelt carried the matter” to the limits of the possible that the American constitutional system sets even for a strong president. He was an artist in the politics of power. Like no other president before him, he wrested the legislative initiative from Congress and, in this sense, expanded the legislative function of the institution of presidents. Roosevelt broke all records for using the power of veto, vetoing a total of 635 times. He courted and cajoled key deputies and senators in private conversations, exploited the possibility of official patronage and, if necessary, put pressure on Congress through public opinion. Roosevelt focused public expectations on the institution of presidents because he knew how to use both media of the time, the press and radio, in an incomparable way as instruments of his politics. Roosevelt was the first media president. He dominated major newspaper headlines, not least because of his sovereign "open door" policy towards journalists working in Washington. Year after year, the president, paralyzed from the waist down, gathered up to 200 journalists around his desk twice a week. They could ask him any question without a prior written request. These conferences were masterpieces of handling a free press. They were compared in importance to the question and answer hour in the British House of Commons. The secret of the success of his casual fireside chats on the radio, which won an audience of millions, was that this dialogue with the people was not a manipulative ploy for Roosevelt, but concerned the essence of his understanding of democracy.

The shift in the center of gravity of politics to the executive branch was also evident at the personnel and institutional levels. Especially between 1933 and 1935, and then again since 1939, all new institutions, departments, committees, commissions grew like mushrooms, were in constant transformation, dissolution and reorganization, often overlapped and could drive adherents of clearly demarcated competencies and an orderly path through the authorities to despair . During Roosevelt's presidency, the executive branch workforce doubled and even tripled: in 1933, the federal government employed exactly 600,000 people, and in 1939, before the outbreak of the European War, about 920,000 people. When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, the number increased to more than 1.5 million, only to increase dramatically again as a result of the war. Under none of his followers did the number drop below 2 million.

Finally, the reorganization and staffing of the presidential office were themselves supposedly one of the major impacts of the global economic crisis on the US political system. After 1933, Roosevelt quickly realized that his office was institutionally unable to cope with the enormous tasks and demands. He appointed a committee, the famous Brownlow Committee. This committee concluded in 1937: "The President needs help." He proposed the creation of an executive service of the president, under whose roof the White House service should be staffed with competent, energetic employees who should be distinguished by only one thing: “a passion for anonymity.” After a bitter political tug-of-war, Congress passed the Presidential Reorganization Act in 1939, which Roosevelt implemented through Executive Order 8248.

This gave the President an independent bureaucracy that enabled him to compete with the also greatly expanded Congressional bureaucracy. At the same time, this reform was fraught with the possibility of abuse, the temptation to gather in the White House a power elite insufficiently controlled by Congress and the public, and thus establish an “imperial presidency.”

Constant new formations and crossing of authorities brought Roosevelt the reputation of a bad administrator. And to a certain extent this is correct, but there was a method hidden in this process. Roosevelt relied on spontaneity, strong initiative, improvisation, the desire to experiment, competition and rivalry as the driving force of the New Deal and, later, the war economy. The division of power below the level of the President was consistent with the technique of “divide and conquer”, which he mastered.

He maintained his freedom of decision-making and ultimate responsibility only by leaving alternatives open in business, personnel and institutional terms, always using many information channels, giving no one a monopoly on access to the president, and forcing arguing ministers and advisers to ever new compromises. . Behind the justifiable complaints of politicians around Roosevelt about his unorthodox and unpredictable ways of obtaining information and making decisions, there was also often a wounded vanity.

The transformation of the presidential institution and the strengthening of the Washington bureaucracy were both a prerequisite and a consequence of the state-interventionist policy of the “New Deal,” the goals, scope, and contradictions of which were revealed in rough outline already in the election struggle. In Roosevelt's understanding of power as an amalgamation of interested parties, policy follows a "diagonal" that will attempt to help all groups and involve all areas of the economy. Roosevelt promised short-term crisis relief, economic recovery, and long-term reforms that would make it impossible for the unprecedented disaster to repeat itself. The legislation of the “New Deal” reflected these goals in various mixtures; they often tried to simultaneously implement two or even three goals with one measure.

