The Durruti Column (
Spanish
Spanish might refer to:
* Items from or related to Spain:
**Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain
**Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries
**Spanish cuisine
Other places
* Spanish, Ontario, Cana ...
: ''Columna Durruti''), with about 6,000 people, was the largest
anarchist
Anarchism is a political philosophy and movement that is skeptical of all justifications for authority and seeks to abolish the institutions it claims maintain unnecessary coercion and hierarchy, typically including, though not neces ...
column (or military unit) formed during the
Spanish Civil War
The Spanish Civil War ( es, Guerra Civil Española)) or The Revolution ( es, La Revolución, link=no) among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War ( es, Cuarta Guerra Carlista, link=no) among Carlists, and The Rebellion ( es, La Rebelión, lin ...
. During the first months of the war, it became the most recognized and popular military organisation fighting against
Franco
Franco may refer to:
Name
* Franco (name)
* Francisco Franco (1892–1975), Spanish general and dictator of Spain from 1939 to 1975
* Franco Luambo (1938–1989), Congolese musician, the "Grand Maître"
Prefix
* Franco, a prefix used when ref ...
, and it is a symbol of the Spanish anarchist movement and its struggle to create an egalitarian society with elements of individualism and collectivism. The column included people from all over the world. Philosopher
Simone Weil
Simone Adolphine Weil ( , ; 3 February 1909 – 24 August 1943) was a French philosopher, mystic, and political activist. Over 2,500 scholarly works have been published about her, including close analyses and readings of her work, since 1995.
...
fought alongside
Buenaventura Durruti
José Buenaventura Durruti Dumange (14 July 1896 – 20 November 1936) was a Spanish insurrectionary, anarcho-syndicalist militant involved with the CNT and FAI in the periods before and during the Spanish Civil War. Durruti played an in ...
in the Durruti Column, and her memories and experiences from the war can be found in her book, ''Écrits historiques et politiques''. The Durruti Column was militarised in 1937, becoming part of the
26th Division on 28 April.
History
Formation
The column was formed in
Barcelona
Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...
where, on 18 July 1936, the anarchists started fighting against
General Goded and his armies. The republican government had done nothing to protect the city from the rebellious army under the command of
General Franco
Francisco Franco Bahamonde (; 4 December 1892 – 20 November 1975) was a Spanish general who led the Nationalist forces in overthrowing the Second Spanish Republic during the Spanish Civil War and thereafter ruled over Spain from 193 ...
; Barcelona was left undefended. Fearing attack, the anarchist and communist organisations such as
CNT-FAI along with
Unión General de Trabajadores
The Unión General de Trabajadores (UGT, General Union of Workers) is a major Spanish trade union, historically affiliated with the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE).
History
The UGT was founded 12 August 1888 by Pablo Iglesias Posse ...
(UGT), the Workers' Party of Marxist Unification ("Partit Obrer d'Unificació Marxista",
POUM
The Workers' Party of Marxist Unification ( es, Partido Obrero de Unificación Marxista, POUM; ca, Partit Obrer d'Unificació Marxista) was a Spanish communist party formed during the Second Spanish Republic, Second Republic and mainly active a ...
) and the
Unified Socialist Party of Catalonia
The Unified Socialist Party of Catalonia ( ca, Partit Socialista Unificat de Catalunya, PSUC) was a communist political party active in Catalonia between 1936 and 1997. It was the Catalan branch of the Communist Party of Spain and the only party n ...
("Partit Socialista Unificat de Catalunya", PSUC) organised themselves into militia units and took weapons from the arsenals with the support of the people responsible for the arsenals, mostly non-commissioned officers. The anarchists, under the command of
Buenaventura Durruti
José Buenaventura Durruti Dumange (14 July 1896 – 20 November 1936) was a Spanish insurrectionary, anarcho-syndicalist militant involved with the CNT and FAI in the periods before and during the Spanish Civil War. Durruti played an in ...
, one of the most popular leaders of
Federación Anarquista Ibérica
The Iberian Anarchist Federation ( es, Federación Anarquista Ibérica, FAI) is a Spanish organization of anarchist militants active within affinity groups in the Confederación Nacional del Trabajo (CNT) anarcho-syndicalist union. It is often ...
attacked the Atarazanas/Drassanes barracks. Later on, the headquarters of the Durruti Column was attacked at
Bujaraloz
Bujaraloz is a municipality located in the province of Zaragoza, Aragon, Spain. According to the 2004 census (INE), the municipality has a population of 1,002 inhabitants.
See also
*Monegros
*List of municipalities in Zaragoza
This is a list o ...
, halfway between Barcelona and Madrid.
