“..After much fighting, losing tens of thousands...
Cover photo: Anarchists march on the streets of Barcelona during the Spanish Civil War.
The role of anarchism in the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939) was both decisive and deeply paradoxical. The anarchist movement, primarily organized through the Confederación Nacional del Trabajo (CNT) and the Federación Anarquista Ibérica (FAI), constituted the most powerful anarchist presence in Europe at the time. When the military coup of July 1936 erupted, anarchist workers and militias were central in defeating the rebels in Catalonia (Barcelona, 19–20 July 1936) and Aragon. Their success allowed for the emergence of revolutionary experiments in collectivization and self-management, particularly in Catalan industry and Aragonese agriculture. One of the most emblematic figures of this movement was Buenaventura Durruti Dumange (1896–1936). A veteran anarchist and trade unionist, Durruti played a key role in organizing armed resistance against the coup in Barcelona and later led his unit, the Durruti Column, a militia that advanced into Aragon.
Unlike the centralized and disciplined forces supplied by Germany and Italy to Franco’s Nationalists, the anarchist columns often lacked coordination, heavy weapons, and the ability to sustain prolonged offensives. Historians note that these shortcomings contributed to repeated setbacks on the Aragon front.
A report by the FAI (Federación Anarquista Ibérica) stated in September 1937, in the midst of the Spanish Civil War:
“Our irregular militias, who held plenary sessions and assemblies before carrying out operations, who would sit and discuss all orders and often refused to execute them, could not withstand the terrible military machine that Germany and Italy provided to our opponents. Durruti was the first to understand this and the first to say: you must organize an army; war is waged by soldiers and not by anarchists.” It is easy to see, then, the cost of sacrificing contact with realism and reality in favor of ideological rigidities—something that the anarchist José Buenaventura Durruti Dumange did not share. “We are paying dearly for our attachment to our ideas for so long. We could have marched to Badajoz and the gates of Madrid if everyone had not opposed, for so long and so stubbornly, the organization we needed to fight the enemy.”
His unit, the “Durruti Column,” performed very poorly in July 1936 at Caspe, Zaragoza. Its 2,500 men fell easily into ambushes, while little progress was made between August and September-they managed to capture only Pina de Ebro and Osera de Ebro. From then on, it was unable to carry out offensive actions and remained at Bujaraloz. In November of the same year, the unit was called to defend Madrid—specifically its university campus, and more precisely the sector of the Faculty of Sciences. Durruti took with him one-quarter of the unit (which had by then grown to 6,000 volunteers), about 1,400 men.
The militants lacked the strength and experience necessary to face the disciplined, well-equipped, and battle-hardened Moroccan troops of the Army of Africa. The XI International Brigade established its headquarters in the Faculty of Philosophy and Letters, and fierce fighting continued there for several days. Defenders used gaps created with books to fortify the sector, while the Madrid Defense Council sought to coordinate University defenders with Colonel Alzugaray’s orders. On the 16th/11, Durruti’s Column launched a counterattack, but their advance was slowed by the enemy’s strong push from the Faculties toward the Clínico. Durruti’s men took positions in the School of Dentistry and the Faculties of Medicine and Pharmacy but were heavily battered at the Santa Cristina Asylum amid fierce resistance. By the 17th, the column had lost the position and was forced to retreat to the Clínico.
The battle at the Clínico was in utter chaos. Anarchist captains were ready to abandon the position, prompting Colonel Alzugaray, responsible for the University’s defense, to explode in anger and threaten to arrest them. Meanwhile, in Madrid, Durruti learned that his men were intent on retreating at all costs. He immediately requested a car and rushed to the front. At 2:00-2:30 p.m.19/11/1936, just as he stepped out near the gates of the Clínico Hospital, adjacent to the Junta Municipal de Moncloa, Buenaventura Durruti was mortally wounded. Only days earlier, he had scolded his men for their poor performance, demanding they make sacrifices and redeem this disgrace.