Roosevelt entered the national stage on March 4, 1933, as a healer and left it only after being re-elected three times in 1936, 1940, and 1944, along with his death on April 12, 1945. Even without taking into account the famous first 100 days of his presidency, in which Washington nearly exploded with activity and Congress passed most bills at a record pace, Roosevelt, despite some setbacks and despite growing opposition from left and right, almost always had the initiative.

When Roosevelt took office, the United States was in an unprecedented crisis. In February 1933, the entire banking industry was in danger of collapsing, and there were several cases of starvation in a country suffering from a food glut. One of the areas where the Roosevelt government intervened immediately after taking office by declaring a four-day “bank holiday” was the US monetary and credit system. All activities in this area served three purposes: a radical reform of the rather chaotic banking industry, supervision and control of securities trading and, what was especially important in the initial phase, the creation of a legal basis for the state's inflationary policy to overcome deflation through new money issues.

Along with opening the banks, Roosevelt, if he wanted to restore public confidence in government, had to urgently address a pressing social problem - massive unemployment. It was impossible to wait until the legislative reform brought the expected economic results. The means of temporary improvement were direct payments of Union welfare benefits to individual states and communities, but most of all a broad government employment program, which began in March 1933 as a temporary emergency measure and ended, contrary to original plans, only with the entry of the United States into the Second World War.

No matter how confusing the external picture of successive and complementary programs and organizations may be, no matter how capital- and labor-intensifying projects compete with each other, Roosevelt’s main idea was simple: he wanted to remove from the streets those able-bodied unemployed who had not found a job in private economy, to save them from impoverishment and despair and to restore a sense of self-worth through the confidence that they will earn their living by consciously working for the common good. If you add in family members, 25-30 million people benefit from, albeit modest, salaries for government jobs. The administration, led by Roosevelt confidant Harry Hopkins, built 122,000 public buildings, 664,000 miles of new roads, 77,000 bridges, and 285 airports. Even teachers, artists and writers got jobs, thereby winning over the opinion-shaping stratum for the New Deal.

Some of the deepest government interventions in the market economy include support measures in agriculture, which was by far the hardest-hit sector of the economy. Relying on laws urgently passed by Congress, the Roosevelt government launched a sweeping attempt to regulate production and price. The curse of overproduction also encouraged intervention in the industrial sector. The federal Industrial Recovery Act was hoped to replace "destructive competition" with "fair competition" through a kind of loosely supervised, government-assisted cooperative self-regulation. The government, entrepreneurs, and working class had to cooperate voluntarily to stabilize production, prices, and wages.

The working class in this concentrated action, for the first time in US history, was rewarded with the right to free organization above the enterprise and the right to collectively bargain over tariffs. Further, the maximum working day and the lowest wages were agreed upon, and the labor of children under 16 years of age was completely prohibited.

The union's decisive step towards a welfare state was marked by the Social Security Act of 1935, which introduced unemployment insurance and old-age pensions. But Social Security's beginnings were extremely modest. Almost half of Americans were still unable to benefit from the already meager benefits. Health insurance was not introduced. The New Deal legislation, however, still determines the dual structure of federal-state social policy today. Both basic principles of the welfare state, contribution-financed social insurance and tax-financed social assistance or social security, have their roots in the 1930s.

It is still debatable how successful the New Deal was. It is true that the New Deal was able to alleviate, but not eliminate, unemployment and poverty, and socio-political laws did not go beyond modest beginnings. Only the war brought full employment and record-breaking production. Disorganized groups and socially declassed minorities, as well as blacks, remained on the margins of the New Deal, unequal patterns of opportunity and income changed little, and monopolies and concerns lost influence but not size. No one knew the limits of the New Deal better than Roosevelt himself, because in his second term he proclaimed a struggle against the poverty of the lower third of the nation. What he did not achieve depended not on him, but on the insurmountable barriers that the political-economic system The United States has posed even challenges to strong presidents.His two severe domestic political defeats, the attempt to reorganize the Supreme Court, which resisted the centralizing tendencies of the New Deal, and the exclusion of the conservative opposition from his own party after a remarkable victory in the elections of 1936 are striking examples of this. Both attempts, which Roosevelt believed would secure and advance the New Deal failed because he overestimated the capabilities and power of the President.

The decisive point was that Roosevelt gave new hope to a disheartened, unsure and directionless nation. The only thing the nation had to fear, as he declared upon his inauguration, was fear itself.