On 20 July 1936, Durruti and other anarchists such as
Juan García Oliver
Joan Garcia i Oliver (1901–1980) was a Catalan anarcho-syndicalist revolutionary and Minister of Justice of the Second Spanish Republic. He was a leading figure of anarchism in Spain.
Career Childhood and family
Joan Garcia i Oliver was ...
and
Diego Abad de Santillán
Diego Abad de Santillán (20 May 1897 – 18 October 1983), also known as his born name Sinesio Baudilio García Fernández, was an anarcho-syndicalist activist and economist.
Selected works
* ''After the Revolution: Economic Reconstructi ...
, participated in a meeting with
Lluis Companys
Luis is a given name. It is the Spanish form of the originally Germanic name or . Other Iberian Romance languages have comparable forms: (with an accent mark on the i) in Portuguese and Galician, in Aragonese and Catalan, while is archaic ...
, the
President of Catalonia
The President of the Government of Catalonia ( ca, President de la Generalitat de Catalunya, ) is one of the bodies that the Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia stipulates as part of the Generalitat de Catalunya, others being the Parliament, the gov ...
. The next day, as the outcome of that meeting, they formed with other leftist organisations
The Central Committee of the Antifascist Militias. Despite being in the majority they took only one third of the committee's seats. The committee was responsible for supplying and coordination of the actions different militias. After some time, it became dominated by the communists.
Advance
Intending to take
Catalonia
Catalonia (; ca, Catalunya ; Aranese Occitan: ''Catalonha'' ; es, Cataluña ) is an autonomous community of Spain, designated as a ''nationality'' by its Statute of Autonomy.
Most of the territory (except the Val d'Aran) lies on the north ...
back from the Francoists, Durruti and his column headed toward
Zaragoza
Zaragoza, also known in English as Saragossa,''Encyclopædia Britannica'"Zaragoza (conventional Saragossa)" is the capital city of the Zaragoza Province and of the autonomous community of Aragon, Spain. It lies by the Ebro river and its tributari ...
, which was controlled by General
Emilio Mola
Emilio Mola y Vidal, 1st Duke of Mola, Grandee of Spain (9 July 1887 – 3 June 1937) was one of the three leaders of the Nationalist coup of July 1936, which started the Spanish Civil War.
After the death of Sanjurjo on 20 July 1936, M ...
. They fought their first battle in
Caspe
Caspe is a municipality in the province of Zaragoza, part of the autonomous community of Aragon (Spain), seat of the comarca Bajo Aragón-Caspe. As of 2018 it had a population of 9,525 inhabitants (INE 2018) and its municipality, of 503.33&n ...
, a city located about 100 kilometers southeast of Zaragoza. There they were joined by a small group of militiamen commanded by Captain Negrete from Guardia Civil. As Durruti left Barcelona, there were about 2,500 people in the column, and before they got to Zaragoza their number had increased to 6,000. The advance stopped near the city banks because Durruti became convinced by Colonel Villalba, the leader of all the republican forces, that if he reclaimed Zaragoza, he may become isolated from the rest of the fighters. Nowadays it is doubted if that was a good decision since the republican forces were greater in number; however, some state that in the event of open battle a lack of weapons and supplies could have led to total disaster. Durruti made his temporary headquarters in Bujaraloz. Waiting for the more convenient moment to attack Zaragoza turned out to be a grave mistake because, in time, Franco's forces became more powerful there and made it impossible to reclaim the city.
The offensive stopped at this point and there was no major battle. Due to the lack of armaments, most of the advances were small and were mostly initiated due to the actions of the column's guerrilla groups. Durruti was concentrating himself on helping the collective.
Death of Durruti
At the beginning of November 1936 Buenaventura Durruti with more than 3,000 people from the column directed themselves to Madrid. At the time the capital of Spain was in grave danger of being overtaken by the fascists and Federica Montseny convinced Durruti to leave Catalonia. His arrival to Madrid strengthened the morale of the inhabitants. He was ordered to defend and then started the offensive at Casa del Campo. Efficient in street battles, the militants had neither enough power nor experience to stand a chance against the disciplined and well-armed army from Morocco. Having suffered huge casualties the Durruti column escaped the battlefield. On 19 November, Durruti was shot and died in a hospital some time later. The origins of the bullet are unknown. Some say it was an action taken by the responsibility of the Soviet special forces, other that it was failure of Durruti's gun. The column was later commanded by
Ricardo Sanz in Madrid and by Lucio Ruano on the Aragon Front.
