child (his elder sister, Jacqueline, died in infancy nearly ten years before his birth). He was educated in Paris at the , a private school. He then attended the and the . After his , behind his father's back he went off to serve for three months as a sailor on a coal-transport. Chirac played rugby union for Brive's youth team, and also played at university level. He played no. 8 and second row. At age 18, his ambition was to become a ship's captain. Education and early career At age 16, Chirac wanted to learn Sanskrit and found a White Russian Sanskrit teacher in Paris who ended up teaching him Russian; by age 17 Chirac was almost fluent in Russian. Inspired by Charles de Gaulle, Chirac started to pursue a civil service career in the 1950s. During this period, he joined the French Communist Party, sold copies of , and took part in meetings of a communist cell. In 1950, he signed the Soviet-inspired Stockholm Appeal for the abolition of nuclear weapons – which led him to be questioned when he applied for his first visa to the United States. In 1953, after graduating from the , he attended a non-credit course at Harvard University's summer school, before entering the , which trains France's top civil servants, in 1957. In the United States, Chirac worked at Anheuser-Busch in St. Louis, Missouri. Chirac trained as a reserve military officer in armoured cavalry at Saumur. He then volunteered to fight in the Algerian War, using personal connections to be sent despite the reservations of his superiors. His superiors did not want to make him an officer because they suspected he had communist leanings. In 1965, he became an auditor in the Court of Auditors. Early political career The "Bulldozer": 1962–1971 In April 1962, Chirac was appointed head of the personal staff of Prime Minister Georges Pompidou. This appointment launched Chirac's political career. Pompidou considered Chirac his protégé, and referred to him as "my bulldozer" for his skill at getting things done. The nickname caught on in French political circles, where it also referred to his abrasive manner. As late as the 1988 presidential election, Chirac maintained this reputation. At Pompidou's suggestion, Chirac ran as a Gaullist for a seat in the National Assembly in 1967. He was elected deputy for his home Corrèze , a stronghold of the left. This surprising