The MINISTRY OF TRUTH: D.J. Taylor - Orwell -The Life: Assault Guards during the May, 1937 events.

ASSAULT GUARDS, CIVIL GUARDS & CARABINEROS
or the publicly funded, private rearguard armies of the Republic's Stalinist lackeys.

Part five of a series of six posts: Part One; Part Two; Part Three and Part Four.





On page 223 of Orwell - The Life D.J. Taylor writes:
Later that evening government troops from Valencia - crack assault guards, the pride of the Republican Army -

Incorrect. The Assault Guards, or Asaltos, or more popularly known as La Guardia de Asalto, were a public order force, under the control of the interior ministry, not an army unit under the control of the defence ministry.*

This is an important error which needs to be addressed because it undermines Orwell's point that police and public order units in the rearguard were better armed, equipped and provisioned than were frontline units.

Yes, the Asaltos did play an important role in the early streetfighting, especially in Barcelona, but they were a police and public order force who were later tasked with rounding up perceived dissidents. And yes, they were occasionally drafted into the frontline, but they could not, by any measure, be considered 'crack troops' nor 'the pride of the Republican Army'.

In Homage to Catalonia Orwell is very careful to (repeatedly) make the distinction that D.J. Taylor overlooks:

H.T.C. Chapter 10, page 137: "They were the Assault Guards, another formation similar to the Civil Guards and the Carabineros (i.e. a formation intended primarily for police work) ..."

H.T.C. Chapter 13, page 193: "The Assault Guards were a corps not intended primarily for the front, and many of them had not been under fire before. Down in Barcelona they were lords of the street, but up here [i.e. the frontline] they were quintos (rookies) ... "

H.T.C. Chapter 10, page 138: "They [the Assault Guards] were splendid troops, much the best I had seen in Spain, and, though I suppose they were in a sense 'the enemy', I could not help liking the look of them ... I had not known that the Republic possessed troops like these. It was not only that they were picked men physically, it was their weapons that most astonished me. All of them were armed with brand-new rifles ... vastly better than the dreadful old blunderbusses we had at the front. The Assault Guards had one sub-machine gun between ten men and an automatic pistol each; we at the front had approximately one machine-gun between fifty men, and as for pistols and revolvers, you could only procure them illegally. As a matter of fact, though I had not noticed it until now, it was the same everywhere. The Civil Guards and Carabineros, who were not intended for the front at all, were better armed and far better clad than ourselves. I suspect it is the same in all wars - always the same contrast between the sleek police in the rear and the ragged soldiers in the line."

The photo above shows members of the Security Corps, albeit in parade dress, and without their machine-guns and armoured cars, but gives an indication of the sight Orwell reported.

Orwell was correct to note " ... that they were picked men physically ... " The new formation had a minimum height requirement of 180 centimetres and an age requirement of between 22 and 32 years old, whereas the previous incarnation of the Assault Guard had a minimum height requirement of 170 centimetres.

Orwell's assessment can be backed up by the Republican commander General Vicente Rojo. Rojo bemoaned the fact that the Asaltos were much better equipped than the forces under his command, and noted that when called on to fight in the front line the Asaltos' incompetence and lack of experience had a disastrous impact on the morale of troops in the same sector. Hardly an endorsement for 'the pride of the Republican Army'.

Accurate, reliable, figures are impossible to obtain but it is generally agreed among Spanish historians that:

Between 50% and 55% of Civil Guards, 55% and 60% of Carabineros, and between 65% and 70% of Assault Guards remained loyal to the Popular Front government.

Technically, from early on in the war loyal elements of the Guardia Civil in the Republican zone were re-named The National Republican Guard (Guardia Nacional Republicana), but in practice people continued to call them the Guardia Civil. The conjuction of National and Republican in the title serves to confuse even more.

The Carabineros were what could be called frontier police - in effect armed customs men (what the Brits used to call the Reveners [corruption of revenue] or Duty Men.)
Here are two photos of Carabineros - the left in duty order, the right in ceremonial order:

The photos used for this post were taken from Sociedad Benéfica de Historiadores Aficionados y Creadores

The Assault Guards were first formed in 1932 by the Republican government of 1931.

The government did not wholly trust the loyalty of the Guardia Civil (for good reason given that Mola, codename: The Director, the co-ordinating conspirator behind the military rising, was Director-General of National Security during the final period of the Monarchy) and so created their own public order force, staffed by reliable elements. But, for fear of antagonising sections of the Right (as now) never got around to disbanding the Guardia Civil - a rallying call of Largo Caballero's Socialists.

It's important to bear in mind that the Civil Guard came under the Defence ministry, the Carabineros came under the control of the Treasury (Hacienda)**, while the Assault Guards came under the Interior Ministry.

