The defeat of the Republicans in the Spanish Civil War did not mean the end of armed resistance against the Franco dictatorship established in the country. In Spain, as is known, revolutionary traditions were very strong and socialist doctrines were widely popular among the working class and the peasantry. Therefore, a significant part of the country's population did not come to terms with the coming to power of the right-wing radical Franco regime. Moreover, the anti-fascist movement in Spain was actively supported and stimulated by the Soviet Union. The Spanish anti-fascists had close ties with like-minded people in France and, like the French partisans, were called "poppies".
Spanish poppies: from France to Spain
The guerrilla war against the Franco regime began immediately after the fall of the Spanish Republic in 1939. Despite the fact that the republican movement suffered huge human losses, a large number of Communist Party activists, anarchists and anarcho-syndicalists remained at large, many of whom had combat experience in the Civil War and were determined to continue the fight with Franco in arms. In March 1939, the Secretariat of the Spanish Communist Party was created to organize the underground struggle, which was headed by J. Larranaga. The Secretariat was subordinate to the leadership of the French Communist Party, since the leaders of the Spanish Communist Party Dolores Ibarruri, Jose Diaz and Francisco Anton were in exile. However, Larranyaga soon died. The tasks of the secret secretariat of the Spanish communists included, first of all, preventing the entry of Francoist Spain into the war on the side of Germany and Italy. After all, the accession to the Hitlerite bloc of such a large country as Spain could seriously complicate the tasks of the anti-Hitler coalition to defeat the Axis countries. Therefore, with the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, hundreds of emigrants with combat experience returned illegally to Spain - the military who fought on the side of the Republicans during the Civil War. However, many of them immediately after their return fell into the hands of the secret services of the Franco regime and were killed. Meanwhile, a significant portion of the Spanish Republicans who had once served in the Republican Army's 14th Partisan Corps were in France. Here the Spanish military organization was created, headed by the former deputy corps commander Antonio Buitrago.
The total number of Spanish partisans trapped in France is estimated at tens of thousands. In June 1942, the first Spanish detachment was formed as part of the French Resistance. He operated in the Haute-Savoie department. By 1943, the Spanish partisans formed 27 sabotage brigades in France and retained the name of the 14th corps. The corps commander was J. Rios, who served in the headquarters of the 14th corps of the Republican Army during the Spanish Civil War. In May 1944, all partisan formations operating on French territory united into the French Internal Forces, after which the Spanish Partisan Union was created as part of the latter, headed by General Evaristo Luis Fernandez. Spanish troops operated on a large French territory and took part in the liberation of the French capital and a number of large cities in the country. In addition to the Spaniards, soldiers - internationalists, former soldiers and officers of the international brigades of the Republican army, who also retreated after the end of the Civil War to France, took part in the French Resistance. L. Ilic, a Yugoslav communist who served as chief of staff of the 14th Republican Corps during the Spanish Civil War, became chief of the operations department of the headquarters of the French Internal Forces in France. After the war, it was Ilic who was responsible for the activities of the Spanish partisans, holding the post of military attaché of Yugoslavia in France, but in fact, together with the French communists, preparing an anti-Franco uprising in neighboring Spain. However, after the start of the retreat of German troops in 1944, the anti-fascist partisans began to gradually return to the territory of Spain. In October 1944, the Spanish National Union was created, which included the Spanish Communist Party and the United Socialist Party of Catalonia. The Spanish National Union operated under the de facto leadership of the French Communist Party. Then, in the fall of 1944, the Spanish communists conceived a major partisan operation in Catalonia.
Catalonia has always been Franco's "headache". It was here that the republican movement enjoyed the greatest support among the workers and peasants, since national motives were also mixed with the socialist sentiments of the latter - the Catalans are a separate people, with their own language and cultural traditions, which are very painfully experiencing discrimination from the Spanish - Castilians. When Franco came to power, he banned the use of the Catalan language, closed schools that taught in Catalan, thereby further exacerbating the existing separatist sentiments. The Catalans gladly supported the partisan formations, hoping that in the event of Franco's overthrow, the "Catalan lands" would acquire the long-awaited national autonomy.
In the fall of 1944, the French-Spanish border crossing was planned in Catalonia. A partisan formation of 15 thousand people was supposed to capture one of the major cities of Catalonia and create a government there that would recognize the countries of the anti-Hitler coalition.
