Juan Negrín
Minister of the Treasury | |
---|---|
In office 5 April 1938 – 31 March 1939 | |
Prime Minister | Francisco Largo Caballero Himself |
Preceded by | Enrique Ramos Ramos |
Succeeded by | Francisco Méndez Aspe |
Member of the Congress of Deputies | |
In office 16 March 1936 – 31 March 1939 | |
Constituency | Las Palmas |
In office 8 December 1933 – 7 January 1936 | |
Constituency | Madrid |
In office 14 July 1931 – 9 October 1933 | |
Constituency | Las Palmas |
Personal details | |
Born | Juan Negrín López 3 February 1892 Paris, France |
Nationality | Spanish |
Political party | Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (1929–1946) |
Spouse | María Fidelman Brodsky |
Juan Negrín López (Spanish pronunciation:
None of the leaders of the Second Spanish Republic has been as vilified as Negrín, not only by Francoist historians but also by important sectors of the exiled Spanish Left. The leadership of his own Socialist Party were among his detractors, including his friend and fellow socialist leader
According to the historian Stanley G. Payne, after the end of the civil war there was no person more hated than Negrín.[3] More recent scholarship, like the work of Negrin's biographer Gabriel Jackson, attempted to dispel many of these accusations. According to Jackson, Negrín was a pragmatic, social democratic leader who allied with the Soviets to keep the Republican cause alive until the outbreak of a world war, which would grant Republican Spain more allies in Western Europe.[2] The PSOE expelled Negrín in 1946, but he was posthumously rehabilitated in 2008.
Early years
Born in Las Palmas on the Canary Islands, Negrín came from a deeply Catholic middle-class family.[4] His father, Juan Negrin Cabrera, was a prosperous and reputable merchant and businessman of the islands, married to María Dolores López Marrero. Juan was the firstborn son and had one brother Heriberto, who adhered to the Claretian order, and a sister Dolores.[5][6] Since Juan had excelled in science subjects and had shown an interest in medicine, his father decided to send him, at the age of 15, to study in Germany in 1906, attracted by the enormous prestige of German universities at the time.[5][6]
In Germany
Negrin studied for two years at the Medical Faculty of Kiel. In 1908, to specialize in medical physiology, he moved to Leipzig, to the best physiology institute of Germany and even in Europe.[5][6] He stayed in Germany for almost a decade, studying first medicine, then chemistry and to some extent, economics. He proved to be a brilliant student with extraordinary capacity for scientific research. In 1912 (when he was only twenty years old) under the guidance of Theodor von Brücke he obtained a doctorate in medicine and was immediately incorporated into the Institute of Physiology in Leipzig as a research assistant and then as an assistant professor.[5][6]
On 21 July 1914 he married María Fidelman Brodsky, a piano student and daughter of a wealthy family of Russian exiles living in the Netherlands. The couple had five children, three of whom survived: Juan, Rómulo, and Miguel.[5] Negrín spoke English, French, German,[4] and Russian, in addition to his native Spanish.[7]
Back to Spain
At the end of 1915, in the middle of the
Negrin opened wide, fascinating vistas to my imagination, not only through his lectures and laboratory teaching, but through his advice, encouragement, and stimulation to read scientific monographs and textbooks in languages other than Spanish.[12]
According to Ochoa, Negrín was a demanding tutor and a high proportion of students failed his exams.[13] He also set up a private laboratory that was very successful. In 1923, his youngest daughter died in childbirth, which Negrín himself attended. Two years later, his other daughter died at the age of ten as a result of a typhus epidemic. These misfortunes would lead to the estrangement of the marriage and the entry into Negrín's life of Feliciana López de Dom Pablo, one of his laboratory assistants, who would become his companion in 1926 until his death. His wife did not tolerate this relationship and attributed permanent affairs to him.[14]
In politics
During his stay in Germany, Negrin had become very close to German social democracy, then at one of the moments of its maximum height and socio-political and cultural influence, but far removed from his conservative family tradition. Negrín joined the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) in the spring of 1929, at the height of the crisis of the dictatorship of General Miguel Primo de Rivera and the monarchy of Alfonso XIII.[15] He aligned himself from the very beginning with the moderate and reformist faction headed by Indalecio Prieto – with whom he forged a close friendship that only broke down due to the civil war – and opposed to the one led by Francisco Largo Caballero, representing the left (Marxist and revolutionary) wing of the UGT trade union and the PSOE.[16][17] From 1930 onwards, he declined his academic activity in favour of politics, and in 1934 he requested a leave of absence from his professorship. In the 1931 Spanish general election he was elected deputy for Las Palmas in the Canary Islands,[15] and re-elected in 1933 and 1936.[5]
