Juan Negrín López (; 3 February 1892 – 12 November 1956) was a Spanish physician and politician who served as prime minister of the
Second Spanish Republic
The Spanish Republic (), commonly known as the Second Spanish Republic (), was the form of democratic government in Spain from 1931 to 1939. The Republic was proclaimed on 14 April 1931 after the deposition of Alfonso XIII, King Alfonso XIII. ...
. He was a leader of the
Spanish Socialist Workers' Party
The Spanish Socialist Workers' Party ( , PSOE ) is a Social democracy, social democratic Updated as required.The PSOE is described as a social-democratic party by numerous sources:
*
*
*
* List of political parties in Spain, political party ...
(, PSOE) and of the
left-leaning
Centre-left politics is the range of left-wing political ideologies that lean closer to the political centre. Ideologies commonly associated with it include social democracy, social liberalism, progressivism, and green politics. Ideas commonl ...
Popular Front government during the
Spanish Civil War
The Spanish Civil War () was a military conflict fought from 1936 to 1939 between the Republican faction (Spanish Civil War), Republicans and the Nationalist faction (Spanish Civil War), Nationalists. Republicans were loyal to the Left-wing p ...
. He also served as finance minister. He was the last
Loyalist
Loyalism, in the United Kingdom, its overseas territories and its former colonies, refers to the allegiance to the British crown or the United Kingdom. In North America, the most common usage of the term refers to loyalty to the British Cr ...
premier of Spain (1937–1939), leading the Republican forces defeated by the
Nationalists under General
Francisco Franco
Francisco Franco Bahamonde (born Francisco Paulino Hermenegildo Teódulo Franco Bahamonde; 4 December 1892 – 20 November 1975) was a Spanish general and dictator who led the Nationalist faction (Spanish Civil War), Nationalist forces i ...
. He was President of the Council of Ministers of the Second Spanish Republic and the
Spanish Republican government in exile between 1937 and 1945. He died in exile in Paris, France.
None of the leaders of the Second Spanish Republic has been as vilified as Negrín, not only by Francoist historians but also by important sectors of the exiled Spanish Left. The leaders of his own Socialist Party were among his detractors, including his friend and fellow socialist leader
Indalecio Prieto. He has been depicted as primarily responsible for losing the civil war, leading with a dictatorial style, selling Spain out to the communist
Soviet Union
The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...
, and
robbing the Spanish treasury.
According to the historian
Stanley G. Payne
Stanley George Payne (born September 9, 1934) is an American historian of modern Spain and Europe, European fascism at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. He retired from full-time teaching in 2004 and is currently Professor Emeritus at its Dep ...
, after the end of the civil war there was no person more hated than Negrín. More recent scholarship, like the work of Negrin's biographer
Gabriel Jackson, dispelled most of these accusations. According to Jackson, Negrín was a pragmatic, social democratic leader who allied with the Soviets to keep the Republican cause alive until the
outbreak of a world war, which would grant Republican Spain more allies in Western Europe. The PSOE expelled Negrín in 1946, but he was posthumously rehabilitated in 2008.
Early years
Born in
Las Palmas
Las Palmas (, ; ), officially Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, is a Spanish city and capital of Gran Canaria, in the Canary Islands, in the Atlantic Ocean.
It is the capital city of the Canary Islands (jointly with Santa Cruz de Tenerife) and the m ...
on the
Canary Islands
The Canary Islands (; ) or Canaries are an archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean and the southernmost Autonomous communities of Spain, Autonomous Community of Spain. They are located in the northwest of Africa, with the closest point to the cont ...
, Negrín came from a deeply Catholic middle-class family. His father, Juan Negrin Cabrera, was a prosperous and reputable merchant and businessman of the islands, married to María Dolores López Marrero. Juan was the firstborn son and had one brother Heriberto, who adhered to the
Claretian order, and a sister Dolores.
Since Juan had excelled in science subjects and had shown an interest in medicine, his father decided to send him, at the age of 15, to study in Germany in 1906, attracted by the enormous prestige of German universities at the time.
In Germany
Negrin studied for two years at the Medical Faculty of
Kiel
Kiel ( ; ) is the capital and most populous city in the northern Germany, German state of Schleswig-Holstein. With a population of around 250,000, it is Germany's largest city on the Baltic Sea. It is located on the Kieler Förde inlet of the Ba ...
. In 1908, to specialize in medical
physiology
Physiology (; ) is the science, scientific study of function (biology), functions and mechanism (biology), mechanisms in a life, living system. As a branches of science, subdiscipline of biology, physiology focuses on how organisms, organ syst ...