Coronel Carlos Romero Giménez
Coronel may refer to:
* Archaic and Spanish variant of colonel
* Coronel, Chile, a port city in Chile
* Battle of Coronel off the Chilean coast during World War I
* The World War II German auxiliary cruiser HSK ''Coronel'', see German night fight ...
had disagreements with the anarchists. He asked for Sanz's dismissal and proposed that the Column be dissolved and its men distributed among other units. In January 1937 the new general delegate of the column José Manzana allowed the militarisation of the column which then became part of the 26th Division.
After the Durruti Column
Due to the Soviet forces growing in power, the other militias were organized into regular army and the Durruti Column was transformed into the 26th infantry division.
After the war many of the fighters were either put in prison or executed. Those who survived and escaped to France which right before the World War II experienced rise of nationalist sentiments, were put into concentration camps. After the German invasion of France many of the former anarchist fighters played an important part in the French Resistance. Some managed to escape to different countries of Latin America and stayed there for the rest of their lives, sometimes even organising with the indigenous people mini-anarchist states in the jungle, as did Antonio García Barón.
After the end of the World War II the former republican fighters experienced a huge disappointment. They hoped that the democratic countries would now liberate Spain from Franco's dictatorship. But even Mexico which was one of the most active helpers of the republicans and France after so much help refused to start fighting the dictator. Some of the anarchists, many of them former members of the Durruti Column, decided to organise their own resistance. They had their headquarters in France, many times collaborated with later formed
ETA
Eta (uppercase , lowercase ; grc, ἦτα ''ē̂ta'' or ell, ήτα ''ita'' ) is the seventh letter of the Greek alphabet, representing the close front unrounded vowel . Originally denoting the voiceless glottal fricative in most dialects, ...
and did not stop fighting until the end of the regime.
Collectivisation
The collectivisation of the countryside started right after leaving Barcelona. Even though the column did not stop to liberate as many areas as other columns, due to its size, it created the majority of the libertarian communes. At the beginning there were some acts of violence and some people were forced to join the collectives. But it is said that Durruti himself defended the individualists who did not want to work share their land. Such people were left having as much land as they could cultivate with their families without any hired labour and could always join the collective. Depending on the place, the individualists could have been put under ''more or less stronger'' economical pressure to make them join the commune.
Organization
The simplest combat units were made up of roughly ten to twenty-five individuals who formed a ''"
group
A group is a number of persons or things that are located, gathered, or classed together.
Groups of people
* Cultural group, a group whose members share the same cultural identity
* Ethnic group, a group whose members share the same ethnic iden ...
"'', with a group delegate elected by
direct democracy
Direct democracy or pure democracy is a form of democracy in which the Election#Electorate, electorate decides on policy initiatives without legislator, elected representatives as proxies. This differs from the majority of currently establishe ...
and subject to
recall
Recall may refer to:
* Recall (bugle call), a signal to stop
* Recall (information retrieval), a statistical measure
* ''ReCALL'' (journal), an academic journal about computer-assisted language learning
* Recall (memory)
* ''Recall'' (Overwatch ...
at all times. Groups federated together to form a ''"
century
A century is a period of 100 years. Centuries are numbered ordinally in English and many other languages. The word ''century'' comes from the Latin ''centum'', meaning ''one hundred''. ''Century'' is sometimes abbreviated as c.
A centennial or ...
"'' of about 100 individuals, which also elected its own delegate. Five centuries formed a ''"
grouping
Grouping may refer to:
* Muenchian grouping
* Principles of grouping
* Railways Act 1921, also known as Grouping Act, a reorganisation of the British railway system
* Grouping (firearms), the pattern of multiple shots from a sidearm
See also ...
"'' with their corresponding elected delegate. The sum of the existing groupings gave rise to the column. Its general delegate, liaising with the War Committee, was the French artillery captain named Berthomieu, who died on October 16 during the
Battle of Perdiguera. It also made use of ''"Guerrilla Groups"'', such as 'The Children of the Night', 'The Black Band', 'The Dynamiters' and 'The Metalworkers', which went on missions behind enemy lines.
The Durruti Column is said to be the first anarchist military formation with discipline based on solidarity, not on privileges and hierarchy. All the delegates of all ranks lacked privileges and hierarchical command, the column only obeyed orders to attack certain places.
International Group
The column also had an international group, containing fighters from several countries, including
Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
,
France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...
,
Italy
Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...
,
Morocco
Morocco (),, ) officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is the westernmost country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It overlooks the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to ...
,
Britain
Britain most often refers to:
* The United Kingdom, a sovereign state in Europe comprising the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland and many smaller islands
* Great Britain, the largest island in the United King ...
and the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
. Several centuries contained foreigners:
* The
Sébastien Faure Century
The Durruti Column (Spanish: ''Columna Durruti''), with about 6,000 people, was the largest anarchist column (or military unit) formed during the Spanish Civil War. During the first months of the war, it became the most recognized and popular mil ...