Interdependence, understood as the mutual dependence of all sections of the American people, was a central concept in domestic political thinking; interdependence, understood as the mutual dependence of all states of the world, was a central concept in Roosevelt's foreign policy thinking. The United States must not isolate itself from the rest of the world, because the future security and common good of the country are inextricably linked to the fate of Europe and Asia. True, in order to be elected and not lose domestic political support for the “new course,” Roosevelt was forced in the 30s to make concessions to the prevailing isolationist sentiment in the United States, which, under any circumstances, wanted to protect America from a new war in Europe and Asia. But the limitation of isolation He never shared national interests in the Western Hemisphere and half of the Pacific Ocean. His internationalist worldview led him, due to the expansive foreign policies of Germany, Italy and Japan in 1941, to a dilemma from which he was freed only thanks to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and the declaration of Hitler US wars.

During the 1930s, there was growing concern in the United States that perhaps the supposed "Trojan horse" of the NSRPG in the United States, the Alliance of Friends of the New Germany, would threaten US internal security. At the same time, fears grew that the foreign policy of the Third Reich posed a threat to world peace. This double fear did not lead to a preventive interventionist policy in Europe, but, on the contrary, to an increase in the isolationist mood of the American people in view of these signals of the danger of isolating themselves even more decisively from Europe. Traditional foreign policy prescriptions, the supposed lessons from the failed "crusade" of 1917-18, and a narrow understanding of US national interests were the most important determinants of American foreign policy until the outbreak of the European War in 1939. What Hitler tried in vain to achieve in 1940 with the Three Power Pact, the attack on the Soviet Union in 1941 and the alliance with Japan - namely, to keep America away from Europe and scared back into the Western Hemisphere - the American Congress did itself by passing the Neutrality Act. . The international political situation began to develop in the opposite direction. At a time when aggression and expansion were increasing in Europe and Asia, Congress, with the Neutrality Acts of 1935 and 1937, added to the list of foreign policy activities prohibited for the Roosevelt government during periods of war and crisis. At the level of official foreign policy, supported by Congress, legislation and public opinion, Roosevelt was, at the outbreak of the European war in 1939, an unarmed prophet of infinitesimal magnitude, and as such he was treated accordingly by Hitler.

Roosevelt knew all too well that he would win freedom of action and the ability to act in world politics to the extent that he could change the “threat sense,” the American people’s perception of the threat potential of National Socialist Germany and the United States. He had to explain and demonstrate to the American people that limiting national interests to the Western Hemisphere, isolating itself in Fortress America and leaving events in Eurasia to their own course is a dangerous illusion for the United States. Preparedness—industrial, economic, and psychological preparation for possible war—was the overriding goal of his foreign policy until 1941. In this sense, foreign policy was largely domestic.

Methodologically and institutionally, Roosevelt was extremely skillful. To avoid being suspected of spreading his worldview through government propaganda, which would only strengthen the accusation that Roosevelt's haters wanted to make himself the "dictator of America," he relied, as in the New Deal years, on an informal but extremely effective strategy . In the White House, in numerous ministries and agencies, so-called “information departments” were created, which supposedly had only one goal - to inform the American people about the international situation. After the French incident in 1940, Hollywood, a large number of documentary and newsreel studios, radio stations, newspapers and magazines cooperated with the government to force isolationists and non-interventionists to go on the defensive. In this educational campaign, Roosevelt developed his internationalist vision of the world, the basic views on the future role of the United States in the world. And on this fundamental level, Roosevelt was extremely constant, he was neither a consoler, nor a juggler, nor an opportunist, nor a swindler who, by promising not to go to war, only dragged the United States into it - all this was only on a tactical level. In the domestic political conflict with the isolationists, he deployed the dialectic of US globalism in its both components: a warning against the world domination of the enemy and a global definition of US national interests, namely, in relation to the content and scope of the national interest.

He shared the view of Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and naval strategist Alfred Thayer Mahan that the balance of power on the European continent was a vital interest for the United States. Along with Woodrow Wilson, he believed in the ideal of “that kind of peace,” in which the self-determination of a nation and the principles of collective security should guarantee peace. With his Foreign Secretary, Cordell Hull, he shared the belief that only a free world economy could produce the goods and services needed to maintain world peace in the long term. Hitler and the "Third Reich" clearly threatened everything at once: the balance of power in Europe, world peace and a free world economy. Therefore, Roosevelt framed his warnings, his globalism, as a triple warning of the future.