, he moved to
Leipzig
Leipzig (, ; ; Upper Saxon: ; ) is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Saxony. The city has a population of 628,718 inhabitants as of 2023. It is the List of cities in Germany by population, eighth-largest city in Ge ...
, to the best physiology institute of Germany and even in Europe. He stayed in Germany for almost a decade, studying first medicine, then chemistry and to some extent, economics. He proved to be a brilliant student with extraordinary capacity for scientific research. In 1912 (when he was only twenty years old) under the guidance of
Theodor von Brücke he obtained a doctorate in medicine and was immediately incorporated into the Institute of Physiology in Leipzig as a research assistant and then as an assistant professor.
On 21 July 1914 he married María Fidelman Brodsky, a piano student and daughter of a wealthy family of Russian exiles living in the Netherlands. The couple had five children, three of whom survived: Juan, Rómulo, and Miguel. Negrín spoke English, French, German, and Russian, in addition to his native Spanish.
Back to Spain
At the end of 1915, in the middle of the
First World War
World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...
, the increasing difficulties he encountered in Germany to continue working prompted Negrin to return to Spain. He already had a solid professional prestige guaranteed by his research on the
adrenal gland
The adrenal glands (also known as suprarenal glands) are endocrine glands that produce a variety of hormones including adrenaline and the steroids aldosterone and cortisol. They are found above the kidneys. Each gland has an outer adrenal corte ...
s and the
central nervous system
The central nervous system (CNS) is the part of the nervous system consisting primarily of the brain, spinal cord and retina. The CNS is so named because the brain integrates the received information and coordinates and influences the activity o ...
and by a remarkable series of articles published in the best scientific journals in Europe. He was a pupil of
Santiago Ramón y Cajal, who won the Nobel Prize of Medicine. In 1919 he obtained his medical degree in Spain, and in 1922 he became a professor of physiology at the Physiology Department at the
Complutense University of Madrid
The Complutense University of Madrid (, UCM; ) is a public research university located in Madrid. Founded in Alcalá in 1293 (before relocating to Madrid in 1836), it is one of the oldest operating universities in the world, and one of Spain's ...
Medical School at the age of 29. His physiology laboratory in Madrid became an internationally renowned research centre and a truly exceptional school of scientific training. Among the many students he inspired was
Severo Ochoa, winner of the 1959
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine () is awarded yearly by the Nobel Assembly at the Karolinska Institute for outstanding discoveries in physiology or medicine. The Nobel Prize is not a single prize, but five separate prizes that, acco ...
:
Negrin opened wide, fascinating vistas to my imagination, not only through his lectures and laboratory teaching, but through his advice, encouragement, and stimulation to read scientific monographs and textbooks in languages other than Spanish.
According to Ochoa, Negrín was a demanding tutor and a high proportion of students failed his exams. He also set up a private laboratory that was very successful. In 1923, his youngest daughter died in childbirth, which Negrín himself attended. Two years later, his other daughter died at the age of ten as a result of a typhus epidemic. These misfortunes would lead to the estrangement of the marriage and the entry into Negrín's life of Feliciana López de Dom Pablo, one of his laboratory assistants, who would become his companion in 1926 until his death. His wife did not tolerate this relationship and attributed permanent affairs to him.
50 años de la muerte del energético defensor de la República
El País, 12 November 2006
In politics

During his stay in Germany, Negrin had become very close to
German social democracy, then at one of the moments of its maximum height and socio-political and cultural influence, but far removed from his conservative family tradition. Negrín joined the
Spanish Socialist Workers' Party
The Spanish Socialist Workers' Party ( , PSOE ) is a Social democracy, social democratic Updated as required.The PSOE is described as a social-democratic party by numerous sources:
*
*
*
* List of political parties in Spain, political party ...
(PSOE) in the spring of 1929, at the height of the crisis of the dictatorship of General
Miguel Primo de Rivera
Miguel Primo de Rivera y Orbaneja, 2nd Marquis of Estella, Grandee, GE (8 January 1870 – 16 March 1930), was a Spanish dictator and military officer who ruled as prime minister of Spain from 1923 to 1930 during the last years of the Resto ...
and the monarchy of Alfonso XIII. He aligned himself from the very beginning with the moderate and reformist faction headed by
Indalecio Prieto – with whom he forged a close friendship that only broke down due to the civil war – and opposed to the one led by
Francisco Largo Caballero
Francisco Largo Caballero (15 October 1869 – 23 March 1946) was a Spanish politician and trade unionist who served as the prime minister of the Second Spanish Republic during the Spanish Civil War. He was one of the historic leaders of the ...