Between April 1931 and July 1936, as political tension and social polarisation increased in Spain, Negrín identified in the socialist movement with Prieto's moderate positions and firmly opposed to the radical tendency led by Largo Caballero. The moderate faction of the PSOE, the majority in the executive committee, was in favour of maintaining the coalition with Prime Minister Manuel Azaña's Republicans in order to complete the ambitious programme of social democratic political and social reforms that had been launched by the left-wing government between 1931 and 1933 (secularisation of the state, agrarian reform, administrative decentralisation, military reform, progressive labour legislation, etc.). According to Prieto, Negrín and their supporters, this republican-socialist conjunction was essential to successfully promote the reforms and overcome the double opposition offered by the possible reaction of the right-wing defenders of the status quo with the help of the army and by the also possible revolution of the anarcho-syndicalist or communist-inspired workers' left.[18]
In Spanish socialism he represented a clear option of
Spanish Civil War
After the military uprising in Morocco on 17 July 1936, Spain was rapidly divided in two: a "Republican" or "Loyalist" Spain consisting of the Second Spanish Republic, and a "Nationalist" Spain under the insurgent generals, and, eventually, under the leadership of General Francisco Franco. The Republic faced tremendous odds from the outset, including the Nationalist military superiority, internal divisions, and European non-intervention.
The
From the first moment of the war, Negrin combined his activities as a deputy and, later, as a minister, with frequent visits in his private car to different places on the front line of Madrid to encourage the combatants and provide them with food and supplies. Negrín helped many people to escape from the revolutionary checas in July and August 1936.[8] His personal courage in pursuit of this was attested to by a friend who recounted that he "made every effort, at considerable risk to himself... to save people in Madrid."[21] As a result, Negrin was nearly killed by anarchists but was saved by the intervention of finance ministry security staff.[22]
Minister of Finance
With the approval of President Azaña, Largo Caballero and other influential ministers (including Prieto), he took the controversial decision to
Prime minister
The
Goals
In the anarchist-controlled areas,
PCE's support
Although Negrín had always been a centrist in the
Military situation
On the military level, along 1937 he launched a series of offensives in June (
Home front
The military situation of the Spanish Republic deteriorated steadily under Negrín's government, largely because of the superior quality of the opposing generals and officers many of whom were veterans of the
Peace negotiations
In May 1938, Negrín issued the "Thirteen Points" (Trece Puntos), a program for peace negotiations, including absolute independence of Spain, liberty of conscience, protection of the regional liberties, universal suffrage, an amnesty for all Spaniards and agrarian reform, but Franco rejected any peace deal.[54][55] Before the fall of Catalonia and the capture of Barcelona by the Nationalists on 26 January 1939, Negrín proposed, in the meeting of the Cortes in Figueres, capitulation with the sole condition of respecting the lives of the vanquished and the holding of a plebiscite so the Spanish people could decide the form of government, but Franco again rejected the new peace deal.[56] On 9 February 1939, Negrín moved to the Central Zone (30% of the Spanish territory) with the intention of defending the remaining territory of the republic until the start of the general European conflict,[57] and organize the evacuation of those most at risk.[58] Negrín thought that there was no other course but resistance, because the Nationalists refused to negotiate any peace deal:[59]
To fight on because there was no other choice, even if winning was not possible, then to salvage what we could – and at the very end our self respect... Why go on resisting? Quite simply because we knew what capitulation would mean.[60]
The critical year of 1938 saw a rupture in the PSOE and the political and personal friendship between Negrín and Prieto. Prieto was removed from the Defence ministry for his defeatism and joined with Largo Caballero and Julián Besteiro (the leader of the PSOE right-wing faction) in denouncing the government's policy as favourable to the communists and opposed to the idea of international mediation. Negrín explained his position to his friend and confidant Juan Simeón Vidarte:[61]
Do you think this odious servitude does not weigh as heavily on me as on anyone else? But there is no other way. When I speak to our friends in France, it is all promises and good words. Then inconveniences begin to arise, and of what was promised there is nothing left. Nothing remains of what was promised. The only reality, however much it pains us, is to accept the help of the Soviet Union, or to surrender unconditionally. (...) What else can I do? Negotiated peace always; unconditional surrender so that half a million Spaniards will be shot, never.[62][61]
Casado's coup
After the
Exile and death
Unlike President Azaña, Negrín remained in Spain until the final collapse of the Republican front and his fall from office in March 1939.
