The 'Red Terror' and the Spanish Civil War
The 'Red Terror' and the Spanish Civil War
This book deals with one of most controversial issues of the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939): the “Red Terror.” Approximately 50,000 Spaniards were extrajudically executed in Republican Spain following the failure of the military rebellion in July 1936. This mass killing of “fascists” seriously undermined attempts by the legally constituted Republican government to present itself in foreign quarters as fighting a war for democracy. This study, based on a wealth of scholarship and archival sources, challenges the common view that executions were the work of criminal or anarchist “uncontrollables.” Its focus is on Madrid, which witnessed at least 8,000 executions in 1936. It shows that the terror was organized and was carried out with the complicity of the police, and argues that terror was seen as integral to the antifascist war effort. Indeed, the elimination of the internal enemy – the “Fifth Column” – was regarded as important as the war on the front line.
- Based on new and neglected primary source material
- Provides, for the first time, a detailed examination of the perpetrators of Republican terror
- The only English-language study to discuss in any great detail the Paracuellos massacres, the worst atrocity in Republican Spain
Reviews & endorsements
"The purpose of Julius Ruiz’s study is not to present a lurid description of atrocities, as does much of the literature in this area, but to offer an in-depth study of the institutions and mechanisms of the Republican repression in Madrid. This makes it possible to reveal the structure and functioning of the terror, rather than dwelling on the pathos of victimization alone. Ruiz provides a kind of political history of Madrid on the eve of the Civil War and during the first six months of the conflict, revealing in detail the interplay, competition, and cooperation of the various Republican political forces in organizing and carrying out repression. No previous account has achieved this depth and quality of analysis. Ruiz offers a major contribution to the history of repression in the Civil War, a genuine research breakthrough."
Stanley G. Payne, University of Wisconsin, Madison
"This excellent book carefully examines Madrid’s "Red Terror," that is, the deaths of thousands of rightists in a city controlled by Republican forces during the Spanish Civil War. It provides new information and a convincing interpretation concerning many of the Terror’s most important issues - the Soviet role, the Paracuellos massacres, Republican government complicity, participation of various forces of the left, and the influence of so-called uncontrollables. In an innovative manner, it demonstrates the cultural influence of Hollywood gangster films on the assassins, emphasizes the importance of the radio, and shows - in contrast to much of the literature - that the relationship between Nationalist and Republican atrocities was not direct, but rather was indirect. This is probably the best study of terror in a major city during the Spanish conflict."
Michael Seidman, University of North Carolina, Wilmington
Product details
March 2015Paperback
9781107682931
398 pages
227 × 150 × 21 mm
0.58kg
3 maps
Available
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Table of Contents
- Introduction
- 1. On the brink
- 2. The military rebellion
- 3. Antifascist Madrid
- 4. Forging the new police
- 5. The justice of the people
- 6. If it is the will of the people…
- 7. Popular tribunals and the Rearguard Vigilance Militias (MVR)
- 8. A fifth column?
- 9. The prison problem
- 10. Paracuellos
- 11. The dirty war against the fifth column
- 12. Dealing with the legacy of the terror: forced labor for fascists, 1937–9
- Epilogue
- Appendices.