With every military success of the aggressors in Europe and Asia, according to the president and his supporters, a future was approaching, the implementation of which would mean disaster for the American economy: the victory of Hitler and Mussolini in Europe, Japan in the Far East would force both regions to a system almost independent of imports , a planned economy, which would mean the end of the liberal, indivisible world market and a serious threat to the American economic and social system. If the United States and its allies lose control of the world's oceans, according to Roosevelt, it could be used by the Axis powers to attack the Western Hemisphere. But control of the seas cannot be exercised only by the US fleet; it is possible only if the Axis powers do not dominate in Europe and Asia and it is possible to have the shipbuilding capacities of two continents. France, the British Empire and China, and from mid-1941 the Soviet Union, must be supported because they indirectly protect the United States.

Moreover, the approaching war had a moral dimension for Roosevelt even before the mass destruction. For him it was a crusade to defend freedom from aggressors and dictators. Almost obsessively repeating, Roosevelt constantly explained: the right of peoples to free self-determination and the duty of states to submit in international politics to the principles of international law are inseparable. Violence and aggression as a means of changing the status quo are illegal. Even before 1941, he interpreted the war as an epochal struggle for the future image of the world between aggressors and peaceful nations, between liberal democracy and barbarism, between citizens and criminals, between good and evil. For Roosevelt there could be no peace with the aggressors. The worst possibility, from his point of view, was a "super-Munich" in Europe and Asia, which would give Hitler a free hand for his racial empire in Europe, and the Japanese for their empire in East Asia. While he took into account public opinion and Congress until the fall of 1941 adhered to the fiction that the measures provided by the United States to its allies should protect the country itself from war, Roosevelt knew even before Pearl Harbor that the United States had to go in. However, the assertion that he was informed in advance of the attack the Japanese to the Pacific Fleet and deliberately did not take any measures, belongs to the realm of legends.

With the entry of the United States into the war, the 61-year-old Roosevelt faced challenges that sapped his strength so that, from 1944, physical destruction was visible to everyone. In addition, there was the transition to a war economy, military and allied-political problems of the “grand coalition” against the powers of the “Wasp” and Japan, the new diplomacy of conferences in the war, Roosevelt’s selflessly fulfilled role as commander in chief of all American armed forces, since 1943, problems of relations with enemy states after the expected victory, which he tried to postpone for a long time and, finally, the big question of how to create a lasting peaceful order after this second world war. Roosevelt was forced to solve all these problems, constantly making excuses to a society that did not give the president freedom of action even in war, but at the same time left the institutions of criticism to exist. Public opinion. Congress, party-political contradictions between Democrats and Republicans, and finally, the presidential election of 1944 remained during the war as factors that Roosevelt had to take into account in word and deed. In this respect, he was more dependent than Winston Churchill, not to mention Stalin and Hitler.

Along with the variety of problems, their global scale was also evident. During the war, what Roosevelt had formulated back in 1941 was at work with greater force: the tasks of American foreign policy are so enormous and intertwined with each other that every attempt to even imagine them forces him to think of two continents and seven seas. In the World War, the United States, as Roosevelt predicted, became the "arsenal of democracy." In 1943 and 1944, the country produced 40% of all military goods in the world. Both the main enemies Germany, Japan and Italy, and the main allies England and the British Empire, the Soviet Union and China forced Roosevelt to think on a global scale. Major decisions in Europe were made with Asia in mind, and vice versa. Hitler's Germany was the main enemy number one, however, since the looming defeat, it played a less significant role in the president's plans for the future.

Two days before Pearl Harbor, Roosevelt ended a fireside chat with the hopeful phrase: “We will win the war, and we will win the peace.” But during the war, for him the second goal was subordinated to the first. Roosevelt's foreign policy in the war was, first of all, a policy for its successful completion. The highest military and political goals were identical, namely the destruction of the enemy, although the President took very seriously the principles for the future of peace, which he proclaimed back in January 1940 in an address to Congress and clarified in August 1941 at a meeting with the British Prime Minister Winston Churchill off the coast of Newfoundland in the Atlantic Charter. From this, for Roosevelt, it followed as basic principles of action - to oblige his alliance partners before the public to the implementation of these general principles and to prevent possible political conflicts on specific issues of the post-war order, such as borders and reparations, from blowing up the larger Anglo-Saxon- Soviet-Chinese coalition. In case of conflict, these general principles should have been invoked, compromises made, or controversial decisions postponed until victory was achieved.

