Tempered by the fire of the war of independence, the Algerian state emerged in 1962, gloriously dazzling in a mythical postcolonial glow, and imbued with considerable third-worldist prestige. In this context, political opposition movements to the National Liberation Front (FLN) were faced with the challenge of opposing the first Algerian regime, while still supporting the nationalist project of constructing the state. This paper will examine what discourse communist opposition developed in order to position their movement both in support of “state building” as well as of the socialist orientation of the Ben Bella and Boumediene regime, and in opposition to the government’s repressive policies. Branded “soutien critique” [critical support] by their critics, this complex positioning was necessary both due to the international context, and because of the specificities of the Algerian post-colonial and post-war situation. The communist party, in the shape of the Parti de l’Avant-Garde Socialiste (PAGS), was therefore an underground party from the moment it was created, in 1966, while at the same time, organizing and invigorating mass movements throughout the 1960s and 1970s. Based on interviews undertaken with former activists over the past three years and the collection of party documents retained by individuals, during the same period, the paper will also allow for an examination of the more recent filters that construct militant discourse regarding the 1960s and 1970s. In particular, it will focus on the democratization that occurred between 1988 and 1992, as well as the civil war that followed, and how these events questioned actors’ relation to the nation, and the way of narrating their past in that respect. Thus, I will discuss the very possibility of opposing the FLN regime for PAGS members. My line of analysis interrogates the underlying and/or explicit definition of the nation supposedly sealed in 1962, a definition that has evolved along with the changing meaning of the event of 1962 over time.