The Francoist dictatorship stripped Negrín of his academic position[74] and confiscated his estate. In July 1941 he was sentenced to the exorbitant fine of 100 million pesetas by the Special Court of the Law of Political Responsibilities, while in September 1941, the Special Court for the Repression of Freemasonry and Communism sentenced him to 30 years in prison (the maximum penalty, even though Negrin was neither a Mason nor a Communist).[75] His father was imprisoned in Las Palmas for the mere fact of being his father, leaving prison in 1941 to die shortly thereafter in poverty after having been illegally expropriated of all his property.[76]
Disagreements with exile community
In August 1945, at the end of the war with the defeat of the
before the celebration of a party congress in Toulouse.To no avail, in 1948 Negrín spoke out in favour of Franco's Spain's participation in the post-war Marshall Plan, which was opposed by the Spanish Republican government in exile. In his opinion, the economic assistance to Spain was indispensable to the economic recovery of Europe, while its exclusion could have no other result than to increase further the sufferings of the Spanish people.[78] According to Negrín, dreaming of the re-establishment of the Republic through hunger and the impoverishment of Spain was a mistake and mere flawed wishful thinking.[79]
Death and aftermath
Negrín died from a
Legacy
According to the historian Stanley G. Payne, after the end of the civil war there was no person more hated. Franco's side considered him a "red traitor", while within the Republican camp, some of his former allies reproached him for the "useless" prolongation of the war and for having "served" the plans of the Soviet Union. It will be long before the figure of Don Juan Negrín stands before history in clear outline. He aroused great passions in his life and made many bitter enemies, as he did devoted friends. The Franco regime labeled Dr. Negrín falsely as a "Red." He never was remotely that. As Premier under desperate circumstances, Dr. Negrín accepted the support of Russia, the only country aiding Republican Spain or backing her in the League of Nations. His own government was never dominated by the Communists. It was a Popular Front, dominated by Juan Negrín. For many in and out of Spain Dr. Negrín represented much that was finest about Republican Spain and the Spaniards who fought so bravely and forlornly against fascism. He never had anything to fear from history.[85]
Gabriel Jackson's biography depicts Negrín as "a fundamentally honest and decent human being who sacrificed his health, reputation, and academic career in a failed attempt to save his country from disaster,"[2] and as "an accomplished scientist and cosmopolitan intellectual who in normal circumstances would have never had to become a politician, let alone take his country’s reins during the most difficult years of its long history."[2] Jackson was a staunch defender of Negrín. "Negrín was one of those rare prepared politicians, with character; very valuable for his time," he said.[86] According to Jackson:
Negrín’s policy of resistance and constant diplomatic effort was the right one — he visited Paris secretly a number of times during the war, to get the French to realize that they themselves were going to be the next victims. I am also convinced that if England and France had supported the Republic and stood up to Hitler, history would have taken a different course.[87]