Out of the 1,400, 600 layed dead or wounded, while many left Madrid and returned to the fronts in Aragon and Catalonia in the following days. Durruti himself was finally dead (20 November 1936), while his replacement, Ricardo Sanz, was heavily criticized for mistreating his men and for bringing brothels into the trenches—resulting in the leadership calling for the dissolution of the column and the redistribution of its men among other units who finally became part of the 26th Republican Division. A part of them, the IV Grouping (Gelsa-Velilla sector), equivalent to a battalion, decided to leave the front and march to Barcelona, taking their weapons with them. They would later form the Friends of Durruti Grouping, which played a prominent role in the May Days of 1937- a series of clashes that took place within the Republican side between May 3 and May 8, 1937.
For the rets of them, between August and September 1937, they took part in the Zaragoza offensive, but their performance proved disappointing. The 119th Mixed Brigade, in particular, earned harsh criticism from the international general Emilio Kléber, who bluntly declared it “good for nothing.”
By March 1938, the division found itself overwhelmed by the Francoist offensive in Aragon. Initially, they managed to hold their ground, but the collapse of the front held by the 44th Division and the XI International Brigade left the southern flank of the 26th Division dangerously exposed. Soon after, the enemy attacked the northern flank as well. Confronted with the imminent risk of encirclement, the unit’s commander had no choice but to order a retreat.
Sources:
José Peirats Valls, ‘The CNT in the Spanish Revolution’, 2001.
B. Osvaldo, The anarchist expropriators : Buenaventura Durruti and Argentina’s working-class Robin Hoods, publ. Edinburgh : AK Press, 2015
A. Paz, Durruti in the Spanish Revolution, translated by Chuck Morse, publ. Edinburgh: AK Press, 2006
P. Preston, The Spanish Civil War: Reaction, Revolution, and Revenge, publ. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2006
Robert Alexander, The Anarchists In The Spanish Civil War, Lim Janus Publishing Company, 1999,
Footnotes
Durruti Column, the Anarchists in the Spanish Civil War
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Cover photo: Anarchists march on the streets of Barcelona during the Spanish Civil War.
The role of anarchism in the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939) was both decisive and deeply paradoxical. The anarchist movement, primarily organized through the Confederación Nacional del Trabajo (CNT) and the Federación Anarquista Ibérica (FAI), constituted the most powerful anarchist presence in Europe at the time. When the military coup of July 1936 erupted, anarchist workers and militias were central in defeating the rebels in Catalonia (Barcelona, 19–20 July 1936) and Aragon. Their success allowed for the emergence of revolutionary experiments in collectivization and self-management, particularly in Catalan industry and Aragonese agriculture. One of the most emblematic figures of this movement was Buenaventura Durruti Dumange (1896–1936). A veteran anarchist and trade unionist, Durruti played a key role in organizing armed resistance against the coup in Barcelona and later led his unit, the Durruti Column, a militia that advanced into Aragon.
Unlike the centralized and disciplined forces supplied by Germany and Italy to Franco’s Nationalists, the anarchist columns often lacked coordination, heavy weapons, and the ability to sustain prolonged offensives. Historians note that these shortcomings contributed to repeated setbacks on the Aragon front.
A report by the FAI (Federación Anarquista Ibérica) stated in September 1937, in the midst of the Spanish Civil War:
“Our irregular militias, who held plenary sessions and assemblies before carrying out operations, who would sit and discuss all orders and often refused to execute them, could not withstand the terrible military machine that Germany and Italy provided to our opponents. Durruti was the first to understand this and the first to say: you must organize an army; war is waged by soldiers and not by anarchists.” It is easy to see, then, the cost of sacrificing contact with realism and reality in favor of ideological rigidities—something that the anarchist José Buenaventura Durruti Dumange did not share. “We are paying dearly for our attachment to our ideas for so long. We could have marched to Badajoz and the gates of Madrid if everyone had not opposed, for so long and so stubbornly, the organization we needed to fight the enemy.”
