This study challenges the common view that extrajudicial executions in Republican Spain in July 1936 were the work of criminal or anarchist 'uncontrollables'.
This book deals with one of most controversial issues of the Spanish Civil War (1936-9): the 'Red Terror'. Approximately 50,000 Spaniards were extrajudicially executed in Republican Spain following the failure of the military rebellion in July 1936. This mass killing of 'fascists' seriously undermined attempts by the legally constituted Republican government to present itself in foreign quarters as fighting a war for democracy. This study, based on a wealth of scholarship and archival sources, challenges the common view that executions were the work of criminal or anarchist 'uncontrollables'. Its focus is on Madrid, which witnessed at least 8,000 executions in 1936. It shows that the terror was organized and was carried out with the complicity of the police, and argues that terror was seen as integral to the antifascist war effort. Indeed, the elimination of the internal enemy - the 'Fifth Column' - was regarded as important as the war on the front line.
'This excellent book carefully examines Madrid's 'Red Terror,' that is, the deaths of thousands of rightists in a city controlled by Republican forces during the Spanish Civil War. It provides new information and a convincing interpretation concerning many of the Terror's most important issues - the Soviet role, the Paracuellos massacres, Republican government complicity, participation of various forces of the left, and the influence of so-called uncontrollables. In an innovative manner, it demonstrates the cultural influence of Hollywood gangster films on the assassins, emphasizes the importance of the radio, and shows - in contrast to much of the literature - that the relationship between Nationalist and Republican atrocities was not direct, but rather was indirect. This is probably the best study of terror in a major city during the Spanish conflict.' Michael Seidman, University of North Carolina, Wilmington