Negrín was one of the most controversial characters of the Spanish Civil War. "Demonized or praised, Negrin has been considered both a faithful servant of the permanent communist conspiracy in the pay of Moscow, and the most loyal politician to the Republican cause because of his faith in the final triumph, or he has been defined as a kind of seer who knew how to predict the inexorability of the Second World War, so that his policy of resistance at all costs ("resistir es vencer", "to resist is to win") would have led to the victory of the Republic, if the Spanish war had lasted five more months," say Spanish historians Ángel Bahamonde Magro and Javier Cervera Gil.[88] Negrín was post-humously rehabilitated by the PSOE in 2008.[77]
In 2010, a Spanish documentary film, Ciudadano Negrín (Citizen Negrín), directed by Sigfrid Monleón, Imanol Uribe and Carlos Álvarez Pérez was released. The documentary reconstructs the life of Juan Negrín from a variety of sources, including his grandchildren Carmen and Juan. With the help of historians such as Gabriel Jackson and Ángel Viñas, the film aims to give the protagonist a voice, using his writings, speeches and letters to construct the story. The production also benefits from the discovery of home movies filmed by Negrín himself in exile.[89] In 2013, Negrín's granddaughter Carmen Negrín handed over 150,000 original documents that he had transferred to France in several shipments to save them from destruction. The use and custody of the legacy rests with the Juan Negrín Foundation[n. 2], a non-profit organization founded in Las Palmas, on his home island of Gran Canaria, in 1992.[90]
Cabinets
First Negrín cabinet: 17 May 1937 – 5 April 1938 | |||
Ministry | Officeholder | Party | |
---|---|---|---|
Prime Minister. Finance & Economy | Juan Negrín López | Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) | |
State | José Giral | Republican Left (IR) | |
Justice | Manuel de Irujo Ollo |
Basque Nationalist Party (PNV) | |
Mariano Ansó Zunzarren (from 10 December 1937) |
Republican Left (IR) | ||
National Defense | Indalecio Prieto | Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) | |
Interior | Julián Zugazagoitia | Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) | |
Public Education and Health | Jesús Hernández Tomás | Communist Party of Spain (PCE) | |
Public Works and Communications | Bernardo Giner de los Ríos | Republican Union (UR) | |
Agriculture | Vicente Uribe | Communist Party of Spain (PCE) | |
Labor and Social Assistance | Jaume Aiguader | Republican Left of Catalonia (ERC) |
Second Negrín Cabinet: 5 April 1938 – 6 March 1939 | |||
Ministry | Officeholder | Party | |
---|---|---|---|
Prime Minister & National Defense | Juan Negrín López | Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) | |
State' | Julio Álvarez del Vayo | Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) | |
Interior | Paulino Gómez Sáenz | Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) | |
Justice | Ramón González Peña | Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) | |
Agriculture | Vicente Uribe | Communist Party of Spain (PCE) | |
Public Education and Health | Segundo Blanco | Confederación Nacional del Trabajo (CNT) | |
Finance and Economy | Francisco Méndez Aspe | Republican Left (IR) | |
Public Works | Antonio Velao Oñate | Republican Left (IR) | |
Communications and Transport | Bernardo Giner de los Ríos | Republican Union (UR) | |
Labor and Social Assistance | Jaume Aiguader | Republican Left of Catalonia (ERC) | |
José Moix Regás (from 18 August 1938) |
Unified Socialist Party of Catalonia (PSUC) | ||
Without portfolio | José Giral | Republican Left (IR) | |
Without portfolio | Manuel de Irujo Ollo |
Basque Nationalist Party (PNV) |
Notes
- ^ The membership of Negrín had been suspended already since the Casado coup in 1939.[77]
- ^ Fundación Juan Negrín
References
- ^ Gobierno de España - Presidencia del Gobierno (ed.). "Relación cronológica de los presidentes del Consejo de Ministros y del Gobierno". La Moncloa (in Spanish). Retrieved 18 January 2023.