, representing the
left
Left may refer to:
Music
* ''Left'' (Hope of the States album), 2006
* ''Left'' (Monkey House album), 2016
* ''Left'' (Helmet album), 2023
* "Left", a song by Nickelback from the album ''Curb'', 1996
Direction
* Left (direction), the relativ ...
(
Marxist
Marxism is a political philosophy and method of socioeconomic analysis. It uses a dialectical and materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to analyse class relations, social conflic ...
and revolutionary) wing of the
UGT trade union and the PSOE. From 1930 onwards, he declined his academic activity in favour of politics, and in 1934 he requested a leave of absence from his professorship. In the
1931 Spanish general election he was elected deputy for Las Palmas in the Canary Islands, and re-elected in
1933
Events
January
* January 11 – Australian aviator Sir Charles Kingsford Smith makes the first commercial flight between Australia and New Zealand.
* January 17 – The United States Congress votes in favour of Philippines independen ...
and
1936
Events January–February
* January 20 – The Prince of Wales succeeds to the throne of the United Kingdom as King Edward VIII, following the death of his father, George V, at Sandringham House.
* January 28 – Death and state funer ...
.
Between April 1931 and July 1936, as political tension and social polarisation increased in Spain, Negrín identified in the socialist movement with Prieto's moderate positions and firmly opposed to the radical tendency led by Largo Caballero. The moderate faction of the PSOE, the majority in the executive committee, was in favour of maintaining the coalition with Prime Minister
Manuel Azaña
Manuel Azaña Díaz (; 10 January 1880 – 3 November 1940) was a Spanish politician who served as Prime Minister of Spain, Prime Minister of the Second Spanish Republic (1931–1933 and 1936), organizer of the Popular Front in 1935 and the la ...
's Republicans in order to complete the ambitious programme of social democratic political and social reforms that had been launched by the left-wing government between 1931 and 1933 (secularisation of the state, agrarian reform, administrative decentralisation, military reform, progressive labour legislation, etc.). According to Prieto, Negrín and their supporters, this republican-socialist conjunction was essential to successfully promote the reforms and overcome the double opposition offered by the possible reaction of the right-wing defenders of the status quo with the help of the army and by the also possible revolution of the anarcho-syndicalist or communist-inspired workers' left.
In Spanish socialism he represented a clear option of
republicanism
Republicanism is a political ideology that encompasses a range of ideas from civic virtue, political participation, harms of corruption, positives of mixed constitution, rule of law, and others. Historically, it emphasizes the idea of self ...
and centrism, identifiable with the political position of his friend Indalecio Prieto. With regard to the
revolutionary general strike of 1934 – against the appointment of three ministers of the conservative Catholic
Spanish Confederation of Autonomous Rights (, CEDA) to the right-wing government of
Alejandro Lerroux – sponsored by Largo Caballero, Negrín opted for the option of republican unity advocated by Prieto as opposed to the revolutionary project put forward by Largo Caballero, which caused him to distance himself from
Luis Araquistain and led to an irreparable split within Spanish socialism. The events of 1934, in particular the uprising in Asturias, were
a prelude to the civil war.
Spanish Civil War
After the
military uprising in Morocco on 17 July 1936, Spain was rapidly divided in two: a "Republican" or "Loyalist" Spain consisting of the Second Spanish Republic, and a "Nationalist" Spain under the insurgent generals, and, eventually, under the leadership of General Francisco Franco. The Republic faced tremendous odds from the outset, including the Nationalist military superiority, internal divisions, and European non-intervention.
The
Non-Intervention Agreement, initiated by the French and the British governments, and signed in August 1936, in which European powers renounced all trade in war material, direct or indirect, effectively subjected the Spanish Republic to
international isolation
International isolation is a penalty applied by the international community or a sizeable or powerful group of countries, like the United Nations, towards one nation, government or group of people. The same term may also refer to the state a cou ...
and a ''de facto''
economic embargo and placed the Republicand only the Republicat an enormous material disadvantage throughout the conflict. Italy and Germany supported the Spanish Nationalists from the outset of the Civil War. The Soviet Union began supporting the Republicans four months later.
From the first moment of the war, Negrin combined his activities as a deputy and, later, as a minister, with frequent visits in his private car to different places on the front line of Madrid to encourage the combatants and provide them with food and supplies. Negrín helped many people to escape from the revolutionary ' in July and August 1936. His personal courage in pursuit of this was attested to by a friend who recounted that he "made every effort, at considerable risk to himself... to save people in Madrid." As a result, Negrin was nearly killed by anarchists but was saved by the intervention of finance ministry security staff.