After that, according to the plot of the conspirators, an uprising would follow throughout Spain, which would ultimately lead to the overthrow of the Franco regime. The direct implementation of this operation was entrusted to the 14th Partisan Corps, whose command was in French Toulouse. On the night of October 3, 1944, an 8,000-strong unit of partisans armed with small arms began to cross the border between France and Spain in the Ronsval and Ronqual valleys. The fact of crossing the state border was immediately reported to the command of the Spanish armed forces, after which a huge army of 150 thousand soldiers and officers, armed with artillery and aviation, was thrown against the partisans. The Francoist forces were commanded by General Moscardo. For ten days, the partisans held the Aran Valley, after which they retreated to France by October 30.
Communists and the partisan movement
The Soviet leadership played an important role in the deployment of the partisan movement in Spain. Most of the leaders of the Spanish Communist Party and leading activists who survived the Civil War were in exile in the Soviet Union. According to Stalin, the leaders of the Spanish communists were supposed to leave the Union for France, from where they directly lead the partisan formations operating in Spain. On February 23, 1945, Stalin, Beria and Malenkov met with Ibarruri and Ignacio Gallego, assuring them of the all-round support of the Soviet state. However, already in March 1945, the government of liberated France demanded that the Spanish partisan formations surrender their weapons. But most of the armed detachments controlled by the Spanish Communist Party did not comply with the order of the French authorities. Moreover, in this matter, they enlisted the support of the French communists, who promised to provide Spanish like-minded people with support and, in the event of a resumption of the anti-Franco war in Spain, to arm up to one hundred thousand activists and send them to help the Spanish Communist Party. The French government under the leadership of Charles de Gaulle did not create any special obstacles for the activities of Spanish political organizations in France, since it was in bad relations with the Franco regime - after all, Spain during the Second World War claimed French Morocco and Algeria, which Paris did not forget after the end of the Second World War. Therefore, in the regions of France bordering on Spain, Spanish anti-Francoist political organizations were able to operate freely - they published propaganda literature, carried out radio broadcasts to Spain, trained partisans and saboteurs at a special school in Toulouse.
The most active partisan movement against the Franco regime developed in Cantabria, Galicia, Asturias and Leon, as well as in Northern Valencia. Partisan detachments operated in rural and isolated areas, primarily in the mountains. The Franco government sought by all possible means to hush up the fact of guerrilla warfare in the mountainous regions, so a significant part of the Spanish population, especially the urban ones, did not even suspect that partisan detachments, staffed and inspired by the communists, were fighting against Franco in the remote mountainous regions. Meanwhile, during 1945-1947. the activity of partisan formations has increased significantly. In the south of France, 5 partisan bases were created, on which partisan groups of 10-15 fighters each were formed and transported to Spain.
Under the leadership of the communist General Enrique Lister (pictured), the "Association of the Armed Forces of the Spanish Republic" was created, which included six partisan formations. The largest was the Levante and Aragon Guerrilla Force, which was responsible for activities in Valencia, Guadalajara, Zaragoza, Barcelona, Lleida and Teruel. The command of the compound was carried out by the captain of the republican army, the communist Vincente Galarsa, better known in revolutionary circles under the nickname "Captain Andres". The number of partisans of the formation reached 500 people, a sabotage school operated under the leadership of Francisco Corredor ("Pepito"). In February 1946, the soldiers of the compound executed the mayor of the village, blown up the command of the Spanish phalanx in Barcelona. In June 1946, partisans blew up the Norte railway station in the province of Barcelona, and in August 1946 they attacked a train carrying a convoy of political prisoners. All political prisoners were released. In September 1946, partisans attacked a military transport and blew up a meeting of senior officers of the Civil Guard (the Spanish equivalent of the gendarmerie and internal troops) in Barcelona. In September 1947, a civil guard barracks was blown up by grenades in the village of Gudar. In 1947 alone, 132 soldiers of the Civil Guard were killed at the hands of the Levante and Aragon partisans.
