Buenaventura Durruti
Buenaventura Durruti | |
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Birth name | José Buenaventura Durruti Dumange |
Born | León, Spain | 14 July 1896
Died | 20 November 1936 Madrid, Spain | (aged 40)
Buried | |
Allegiance | CNT-FAI |
Service | Los Justicieros (1920–1922) Los Solidarios (1922–1924) Confederal militias (1936) |
Years of service | 1920–1936 |
Commands held | Durruti Column |
Known for | Anarcho-syndicalism, Anti-fascism |
Battles/wars | Spanish Civil War |
Spouse(s) | Émilienne Morin |
Children | Colette Durruti |
Relations | Pedro Durruti (brother) |
Signature |
José Buenaventura Durruti Dumange (14 July 1896 – 20 November 1936) was a Spanish insurrectionary,
Biography
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Anarchism |
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Early life
José Buenaventura was born in León, Spain, son of Anastasia Dumange and Santiago Durruti, as the second of eight children. He started primary school when he was five and moved to the Calle Misericordia school four years later.[2]
In 1910, aged 14, Durruti left school to become a trainee mechanic in the railway yard in
Shortly after Buenasca, the then president of the recently formed anarchist controlled
Durruti and his companions returned to Spain and Barcelona, becoming an influential militant group within two of the largest anarchist organizations in Spain at the time, the Federación Anarquista Ibérica (FAI), and of the anarcho-syndicalist trade union Confederación Nacional del Trabajo (CNT). The influence Durruti's group gained inside the CNT caused a split, with a reformist faction under Ángel Pestaña leaving in 1931 and subsequently forming the Syndicalist Party.
In the Civil War
Working closely with his comrades in the FAI and CNT Durruti helped to co-ordinate armed resistance to the military rising of the
The famous quote, "We renounce everything except victory", is associated with Durruti but this phrase was created by the CNT and never spoken by Durruti himself.[7]
Death
In November, having been persuaded to leave Aragón by the anarchist leader
Antony Beevor in The Spanish Civil War (1982) maintains that Durruti was killed when a companion's machine pistol went off by mistake. He assessed that, at the time, the anarchists lied and claimed he had been hit by an enemy sniper's bullet "for reasons of morale and propaganda". The first rumor of his death was that he was shot by his comrades because he enforced discipline.
Durruti died on 20 November 1936, at the age of 40, in a makeshift operating theatre set up in what was formerly the Ritz Hotel. The bullet was lodged in the heart; the diagnosis recorded was "death caused by pleural haemorrhage". In his later book Durruti in the Spanish Revolution, it was alleged that Durruti was killed by a 9mm bullet to the thorax. The autopsy reported:
"Durruti had a very developed chest. Given the topography of the thorax, I realized that the diagnosis that surgery was impossible had been mistaken. An operation could have produced positive results, although doubtlessly the patient would not have survived."[8]
Following a large funeral procession,[9] he was buried in Barcelona's Montjuïc Cemetery.[10]
A few hours after Durruti's death, in reprisal, José Luzón Morales ordered the execution of 52 policemen who had been held captive in a monastery in Calle de Santa Engracia.[11]
Personal life
On 14 July 1927, Durruti met French
Legacy
At first, Durruti's death was not made public, for morale reasons. Durruti's body was transported across the country to Barcelona for his funeral. Over a half million people filled the streets to accompany the cortege during its route to the Montjuïc Cemetery. It was the last large-scale public demonstration of anarchist strength of numbers during the Spanish Civil War.
In 1937, as a response to the further participation of the CNT-FAI in the Republican government, and after the May Days in 1937 in Barcelona, the Friends of Durruti Group was founded, to try and save the anarchist principles of the revolution. The name of Durruti clearly taken because of the revolutionary commitment and the symbol that he still was for that in the anarchist camp. The Friends of Durruti group had a newspaper called El Amigo del Pueblo (The Friend of the People) and tried to make revolutionary propaganda among the rank and file of the CNT. The group was however fiercely repressed by the reformist wing of the CNT, in collaboration with the Republican government.