Roosevelt's policy towards the Soviet Union, often criticized after 1945, had no alternative. He needed the Soviet Union because Roosevelt would fight and win the American War, that is, with unprecedented use of technology and relatively few casualties. The US needed Russian soldiers to defeat German and Japanese forces. For every American who died in the war, 15 Germans and 53 Russians died. Already in 1942, Roosevelt knew "that the Russian army would kill more people of the Axis powers and destroy more military equipment than all 25 united nations combined." The inevitable conclusion followed from this that the power and influence of the Soviet Union after a joint victory would be incomparably greater than in 1939. No one could prevent victory in World War II from making the Soviet Union a Euro-Asian world power, and as a consequence, after the most murderous war in history, the world would depend on cooperation with the Soviet Union. It was impossible to escape this logic of power, which Roosevelt and Churchill understood very clearly. But at the beginning of this causal chain stood Hitler.

Roosevelt's illusion was the belief that, with all the recognition of the Soviet Union's security needs, cooperation with the Atlantic Charter could be achieved on American terms. He did not understand that the imperial-hegemonic need of the Soviet Union for security did not go so far in Eastern and Southern Europe as to encroach on the international legal independence of these states and annex them to the union of states of the USSR, that from the very beginning it was aimed at to break the independent will of these states through transformation into “anti-fascist democracies of a new type,” into “people's democracies,” which, in Soviet opinion, represented an intermediate step on the path to the dictatorship of the proletariat.

Sources do not answer the question whether the skeptical Roosevelt continued to hope in the last months before his death, contrary to all expectations, or whether, taking into account the public opinion of his country after the Yalta conference (February 4-11, 1945), he was only pretending that believes in common goals among allies so as not to jeopardize US entry into the United Nations.

Objectively, however, immediately after his death due to a cerebral hemorrhage on April 12, 1945, everything that Roosevelt wanted to achieve simultaneously fell apart: political cooperation with the Soviet Union "and the American vision of a better world. He also could not combine realistic and idealistic components American foreign policy, power and imagination One could speak of tragedy if these categories were not deeply at odds with Roosevelt's unshakable optimism and healthy faith in the progress of the New World.

Roosevelt Franklin Delano was born in Hyde Park on January 30, 1882. His family was from a rich old family. One American president, T. Roosevelt, has already emerged from it. From a young age, he already knew what he wanted and prepared himself for a career.
Having received one of the best legal educations of the time (he studied at universities such as Harvard and Columbia) in 1905, he meets a girl from his circle and soon marries her. Persistently making his way to the White House, he follows his dream. In 1910 he was elected to the New York State Senate. Working as an employee and assistant to the Secretary of the Navy from 1913 to 1920. he proposes his candidacy for the post of vice president and in this endeavor he is supported by the Democratic Party. But not everything is so smooth on his life’s path; almost at the height of his political career, Roosevelt was struck by paralysis. But this terrible disease did not break the novice politician, and he spent six long years fighting the disease.

In 1928 Despite being in a wheelchair, Delano again appears before the voters and becomes governor of New York. The country is plunging into the Great Depression, a huge number of suicides are occurring, people losing their jobs are losing faith in their future, and the image of a crippled governor was supposed to give people faith in themselves and their strengths. Despite everything, Roosevelt had brilliant oratory and was a talented journalist. He reviewed American history and became convinced himself and began to convince others that the state is obliged and can help everyone. He became a symbol for people - a man who tried to unite all Americans together for the victory of the country, which would conclude a new social contract or “new deal”.

