"in Spain." "When the Spanish Civil War ended in 1939" "It was left in its ruins to serve as a memorial to the devastation of Spain in one of the most savage civil conflicts Europe has ever seen." "The civil war lasted from 1936 to 1939." "It cost perhaps half a million lives." "towns and villages it was a crusade against godless revolution." "it was a struggle against the force of reaction that had oppressed Spain for generations." "The Spanish Civil War still haunts the world's imagination." "Many came to see it as the prelude to the Second World War." "The first battle between democracy and fascism." "Thousands of volunteers came to fight and die in a foreign land for ideals they believed to be their own." "But the Spanish knew that the war had Spanish causes." "It was after all their country that was ruined." "Their history that exploded. and the survivors can speak more freely." "They can question some of the myths." "They can evoke something of what they saw and understood during the Spanish Civil War." "a group of army officers rebelled against the government of the Spanish republic." "Workers took up arms to fight the rising. led to almost three years of civil war." "political opponents became enemies to be hunted down and killed." "El niño bonita" "The beautiful girl." "joyful demonstrations throughout Spain had greeted the proclamation of the republic." "The monarchy had fallen without violence" "To the crowds the republic meant Spain had broken through ... to progress." "To a long delayed victory for social and economic change." "spring-like." "A mild day with sunshine. and trams." "Then unexpectedly and surprisingly republican flags appeared everywhere." "Nobody knew where so many had come from." "King Alfonso was spending his final hours in the Royal Palace. unaware that the monarchy was doomed." "one part of Spanish society after another had lost faith in the monarchy." "The middle class despised Alfonso XIII for tolerating a seven year military dictatorship. the monarchy was the clamp holding an oppressive system together. royalist parties were heavily defeated in local elections." "Suddenly the king understood his own isolation." "he went unresisting into exile." "The king was replaced by a government of mostly middle-class liberals." "but their plans for an advanced democracy were out of step with history." "liberalism was weakened by economic depression;" "poisoned by dictatorship." "The government was releasing huge forces in this tightly repressed society. and of the rapidly growing working class." "and their socialist allies thought that orderly reforms would soon transform the nation." "Justino de Azcarate was a member of that first republican government of 1931." "There was this feeling of freedom." "For many years publications had been subject to censorship and academic freedom had been restricted." "Now there was a general trend towards freedom and also new laws to create a social and economic order that would be more just and egalitarian. hoped that the republic would immediately end exploitation." "and break the power of the old ruling classes." "Narciso Julian was a young socialist at the time." "The birth of the republic brought great hope among the working class that their aspirations would be satisfied." "That was the main feeling among industrial workers and peasants. social benefits they didn't have." "and so on." "So here were all these social and economic problems to be solved. meant so much for a vast majority of workers." "The hope that all these aspirations would come true." "the republic seemed already the revolution. the pillars of the old society remained untouched." "A powerful and deeply conservative church hostile to change." "An army accustomed to having the last word in politics." "A possessing class determined to defend its privileges. rich landowners. for whom daily survival was a struggle. and on the other a few landowners. to the point where labourers were hired like cattle in the market." "It was virtual slavery because there were no fixed wages." "They paid what they wanted to pay." "In many families children went to bed hungry because you didn't get paid enough for subsistence." "The republic knew that democracy might collapse if land was not divided more justly." "But its complicated cautious reforms disappointed farm workers while alarming landlords. was totally opposed to rural property." "It campaigned against rural property." "Under the republic more and more people believed in the slogan nor bosses." "And that's nearly revolutionary language." "so it's quite natural that landowners would resist us ... quite understandable." "The landless have an inborn desire to own land." "So the republican propaganda about land reform raised a lot of interest and immediate support." "They felt very frustrated when reform didn't take place." "that they then tried to grab land." "they did occupy land." "The landless poor were impatient to take over the fields that the republic hesitated to give them." "Was there a chance for gradual change without violence?" "was soon disillusioned." "I believe it is impossible to carry out an agrarian reform without a revolution which dismantles existing political and social structures. who constitute an influential social sector you have to fight for the land." "You will not be given it voluntarily. those who possess it fight to preserve it. ... and the church." "like the urban poor ... or the factory owner. as well." "There was as much reverence as there was hatred." "It was said that Spaniards always follow their priests or with a club." "a fanatical determination to break the hold of the Catholic Church over society united liberal republicans and socialists alike." "It was