- ^ a b c d Faber 2011.
- ^ a b Payne 2007, p. 275.
- ^ a b Thomas 2003, p. 647.
- ^ a b c d e f g Biografía.
- ^ a b c d e f Moradiellos 2000, p. 247-248.
- ^ Jackson 1967, p. 393.
- ^ a b Thomas 2003, p. 646.
- ^ a b Graham 2005, p. 95.
- ^ Beevor 2006, p. 272.
- ^ Moradiellos 2000, p. 248.
- ^ a b Ochoa 1980, p. 2.
- ^ Ochoa 1980, p. 5.
- ^ (in Spanish) 50 años de la muerte del energético defensor de la República, El País, 12 November 2006
- ^ a b c Preston 2006, p. 260.
- ^ Beevor 2006, p. 28.
- ^ Jackson 1967, p. 208–209.
- ^ a b Moradiellos 2000, p. 250.
- ^ Beevor 2006, p. 374.
- ^ Graham 2002, p. xi;125.
- ^ Preston 2012, p. 291.
- ^ Preston 2012, p. 292.
- ^ Beevor 2006, p. 147.
- ^ Jackson 1967, p. 339.
- ^ Beevor 2006, p. 228.
- ^ Beevor 2006, p. 263.
- ^ Thomas 2003, pp. 647–648.
- ^ Jackson 1967, p. 317–318.
- ^ Moradiellos 2000, p. 252.
- ^ Graham 2002, pp. 150–53.
- ^ Thomas 2003, p. 435.
- ^ Thomas 2003, pp. 434–437.
- ^ Beevor 2006, p. 303.
- ^ Beevor 2006, pp. 263–273.
- ^ Preston 2006, pp. 256–258.
- ^ Beevor 2006, p. 271.
- ^ Graham 2005, p. 162.
- ^ a b c Fraser 2011.
- ^ Thomas 2003, p. 651.
- ^ a b Moradiellos 2000, p. 254.
- ^ Beevor 2006, pp. 102–122.
- ^ Jackson 1967, p. 405.
- ^ Preston 2006, p. 259.
- ^ Jackson 1967, p. 402.
- ^ Graham 2005, p. 100.
- ^ Graham 2005, p. 104–105.
- ^ Graham 2005, p. 110–111.
- ^ Preston 2006, pp. 190–191.
- ^ a b Beevor 2006, pp. 272–273.
- ^ Graham 2005, p. 104.
- ^ Graham 2005, p. 96.
- ^ Beevor 2006, p. 362.
- ^ Moradiellos 2000, p. 245.
- ^ Thomas 2003, p. 798.
- ^ Beevor 2006, pp. 338–339.
- ^ Beevor 2006, pp. 380–381.
- ^ Preston 2006, pp. 295–296.
- ^ Graham 2005, p. 111.
- ^ Thomas 2003, p. 867.
- ^ Graham 2005, p. 87.
- ^ a b Moradiellos 2000, p. 255.
- ^ Vidarte 1973, p. 855,857.
- ^ Beevor 2006, pp. 391–392.
- ^ Thomas 2003, p. 876–879.
- ^ Thomas 2003, p. 879–882.
- ^ Thomas 2003, p. 883–884.
- ^ Beevor 2006, p. 394.
- ^ Preston 2006, p. 298.
- ^ Preston 2006, pp. 298–299.
- ^ Beevor 2006, p. 393.
- ^ a b c Moradiellos 2000, p. 261.
- ^ Beevor 2006, p. 413.
- ^ Beevor 2006, p. 423.
- ^ Otero Carvajal 2006, p. 74ff.
- ^ Ruiz 2012, p. 77, 298, 306 and 357.
- ^ Moradiellos 2004, p. 174.
- ^ a b c Viñas 2008.
- ^ (in French) Le docteur Negrin se prononce pour la participation de l'Espagne franquiste au plan Marshall, Le Monde, 2 april 1948
- ^ Moradiellos 2000, pp. 262–63.
