Unite, Proletarian Brothers! Radicalism and Revolution in the Spanish Second Republic
Synopsis
In October 1934 the northern Spanish region of Asturias was the scene of the most important outburst of revolution in Europe between the early 1920s and the Spanish Civil War. Thousands of left-wing militants took up arms and fought the Spanish army in the streets of Oviedo while in the rear-guard committees proclaimed a revolutionary dawn. After two weeks, however, the insurrection was crushed. The widespread repression that followed was central to the polarization and fragmentation of Spanish politics prior to the Civil War (1936–9).
Unite, Proletarian Brothers! weaves together a range of everyday disputes and arenas of conflict, from tenant activism to strikes, boycotts to political violence. These local cleavages and conflicts, operating within the context of the Spanish Second Republic (1931–6) and interwar Europe, explain the origins, development and consequences of the Asturian October. The book sheds new light on the long-debated process of ‘radicalization’ during the Second Republic, as well as the wider questions of protest, revolutionary politics and social and political conflict in interwar Europe.
Dr Matthew Kerry is a lecturer in European history at the University of Stirling. His research on 1930s Spain has appeared in the English Historical Review, Cultural & Social History and European History Quarterly.
Unite, Proletarian Brothers! appears in New Historical Perspectives, an Open Access monograph series for Early Career Scholars from the Royal Historical Society and Institute of Historical Research.
Read more about Matthew's book, and the parallels between 1930s Spain and contemporary Western democracies, on the Institute of Historical Research blog 'On History' (October 2020).
Chapters
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Introduction
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1. Rethinking the red valleys
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2. Building and contesting the Republic (1931-2)
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3. Anticlericalism, dissidence and radicalization (1932-3)
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4. Fascism and the politics of policing (1933-4)
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5. Revolution
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6. Repression and the redefinition of politics during the Long 1935
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7. A fragile radicalism: the Popular Front spring of 1936
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Conclusion
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Bibliography
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