a principle on which the republic refused to compromise. this resentment against the church erupted in violence." "Following a riot outside a royalist club mobs set fire to half a dozen convents in Madrid. and been baptised. full of sadness and anguish." "Our feelings were aggravated by the knowledge that it was being condoned." "Nothing was done to stop it." "The mobs were burning churches and convents and nobody intervened." "It was a terribly sad day. the police stood by and watched." "Manuel Azaña then Minister of War said that day that all the churches in Spain were not worth one republican life." "Words like these were never forgotten ... or forgiven." "Nearly half the population was illiterate." "The republican government set about putting a non-religious state education system." "The church's hold over minds was to be broken." "000 schools were opened." "Soon the republic was taking art and culture to every corner of Spain." "La Baracca was part of this offensive." "The Spanish intellectuals were eager to act as the republic's missionaries of enlightenment. took the theatre to remote villages" ""Life is a Dream" "Lorca played the part of the shadow." "He was to be one of the civil war's first victims." "This cultural upsurge also gave fresh energy to regions which felt themselves distinct from the rest of Spain." "Catalonia and the Basque country above all retained a proud awareness of their own histories." "their demand for self-government had grown louder and angrier. supported the Catalan autonomous movement." "Catalonia had been an independent nation. very distinct from the rest of Spain" "It's different at many levels." "Added to this there's the fact that we'd been dominated by outsiders who had shown no respect for our freedoms. we'd been longing for these freedoms to be restored to Catalonia." "the Catalans were more industrialised and prosperous than the rest of the country." "Yet they had been stifling under the backward over-centralised rule in Madrid. ... and a huge port." "The republic soon granted Catalonia home rule." "The Catalans were encouraged to assert their national identity ... even more strongly." "Manuel Diez Alegria was among those who feared that home rule would lead to the breakup of the Spanish state. telling visitors they had to speak Catalan ... things like that. given that they didn't hesitate to proclaim their separatist motives." "National unity obsessed army officers." "Spain had already lost most of its world empire." "In the Moroccan wars of the twenties it nearly lost one of its last foreign possessions. and became a general at the age of only 33." "The republic planned to reform the army which was so archaic and top-heavy that there was one officer to every eleven soldiers." "The army regarded these changes with heavy suspicion." "But it was the grant of self-government to Catalonia which conservative officers saw as the most immediate threat to the unity of the nation." "1932." "General Sanjurjo led an unsuccessful rising against the government. he had decided not to resist the coming of the republic." "Now his action was a warning that the loyalty of the armed forces was coming under strain. but the government allowed him to entertain his family and supporters." "In Madrid the government's victory over the rising was celebrated with parades and demonstrations in support of the republic." "The Sanjurjo rising was premature. were not yet ready to overthrow the republic." "and their alarm was growing." "disillusion was spreading. were beginning to confront the state openly." "One source of this left-wing opposition was anarchism." "gathered round its trade union ... the C.N.T." "Born during the bloody social conflicts of Barcelona in the early years of the century." "The C.N.T.'s creed was Anarcho-syndicalism." "The belief that revolution would lead to total worker self-management. in Spain it had prospered." "By 1932 the C.N.T. claimed over one million members." "Federica Montseny was a young anarchist leader. created by the mixture of so many different races and by constant oppression. then by an all-powerful bourgeoisie." "By an army that has always cast its long shadow over Spain." "By the pressure of the church." "And all of this has created a constant spirit of rebellion among Spaniards." "It has driven them towards ideas of emancipation" "Towards revolutionary concepts of society ... and of life." "When the republic was proclaimed in 1931 the anarchists declared:" ""We remain in open war with the state"." "monarchies or republics." "cooperating human beings and bosses." "extremes of poverty created a climate ripe for revolutionary violence." "anarchists led futile risings in several Andalucian villages." "One of them was Casas Viejas." "The police showed the villagers no mercy." "Prisoners were shot. and the occupants died." "The blame for these tragedies was put on the republican leaders. delaying the reforms and mounting unemployment." "New elections were called in 1933" "The socialist left was now losing faith in the whole parliamentary system." "The anarchists had never believed in it anyway." "Most of the right had not yet rejected parliamentary democracy." "They hoped that by winning the elections the whole tide of events." "An new party emerged on the right." "It was called the CEDA." "This was Spain's first mass Catholic party." "It's leader was the ambitious young José María Gil-Robles who had learned from the campaign style of the Nazis." "The right wing made a supreme effort to bring out its voters." "It was helped by women who were voting for the first time." "it was a liberal republic that had given them the franchise." "The elections of Nov 1933 made CEDA the largest party in