Durruti in the Spanish Revolution

785 Pages·2006·13.11 MB·English

by  Abel Paz

Abel Paz
Durruti
in the Spanish Revolution
Afterward by
José Luis Gutiérrez Molina
Translated to English by Chuck Morse
Colección Biografías y Memorias / 3
Fundación de estudios libertarios Anselmo Lorenzo
Madrid, 1996
2nd Spanish edition, 1996
© The Work
Diego Camacho 2006
© The Afterword
José Luis Gutiérrez Molina 2006
© Interior Photographs
Diego Camacho, Rafols, Vicent D. Palomares and the Instituto de Historia
de Barcelona 2006
© This Edition
AK Press 2006
© English Translation
Chuck Morse 2006
Isbn: 1-904859-50-x
ISBN13: 978-1-904859-50-5
Library of Congress Control Number: 2006920974
To Jenny, whose constant and continued
support made this book possible.
Translator’s acknowledgments
I translated this book in honor of Durruti’s revolutionary legacy and, to a
lesser extent, Paz’s contributions as a partisan intellectual. Many people from
the around world have helped me along the way. I must first thank AK Press
for asking me to translate the work and for their consistent encouragement.
I am particularly grateful to AK’s Charles Weigl. His expert and exhaustive
editorial assistance enabled me to improve the manuscript dramatically. Eva
García, Nadia Gil Velazquez, and Astrid Wessels all patiently helped me unravel
countless obscure and idiomatic passages. Dieter Gebauer and Laia Canals both
provided indispensable aid. Julie Herrada from the Labadie Collection at the
University of Michigan graciously and promptly mailed me various important
documents. I am indebted to Paul Glavin for his unflagging support for my
literary endeavors over the years. Annette Burkin and Rebecca DeWitt copy
edited the entire text and enriched it significantly. Finally, I must express my
deepest appreciation to Yvonne Liu. She offered helpful comments on several
chapters, although more than anything I am grateful for her constant emotional
support, companionship, and for bringing so many joys into my life.
While those listed above made this translation much better than it would
have been without their help, I alone bear final responsibility for the text.
Contents
dedication iii
translator’s acknowledgments iv
index v
preface to the spanish edition ix
note to the second spanish edition xii
First part
The rebel (1896-1931)
Between the cross and the hammer 3
August 1917 10
From Exile to Anarchism 14
Los justicieros 19
Confronting government terror 23
Zaragoza, 1922 28
Los solidarios 34
José Regueral and Cardinal Soldevila 38
Toward the Primo de Rivera dictatorship 47
The Revolutionary Center of Paris 57
Guerrillas in Latin America 69
From Simón Radowitzky to Boris Wladimirovich 77
Los Errantes in Buenos Aires in 1925 86
Toward Paris: 1926 93
The plot against Alfonso XIII 99
The International Anarchist Defense Committee 107
The Anarcho-Communist Union and the Poincaré government 111
The anti-parliamentarianism of Louis Lecoin 118
Emilienne, Berthe, and Nestor Makhno 124
Lyon, and in prison again 130
Clandestine in Europe 137
The fall of Primo de Rivera 145
The Murder of Fermín Galán 149
“Viva Macià! Death to Cambó!” 159
The new government and its political program 163
Second part
The militant (1931-1936)
April 14, 1931 193
Before May 1: the Forces in Play 200
May 1, 1931 207
The Nosotros group faces the CNT and the Republic 215
The FAI and the CNT meet 223
The republic’s social policy and the CNT 230
In the middle of a storm without a compass 237
Durruti and García Oliver respond to “The Thirty” 245
Two paradoxical processes: Alfonso XIII and the Gijón bank 252
The insurrection in Alto Llobregat 261
The steamship Buenos Aires 266
Guinea - Fernando Poo – The Canaries 271
Split in the CNT 281
The insurrectional cycle 289
Prisoner in El Puerto de Santa María 298
From electoral strike to insurrection 308
Socialism, absent in december 1933 321
The general strike in Zaragoza 330
A historic meeting between the CNT and Companys 336
From the damm boycott to the cells of the headquarters 341
October 6 in Barcelona: against whom? 349
The Asturian Commune 355
“Peace and order reign in Asturias” 362
“Banditry, no; collective expropriation, yes!” 366
Toward the “Popular Front” 372
The CNT judges Durruti 377
February 16, 1936 385
The Fourth Congress of the CNT 393
The long wait for July 19, 1936 398
Third part
The revolutionary (july 19 to november 20, 1936)
Barcelona in flames 431
General Goded surrenders 438
The death of Ascaso 445
July 20 450
Lluís Companys confronts the CNT, and the CNT confronts itself 457
The Central Committee of Anti-Fascist Militias of Catalonia 463
The Durruti-García Oliver offensive 473
The Durruti Column 482
“The clandestine revolution” 493
Koltsov visits the Durruti Column 503
Largo Caballero, reconstructing the republican state 511
García Oliver, Largo Caballero, and the problem of Morocco 517
Antonov Ovssenko and García Oliver 525
The spanish gold road to Russia 531
The Libertarian Confederation of Aragón 540
Stalin’s shadow over Spain 549
“Viva Madrid without government!” 562
The crossing of the manzanares river 570
The Durruti Column in Madrid 577
November 19, 1936 589
Durruti kills Durruti 597
Durruti’s funeral 603
Fourth part
The deaths of Durruti
Introduction 637
The first versions 639
Fact or fiction? 650
Contradictions and fabrications in the presented versions 661
Durruti’s second death, or his political assassination 671
Conclusion 675
The jigsaw puzzle of the search for Durruti’s body 678
Afterward 707
Notes 733
Bibliography and indexes
bibliography
expanded bibliography (1976-1996)
index of names
index of places
index of organization
index of graphics
works by the same author