Minister of Finance

He was named
Minister of Finance in September 1936 in the government of Largo Caballero. He only accepted the post out of party discipline, as he considered that Largo Caballero as Prime Minister gave an excessively radical image of the Republic to the outside world and was a serious political and diplomatic blunder that would make it impossible to obtain vital aid from France and Great Britain. As the finance minister, he built up the ''
Carabineros'' (custom guards), a force of 20,000 men which was later nicknamed the "Hundred Thousand Sons of Negrín" (an allusion to the
Hundred Thousand Sons of Saint Louis
The "Hundred Thousand Sons of Saint Louis" was the popular name for a French army mobilized in 1823 by the Bourbon King of France, Louis XVIII, to help the Spanish Bourbon royalists restore King Ferdinand VII of Spain to the absolute power ...
), in order to recover the control of the French frontier posts, which had been seized by the anarchist
Confederación Nacional del Trabajo
The (CNT; ) is a Spanish anarcho-syndicalist national trade union center, trade union confederation.
Founded in 1910 in Barcelona from groups brought together by the trade union ''Solidaridad Obrera (historical union), Solidaridad Obrera'', ...
(CNT).
With the approval of President Azaña, Largo Caballero and other influential ministers (including Prieto), he took the controversial decision to
transfer the Spanish gold reserves to the Soviet Union in return for arms and equipment urgently needed to continue the war (October 1936). Worth $500 million at the time (another $240 million had been sent to France in July), critics argued that this action put the Republican government under the control of
Joseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Dzhugashvili; 5 March 1953) was a Soviet politician and revolutionary who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until Death and state funeral of Joseph Stalin, his death in 1953. He held power as General Secret ...
.
Prime minister
The
Barcelona May Days of 1937, when factions on the Republican side of the Spanish Civil War engaged each other in street battles and anarchist and communist Republican soldiers fought for control of strategic points in Barcelona, led to a governmental crisis that forced Largo Caballero to resign. On 17 May 1937, President
Manuel Azaña
Manuel Azaña Díaz (; 10 January 1880 – 3 November 1940) was a Spanish politician who served as Prime Minister of Spain, Prime Minister of the Second Spanish Republic (1931–1933 and 1936), organizer of the Popular Front in 1935 and the la ...
named Negrín the 135th
Prime Minister of Spain
The prime minister of Spain, officially president of the Government (), is the head of government of Spain. The prime minister nominates the Spanish government departments, ministers and chairs the Council of Ministers (Spain), Council of Mini ...
, to end the indiscipline and disarray in the rearguard. Negrín's government included
Indalecio Prieto named minister of War, Navy and Air,
Julián Zugazagoitia
Julián Zugazagoitia Mendieta (5 February 1899, Bilbao – 9 November 1940, Madrid) was a Spanish journalist and politician.
A member of the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party, he was close to Indalecio Prieto and the editor of the ''El Socialista ...
as minister of interior (both socialists), the communists
Jesús Hernández Tomás as minister of education and
Vicente Uribe as minister of agriculture, the republicans
José Giral as foreign minister and
Bernardo Giner de los Ríos as public works minister, the Basque
Manuel Irujo as minister of justice and the Catalan Nationalist
Jaume Aiguader as minister of labour. Negrín's energetic and willful management, exemplified in his campaign slogan ("resistir es vencer", "to resist is to win"), captured for a time the hopes and desires of the depressed and semi-despondent rearguard and revived the meagre forces of the
Spanish Republican Armed Forces.
Goals
In the anarchist-controlled areas,
Aragon
Aragon ( , ; Spanish and ; ) is an autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community in Spain, coextensive with the medieval Kingdom of Aragon. In northeastern Spain, the Aragonese autonomous community comprises three provinces of Spain, ...
and
Catalonia
Catalonia is an autonomous community of Spain, designated as a ''nationalities and regions of Spain, nationality'' by its Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia of 2006, Statute of Autonomy. Most of its territory (except the Val d'Aran) is situate ...
, in addition to the temporary military success, there was a vast
social revolution
Social revolutions are sudden changes in the structure and nature of society. These revolutions are usually recognized as having transformed society, economy, culture, philosophy, and technology along with but more than just the political system ...
in which the workers and peasants
collectivised land and industry, and set up councils parallel to the paralyzed Republican government. Negrin's main objectives were to fortify the central government, to reorganize and fortify the Republican Armed Forces and to impose law and order in the Republican-held area, against largely independent armed militias of the labour unions (CNT) and parties, thus curtailing the social revolution inside the Republic. He also wanted to break the international isolation of the Republic in order to get the arms embargo – imposed by the
Non-Intervention Committee – lifted, and from 1938 to search an international mediation in order to finish the war. He also wished to normalize the position of the Catholic Church inside the Republic. Eventually, the 'normalization' in Spain was intended to connect the Spanish conflict with
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
, which he believed to be imminent, although the
Munich Agreement
The Munich Agreement was reached in Munich on 30 September 1938, by Nazi Germany, the United Kingdom, the French Third Republic, French Republic, and the Kingdom of Italy. The agreement provided for the Occupation of Czechoslovakia (1938–194 ...
