BOKANOWSKI, MAURICE

BOKANOWSKI, MAURICE (1879–1928), French politician. Born in Le Havre into a family of Russian immigrants, Bokanowski studied law in Paris. In 1914 he was elected to the Chamber of Deputies and on the outbreak of World War I joined the French infantry. After the war he was reelected to the Chamber and became a member of the trade and finance commissions. He was appointed minister for the navy in 1924 and from 1926 to 1927 was minister of commerce and industry, signing France's first commercial treaty with Germany after World War I. He was killed in an airplane accident in 1928 and was given a state funeral. -BIBLIOGRAPHY: Dictionnaire de biographie française, 6 (1954), 879–80. (Shulamith Catane)