, composed of French and Italians,
* The
Erich Mühsam
Erich Mühsam (6 April 1878 – 10 July 1934) was a German-Jewish antimilitarist anarchist essayist, poet and playwright. He emerged at the end of World War I as one of the leading agitators for a federated Bavarian Soviet Republic, for which ...
Century, composed of Germans,
* The
Sacco and Vanzetti
Nicola Sacco (; April 22, 1891 – August 23, 1927) and Bartolomeo Vanzetti (; June 11, 1888 – August 23, 1927) were Italian immigrant anarchists who were controversially accused of murdering Alessandro Berardelli and Frederick Parmenter, a ...
Century.
The group grew to approximately 400 fighters, and functioned as an autonomous group within the column command structure. Although used primarily as a shock battalion, the group occasionally performed guerrilla operations. The column was almost wiped out in October 1936 after an offensive around the town of
Alcubierre
Alcubierre is a municipality located in the province of Huesca, Aragon, Spain. According to the 2004 census (INE), the municipality has a population of 439 inhabitants.
This town gives its name to the Sierra de Alcubierre
Sierra de Alcubierre ...
, 50 kilometres northeast of
Zaragoza
Zaragoza, also known in English as Saragossa,''Encyclopædia Britannica'"Zaragoza (conventional Saragossa)" is the capital city of the Zaragoza Province and of the autonomous community of Aragon, Spain. It lies by the Ebro river and its tributari ...
. All but two of the group (at that time numbering around 40) were killed, including the group leader, Frenchman Louis Berthomieu. New members continued to join, however, and the group fought at Madrid in November 1936, with many members continuing to serve in the
26th Division after the militarisation of the column.
Military Technical Council
The '' 'Military-Technical Council' '' was made up of all of the delegates in the Column, its delegate was initially
Enric Pérez i Farràs but he was quickly replaced by José Manzana.
; First sector. Delegate Ruano.
* 1st Grouping (five centuries). Delegate José Mira
* 2nd Grouping (five centuries). Delegate Liberto Roig
* 3rd Grouping (five centuries). Delegate José Esplugas.
; Second Sector. Delegate
Miguel Yoldi.
* 4th Grouping (five centuries). Delegate José Gómez Talón
* 5th Grouping (five centuries). Delegate José Tarín
* 6th Grouping (five centuries). Delegate J. Silvestre.
;Third sector. Delegate Mora.
* 7th Grouping (five centuries). Delegate Subirats
* 8th Grouping (five centuries). Delegate Edo
* 9th Grouping (five centuries). Delegate R. García
; International Group. Delegate Louis Berthomieu.
* Five groups of fifty (two-hundred and fifty individuals). Delegates: Ridel, Fortin, Charpenteir, Cottin and Carles.
War committee
A ''"war committee"'', advised by the military-technical council, coordinated the column's operations from the headquarters at
Bujaraloz
Bujaraloz is a municipality located in the province of Zaragoza, Aragon, Spain. According to the 2004 census (INE), the municipality has a population of 1,002 inhabitants.
See also
*Monegros
*List of municipalities in Zaragoza
This is a list o ...
, where fighters were provided with services such as: health care, food and mechanic support. At the head of the war committee was the general delegate of the whole column.
* Centuries General Delegate: José Esplugas
* Groups:
Miguel Yoldi
* Sectors: Rico Rionda
* Artillery: Botet
* Armored vehicles: Bonilla
* Military advisers:
Enric Pérez i Farràs and José Manzana
* General Delegate of the Column:
Buenaventura Durruti
José Buenaventura Durruti Dumange (14 July 1896 – 20 November 1936) was a Spanish insurrectionary, anarcho-syndicalist militant involved with the CNT and FAI in the periods before and during the Spanish Civil War. Durruti played an in ...
* Head of Information War Committee: Francisco Carreño
Notable members
* Louis Berthomieu (Commander of the International Group)
*
Emile Cottin
*
Carl Einstein
Carl Einstein, born Karl Einstein, also known by pseudonym Savine Ree Urian (26 April 1885 – 5 July 1940), was an influential German Jewish writer, art historian, anarchist, and critic.
Regarded as one of the first critics to appreciate the dev ...
* Antonio García Barón
*
Helmut Kirschey
Helmut Kirschey (22 January 1913 - 23 August 2003) was a German anarchist and resistance fighter.