The guerrilla unit of Galicia and Leon operated under the leadership of socialists and communists. During the four most active years of the partisan war, its fighters carried out 984 military operations, destroying power lines, communications, railways, barracks and buildings of the Phalangist organizations. In Asturias and Santandeo, the third guerrilla unit under the leadership of the communists operated, carrying out 737 military operations. In January 1946, the unit's fighters captured the Carranza station in the Basque Country, and in February 1946 they killed the Phalangist leader García Diaz. On April 24, 1946, in the village of Pote, partisans seized and burned the headquarters of the Phalangists. In Badajoz, Cáceres and Cordoba, the Extremadura Partisan Formation operated under the command of the communist Dionisio Telado Basquez ("Caesar"). The subordinates of "General Caesar" carried out 625 military sorties, captured the estates belonging to the phalangists, and blew up railway infrastructure. In Malaga, Grenada, Jaen, the vicinity of Seville and Cadiz, the Andalusian Guerrilla Force operated under the leadership of the communist Ramon Via, and then the communist Juan Jose Romero ("Roberto"). The soldiers of the unit, numbering about 200 partisans, conducted 1,071 military operations, including attacks on the barracks and posts of the civil guard, seizure of weapons, and the murder of activists of the Spanish Phalanx. Finally, in Madrid and the surrounding area, the Center partisan unit operated under the leadership of the communists Cristino Garcia and Vitini Flores. After the first commanders of the formation were seized by the Franco special services, the anarcho-syndicalist Veneno took over the leadership of the partisan movement in the vicinity of Madrid and the Spanish capital itself. After his death, he was replaced by the communist Cecilio Martin, known by the nickname "Tymoshenko" - in honor of the famous Soviet marshal. The central guerrilla force carried out 723 operations, including the seizure and expropriation of the Madrid suburban station Imperial, the expropriation of the central bank in Madrid, the attack on the headquarters of the Spanish phalanx in the center of Madrid, numerous attacks on patrols and civil guard convoys. 200 fighters fought in the Central Partisan Formation, including 50 of them operating on the territory of Madrid proper. Gradually, partisan resistance spread to the cities of Spain, in which underground groups appeared. The most active urban partisans operated in Barcelona and a number of other cities in Catalonia. In Barcelona, unlike other areas of Spain, the urban guerrilla movement was controlled primarily by the Federation of Anarchists of Iberia and the National Confederation of Labor - anarchist organizations. In Madrid, Leon, Valencia and Bilbao, urban guerrilla groups remained under the control of the Spanish Communist Party.
- soldiers of the Spanish Civil Guard - an analogue of the gendarmerie
Decline of the partisan movement
The activity of the partisan movement in Spain in 1945-1948 took place against the backdrop of a deteriorating international situation in the country. Back at the Potsdam Conference in July 1945, Stalin characterized the Spanish Franco regime as imposed by the Nazis on Germany and Italy and spoke in favor of creating conditions that would lead to the overthrow of the Franco government. The USSR, the USA and England opposed Spain's entry into the UN. On December 12, 1946, the UN described Francisco Franco's regime as fascist. All countries that were members of the UN recalled their ambassadors from Spain. Only the embassies of Argentina and Portugal remained in Madrid. The international isolation of the Franco regime led to a sharp deterioration in the country's socio-economic situation. Franco was forced to introduce a rationing system, but the discontent of the population grew and this could not but worry the dictator. Ultimately, he was forced to make certain concessions, realizing that otherwise he would not only lose power over Spain, but would also end up in the dock among war criminals. Therefore, Spanish troops were withdrawn from Tangier, and Pierre Laval, a former French prime minister and collaborator, was transferred to France. Nevertheless, inside the country, Franco still cultivated an atmosphere of political intolerance, carried out repressions against dissidents. Not only the police and the civil guard, but also the army were thrown against the partisan detachments in the Spanish provinces. Most actively Franco used Moroccan military units and the Spanish Foreign Legion against the partisans. By order of the command, a brutal terror was carried out against the peasant population, who helped the partisans - anti-fascists. Thus, entire forests and villages were burned, all members of the partisan families and those sympathizing with the partisans were destroyed. On the Spanish-French border, Franco concentrated a huge military grouping of 450 thousand soldiers and officers. In addition, special teams were created from among the soldiers and officers of the Civil Guard, which, under the guise of partisans, committed crimes against the civilian population - they killed, raped, robbed civilians in order to discredit partisan detachments in the eyes of the peasants. In this atmosphere of terror, the Francoists managed to significantly reduce the activity of the partisans, pushing a significant part of the anti-fascists back to France.