Roosevelt called on people from the podium to believe in themselves and believe in the personal responsibility of each person, not to lose faith in American institutions and, first of all, to believe in themselves and still recognize the new terms of the old contract. In 1932, as an unprecedented and terrible economic crisis begins in the country, the people begin to become disillusioned with the weak ruling Republican party, which cannot take effective measures to solve the problems of this tragedy. Against this favorable background for Roosevelt, he nominates his candidacy for president of America. In March 1933, when he assumed the presidency of America, he realized that the country was crushed by a financial catastrophe, and if measures were not taken, an inevitable revolution awaited it. Congress entrusts the head of government with emergency powers; it should be noted that the president did not have such powers, even while waging war with other states. In just a paltry 11 days, the newly-minted president and like-minded people who supported him passed through Congress many of the laws the country needed than in all the many previous years, starting with.
He creates a comprehensive reform for the state's economy called the New Deal in just 100 days.
In 1936, he leads America out of its worst economic and financial crisis and is elected president again with 62 percent of the vote. After becoming president for another term, Roosevelt continued his improvements in the economic sphere, he drafted and passed a law on fair and proper hiring of labor and passed laws that prevent corporations from robbing the people.
In 1940, Roosevelt was elected president for a third term and spent all his energy on settling foreign policy; he had to do this because America was on the threshold. The stable neutrality and non-interference position towards Italian fascism, German Nazism and Japanese militarism was shaken, even when the fascists captured Paris and began bombing London. Everything changed on December 7, 1941 - Japanese invaders attacked Pearl Harbor. Roosevelt makes a strong-willed decision and enters the war. While waging war against the Japanese, he entered into negotiations with I.V. Stalin and created an anti-Hitler coalition. Roosevelt, as an energetic and competent strategist, creates a powerful military machine, which allows his country to emerge from this bloody war with minimal losses.
On April 12, 1945, less than a month before the surrender of Nazi Germany, Roosevelt Franklin Delano, the 32nd president of America, three times elected to this post, died in Warm Springs, Georgia.

To this day, the name of the 32nd American President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who founded the Institute of the Presidency and created the New Deal, enjoys respect and honor. Outside the United States, he is mentioned as one of the heads of state of the post-war arrangement of world politics. Franklin Roosevelt showed the principles of political activity, showing the world the image of a purposeful and judicious diplomat. Although the life of the 32nd American president was extremely rich in politics, on the personal front, everything was full of bright colors. Interesting facts about Franklin Roosevelt will be presented to your attention in the article.

Early years

A future diplomat was born in an old family estate in New York. A significant event occurred on January 30, 1882. Luck accompanied him from birth, because Franklin Delano Roosevelt had not only loving parents, but also those with weight in the aristocratic circles of the New World. His father belonged to an old Dutch family, and his mother was one of the offspring of French Huguenots - European settlers. James Roosevelt was a successful businessman who owned coal mining and transportation companies. There was a significant age difference between the parents, but this did not stop them from becoming truly happy. After the birth of their common baby, the mother started a diary, where she wrote down the most impressive moments from her son’s life. The Roosevelts traveled a lot, so Franklin had no shortage of new experiences since childhood. They especially loved going to the coast of Maine to take a ride on one of their own yachts.

Franklin's parents instilled in him a passion for philately, which he retained throughout his life. The boy looked at the stamps with pleasure and sorted them into albums. He had a habit of spending several hours before going to bed communicating only with his favorite brands, so he mentally traveled to different countries. Thanks to this hobby, he acquired excellent knowledge of geography. Parents often traveled to other countries on business, but did not forget to send their child new batches of stamps.

Since childhood, Franklin Roosevelt (you already know the place and date of birth) received an excellent education at home. He studied with governesses for several hours a day, and while traveling he learned to communicate with the local population. Although Roosevelt lived in a cozy family estate until the age of 14, this did not stop him from joining the staff of the best school in Groton, where he was sent to receive his secondary education.

Time to gain knowledge

A boarding school for gifted children operated in Massachusetts. Here, a talented young man based on his level of knowledge was immediately invited to the third grade. The guy not only mastered new subjects, but also learned to act in relation to life’s postulates, which became the key to his future brilliant career.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt did not forget to write touching letters to his mother from school. In the next letter, she was surprised to read that her boy received a “failure.” He was very happy about such a low grade; he needed it to feel the school corporate spirit. According to the unwritten rules, it is bad form to have only high scores. The future diplomat himself controlled his own academic performance. There were just enough twos to feel unity with the school fraternity, but not to get on the carpet with the director.