A
Gallery
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Photograph of Durruti
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Funeral of Durruti, Barcelona, 23 November 1936
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Durruti's grave full of flowers on the 69th anniversary of his death
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Durruti's grave at Montjuïc Cemetery, Barcelona
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"Hálito Durruti", monument to Buenaventura Durruti in his hometown of León
See also
- Anarchism in Spain
- Anarchist Catalonia
Notes
- ISBN 9781483359885. Retrieved 2 June 2023.
Durruti is remembered as a hero, an anarchist militant, and a revolutionary armed fighter against fascism, willing to wage war to foster a worker-controlled anarchist society.
- ^ Paz 2006, pp. 4–5.
- ^ Paz 2006, pp. 6–9.
- ^ a b Loadenthal 2017, p. 63.
- ^ Alexander 1999, p. 83.
- ^ Paz 2006, pp. 47–92.
- ^ Graham 2002, pp. 178–179.
- ^ Paz 2006, p. 600.
- ^ Preston 2006, pp. 176–177.
- ^ Comotto 2022, p. 108.
- ^ Ruiz 2014, p. 284.
- ^ a b "MORIN [DURRUTI], Émilienne, Léontine " MIMI " - [Dictionnaire international des militants anarchistes]". militants-anarchistes.info. Retrieved 30 October 2022.
- ^ Dupuy, René Bianco, notice complétée par Rolf (27 December 2021), "MORIN Émilienne, Léontine [dite Mimi Durruti]", Dictionnaire des anarchistes (in French), Paris: Maitron/Editions de l'Atelier, retrieved 30 October 2022
{{citation}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ Dupuy, Rolf; Enckell, Marianne (2020). "DURRUTI Buenaventura". Le Maitron (in French). Maitron/Editions de l'Atelier. Retrieved 30 October 2022.
- ^ Thomas 2001, p. 471.
- ISBN 978-0-85965-875-1.
- ^ Cleary, Tom (14 July 2019). "Willem Van Spronsen aka Emma Durutti: 5 Fast Facts You Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 22 December 2019.
- ^ Collective, CrimethInc Ex-Workers (14 July 2019). "CrimethInc. : On Willem Van Spronsen's Action against the Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma : Including the Full Text of His Final Statement". CrimethInc. Retrieved 22 December 2019.
References
- ISBN 978-1-85756-400-6.
- Bayer, Osvaldo (2015) [1975]. The Anarchist Expropriators: Buenaventura Durruti and Argentina's Working-Class Robin Hoods. OCLC 908088288.
- ISBN 0-297-84832-1.
- Comotto, Agustín (2022). The Weight of the Stars: The Life of Anarchist Octavio Alberola. ISBN 978-1-84935-409-7.
- OCLC 1077270536.
- OCLC 803661954.
- OCLC 464890766.
- Loadenthal, Michael (2017). "Anarchism". In Joseph, Paul (ed.). The SAGE Encyclopedia of War: Social Science Perspectives. ISBN 978-1-4833-5989-2.
- OCLC 482919277.
- Preston, Paul (2006). The Spanish Civil War: Reaction, Revolution, and Revenge. ISBN 0-393-32987-9.
- Ruiz, Julius (2014). The 'Red Terror' and the Spanish Civil War. ISBN 9781107054547.
- Shantz, Jeff (2009). "Durruti, Buenaventura (1896–1936)". In Ness, Immanuel (ed.). The International Encyclopedia of Revolution and Protest. ISBN 9781405198073.
- ISBN 0-375-75515-2.
Further reading
- Acerete, Julio C. (1975). Durruti (in Spanish). Editorial Bruguera. OCLC 1977102.
- Amodia, Jose (1995). "Durruti Dominguez, Buenaventura". In Lane, A. Thomas (ed.). Biographical Dictionary of European Labor Leaders. Vol. 2. Greenwood Publishing Group. pp. 283–284. ISBN 978-0-313-26456-6.
- ISBN 978-1-873176-04-7.
- Goldman, Emma (1936). "Durruti is Dead, Yet Living".
- OCLC 1156129943.