The newspaper was established on the initiative of the Communist Party general secretary Maurice Thorez in order to compete with Paris-soir.

The big names in left-wing journalism follow one another to describe and illustrate the struggles on the Republican faction.

Among them were Édith Thomas, Andrée Viollis, Simone Téry, already mentioned and Louis Parrot, Stéphane Manier, Georges Soria, Renaud de Jouvenel.

Special Envoys of Ce soir were photographers who would later become famous for their coverage of the Spanish Civil War, Gerda Taro, who was killed in the Battle of Brunete in July 1937, Robert Capa and Chim, aka David Seymour.

After the eviction of Communist ministers and the beginnings of the Cold War, gradually there was a call into questioning the existence of the newspaper, whose administration was similar with that of L'Humanité.