In 1948, with the deepening of the US-Soviet confrontation, Spain's position in the international arena improved. The USA and Great Britain, in need of an increase in the number of allies in a possible war with the USSR, decided to close their eyes to the atrocities of the fascist regime of General Franco. The United States lifted the blockade on Spain and even began to provide financial assistance to the Franco regime. The American government has achieved the repeal of the resolution adopted against Spain by the UN on December 12, 1946. Against the background of the aggravation of Soviet-American relations, the Soviet Union also took a course towards curtailing the partisan movement in Spain. On August 5, 1948, the leadership of the Spanish Communist Party represented by Santiago Carrillo, Francisco Anton and Dolores Ibarruri was summoned to Moscow. The Soviet leaders called for the curtailment of the armed struggle in Spain and the transition of the Spanish communists to legal forms of political activity. In October 1948, in France, in Chateau Baye, a meeting of the Political Bureau and the Executive Committee of the Spanish Communist Party was held, at which a decision was made to end the armed struggle, disband partisan detachments and evacuate their personnel to French territory. In Spain itself, only a few detachments remained, whose tasks included personal protection of the leaders of the Spanish Communist Party, who were in an illegal position. Thus, as in Greece, the armed partisan resistance was curtailed at the initiative of Moscow - because of Stalin's fears that in their desire to prevent communist regimes from coming to power in the Mediterranean countries, the United States and Great Britain, in the event of further activation of the communist partisans, could agree to armed intervention in Greece and Spain, against which the USSR, weakened by the Great Patriotic War and busy with the restoration of its own forces, will not be able to oppose anything. However, Stalin's wishes could only have an effect on those partisan formations that were under the complete control of the communists and were subordinate to the secretariat of the Spanish Communist Party.
Anarchists continue to partisan
Meanwhile, not all of the guerrilla movement in Spain was formed by the communists. As you know, socialists, anarchists and left-wing radical nationalists of Catalonia and the Basque Country also had strong positions in the anti-Francoist movement. In 1949-1950. Anarcho-syndicalist partisan detachments carried out a large number of armed attacks against the Francoist regime, but police repression led to the fact that in 1953 the Spanish anarcho-syndicalists also decided to curtail the partisan struggle in order to avoid further escalation of police violence against the opposition and civilians …Nevertheless, it was precisely the anarchist groups that carried the baton of the anti-Francoist partisan movement from the late 1940s. until the mid-1960s. In the 1950s - early 1960s. on the territory of Spain, partisan detachments of Jose Luis Faserias, Ramon Vila Capdevila, Francisco Sabate Liopart operated under the control of anarchists.
Jose Luis Facerias was a participant in the Spanish Civil War and fought as part of the Askaso column on the Aragonese front, and Ramon Vila Capdevila fought as part of the Buenaventura Durruti Iron Column operating near Teruel. In 1945, the group of Francisco Sabate, better known as "Kiko", began its activities. Despite his anarchist convictions, Francisco Sabate advocated the deployment of a broad inter-party front of resistance to the Francoist dictatorship, which, according to the partisan commander, should include the Federation of Anarchists of Iberia, the National Confederation of Labor, the Workers 'Party of Marxist Unity and the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party. However, Sabate did not intend to cooperate with the Communists and the Catalan socialists close to them, since he considered the pro-Soviet Communist Party to be guilty of the defeat of the republican forces during the Civil War in the country and the subsequent “letting go” of the revolutionary movement in Spain. The partisan detachments of Sabate, Faserias and Kapdevila functioned almost until the 1960s. On August 30, 1957, the life of Jose Luis Faserias ended in a shootout with the police, and on January 5, 1960, also in a clash with the police, Francisco Sabate was killed. Ramón Vila Capdevila was killed on August 7, 1963, and on March 10, 1965, the last communist guerrilla commander, Jose Castro, was killed. Thus, in fact, the partisan movement in Spain existed until 1965 - only twenty years after the end of World War II, the Francoist special services managed to suppress the last pockets of resistance that had arisen back in the mid-1940s. However, the baton of the anti-Francoist resistance was taken up by the younger generation of Spanish anti-fascists and republicans.