After completing Groton, the talented guy is invited to Harvard, then Columbia University opens its doors wide to him. While studying at Harvard, Franklin became interested in journalism and edited the student newspaper. He gained fame among his peers after the publication of his interview with Theodore Roosevelt. Although it was not difficult to get an interview with the president, because he was a close relative of Franklin.

successful marriage

Franklin had known Theodore Roosevelt's niece Eleanor since childhood. Her grandmother was involved in her upbringing, who sent her granddaughter to study at Allenswood Academy, where girls were raised to be real ladies. Eleanor dreamed of continuing her studies, but at the age of 17 she had to return to New York and join social life. At one of the public events, the girl met Franklin again, and the proposal to marry came from the young man already in 1903. Roosevelt's mother tried to separate the young lovers and asked to postpone the engagement for a while, but in 1905 they entered into a legal marriage.

The vicissitudes of family life

The couple had one girl and five boys, although one of them died before the age of one. Eleanor admitted that she did not have tender feelings for the kids, so the children were raised by Sarah Roosevelt, Franklin's mother. After moving to Washington, a completely different life began: visits, calls, acquaintances, receptions. Eleanor tries her best to be useful to her husband, conducts his correspondence, but is very tired. The fatal decision was to hire an assistant, who became almost a member of the family. Lucy Mercer became not only Franklin's secretary, but also Franklin's mistress. Lucy fascinated men with her article, as well as her beautiful velvet voice. Roosevelt liked this type of woman, so he goes on one of his trips with an attractive secretary. One day he fell ill with pneumonia, and his wife decided to sort out his mail. Among the heap of correspondence, several letters from Lucy were discovered containing very piquant details. Eleanor decided to immediately dissolve the marriage, which she announced to her husband and mother-in-law. But a divorce would definitely interfere with a successful career, so for the common good it was decided not to destroy the family. The only condition that Eleanor set was the dismissal of Lucy Mercer. Roosevelt broke up with his mistress, but the former trust with his wife could no longer be restored. A wall grew between the spouses, although they maintained a political partnership. Eleanor was engaged in social activities, worked as a translator at the International Congress of Working Women, participated in the trade union movement, and studied public speaking.

Detailed action plan

Franklin Roosevelt, whose biography was not always cloudless, decided to act throughout his future life according to a plan drawn up for the next 25 years. And he managed to accomplish almost everything. He always aspired to get into politics, and life itself provided him with a chance to show himself. The lawyer was offered the position of senator of the legislature in the state of New York. Franklin confidently wins the local elections and becomes a representative of the Democratic Party in local government. In 1911, he accepted an offer to join the Masonic lodge, where he eventually reached the 32nd degree of the Scottish Rite. A year later he becomes Deputy Minister of the Navy. Supports the policies of the President from the Democratic Party, helps to strengthen the combat capability of ships, and is involved in strengthening the position of the US Air Force flotilla.

Tragic events in the biography of Franklin Roosevelt

The next years in Roosevelt's life, one failure followed another. First, failure in the New York State gubernatorial elections. Then a serious illness. This happened in August 1921. Franklin Roosevelt's biography indicates that he and his sons decided to go on a yacht. They noticed a fire on one of the islands and had to moor to help put it out. The decision to swim became fatal for Roosevelt. The next morning he felt so bad that any movement caused hellish pain. The doctors' diagnosis sounded like a death sentence - “poliomyelitis”. The outstanding politician lost the ability to walk, but circumstances and illness could not break his energetic nature. One day, his close friend said: “Franklin was able to so effectively lead the country out of the crisis because he was not distracted by running around at rallies, but did his job without haste.”

A country under the leadership of a new president

Roosevelt's career developed during the First World War. Any other politician was unsettled by illness and limited opportunities, but not such an ambitious person. Franklin Roosevelt's disability did not prevent him from winning the race for governor of New York, and four years later from winning the presidential race. Some spiteful critics explain this success with the promise to abolish Prohibition, but the facts remain facts - voters in 43 out of 48 states voted for the New Deal. The country was on the verge of destruction, and the Great Depression set in. In his election campaign, New York Governor Franklin Roosevelt promised that he would bring the economy out of its doldrums and approve specific measures to eliminate poverty and unemployment. The country was experiencing a crisis of overproduction, when all warehouses were filled to capacity with unsold agricultural goods, and on the streets people fainted from hunger. Several deaths from starvation had been recorded by the time Roosevelt became president.

Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal

In his first hundred days as president, the main directions of action for the New Deal were developed. Never before have presidents issued so many laws simultaneously in order to bring the country out of a critical state in a short time. Roosevelt creates his own think tank, consisting of the most educated professors. White House departments are operating at their limits.

Thanks to the introduction of new bills, trade union rights were significantly expanded, child labor was prohibited, and clear standards for the length of the working week were established. Workers received paid sick leave during illness, and pensioners received social support. Unemployment had reached a critical level of 14%, and an intelligent decision had to be made. President Roosevelt proposed using the unemployed in the social sphere, so bridges began to be built, roads and airports were built. People were able to survive in difficult times, and also received, albeit small, social insurance.

Criticism of opponents

Not all politicians were willing to speak out in support of the New Deal. US President Roosevelt received a barrage of criticism from the press. He was credited with harsh interference in the economy and excessive legislative initiative. Although opponents made angry speeches for a long time, the fact remains: Roosevelt was able to lead his country out of the Great Depression, when the United States had almost no chance of recovery. If we apply competent leadership and plan clear steps to restore the economy, we can save the country's banking system from collapse, and save millions of people from languishing in poverty.

Fireside chats

The “Fireside Conversations”, known among the common people, became a tradition. A wonderful person and politician, Franklin Roosevelt wanted to become closer to his voters, so he regularly recorded radio messages to the Americans. He tried to explain all his actions in accessible language so that people understood the direction of his political steps. It was not for nothing that the Americans began to call him the people's president, and his support in the elections was a clear confirmation of this. During the crisis, Franklin tried to live the lifestyle of ordinary people. Regarding the proclaimed policy of economy, he ordered himself a breakfast that cost 19 cents. Although the president was considered a recognized gourmet, he ate what other Americans did.

President Roosevelt promises to once again continue to promote the principles of the New Deal, so he wins the presidential election in 1936. The second term was marked by the advancement of the stated program. The President issues a law creating a housing authority and also approves a minimum wage for workers.

Military action - the principle of non-intervention

Back in 1933, diplomatic recognition of the Soviet Union was announced. A good neighbor policy towards Latin American countries was also proclaimed in order to strengthen collective security.

In 1939, US President Franklin Roosevelt named the aggressor countries, pointing to Germany, Italy and Japan. A couple of years later, he seeks increased funding for the army and navy.

The year 1940 marked Roosevelt's third victory in the presidential election. An unprecedented event occurred in US history. American aid to Britain is increased to support it during World War II. The Soviet Union itself also receives, according to the Lend-Lease agreement, an interest-free loan amounting to $1 billion.

Roosevelt's policy was to delay US involvement in large-scale military action. The President decided to limit himself to cash injections and the supply of weapons. He continues to conduct diplomatic negotiations with the Japanese government, but the aggressor country has not made concessions. Roosevelt did not expect a swift attack on Pearl Harbor, so the next day, together with Great Britain, the United States declares war on Japan. Regarding the constitution, the president began to fulfill the obligations of the commander-in-chief for the duration of hostilities.

It was Franklin Roosevelt who proposed the creation of an international organization consisting of Great Britain, the USA, China and the USSR, which would maintain peace.

Roosevelt was elected to a fourth term in 1944. He took part in the Crimea Conference in 1945, making a significant contribution to discussions about future cooperation between world leaders. The politician spoke in favor of cooperation between the USA and the USSR and the development of military operations by Soviet troops on Japanese territory. After the trip, the president decides to continue to engage in government affairs, because he had a United Nations conference planned in San Francisco ahead.

Death of the People's President

The US President had been ill for a very long time, but his death came as a surprise. Franklin Roosevelt was at his estate in Warm Springs. He wanted to look through the stamp collection again, then he called Washington to remind him about the release of new stamps in connection with the upcoming conference in San Francisco. Roosevelt was immersed in reading, and a visiting artist painted his portrait. Suddenly the president turned pale and complained of a headache. A minute later he lost consciousness, and two hours later, on April 12, 1945, Franklin Roosevelt died. Doctors diagnosed a cerebral hemorrhage. This is how the biography of Franklin Roosevelt, the 32nd President of the United States, ended tragically.