between
Hitler
Adolf Hitler (20 April 1889 – 30 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was the dictator of Nazi Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his suicide in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the lea ...
and British Prime Minister
Neville Chamberlain
Arthur Neville Chamberlain (; 18 March 18699 November 1940) was a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from May 1937 to May 1940 and Leader of the Conservative Party (UK), Leader of the Conservative Party from ...
on 30 September 1938 definitively made all hope of outside aid vanish.
PCE's support
Although Negrín had always been a centrist in the
PSOE, he maintained links with the
Communist Party of Spain
The Communist Party of Spain (; PCE) is a communist party that, since 1986, has been part of the United Left coalition, which is currently part of Sumar. Two of its politicians are Spanish government ministers: Yolanda Díaz (Minister of L ...
(, PCE), whose policies at that point were in favour of a
Popular Front alignment. Negrín relied on the Communists to curtail the anarchist wing of the Spanish Left, and was forced to rely on the
Soviet Union
The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...
, then led by Stalin, for weapons and armament, because of the arms embargo. The government and the communists were able to exploit their access to Soviet arms to restore government control over the war effort, through diplomacy and force. The militias of the
anarchists
Anarchism is a political philosophy and movement that seeks to abolish all institutions that perpetuate authority, coercion, or hierarchy, primarily targeting the state and capitalism. Anarchism advocates for the replacement of the state w ...
and the
Workers' Party of Marxist Unification (, POUM) were integrated into the regular army, albeit with resistance. The POUM Trotskyists were outlawed and denounced by the Soviet-aligned Communists as an instrument of the fascists. Republican Spain needed the Soviet Union's support because the Non-Intervention Agreement imposed on the conflict prevented the democratically elected government from acquiring arms and other war materiel in its own right on the open market arms to defend itself.
Military situation
On the military level, along 1937 he launched a series of offensives in June (
Huesca
Huesca (; ) is a city in north-eastern Spain, within the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Aragon. It was the capital of the Kingdom of Aragon between 1096 and 1118. It is also the capital of the Spanish Huesca (province), ...
and
Segovia
Segovia ( , , ) is a city in the autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Castile and León, Spain. It is the capital and most populated municipality of the Province of Segovia. Segovia is located in the Meseta central, Inner Pl ...
), July,
Brunete and August,
Belchite, in order to halt the Nationalist offensive in the North, but all failed and by October the Nationalists had occupied all of the Northern territory. Beginning December, he launched an offensive in order to free
Teruel
Teruel () is a city in Aragon, located in eastern Spain, and is also the capital of Teruel (province), Teruel Province. It had a population of 35,900 as of 2022, making it the least populated provincial capital in Spain. It is noted for its har ...
, but by February the Republican Army had to retreat after suffering heavy losses and the
rebel faction launched a counter-offensive in
Aragon
Aragon ( , ; Spanish and ; ) is an autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community in Spain, coextensive with the medieval Kingdom of Aragon. In northeastern Spain, the Aragonese autonomous community comprises three provinces of Spain, ...
, cutting in half the Republican-held zone. In July 1938 Negrín launched an offensive in order to cross the
Ebro River and reconnect the two Republican-held zones. The Republican army managed to cross the Ebro, but by November had to retire after it suffered heavy casualties and lost most of its materiel. Finally, in February 1939, he ordered to launch an offensive in
Extremadura
Extremadura ( ; ; ; ; Fala language, Fala: ''Extremaúra'') is a landlocked autonomous communities in Spain, autonomous community of Spain. Its capital city is Mérida, Spain, Mérida, and its largest city is Badajoz. Located in the central- ...
to stop the Nationalists advancement in their offensive against
Catalonia
Catalonia is an autonomous community of Spain, designated as a ''nationalities and regions of Spain, nationality'' by its Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia of 2006, Statute of Autonomy. Most of its territory (except the Val d'Aran) is situate ...
, but was halted after a few days and Catalonia fell.
Home front
The military situation of the Spanish Republic deteriorated steadily under Negrín's government, largely because of the superior quality of the opposing generals and officers many of whom were veterans of the
Rif War
The Rif War (, , ) was an armed conflict fought from 1921 to 1926 between Spain (joined by France in 1924) and the Berber tribes of the mountainous Rif region of northern Morocco.