So, in summary, at the outbreak of the uprising there were three distinct paramilitary formations each under the command of a different government department.***

When discussing the Assault Guards it's as well to have in mind that for Nationalist apologists it was a squad of Assault Guards who started the war - by assassinating right-winger Calvo Sotelo (in revenge for the murder of an Assault Guard officer by members of the Falange) on July 13th, 1936, four days before the uprising began.****

Of course the apologists would have it that the assassination was carried out on the orders of the Popular Front government.

In his Notes to the Text of Homage to Catalonia, in Orwell in Spain, Peter Davison makes an honest and sincere attempt to disentangle the confusion surrounding Orwell's uses of the terms Civil Guard and Assault Guard, but in doing so he confuses the issue even more by stating,
"... by the Spaniards referring indifferently to all these formations as 'la guardia' ..." [p.29].

Technically Peter Davison is wrong on this point, and the Spaniards he refers to were theoretically correct in referring to a singular formation.

At the time of the May events theoretically (as with the formation of the Popular Army) with the passing of a decree on December 27th, 1936, the Guardia Civil and the Guardia de Asaltos had been re-incorporated into a single entity -- the Security Corps, or, more accurately, Cuerpo de Seguridad y de Asalto.

This corps was divided into uniformed and plainclothes sections. Further, the uniformed section was divided into cavalry, motorized and infantry sections. This combined Civil Guard and Assault Guard formation had a unified command structure and a single uniform. The Security Corps came under the Interior ministry not the Defence ministry.

Interestingly, when the new formation was initially deployed theoretically the two former elements were mustered on the basis of two former Assault Guards to every one Civil Guard. This so the generally more loyal, and politically reliable, ex-Assault Guards could keep a close eye on the less trustworthy ex-Civil Guards. As with all decrees issued from central government implementation was patchy and depended on regional and local affiliations and local personalities.

I am only surmising, though my educated guess is based on thorough research, I contend that the formation Orwell refers to as "government troops from Valencia" were in fact members of the unified Security Corps, neither assault Guards nor Civil Guards but ex-Civil Guards and ex-Assault Guards all dandied up in brand new uniforms. SEE colour photo above.

Here's a photo of a squad of the Security Corps with their machine-guns:

As with the reformation of the armed forces the Soviet Union and Spanish Communists were very keen on pushing this reform through. The new formation gave their NKVD (secret police) operatives direct access to about 8000 plainsclothes agents - whom they quickly put to work as undercover informants and agent provocateurs.

It's a slippery analogy but the Security Corps could be likened to a hybrid formed of a full-time professional, fully armed, US National Guard and a section of the F.B.I. under the control of Homeland Security.

I can appreciate that the intricacies of rearguard formations mustered and deployed by the Republican government can confuse casual commentators, serious scholars and historians.
And, I can appreciate the temptation for scholars to shrug and say, "So what? What does it matter what these agencies of repression or public order were correctly called?"

Well, in response I would say that when considering the balance of power between competing statist factions, and when considering the Stalinists' objectives, as every serious scholar of the Civil War must, such knowledge does become important.

It is important to be aware that each of these well-funded, well-equipped, formations answered to a political boss - each of whom felt the need to defend their position, or advance their strategy, with the use of armed force as necessary.

The most sinister part of this jigsaw of Soviet consolidation was put in place on August 9th, 1937 with the integration of all intelligence and security services into the SIM - Servicio de Investigación Militar. This grouped all civil and military espionage and counter-espionage agencies under a single command - organised into six military and five civilian sections.

The task of Stalin's agents was to gain control of all three formations - Security Corps, SIM and the Carabineros - in order to confront those less well-armed, but much larger in number, proletarian elements which would deny them complete hegemony.

D.J. Taylor is the current Chair of the Orwell Trust

* The Assault Guards were commanded by Army officers, as were the Civil Guard. This was regular practice. Indeed, regular Army officers continued to command all police units (even traffic police) until reforms in the '80s.

** When Finance Minister Juan Negrín steadily reinforced the Carabineros during his term in office - ensuring he had a loyal armed cadre he could call on should he need it to counter resistance when, as per the Soviet plan, he was appointed Prime Minister. The Soviet Communists had approached him in December 1936 to obtain his agreement to be the next prime minister. This gave Negrín five months to build his army, with Soviet help obviously - being appointed Prime Minister on May, 17th, 1936, conveniently two weeks after the May streetfighting.