- ^ Thomas 2003, p. 923.
- ^ Moradiellos 2000, pp. 245, 263.
- ^ Dr. Juan Negrin of Loyalists Dies, The New York Times, 15 November 1956
- ^ (in French) Les Brigades Internationales et la guerre d’Espagne au cimetière du Père Lachaise, Amis des Combattants en Espagne Républicaine (ACER)
- ^ a b Moradiellos 2000, p. 263.
- ^ Juan Negrin, The New York Times (Editorial), 15 November 1956
- ^ (in Spanish) Hablando de Negrín con Gabriel Jackson, Crónica Popular, 25 May 2012
- ^ “Negrín was right.” An interview with Gabriel Jackson, The Volunteer, 31 August 2010
- ^ Bahamonde Magro & Cervera Gil 1999, pp. 33–34.
- ^ (in Spanish) Ciudadano Negrín, Memoria digital de Canarias (mdC), Biblioteca Universitaria, Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria
- ^ End to exile for a key political archive, El País, 26 December 2013
Sources
- (in Spanish) ISBN 84-95379-00-7.
- ISBN 0-14-303765-X.
- (in Spanish) "Biografía de Juan Negrín López". Diccionario Biográfico electrónico de la Real Academia de la Historia. Retrieved 10 October 2020.
- Faber, Sebastiaan (2011). "Review of: Gabriel Jackson, 'Juan Negrín: Spanish Republican War Leader'" (PDF). Bulletin for Spanish and Portuguese Historical Studies. 35 (1). Association for Spanish and Portuguese Historical Studies: 183–185. .
- Fraser, Ronald (2011). "How the Republic was Lost". New Left Review. 67 (January/February).
- ISBN 978-0-52-1459327.
- ISBN 978-0-19-280377-1.
- ISBN 0-691-00757-8.
- Jackson, Gabriel (2010). Juan Negrín: physiologist, socialist and Spanish Republican war leader. Brighton: Sussex Academic Press. ISBN 978-1-84519-376-8.
- (in Spanish) ISSN 0048-7694.
- (in Spanish) Moradiellos, Enrique (2004). 1936: Los mitos de la Guerra Civil. Barcelona: Ediciones Península. ISBN 84-8307-624-1.
- Ochoa, S. (1980). "A Pursuit of a Hobby". Annual Review of Biochemistry. 49: 1–30. PMID 6773467.
- (in Spanish) Otero Carvajal, Luis Enrique (2006). La destrucción de la ciencia en España: depuración universitaria en el franquismo. Madrid: Editorial Complutense. ISBN 84-7491-808-1.
- ISBN 978-84-9734-573-6.
- ISBN 978-0-00-723207-9.
- Preston, Paul (2012). The Spanish Holocaust: Inquisition and Extermination in Twentieth-Century Spain. W.W. Norton.
- (in Spanish) Ruiz, Julius (2012). La justicia de Franco. Barcelona: RBA Libros. ISBN 978-84-9006-243-2.
- ISBN 978-0-14-101161-5.
- (in Spanish) Vidarte, Juan Simeón (1973). Todos fuimos culpables: Testimonio de un socialista español. México DF: Fondo de Cultura Económica.
- (in Spanish) Viñas, Ángel (8 July 2008). "Negrín y 35 viejos militantes socialistas". El País.
Further reading
- Graham, Helen (1988). "The Spanish Socialist Party in Power and the Government of Juan Negrín, 1937-9". European History Quarterly. 18 (2): 175–206. S2CID 145387965.
- Documents on Negrín from "Trabajadores: The Spanish Civil War through the eyes of organised labour", a digitised collection of more than 13,000 pages of documents from the archives of the British Trades Union Congress held in the Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick
External links
- (in Spanish) Juan Negrín: ¡resistir es vencer!, RTVE, 8 October 2006.
- Newspaper clippings about Juan Negrín in the 20th Century Press Archives of the ZBW