Led by Abd el-Krim, the Riffians at first inflicted several ...
, and by 1938 the overwhelming advantage of the rebels in terms of men (20%), aircraft and artillery provided by
Germany
Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...
and
Italy
Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...
. The
Munich Agreement
The Munich Agreement was reached in Munich on 30 September 1938, by Nazi Germany, the United Kingdom, the French Third Republic, French Republic, and the Kingdom of Italy. The agreement provided for the Occupation of Czechoslovakia (1938–194 ...
effectively caused a collapse in Republican morale by ending hope of an anti-fascist alliance with Western powers. Throughout 1938, the unremitting succession of serious military defeats and the failure to secure Franco-British aid, was reflected in a deterioration of material living conditions in the rear (especially in terms of food) that deeply affected the political morale of the popular and military resistance of the Republican side. Late 1938, the freezing and half starved civilian population in the
Siege of Madrid
The siege of Madrid was a two-and-a-half-year siege of the Second Spanish Republic, Republican-controlled Spain, Spanish capital city of Madrid by the Nationalist faction (Spanish Civil War), Nationalist armies, under General Francisco Franco, ...
was suffering from severe malnutrition due to the restricted daily ration of 100 grams of bread and lentils (nicknamed "Dr Negrín’s pills"). Disheartened by a
fifth column
A fifth column is a group of people who undermine a larger group or nation from within, usually in favor of an enemy group or another nation. The activities of a fifth column can be overt or clandestine. Forces gathered in secret can mobilize ...
, a war weariness took hold of Madrid and
defeatism was widespread.
Peace negotiations

In May 1938, Negrín issued the "Thirteen Points" ''(Trece Puntos)'', a program for peace negotiations, including absolute independence of Spain, liberty of conscience, protection of the regional liberties, universal suffrage, an amnesty for all Spaniards and agrarian reform, but Franco rejected any peace deal. Before the
fall of Catalonia and the capture of
Barcelona
Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of 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 c ...
by the Nationalists on 26 January 1939, Negrín proposed, in the meeting of the
Cortes in
Figueres,
capitulation with the sole condition of respecting the lives of the vanquished and the holding of a plebiscite so the Spanish people could decide the form of government, but Franco again rejected the new peace deal. On 9 February 1939, Negrín moved to the Central Zone (30% of the Spanish territory) with the intention of defending the remaining territory of the republic until the start of the general European conflict, and organize the evacuation of those most at risk. Negrín thought that there was no other course but resistance, because the Nationalists refused to negotiate any peace deal:
To fight on because there was no other choice, even if winning was not possible, then to salvage what we could – and at the very end our self respect... Why go on resisting? Quite simply because we knew what capitulation would mean.
The critical year of 1938 saw a rupture in the PSOE and the political and personal friendship between Negrín and Prieto. Prieto was removed from the Defence ministry for his defeatism and joined with Largo Caballero and
Julián Besteiro (the leader of the PSOE right-wing faction) in denouncing the government's policy as favourable to the communists and opposed to the idea of international mediation. Negrín explained his position to his friend and confidant
Juan Simeón Vidarte:
Do you think this odious servitude does not weigh as heavily on me as on anyone else? But there is no other way. When I speak to our friends in France, it is all promises and good words. Then inconveniences begin to arise, and of what was promised there is nothing left. Nothing remains of what was promised. The only reality, however much it pains us, is to accept the help of the Soviet Union, or to surrender unconditionally. (...) What else can I do? Negotiated peace always; unconditional surrender so that half a million Spaniards will be shot, never.
Casado's coup
After the
fall of Barcelona, President
Manuel Azaña
Manuel Azaña Díaz (; 10 January 1880 – 3 November 1940) was a Spanish politician who served as Prime Minister of Spain, Prime Minister of the Second Spanish Republic (1931–1933 and 1936), organizer of the Popular Front in 1935 and the la ...
had fled to France, where he resigned as President of the Republic on 3 March 1939. Colonel
Segismundo Casado, joined by Besteiro, general
José Miaja,
Cipriano Mera and disillusioned
anarchist
Anarchism is a political philosophy and Political movement, movement that seeks to abolish all institutions that perpetuate authority, coercion, or Social hierarchy, hierarchy, primarily targeting the state (polity), state and capitalism. A ...
leaderstired of fighting, which they regarded then as hopelessplanned a
coup d'état
A coup d'état (; ; ), or simply a coup
, is typically an illegal and overt attempt by a military organization or other government elites to unseat an incumbent leadership. A self-coup is said to take place when a leader, having come to powe ...