*** In Catalonia another paramilitary group, the Somatenes re-surfaced briefly. The Somatenes were an anti-organised labour protection force for landowners and factory owners - perhaps analogous to the notorious Pinkerton's Men in the United States. Also, I daresay former members of the Mossos d'Esquadra - a Catalan autonomous version of the Assault Guard, dissolved in 1934 - also dug out their old uniforms and weapons and joined the fray. And, there were likely similar Basque formations - though I have no information on this at the present time. And there were also the Militias of Rearguard Vigilance - an irregular force soon incorporated into the Assault Guard.

**** The assassins included a Captain of the Civil Guards.

Barcelona May Days, 1937. The Ministry of Truth: D.J.Taylor: Orwell - The Life

Part Four of a series of six posts. SEE previous posts here, here, and here.

OK, let's put Orwell's caveat in place first:

It will never be possible to get a completely accurate and unbiased account of the Barcelona fighting, because the necessary records do not exist. Future historians will have nothing to go upon except a mass of accusations and party propaganda. H.T.C. p.144.

What Orwell wrote remains true. However, historians now have access to the former Soviet Union's archives and material from the Salamanca papers.

On page 220 of Orwell – The Life D.J. Taylor writes:

It was an odd state of affairs, Orwell reflected, that Barcelona, of all places, should turn out to be probably the only major city in non-Fascist Europe not to celebrate the twentieth anniversary of the Soviet Revolution.

Orwell reflected no such thing.

What Orwell actually reflected is rendered thus:

It was a queer state of affairs. Barcelona, the so-called revolutionary city, was probably the only city in non-Fascist Europe that had no celebrations that day. H.T.C. Chapter 9, page 116.

No mention there of Soviet anniversaries!

The official anniversary of the Soviet Revolution is November 7^th , not May 1st.

In fact the Communists in Barcelona marked the birthday of the Soviet Union with three weeks of celebratory events in October and November, 1937! This is well documented; the Museum of the History of Catalonia in Barcelona has at least one copy of the official programme in its collection – I know because I've seen it and read it.

I consider this to be the most serious error in the text because D.J. Taylor ascribes an erroneous reflection to Orwell, i.e. puts thoughts into his head.

Orwell would most certainly have known that May 1st, International Workers' Day, has nothing at all to do with the founding of the former Soviet Union.

To interpolate Orwell's reflections in such a way shows a lack of judgement and a lack of knowledge, or perhaps belies a deliberate attempt to distort.

The May 1st International Workers' Day was called into being by anarchists in the American labour movement by way of commemorating the Haymarket (Chicago) Martyrs.

The May Day protest date was subsequently adopted and promoted by the International Working Mens Association (now the IWA or AIT), and the 1889 Paris meeting of the Second International, as an international day of workers' solidarity.

The show trial of eight anarchists, and the subsequent execution of four of them, and the suicide of another, which followed on from a police riot and disputed bombing of police, was a cause célèbre. At one stage of the international campaign even William Morris and George Bernard Shaw, among many other intellectuals and artists, publicly registered their protest. Check out A People's History of the United States by Howard Zinn, HarperCollins, New York, 1995, pages 265-266.

The Soviet Union, having unilaterally positioned itself as leaders of the international workers' movement, certainly used the day to propagandise its success at founding a so-called workers' state, but it never proposed that May Day should be considered the official anniversary date of the State.

Given the pre-eminence of the anarchist movement in Barcelona at the outbreak of the Army Uprising in July 1936 Orwell noted "a queer state of affairs" [NOTE: Orwell uses the word 'queer' not 'odd' as paraphrased by D.J.Taylor] because it served as an indicator of the extent of how the anarchists (and radical socialists) had been undermined by an alliance of bourgeois Catalan, and Spanish and Soviet Communist interests.

D.J. Taylor studied Modern History at St. John's College, Oxford.

The MINISTRY OF TRUTH: D.J. Taylor - Orwell -The Life

A few years ago a very good friend bought me D.J. Taylor’s biography, Orwell: The Life. It's an entertaining and informative read. However, the book contains several important factual errors.

Mr Taylor is a respected academic, critic, essayist and novelist. Mr Taylor regularly writes comment pieces, essays and reviews for the Guardian, Observer, New Statesman and Spectator and is fairly visible on the UK literature festival circuit as a speaker, discussion panel chairman and as a literary award judge. Mr Taylor served on the Man-Booker Prize panel of judges in 2003.

I think it is important to address these errors as the biography will likely become a standard reference for future Orwell scholars. And, with so much disinformation, deliberate distortion and innaccurate information regarding key events during the Spanish Civil War [SEE: Burnett Bolloten’s excellent The Grand Camouflage: The Communist Conspiracy in the Spanish Civil War] I think it essential that errors are addressed and corrected.

My commentary on the errors is split over five posts and a summary.

In this post I note the minor errors, in the second post I discuss Stukas over Guernika, in the third post I discuss Catalan, in the fourth post I discuss May Day in Barcelona, 1937 and in the final post I again discuss the May, 1937 street fighting in Barcelona with reference to the Assault Guards.