Back in 1961, at the congress of the anarchist organization "Iberian Federation of Libertarian Youth", it was decided to create an armed structure - "Internal Defense", which was entrusted with the function of resisting the Franco regime by armed means. In June 1961, several explosions were heard in Madrid, later terrorist acts were committed in Valencia and Barcelona. Explosive devices were also detonated in the vicinity of the summer residence of Generalissimo Franco. After that, mass arrests of activists of Spanish anarchist organizations began. However, at the end of May 1962, at a regular meeting of the "Internal Defense", it was decided to even more actively conduct armed sorties against government troops and the police. On August 11, 1964, Scottish anarchist Stuart Christie was arrested in Madrid on charges of complicity in plotting the assassination of Francisco Franco. He was sentenced to twenty years in prison. Another anarchist, Carballo Blanco, received 30 years in prison. However, since Stuart Christie was a foreign citizen, signatures began to be collected in his defense in many European countries. Among those who demanded the release of the Scottish anarchist were such world celebrities as Bertrand Russell and Jean Paul Sartre. Ultimately, Stuart Christie was released on September 21, 1967, just three years after his conviction. But by this time, the "Internal Defense" actually ceased to exist due to the intensification of political repression and the lack of proper support from the majority of the Spanish anarchist movement - anarcho-syndicalists, focused on mass work among the working people. The resumption of active armed struggle against the Franco regime in the second half of the 1960s.was associated with a general revolutionary upsurge in Europe. The "stormy sixties" were marked by massive student demonstrations and strikes in the USA, Germany, the famous "Red May" of 1968 in France, the emergence of groups of "urban guerrillas" of Maoist and anarchist orientation in almost all countries of Western Europe, USA, Japan, Turkey. In Spain, the interest of young people in radical left ideas also increased, and the emerging revolutionary groups, unlike their predecessors in the 1940s, were more focused on political activity in the cities.
Basques and Catalans
An important role in the anti-Francoist resistance of the 1960s - 1970s. the national liberation organizations of the Catalan and Basque separatists began to play. Both the Basque Country and Catalonia supported the Republicans to a greater extent during the Spanish Civil War than they earned a sharp dislike from Francisco Franco. Caudillo, after coming to power, banned the Basque and Catalan languages, introduced school education, office work, television and radio broadcasting only in Spanish. Of course, all national political organizations and political symbols of the national movements of the Basques and Catalans were banned. Naturally, both national minorities were not going to come to terms with their position. The most tense situation remained in the Basque Country. In 1959, a group of young activists from the Basque Nationalist Party formed the Basque Country and Freedom, or Euskadi Ta Askatasuna, or ETA for short. In 1962, a congress was held at which the organization was finalized and its ultimate goal was proclaimed - the struggle for the creation of an independent Basque state - "Euskadi". In the early 1960s. ETA militants embarked on an armed struggle against the Franco regime. First of all, they carried out armed attacks and explosions of police stations, civil guard barracks, railways. Since 1964, ETA's actions have become systematic, turning into a serious threat to the internal stability and order of the Spanish state. In 1973, ETA fighters killed the Spanish Prime Minister, Admiral Luis Carrero Blanco. This assassination became the largest ever armed ETA action ever known worldwide. As a result of the explosion on December 20, 1973, Blanco's car was thrown onto the balcony of the monastery - so strong was an explosive device planted in a tunnel dug under a Madrid street through which the car of the Prime Minister of the country was driving. The assassination of Carrero Blanco led to serious repression against all leftist and nationalist opposition organizations in Spain, but it also demonstrated the futility of the repressive measures taken by the Franco regime against its opponents.
The scale of armed resistance in Catalonia was much less significant than in the Basque Country. At least no Catalan armed political organization has achieved a notoriety comparable to that of ETA. In 1969, the Catalan Liberation Front was created, which included activists from the National Council of Catalonia and the Working Youth of Catalonia. In the same 1969, the Catalan Liberation Front began an armed struggle against the Franco regime. However, already in 1973, the police managed to inflict a serious defeat on the Catalan separatists, as a result of which some of the organization's activists were arrested, and the more successful fled to Andorra and France. Ideologically, the Catalan Liberation Front, after the transfer of its leadership to Brussels, was guided by Marxism-Leninism and advocated the creation of a separate Communist Party of Catalonia. In 1975, part of the activists of the Catalan Liberation Front created the Catalan Revolutionary Movement, but by 1977 both organizations had ceased to exist.
Iberian liberation movement and execution of Salvador Puig Antica
In 1971, another Catalan revolutionary organization, the Iberian Liberation Movement (MIL), was created in Barcelona and Toulouse. At its origins stood Halo Sole - a Spanish radical, a participant in the events of May 1968 in France, who, after returning to his homeland, became an activist of the radical labor movement and participated in the activities of the Working Commissions of Barcelona. Then Solet moved to French Toulouse, where he came into contact with local revolutionary anarchists and anti-fascists. During Sole's stay in Toulouse, he was joined by Jean-Claude Torres and Jean-Marc Rouilland. Several types of proclamations were printed in Toulouse, which the young radicals decided to take to Barcelona.