. Seeking better surrender terms, they
seized power in Madrid on 5 March 1939, created the
National Defence Council ''(Consejo Nacional de Defensa)'', and deposed Negrín. On 6 March, Negrín fled to France. Although the troops led by the PCE rejected the ''coup'' on
Madrid
Madrid ( ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in Spain, most populous municipality of Spain. It has almost 3.5 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 7 million. It i ...
they were defeated by Cipriano Mera's troops. The uprising against the Negrín government succeeded, at the cost of nearly 2,000 lives. The Junta tried to negotiate a peace deal with the nationalists, but Franco only accepted an unconditional surrender of the Republic. Finally all the members of the Junta (except Besteiro) fled, and by 31 March 1939 the Nationalists seized all the Spanish territory.
Exile and death
Unlike President Azaña, Negrín remained in Spain until the final collapse of the Republican front and his fall from office in March 1939. Negrín decided to openly support the Franco-British war effort against Germany and Italy, remaining in Paris until the fall of France (June 1940) and then going to London. He resided there throughout the
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
, repeatedly refusing to leave Europe and seek safe haven in Mexico, as did a large number of the Republican leadership. He organized the S.E.R.E. () to help Republican exiles. He remained prime minister of the
Spanish Republican government in Exile between 1939 and 1945 (although ignored by most of the exiled political forces).
The
Francoist dictatorship
Francoist Spain (), also known as the Francoist dictatorship (), or Nationalist Spain () was the period of Spanish history between 1936 and 1975, when Francisco Franco ruled Spain after the Spanish Civil War with the title . After his death i ...
stripped Negrín of his academic position and confiscated his estate. In July 1941 he was sentenced to the exorbitant fine of 100 million pesetas by the Special Court of the
Law of Political Responsibilities, while in September 1941, the Special Court for the Repression of Freemasonry and Communism sentenced him to 30 years in prison (the maximum penalty, even though Negrin was neither a Mason nor a Communist). His father was imprisoned in Las Palmas for the mere fact of being his father, leaving prison in 1941 to die shortly thereafter in poverty after having been illegally expropriated of all his property.
Disagreements with exile community
In August 1945, at the end of the war with the defeat of the
Axis powers
The Axis powers, originally called the Rome–Berlin Axis and also Rome–Berlin–Tokyo Axis, was the military coalition which initiated World War II and fought against the Allies of World War II, Allies. Its principal members were Nazi Ge ...
, Negrin tried to gather the unanimous support of all the political forces in exile in order to offer a unitary republican front that could gather the support of the
allied governments against Franco's dictatorship, taking advantage of his international discredit and the strong rejection that his recent behaviour of sympathy and support for the Italian-German war effort had provoked. In Negrin's opinion, only such a united front would serve as a guarantee before Washington and London of the presence of a replacement alternative to the Franco regime that did not run the risk of resuming the horrors of civil war. However, in view of the impossibility of gaining the support of all the political forces in exile, Negrín resigned from his position as head of the government of the Republic in exile before the plenary session of the
Cortes in exile meeting in Mexico in August 1945. The PSOE expelled Negrín and a number of additional party members through a note published in ''
El Socialista'' on 23 April 1946, before the celebration of a party congress in Toulouse.
To no avail, in 1948 Negrín spoke out in favour of Franco's Spain's participation in the post-war
Marshall Plan
The Marshall Plan (officially the European Recovery Program, ERP) was an American initiative enacted in 1948 to provide foreign aid to Western Europe. The United States transferred $13.3 billion (equivalent to $ in ) in economic recovery pr ...
, which was opposed by the Spanish Republican government in exile. In his opinion, the economic assistance to Spain was indispensable to the economic recovery of Europe, while its exclusion could have no other result than to increase further the sufferings of the Spanish people.
[Le docteur Negrin se prononce pour la participation de l'Espagne franquiste au plan Marshall]
''Le Monde
(; ) is a mass media in France, French daily afternoon list of newspapers in France, newspaper. It is the main publication of Le Monde Group and reported an average print circulation, circulation of 480,000 copies per issue in 2022, including ...
'', 2 april 1948 According to Negrín, dreaming of the re-establishment of the Republic through hunger and the impoverishment of Spain was a mistake and mere flawed wishful thinking.
Death and aftermath
Negrín died from a
heart attack
A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when Ischemia, blood flow decreases or stops in one of the coronary arteries of the heart, causing infarction (tissue death) to the heart muscle. The most common symptom ...
in
Paris
Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...
on 12 November 1956 at the age of 64,
[Dr. Juan Negrin of Loyalists Dies]
The New York Times, 15 November 1956 and is buried at the
Père Lachaise Cemetery
Père Lachaise Cemetery (, , formerly , ) is the largest cemetery in Paris, France, at . With more than 3.5 million visitors annually, it is the most visited necropolis in the world.