parliament." "Gil-Robles became the hero of conservative Spain." "The government shifted right." "or went into reverse." "The left was appalled." "Behind Gil-Robles they suspected the shadow of fascism was waiting." "fascism was reaching out across Europe." "the Nazis were crushing what opposition remained." "The Spanish socialists were determined not to go down without a struggle." "They imaged there would soon be jackboots on the streets of Madrid." "if CEDA and Gil-Robles took power." "The Spanish socialists decided to strike back." "Sócrates Gómez was a member of the socialist youth." "We felt there had been a serious regression in Spanish politics. perhaps camouflaged behind politicians such as Gil-Robles." "And this is what led us to strike." "You must realise that this wasn't just another strike for things like wages or better working conditions. and our aim was to overthrow the government and take power." "The socialists summoned the workers to rise against the elected government." "But the insurrection was easily defeated everywhere." "except in the northern mining district of Asturias." "united in rebellion." "communists and Trotskyists seized control and declared the revolution." "The coal miners shut down their pits and marched out eagerly to fight for "Red Asturias"." "We felt this tremendous excitement. and everybody was behind us." "even the kids." "everybody." "It was open war against the Madrid government." "The miners drove back local army units and murdered some of their political enemies." "But the government now sent Moroccan troops and the Spanish Foreign Legion into the battle. the Asturias rising had been broken." "The fighting had ravaged towns and villages." "General Franco helped to plan the government campaign. the defeated miners were shown no mercy." "and the army troops and some local bosses who went with them pointing out suspects." "that one"." "That's what happened." "They killed all sorts of people." "000 people were killed in the Asturias revolution." "Some of them slaughtered in cold blood." "Tens of thousands were marched off to prison." "the socialist-led rising had failed to get off the ground because the left could not act together." "But the lesson of Asturian unity sank home." "the left drew closer together to the government imprisoned opposition leaders and demolished their reforms." "with elections approaching once more most of the left united in a Popular Front." "but supported the Popular Front in order to rescue their own imprisoned supporters." "confident campaign." "He claimed that he alone stood between Spain and a murderous Bolshevik revolution." "polling day was a turning point in the history of Spain." "As the results came in it became clear that the Popular Front had won the largest block of seats." "The release of political prisoners began." "known as "La Pasionaria had been elected as a Communist MP for Asturias." "So then I went to the prison." "The governor had run away but his deputy was there." "He said: "I haven't received any orders"." "I replied:" ""I'm the MP for Asturias." "I was beginning to sound very grand." "I said: "Please give me the keys." "The prisoners are coming out today"." "He finally said: "Here they are"." "So I ran along the corridors of the jail all out"." "It was very moving." "All Barcelona turned out for the return from prison" "Catalonia's president." "The working class parties refused to join the government and left republicans were now trapped between the panic of conservative Spaniards and the excited hopes of the workers." "Strikes and land seizures broke out as workers tried to win back what had been lost in the last two years. the right concluded that Gil-Robles parliamentary politics had let them down. the time for parliamentary compromise had already passed." "Tomas Garicano Goñi was a young conservative officer. but we felt there was no way out." "As Gil-Robles wrote later:" ""Peace was not possible"." "For me this was only too true. at that time we couldn't stand each other." "Divisions and tensions had reached such a point was the same as seeing the devil." "000 members of Gil-Robles youth movement which had been founded by" "José Antonio Primo de Rivera ... in 1933. that he was not just copying fascism elsewhere." "The movement we are initiating in Spain is not a copy of any foreign movement." "It has learned from fascism by the ideal of cooperation." "A climate of violence allowed the Falange to flourish." "but the Falange was banned." "But he had helped to ensure that rioting and political murder became predictable when left and right collided." "bullets they were also using direct action to escape from poverty. the patience of the farm labourers now snapped." "They surged out to occupy the land they had yearned for. 000 farms." "Revenge was in the air. ... but their lives." "in the north of Spain." "But this time from the right. ... their own Carlist king." "they were locked into a medieval view of the world." "The Carlists had rebelled against a liberal monarchy in the 19th century." "red republic. some army officers resolved that they must act." "The government had sensed the danger and posted some of the most disaffected generals away from the mainland." "General Franco was sent to the Canary Isles." "But General Mola was unwisely posted to Pamplona in the Carlist country. began the secret organisation of the plot." "At first Mola encountered reluctance among some key figures." "He'd assigned to General Franco the job of launching the rising in Spanish Morocco. and Foreign Legionaries he had led in the 1920s." "But Franco hesitated to commit himself." "Ramón Serrano Suñer was Franco's brother in law." "Franco was obsessed with the danger of communism. but he was