Biography
When Helmut Kirschey was four years old, his father, who was a member of the Social Democratic Party of Germany, SPD, died as a soldier i ...
*
Carl Marzani
Carl Aldo Marzani (4 March 1912 – 11 December 1994) was an Italian-born American political activist with a series of careers as a volunteer soldier in the Spanish Civil War, organizer for the Communist Party USA (CPUSA), United States intellige ...
[Carl Marzani, ''The Education of a Reluctant Radical, vol. 3: Spain, Munich and Dyring Empires'', Topical Books, 1994.]
* Jean Mayol
*
Louis Mercier-Vega
Louis Mercier-Vega (6 May 1914 – 20 November 1977) was a militant libertarian and syndicalist, originally from Belgium.
He also lived and wrote under various other names. His real name was Charles Cortvrint. Other names mentioned in sources ...
*
Saïl Mohamed
* Marcel Montagut
*
Ramón Rufat
*
George Sossenko
George Sossenko (sometimes Georges Sossenko; December 20, 1918 – March 14, 2013) was a Russian-born American lecturer and activist. At age 17, he left his parents' home in Paris, France, to join those fighting against Francisco Franco's na ...
*
Clara Thalmann
*
Paul Thalmann
*
Simone Weil
Simone Adolphine Weil ( , ; 3 February 1909 – 24 August 1943) was a French philosopher, mystic, and political activist. Over 2,500 scholarly works have been published about her, including close analyses and readings of her work, since 1995.
...
*
Llibertat Ródenas Rodriguez
See also
*
26th Division (Spain)
The 26th Division ( es, 26ª División)Carlos Engel, ''Historia de las Brigadas Mixtas del E. P. de la República'', 1999 was a division of the Spanish Republican Army in the Spanish Civil War. It was formed in April 1937 in Aragon from the milit ...
*
Confederal militias
The confederal militias were a movement of people's militia organized during the Spanish civil war by the dominant organizations of anarchism in Spain: the National Confederation of Labor (CNT) and the Iberian Anarchist Federation (FAI).
These ...
*
Iron Column
The Iron Column ( ca, Columna de Ferro, es, Columna de Hierro) was a Valencian anarchist militia column formed during the Spanish Civil War to fight against the military forces of the Nationalist Faction that had rebelled against the Second ...
*
International Brigades
The International Brigades ( es, Brigadas Internacionales) were military units set up by the Communist International to assist the Popular Front government of the Second Spanish Republic during the Spanish Civil War. The organization existed f ...
*
Spanish Foreign Legion
For centuries, Spain recruited foreign soldiers to its army, forming the Foreign Regiments () - such as the Regiment of Hibernia (formed in 1709 from Irishmen who fled their own country in the wake of the Flight of the Earls and the penal ...
*
Spanish Republican Army
The Spanish Republican Army ( es, Ejército de la República Española) was the main branch of the Armed Forces of the Second Spanish Republic between 1931 and 1939.
It became known as People's Army of the Republic (''Ejército Popular de la Repú ...
References
Bibliography
* Abel Paz, ''Buenaventura Durruti 1896-1936: a libertarian soldier in the Spanish Revolution'', Editions de Paris, 2000, 488 p.
* Abel Paz and José Luis Gutiérrez Molina, ''Durruti en la Revolución Española'', Fundación Anselmo Lorenzo de estudios libertarios, 1996, 773 p.
* Robert Alexander, ''The Anarchists In The Spanish Civil War'', Lim Janus Publishing Company, 1999, 509 p.
* Posty Pierre Marqués, Spain 1936. ''War correspondents. The final despatch'', L'Harmattan, 2008, 270 p.
* Andreu Castells Peig, ''Las Brigadas internacionales de la guerra de España'', Ariel, 1974, 685 p.
*
Julián Casanova (edited by Paul Preston and translated by Andrew Dowling and Graham Pollok), ''Anarchism, The Republic, and civil war in Spain'', 1931–1939, Routledge, 2005, 229 p.
* José Valls Peirats (edited by
Chris Ealham
Chris Ealham (born 1965) is a British historian and hispanist. He is specialised in the history of anarchism in Spain.
Biography
Born in Kent (England) in 1965. He earned a PhD in 1995 from Queen Mary and Westfield College, University of Lon ...
and translated by Paul Sharkey), ''The CNT In The Spanish Revolution'', ChristieBooks.com, 2005, 269 p. .
{{Authority control
Confederal militias
Military units and formations of the Spanish Civil War
Defunct anarchist militant groups
Military history of Spain
Left-wing militant groups in Spain
Military units and formations established in 1936
Military units and formations disestablished in 1937
1936 establishments in Spain
1937 disestablishments in Spain