Buried at Père Lachaise are many famous figures in the ...
. After the death of Negrín, his son Rómulo Negrín, following the instructions of his father, handed over the so-called "Negrín dossier" – an incomplete series of documents related to the administration of the gold deposited in the Soviet Union – to the government of Francoist Spain in order to prove that it had been spent entirely for the Republican war effort. Negrín had refused to hand over documentation to the exiled Republican government for over 15 years. Willingly handing the documentation over to the Francoist authorities caused profound distress in the exile community. The Francoist authorities accepted the documentation, but publicly hushed up its content so as not to have to negate the propaganda myth of the Spanish gold stolen and squandered by the Republicans in Moscow.
Legacy
According to the historian Stanley G. Payne, after the end of the civil war there was no person more hated. Franco's side considered him a "red traitor", while within the Republican camp, some of his former allies reproached him for the "useless" prolongation of the war and for having "served" the plans of the Soviet Union. A
New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
editorial at the time of his death said:
Gabriel Jackson's biography depicts Negrín as "a fundamentally honest and decent human being who sacrificed his health, reputation, and academic career in a failed attempt to save his country from disaster," and as "an accomplished scientist and cosmopolitan intellectual who in normal circumstances would have never had to become a politician, let alone take his country’s reins during the most difficult years of its long history." Jackson was a staunch defender of Negrín. "Negrín was one of those rare prepared politicians, with character; very valuable for his time," he said. According to Jackson:
Negrín was one of the most controversial characters of the Spanish Civil War. "Demonized or praised, Negrin has been considered both a faithful servant of the permanent communist conspiracy in the pay of Moscow, and the most loyal politician to the Republican cause because of his faith in the final triumph, or he has been defined as a kind of seer who knew how to predict the inexorability of the Second World War, so that his policy of resistance at all costs ("resistir es vencer", "to resist is to win") would have led to the victory of the Republic, if the Spanish war had lasted five more months," say Spanish historians
Ángel Bahamonde Magro and Javier Cervera Gil. Negrín was post-humously rehabilitated by the PSOE in 2008.
In 2010, a Spanish documentary film, ''Ciudadano Negrín'' (Citizen Negrín), directed by Sigfrid Monleón,
Imanol Uribe and Carlos Álvarez Pérez was released. The documentary reconstructs the life of Juan Negrín from a variety of sources, including his grandchildren Carmen and Juan. With the help of historians such as Gabriel Jackson and
Ángel Viñas, the film aims to give the protagonist a voice, using his writings, speeches and letters to construct the story. The production also benefits from the discovery of home movies filmed by Negrín himself in exile. In 2013, Negrín's granddaughter Carmen Negrín handed over 150,000 original documents that he had transferred to France in several shipments to save them from destruction. The use and custody of the legacy rests with the Juan Negrín Foundation, a non-profit organization founded in Las Palmas, on his home island of Gran Canaria, in 1992.
End to exile for a key political archive
''El País
(; ) is a Spanish-language daily newspaper in Spain. is based in the capital city of Madrid and it is owned by the Spanish media conglomerate PRISA.
It is the second-most circulated daily newspaper in Spain . is the most read newspaper in ...
'', 26 December 2013
Cabinets
Notes
References
Sources
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
Further reading
*
Documents on Negrín from "Trabajadores: The Spanish Civil War through the eyes of organised labour"
a digitised collection of more than 13,000 pages of documents from the archives of the British Trades Union Congress
The Trades Union Congress (TUC) is a national trade union center, national trade union centre, a federation of trade unions that collectively represent most unionised workers in England and Wales. There are 48 affiliated unions with a total of ...
held in the Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick
External links
*
Juan Negrín: ¡resistir es vencer!
RTVE
The Corporación de Radio y Televisión Española (; ), known as Radiotelevisión Española (''Spanish Radio and Television'', RTVE), is the Spanish national public Broadcasting, television and radio broadcaster. It is a state-owned enterprise f ...
, 8 October 2006.
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Negrin, Juan
1892 births
1956 deaths
People from Las Palmas
Spanish Socialist Workers' Party politicians
Prime ministers of Spain
Government ministers of Spain
Members of the Congress of Deputies of the Second Spanish Republic
Politicians from the Canary Islands
Leaders ousted by a coup
20th-century Spanish physicians
Spanish people of the Spanish Civil War (Republican faction)
Exiles of the Spanish Civil War in France
Economy and finance ministers of Spain
Ministers of defence of Spain
Exiled Spanish politicians
Government ministers during the Second Spanish Republic
Academic staff of the Complutense University of Madrid