in no hurry. and he was quite happy staying in the Canary Isles." "1936." "A parade was intended to show the republic's enemies that the left had overwhelming strength. was the most extreme socialist leader." "He was now calling for a revolution that would impose the dictatorship of the proletariat." "The right was terrified." "A mere spark could detonate the tension." "the cry went up that nuns had given poisoned sweets to the children." "Crowds broke away and set fire to a convent." "The government of the republic was fighting desperately to stave off the collapse of the state itself." "But the socialists still refused to join the coalition." "The leadership of the republic was now increasingly isolated." "José Calvo Sotelo proclaimed himself and anarchic liberty." "He ended by saying:" ""Many call this a fascist state. declare myself fascist. brought the annual running of the bulls." "The Festival of San Fermín." "The crowds of visitors were good cover for Mola's emissaries." "I received a message from a friend having a good time and that I should join them as I had done in previous years." "This was the coded message I was expecting." "Mola and his plotters were solving their last problems." "as the Carlists squabbled about which flag they should march under." "And some army officers still refused to betray the republic." "after complaining that Mola's movement had finally promised support." "Mola felt that he could go ahead. and the names of the officers who were assigned to each region." "still in the Canary Isles got a message to Mola. insufficient." "was still calculating his own chances." "the "Director" ... he was very irritated." "He said: "Franco will never get here in time." "and the government will break it all up." "But the plan to ferry Franco to Morocco went ahead. was introduced to a gentleman from Spain." "And he asked me if I was prepared to go to the Canary Islands to get a Riff leader to start an insurrection in Spanish Morocco." "I thought: "What a delightful idea." "What a great adventure." "Captain Bebb took off from Croydon. on his way to the Canary Isles." "But it was what happened in Madrid that night that unlocked the last gate to disaster." "at the home of Lieutenant José Castillo. the republic's own police force." "His life had several times been threatened by right-wing extremists." "It was nearly 9:30 at night. no more than a ten minute walk." "He got no further than the corner." "News that Castillo had been murdered soon reached the police station." "Outraged his comrades demanded that all right-wing extremists should be rounded up." "Headquarters sent them a list." "It was Lieutenant Leon Lupion who gave out the names to the arrest squads. and they went off in police vans with several guards. ... van number 17." "Van 17 was the last to set out ... at three in the morning." "Nobody knows who was on its list for arrest." "All that is clear is that a van arrived at the home of the right-winger José Calvo Sotelo." "They asked him to step down to the station for questioning." "He promised to telephone soon to his family." "these gentlemen blow my brains out." "His dead body was dumped at the gate of the East Cemetery. but there was no way the government could escape the blame." "The leader of the opposition had been assassinated in the custody of the government's own special police." "The Calvo Sotelo murder brought the fury of conservative Spaniards to its peak." "offered the army plot mass support at a crucial moment." "It was then that all the doubts and hesitation or to wait for the disintegration to spread ... all those doubts disappeared." "Mola dispatched a coded telegram Helen gave birth to a beautiful child time and place of the uprising." "in Morocco. ... the military uprising. and workers were already garrisoning party and trade union offices." "Indalecio Prieto" "Casares Quiroga." "but Casares thought this would fling away the last hopes of law and order." "He refused." "Captain Bebb took off from Casablanca." "Destination ... the Canary Isles." "the funerals of Castillo and Calvo Sotelo took place. the straight armed fascist salute for Calvo Sotelo." "What remained of political middle ground in Spain was crumbling." "Disaster now seemed inevitable." "Juan Molina was an anarchist militant in Barcelona." "We hadn't slept at home for several nights." "We were grabbing what sleep we could on floors at the union and at our newspaper offices." "We were waiting for the inevitable." "In our newspapers we were telling our members to be prepared." "Everybody was ready because we knew the coup was bound to come. but Casares Quiroga still refused to see what was about to happen." "news arrived of army unrest in Morocco. although General Franco's name still wasn't being mentioned." "I'm convinced that the army is going to rise against Spanish democracy." "He said: "I'm sure it won't"." "Casares Quiroga could not believe the generals would go so far. the rising erupted here in Melilla." "Next day it spread to other towns in Morocco." "even before General Franco had arrived to lead the Army of Africa." "The military plotters assumed their coup d'etat would succeed swiftly." "thought it was strong enough to stamp out this erratic rising." "Both were terribly wrong." "and the rebel generals soon controlled great tracts of the countryside. they defeated the military in most of Spain's industrial cities." "There could be no rapid victory either way." "The rising swelled into full-blown counter-revolution." "now pouring out to the barricades which was to become but revolutionary." "There was no way left to prevent the conflict which was to rage across Spain for almost three years. ... no compromise." "It could only be civil war."