Red Terror (Spain)

Quick Facts: Who was Red Terror (Spain)?

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Red Terror (Spain)

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Systematic acts of political and religious violence during the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939).

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Origins & Early Life

Red Terror (Spanish: Terror Rojo) is the name given by historians to various acts of violence committed from 1936 until the end of the Spanish Civil War by sections of nearly all the leftist groups involved. The May 1931 arson attacks against Church property throughout Spain and the determination of the Republican Government to never compromise upon and strictly enforce its ban against classical Catholic education were the beginning of a politicidal campaign of religious persecution against the Catholic Church in Spain. No Republican-controlled region escaped systematic and anticlerical violence, although it was minimal in the Basque Country. The violence consisted of the killing of tens of thousands of people, including 6,832 Roman Catholic priests, the vast majority in the wake of the rightist military coup in July 1936, the Spanish nobility, small business owners, industrialists, conservative politicians, and known or suspected supporters of the right-leaning parties or the anti-Stalinist Left, and the desecration and arson attacks against monasteries, convents, Catholic schools, and churches. A process of political polarisation had already characterized the Second Spanish Republic; party divisions became increasingly embittered, and whether an individual continued practising Catholicism was seen as a sign of partisan loyalty.

Career & Major Achievements

Electorally, the Church had identified itself with the Conservative and far-right parties, which had set themselves against the far-left. While the violence long preceded the failed coup of July 1936, the immediate aftermath let loose a violent onslaught on everyone that the revolutionaries in the Republican zone identified as enemies; "where the rebellion failed, for several months afterwards, merely to be identified as a priest, a religious, or simply a militant Christian or member of some apostolic or pious organization, was enough for a person to be executed without trial." Some estimates of the Red Terror range from 38,000 to 110,965 people killed. suffer[ed] appalling persecution," the events have so far met not only with "the embarrassing partiality of ecclesiastical scholars, but also with the embarrassed silence or attempts at justification of a large number of historians and memoirists." Analysts such as Helen Graham have linked the Red and White Terrors, alleging that it was the failed rightist coup that allowed the culture of brutal violence to flourish: "its original act of violence was that it killed off the possibility of other forms of peaceful political evolution." Other historians allege that they have found evidence of systematic religious persecution and revolutionary terror long preceding the military uprising and have pointed to a "radical and antidemocratic" opposition to religious toleration among supporters of the Second Spanish Republic and even within its constitution. These attitudes and policies attracted harsh criticism at the time, even from fellow Republicans Miguel de Unamuno and José Ortega y Gasset, and ultimately from Pope Pius XI in the encyclical Dilectissima Nobis. According to historian Julius Ruiz, the Red Terror also included politicidal infighting within the Republican faction, particularly after the Stalinist Communist Party of Spain declared POUM, the Workers' Party of Marxist Unification (an anti-Stalinist Left and Trotskyist political party), to be an illegal organization, alongside all other real and suspected Trotskyists and anarchists.

Enduring Legacy & Impact

The Stalinists, aided by the Comintern, the NKVD, and the GRU, accordingly unleashed a revolutionary terror almost identical to the simultaneous Purge of 1937 in the Soviet Union against the International Brigades and all other Republican factions, including en masse arrests, interrogation under torture, and mass executions. The Stalinist Red Terror against fellow Republicans and the decision to immediately transform Spain into a prototype for "the people's democracies" of the Cold War-era Soviet Bloc instead of first defeating Francisco Franco were nothing short of catastrophic for the Republican faction. George Orwell, an English socialist who fought during the Spanish Civil War as part of the POUM, would describe the Soviet-decreed Purge of the Republican faction in his memoirs Homage to Catalonia, as well as writing Nineteen Eighty-Four and Animal Farm to make the case that both fascism and Stalinism are two sides of the same coin. Other formerly pro-Soviet Westerners who witnessed the Purges, including John Dos Passos and Arthur Koestler, were left similarly disillusioned. In recent years, the Holy See has beatified hundreds of the victims of the Red Terror (498 in one 2007 ceremony, the largest single number of beatifications in the Catholic Church's history).

Chronological Milestones & Life Events

1. 1931: 1931 Milestone — The May 1931 arson attacks against Church property throughout Spain and the determination of the Republican Government to never compromise upon and strictly enforce its ban against classical Catholic education were the beginning of a politicidal campaign of religious persecution against the Catholic Church in Spain.
2. 1936: 1936 Milestone — Red Terror (Spanish: Terror Rojo) is the name given by historians to various acts of violence committed from 1936 until the end of the Spanish Civil War by sections of nearly all the leftist groups involved.
3. 1937: 1937 Milestone — The Stalinists, aided by the Comintern, the NKVD, and the GRU, accordingly unleashed a revolutionary terror almost identical to the simultaneous Purge of 1937 in the Soviet Union against the International Brigades and all other Republican factions, including en masse arrests, interrogation under torture, and mass executions.
4. 2007: 2007 Milestone — In recent years, the Holy See has beatified hundreds of the victims of the Red Terror (498 in one 2007 ceremony, the largest single number of beatifications in the Catholic Church's history).

Notable Quotes by Red Terror (Spain)

“its original act of violence was that it killed off the possibility of other forms of peaceful political evolution.”

Historical Fact-Check Quiz: Red Terror (Spain)

True or False: “The Red Terror only targeted members of the right-leaning parties and nobility, sparing all religious groups.”

Answer (FALSE ❌): The violence was broad, targeting not only the right but also internal factions within the Republican zone, such as anti-Stalinist elements.

Contemporary Figures & Related Historical Timelines

• A. E. Housman — Historical peer (Died in 1936) (1936): English classicist and poet, renowned for his scholarship and melancholic verse.
• A. S. Byatt — Historical peer (Born in 1936) (1936): Acclaimed English novelist, poet, and critic known for complex literary works.
• Ada Yonath — Historical peer (Born in 1939) (1939): Pioneering crystallographer known for elucidating the structure and function of the ribosome.
• Alan Ayckbourn — Historical peer (Born in 1939) (1939): Prolific British playwright and director known for domestic farce and ensemble pieces.
• A. P. J. Abdul Kalam — Historical peer (Born in 1931) (1931): Visionary aerospace engineer, scientist, and former President of India.
• Adolfo Pérez Esquivel — Historical peer (Born in 1931) (1931): Argentine activist and Nobel Peace laureate for human rights defense.
• Abdelaziz Bouteflika — Historical peer (Born in 1937) (1937): Algerian politician who served as the seventh President of Algeria from 1999 to 2019.
• Alain Badiou — Historical peer (Born in 1937) (1937): Influential French philosopher known for 'Being and Event' and universalism.
• Al Oerter — Historical peer (Died in 2007) (2007): Four-time Olympic champion in the discus throw, pioneering athletic consistency.
• Albert Ellis — Historical peer (Died in 2007) (2007): Pioneering figure in psychotherapy, founder of Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT)

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