Much will be written about the 70th anniversary of the so-called "National Uprising." But unfortunately, almost no one will talk about the background or the causes that gave rise to the Spanish Civil War. For many, only Franco is blamed.
It would be interesting to revisit the speeches of the political leaders of the Second Republic. Especially those of the PSOE, the anarchists, or the communists.
To give an idea of what the atmosphere was like in the days leading up to July 18, 1936, I will quote a phrase from the leader of the socialist party Largo Caballero, known as the "Spanish Lenin," for his fiery speeches: "The working class has to make the revolution... If they don't let us, we will go to civil war. When we take to the streets for the second time (the first time was in Asturias in 1934), let them not talk to us about generosity and let them not blame us if the excesses of the revolution are taken to the point of not respecting things or people." He uttered this phrase at a rally in Valencia on February 2, 1936, five months before the outbreak of the war.
Another example of the tense pre-war situation in those days can be found in the Communist Party's newspaper, "Mundo Obrero" of January 23, 1936, where the following phrase can be read: "We have always tried to form a united party that has nothing to do, directly or indirectly, with the bourgeoisie: a party that adopts armed insurrection as the norm for the conquest of power and the establishment of the dictatorship of the proletariat...". In short, almost no one remembers that this was the type of discourse launched by the socialists, anarchists, and communists during the Second Republic.
Who claims that the right-wingers were the only conspirators against a republican regime that arose after the undisputed electoral victory of the monarchists in April 1931. But no one remembers that the first to conspire against the so-called "republican democracy" were the socialists and left-wing groups in the famous uprising in Asturias in 1934. Asturias was the first attempt at civil war, financed to some extent by the extinct Soviet Union, with a toll of 1,325 dead, 2,951 wounded, 935 buildings destroyed, and 122,561 weapons seized.
Today, the Second Republic is portrayed as a democratic regime of freedoms. But no one remembers the burning of convents in 1931, no one remembers the political persecution, the censorship of the media, with fines and closures of dozens of newspapers for the application of the so-called "Law for the Defense of the Republic," which prevented freedom of expression. A very famous case was that of the newspaper ABC, which was closed and almost confiscated by the republican government in 1931.
Almost no one remembers the murders of priests, businessmen, or people linked to the so-called "right" (Falangists, monarchists, conservatives, Catholics, military, etc.)
Almost no one remembers that between 1931-1936, strikes were the order of the day, with confrontations, riots, attacks, in which the anarchists and communists did their part.
Almost no one remembers that these days mark the 70th anniversary of the assassination of the conservative deputy, Don José Calvo Sotelo, who was considered one of the main leaders of the sector that faced the threat of Sovietization of Spanish society in those days, and that said assassination, for some historians, was the straw that broke the camel's back and led a group of military and civil society to take up arms in July 1936 to defend their rights, against the plans of a revolutionary and bloody uprising in the month of August 1936.
On April 16, 1936, before the representatives of parliament, Calvo Sotelo rises to respond to some statements made that day in Congress by Manuel Azaña, in charge of forming a new government in the republic after the triumph of the Popular Front (coalition of left-wing parties). Sotelo states: "Mr. Azaña recommended calm and does not want civil war. All that, said at the beginning of March, could have sounded very good and been applauded by many. But to speak of calm now, after several weeks in which it can be said that there are no guarantees of life in many parts of Spain...; when threats are felt everywhere and shouts are heard 'Homeland, no! Homeland, no!'; when cheers for Spain are answered with cheers for Russia, and when the honor of the Army is violated and the essences of the Homeland are embittered; when all that is happening for six, seven, and eight weeks, I ask myself: Is it possible to have calm? I envy your lordship, Mr. Azaña, for the formidable display of his frivolous temperament."
To conclude his speech that day, Calvo Sotelo points out: "Mr. Azaña, you cannot play with History. Does your Lordship not know that groups of proletarians are being armed to strike the blow the day they have sufficient means in their hands? Has your Lordship tried to prevent the introduction of armaments destined for communist purposes in Spain?... we have to rise here to shout that we are willing to oppose with all means, saying that the example of extermination, the tragic destruction that the conservative and bourgeois classes of Russia experienced, will not be repeated in Spain, because right now if such a thing were to happen, we would move under the impulse of a spirit of defense that will lead everyone to heroism, because before the red terror..."
On July 13, 1936, at two in the morning, a Assault Group went to Calvo Sotelo's house, where there were gunmen disguised as guards, among them Victoriano Cuenca, as well as the militant of socialist youth Santiago Garcés. The head of the group was the captain of the Civil Guard Fernando Condés Romero. After the group arrived at Sotelo's house, they woke him up, and upon seeing the somewhat suspicious intentions of detention, he alleges that given his status as a parliamentarian, he could not be detained without the prior approval of a request by Congress. He tried to communicate with the General Directorate of Security, but the intruders had torn the telephone line. Condés, showing his card that identified him as a captain of the Civil Guard, made Sotelo change his attitude, and more than he could not resist, because the intruders warned him that he had to follow them "willingly or unwillingly." After getting dressed, he said goodbye to his children and his wife, who insisted that he not leave. He left his house promising his wife that he would call shortly "unless these gentlemen shoot me four times." After being put in a truck with signs of "General Directorate of Security," upon reaching the intersection of Velásquez and Ayala streets in Madrid, Victoriano Cuenca, who was sitting behind the detainee, brought the gun to the back of his neck and fired two shots.
Condes, upon seeing Sotelo dead, orders the driver to go to the Eastern cemetery, where they unloaded the body, telling the gravediggers who were on guard that it was that of a watchman they had found dead in the street. The cemetery employees left the body in the deposit.
Calvo Sotelo's family, after his detention, immediately set in motion, and from the house of some neighbors, they telephoned relatives, friends, and co-religionists, communicating with authorities. When they found out that no detention order had been issued, the worst was suspected, and his body was located in the cemetery's deposit.
It could be said that there is an intellectual author of Calvo Sotelo's assassination. One basis is why a captain of the Civil Guard would take the initiative to kidnap a parliamentarian and then assassinate him? There are certain indications that point to Indalecio Prieto (leader of a branch of the PSOE). The authorities had intervened without too much energy to clarify the assassination, making some arrests, taking statements, and opening a summary. On July 25, a few days after the war broke out, an armed patrol appeared at the Palace of Justice and forcibly removed the summary. Since then, the assassins of Calvo Sotelo - both intellectual and material - were free to move.
Fernando González Meléndez
Titled journalist from the Complutense University of Madrid