Preface to the
spanish edition
For a variety of reasons, we were initially unable to publish this biography
in its original language and had to bring it into the world in translated form.
However, readers curious enough to buy the Spanish and French editions
should be aware that the Spanish version is distinct from the French in im-
portant ways. We should also inform readers that they may find material in
this biography that they have seen elsewhere, in works by other authors. This
is because many unscrupulous “historians” and “specialists” have extracted
information from the French edition of this book without indicating—and
sometimes even deliberately concealing—its origin. Anyone with concerns
can be assured that we have used primary sources almost exclusively. This
compels us to include abundant and sometimes cumbersome footnotes, but
we believe that it is important to note our sources, especially when treating a
person upon whom so many silences, shadows, and distortions weigh.
Having made these disclaimers, we should explain what prompted us to
modify this work between the publication of the first French edition and this
Spanish edition.
In 1962, when we began researching Buenaventura Durruti’s life, we
knew that we would encounter substantial difficulties. We decided to perse-
vere, despite the challenges, because he interested us so much. We reasoned
that we could at least use the available sources to construct a coherent ac-
count of his person and trajectory, even if we would be unable to cover
every dimension of his life (a large part of which transpired underground
and in prison). It was with that idea that we patiently began collecting notes,
speeches, letters, and commentaries on or by our subject. But we felt dissatis-
fied with the results of our work at first: the same facts and stories seemed
to be repeated endlessly, with greater or lesser passion, but there was little
substance once we passed our findings through the sieve of reflection.
Then we changed tactics and, where we thought we would run into a
wall of silence, we found a broad and warm comprehension instead. Aurelio
Fernández and Miguel García Vivancos were the first to share their memo-
ries with us. Thanks to their help, we were able to investigate the 1920s,
which contain many obscure areas. We were struggling with some of these
when we had the good fortune of receiving Manuel Buenacasa’s assistance.
He put us in contact with Clemente Mangado, who provided testimony of