His unit, the “Durruti Column,” performed very poorly in July 1936 at Caspe, Zaragoza. Its 2,500 men fell easily into ambushes, while little progress was made between August and September-they managed to capture only Pina de Ebro and Osera de Ebro. From then on, it was unable to carry out offensive actions and remained at Bujaraloz. In November of the same year, the unit was called to defend Madrid—specifically its university campus, and more precisely the sector of the Faculty of Sciences. Durruti took with him one-quarter of the unit (which had by then grown to 6,000 volunteers), about 1,400 men.
The militants lacked the strength and experience necessary to face the disciplined, well-equipped, and battle-hardened Moroccan troops of the Army of Africa. The XI International Brigade established its headquarters in the Faculty of Philosophy and Letters, and fierce fighting continued there for several days. Defenders used gaps created with books to fortify the sector, while the Madrid Defense Council sought to coordinate University defenders with Colonel Alzugaray’s orders. On the 16th/11, Durruti’s Column launched a counterattack, but their advance was slowed by the enemy’s strong push from the Faculties toward the Clínico. Durruti’s men took positions in the School of Dentistry and the Faculties of Medicine and Pharmacy but were heavily battered at the Santa Cristina Asylum amid fierce resistance. By the 17th, the column had lost the position and was forced to retreat to the Clínico.
The battle at the Clínico was in utter chaos. Anarchist captains were ready to abandon the position, prompting Colonel Alzugaray, responsible for the University’s defense, to explode in anger and threaten to arrest them. Meanwhile, in Madrid, Durruti learned that his men were intent on retreating at all costs. He immediately requested a car and rushed to the front. At 2:00-2:30 p.m.19/11/1936, just as he stepped out near the gates of the Clínico Hospital, adjacent to the Junta Municipal de Moncloa, Buenaventura Durruti was mortally wounded. Only days earlier, he had scolded his men for their poor performance, demanding they make sacrifices and redeem this disgrace.
Out of the 1,400, 600 layed dead or wounded, while many left Madrid and returned to the fronts in Aragon and Catalonia in the following days. Durruti himself was finally dead (20 November 1936), while his replacement, Ricardo Sanz, was heavily criticized for mistreating his men and for bringing brothels into the trenches—resulting in the leadership calling for the dissolution of the column and the redistribution of its men among other units who finally became part of the 26th Republican Division. A part of them, the IV Grouping (Gelsa-Velilla sector), equivalent to a battalion, decided to leave the front and march to Barcelona, taking their weapons with them. They would later form the Friends of Durruti Grouping, which played a prominent role in the May Days of 1937- a series of clashes that took place within the Republican side between May 3 and May 8, 1937.
For the rets of them, between August and September 1937, they took part in the Zaragoza offensive, but their performance proved disappointing. The 119th Mixed Brigade, in particular, earned harsh criticism from the international general Emilio Kléber, who bluntly declared it “good for nothing.”
By March 1938, the division found itself overwhelmed by the Francoist offensive in Aragon. Initially, they managed to hold their ground, but the collapse of the front held by the 44th Division and the XI International Brigade left the southern flank of the 26th Division dangerously exposed. Soon after, the enemy attacked the northern flank as well. Confronted with the imminent risk of encirclement, the unit’s commander had no choice but to order a retreat.
Sources:
José Peirats Valls, ‘The CNT in the Spanish Revolution’, 2001.
B. Osvaldo, The anarchist expropriators : Buenaventura Durruti and Argentina’s working-class Robin Hoods, publ. Edinburgh : AK Press, 2015
A. Paz, Durruti in the Spanish Revolution, translated by Chuck Morse, publ. Edinburgh: AK Press, 2006
P. Preston, The Spanish Civil War: Reaction, Revolution, and Revenge, publ. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2006
Robert Alexander, The Anarchists In The Spanish Civil War, Lim Janus Publishing Company, 1999,
Footnotes