Okay, let's get on with it.

Abbreviations:

OTL - Orwell - The Life

HTC - Homage to Catalonia

Page references:

Orwell - The Life - All page numbers pertain to the 2003 hardback edition.

Homage to Catalonia - All page numbers pertain to the 1982 Penguin edition, and cross-referenced when appropriate with the text as it appears in Orwell in Spain edited by Peter Davison, published by Penguin in 2001. This cross-referencing is important when considering my comments about the Asaltos (Assault Guards), as you'll see.

Citations from:

Orwell- The Life appear in italics.

Homage to Catalonia appear in standard font.

Other works cited appear in a different font.

My emphases in the cited passages appear in bold.

Okay, let's really get on with it.

On page 28 of OTL when describing the atmosphere of the weeks immediately preceding and following the outbreak of the Great War Taylor refers to Alec Waugh's The Early Years of Alec Waugh:

Evelyn Waugh's elder brother Alec remembered watching Kent play cricket at Blackheath, with a stream of telegraph boys arriving on bicycles to present the players with their summonses to call-up.

Alec Waugh may very well have thought he recalled such a sight, but he would have been mistaken. The call-up, or conscription, was not introduced until January 1916, i.e. eighteen months after the war started and the so-called events described.

OTL, page 135 (and Index, page 462):

Orwell's poem On a Ruined Farm near His Master's Voice Gramophone Factory is incorrectly titled as On a Ruined Farm near His Majesty's Voice Gramophone Factory.

OTL, page 205:

D.J. Taylor describes Las Ramblas in Barcelona as being: Barcelona's principal thoroughfare. The Ramblas (Las Ramblas is actually five connected ramblas) do not, have never, and will never, constitute Barcelona's principal thoroughfare Most illustrious, most celebrated, the best known, yes; but principal thoroughfare? No and never.

Why is this important? Well, during the May Day events of 1937, as described by Orwell in HTC, Orwell was positioned on the Ramblas. To read D.J. Taylor's description of the Ramblas as being the principal thoroughfare could lead readers to think that Orwell was therefore part of force attempting to control movements on what was considered a strategic highway. Not so, the Ramblas formed the boundary line between the Administration and the Raval (or Barrio Chino as it was then popularly called), the working-class, and predominantly anarchist barrio. After the successful insinuation of Communists into the local administration the Ramblas became a front line between political power and proletarian order.

Even today the authorities use the Ramblas to mark the boundary of acceptable public behaviour - it's a sort of unmarked threshold to the seat of power. So, for instance, if a group of prostitutes stray onto Carrer Ferran (the street leading from the Ramblas into Plaça de Sant Jaume) they won't be there long before the Mossos d'Esquadra or Guardia Urbana move them back to the other side of the Ramblas.[As at September 2009 this is currently the subject of much political debate.]

It's as well to know that Barcelona was once a gated city and the part of the city containing the cathedral, various palaces and what is now the Generalitat (regional autonomous government H.Q.) and the Ajuntament (City Hall) formed the inner city, entry to which was strictly controlled.

OTL, page 215:

Then they caught the early train at Barbastro and transferred to an express at Lerica.
I think this is a straightforward typo. The town is Lérida in castellano or Lleida in catalan.

SEE HTC, page 105: ... caught the five o'clock train at Barbastro, and - having the luck to connect with a fast train at Lerida [accent missing] - were in Barcelona by three o'clock in the afternoon of the 26th.

OTL, page 218:

Here Taylor refers to the Soviet Union inspired militarisation of the Republic's armed forces: ... into which all the armed forces had since February been theoretically incorporated.

SEE HTC, page 109: Since February the entire armed forces had theoretically been incorporated in the Popular Army ...

Both D.J. Taylor and Orwell are mistaken. Theoretically the armed forces had been incorporated into the Popular Army since the passing of a decree on October 9th, 1936. [Both Taylor and Orwell are referring to February, 1937] Which makes the POUM's, and other militias', resistance to militarisation even the more remarkable. The road to militarisation began with an appeal by Largo Caballero (for a time referred to as the Spanish Lenin until he fell out of favour with the Communists) in September, 1936.

And, finally, a quirky one; not so much an innaccuracy, more an omission:

On page 272 of Orwell - The Life D.J. Taylor writes:

... Reg Reynolds' wife Ethel Mannin, treasurer of the SIA ...

Ethel Mannin was a very well known, well published, and according to many, well regarded author and activist in her own right. I've read several of her novels and travel books. She did a lot of work to aid the Anarchist cause in Spain. To be simply labelled the wife of a Trotskyist activist I find a bit strange ... I wonder why?