When Sole's comrades appeared in Barcelona, Salvador Puig Antique (1948-1974), who was demobilized from military service, also arrived here - a man who was destined to become the most famous member of the Iberian liberation movement and tragically end his life, being sentenced to death after being detained. … Salvador Puig Antique was a hereditary revolutionary - his father Joaquin Puig was a veteran of the Spanish Civil War on the side of the Republicans, then participated in the partisan movement in France, was interned in Spain.
The Iberian liberation movement was a "hodgepodge" of supporters of various anarchist and left-communist currents - "communist soviets", situationists, anarcho-communists. Santi Sole had a great influence on the ideology of the organization, according to whom the revolutionaries should focus their efforts not on the physical destruction of government officials and police, but on expropriations in order to obtain funds for the deployment of the workers' strike movement. The goal of the Iberian Liberation Movement proclaimed the conduct of an armed struggle against the Franco regime through the commission of expropriations to support the labor movement. In the spring of 1972, Jean-Marc Rouilland, Jean-Claude Torres, Jordi Sole and Salvador Puig Antique moved back to Toulouse, where they began to create their own printing house and train in the use of firearms. The first armed actions of the organization also followed in Toulouse - it was a raid on a printing house, from which printing equipment was stolen, as well as several raids on banks. While outside Spain, the document "On Armed Agitation" was created, in which the Iberian Liberation Movement followed the concept of Francisco Sabate, who during the Spanish Civil War was engaged in mass expropriations in order to financially support the anti-Francoist movement. In the same 1972, the Iberian liberation movement again transferred its activities to the territory of Spain, since the protection of banks was worse organized in Spain. A network of safe houses and an underground printing house were set up in Barcelona. At the same time, the militants of the Iberian Liberation Movement opposed the shedding of blood and preferred to act without opening fire on the guards and, moreover, on casual witnesses. However, the wave of expropriations that followed in Barcelona and the surrounding area seriously alarmed the Spanish authorities. A special police group was formed, headed by Inspector Santiago Bosigas, whose task was to track down and detain the activists of the Iberian Liberation Movement at all costs.
Meanwhile, on September 15, 1973, in the town of Bellver, the militants of the movement attacked the Pension Bank. Having expropriated the funds, they were about to hide in the mountains, but were stopped by a patrol of the Civil Guard. During the shootout, Halo Sole was wounded, Joseph Luis Pons was arrested, and only Georgie Sole managed to escape into the mountains and cross the French border. Police monitored Santi Sole, the only Iberian Liberation Movement activist who was not in an illegal position. With the help of surveillance, Santi Sole managed to reach other members of the group. On September 25, there was a shootout with Salvador Puig Antic, which resulted in the death of a police officer. The fact is that when Puig Antic was detained by police officers, he was able to escape and open indiscriminate fire on the police officers who detained him. During the shootout, 23-year-old junior inspector Francisco Anguas was killed. According to the defenders of Puig Antica, the latter was shot by the police inspector Timoteo Fernandez, who was standing behind Anguas and, possibly, the junior inspector was killed by the bullets of his colleague. But, despite the arguments of the defense, the Spanish court sentenced Puig Antica to death. In fact, the organization ceased to exist in Spain. Nevertheless, part of the militants of the Iberian liberation movement was able to reach French Toulouse, where the Group of Revolutionary International Action was created, which continued the armed struggle and propaganda against the Franco regime. As for Salvador Puig Antic, captured by the Francoists, in 1974 he was executed by a garrote. This execution was the last in the history of political repression by the Franco regime against its opponents from among the representatives of the radical left opposition.
After the assassination of Prime Minister Luis Carrero Blanco in 1973, his successor as head of the Spanish government, Carlos Arias Navarro, recognized the need to turn the country towards democratization of the political system and the futility of further maintaining a tough repressive policy. Nevertheless, the full democratization of political life in Spain became possible only after the death of the country's long-term dictator, Generalissimo Francisco Baamonde Franco. He passed away on November 20, 1975 at the age of 82. After Franco's death, the seat of King of Spain, which had remained vacant since 1931, was taken by Juan Carlos I. It was with the beginning of his reign that Spain's transition to a democratic political system was connected. But the death of Franco and the restoration of the monarchy did not lead to the stabilization of the political situation in the country. In the decades following Franco's death - in the 1970s - 1990s. - the country also continued the armed struggle against the central government, only carried out not by the republicans and pro-Soviet communists, but by left-wing radical and separatist groups - primarily the Basques and Maoists. We will talk about it another time.
