Buenaventura Durruti, a Spanish anarchist revolutionary and leader of the confederal militias during the Spanish Civil War, was fatally shot on 19 November 1936 during the battle of Ciudad Universitaria and died the following day, at the age of 40.
At that time, the situation on the frontlines had deteriorated, with fierce fighting between the Nationalists and the Durruti Column over the University City's Hospital Clinic. Durruti went from the Column's headquarters to rally his men at the front, and was struck by a bullet when he got out of his car. He was subsequently rushed to the Column's military hospital at the Hotel Ritz Madrid, where doctors concluded his wound was fatal and decided not to operate. His body was embalmed and transported to Barcelona for his funeral, which was held on 23 November. The funeral procession passed from Via Laietana through the city to the Columbus Monument, where Catalan President Lluís Companys and Justice Minister Joan Garcia Oliver gave the eulogies. Half a million people attended the funeral, which slowed the pace of the procession along its way to Montjuïc Cemetery and prevented Durruti's coffin from being buried until the following day.
Rumours and conflicting testimony shroud Durruti's death in mystery. According to the eyewitnesses present, the bullet was fired from the Hospital Clinic by Nationalists. Some militiamen of the Durruti Column alleged it was fired from the by fifth columnists. Others suspected that Durruti was assassinated by the NKVD. Stalinist historiography differs, claiming that Durruti was killed by his own insubordinate men outside the Modelo Prison on 21 November. Nationalist radio stations also spread contradictory narratives about Durruti's death. An anonymous journalist for The Times claimed he was killed by the Friends of Durruti Group on Gran Vía. A later story published by Durruti's secretary Jesús Arnal held that the bullet was fired accidentally from Durruti's own gun. Durruti's biographer Abel Paz disputes the latter three narratives but does not to come to a solid conclusion about what happened.
Background
José Buenaventura Durruti Dumange was born in León on 14 July 1896. Radicalised by the repression of the Leonese trade union movement, he became an anarchist militant and went on to carry out a series of bank robberies and assassination attempts. He was forced into exile by the dictatorship of Primo de Rivera and led an unsuccessful insurrection against the regime before leaving Europe for Latin America. Together with his friend Francisco Ascaso, Durruti robbed banks in several countries throughout the Americas before moving back to France. They were arrested and imprisoned after attempting to assassinate Spanish king Alfonso XIII but released following a popular campaign for clemency. Together with their partners, they went on the move throughout Europe until the fall of the dictatorship in 1929.
After the proclamation of the Second Spanish Republic in 1931, Durruti returned to Spain, where he became an influential anarchist activist. He was soon implicated in the Alt Llobregat insurrection and deported in 1932. After he was allowed to return to Barcelona, he participated in the anarchist insurrection of January 1933, for which he was imprisoned. After his release, he led a subsequent anarchist insurrection in Zaragoza in protest against the election of a right-wing government. He was once again imprisoned but released the next year by a general amnesty. In the wake of the Revolution of 1934, he denounced individual acts of armed robbery, believing anarchists now needed discipline so they could organise collective action.
After the victory of the Popular Front in the 1936 Spanish general election, as rumours of a military coup began to circulate, Durruti called for the creation of a workers' army based on a militia system. Durruti led the anarchist resistance to the July 1936 military uprising in Barcelona, preventing the attempted coup and igniting the Spanish Revolution of 1936. He then established the eponymous Durruti Column, which was organised according to anti-authoritarian principles, and led it to fight the Nationalists in Aragon. After months of fighting in Aragon, Durruti was called to defend the Spanish capital of Madrid, which was under siege by the Nationalists. In mid-November 1936, he led his Column to Madrid, where they fought in the Battle of Ciudad Universitaria. Although Francisco Largo Caballero's government believed that the city was indefensible, Durruti insisted that the capital be defended by all means necessary. The optimism of the local population further convinced him that they could hold Madrid. He declared upon departing for the front that, "I go to Madrid to win or to die".
Death By 18 November, the University City's Hospital Clinic had fallen under Nationalist control. To recapture it, the Durruti Column took an adjacent block of houses on Avenida de Pablo Iglesias, which was 400 metres away from the Hospital. At 04:00 on 19 November, the Durruti Column discovered the Nationalists had left the Hospital Clinic for the night and quickly occupied the building. Hours later, the Nationalists emerged through a tunnel under the building and attacked the militiamen, forcing them to retreat to the upper floors. Durruti watched the offensive from the Directorate-General of the Civil Guard, where he witnessed his forces' entrapment. He ordered reservists to attack the Clinic's ground floor and free the trapped militiamen while he returned to his headquarters to attempt to secure relief for his exhausted troops.
At 12:30, Durruti arrived at his headquarters, which were located in the former palace of the Duke of Sotomayor, on . There he received a message from one of the Column's commanders José Mira, who was begging for relief. He responded by ordering Mira to remain at his post until replacements arrived later that day. According to Soviet journalist Roman Karmen, it was at this time that Durruti's alleged military advisor arrived at the headquarters and convinced Durruti not to withdraw his forces from Madrid.
At 13:00, while Durruti prepared an order to relieve his troops, Antonio Bonilla arrived at his headquarters to tell him that the situation at the front had deteriorated. Durruti decided to see to it personally and, together with José Manzana, left for the front in his car, driven by Julio Graves. Durruti's car followed Bonilla and Miguel Doga, who were in their own car driven by a man named Lorente. Karmen said that Durruti refused to allow him or Mansurov to go with him and left in a car with Manzana, followed by four more cars. Abel Paz disputed Karmen's addition of four other cars, stating that the only other driver at the Durruti Column's headquarters was Antonio Mora. After arriving at the front in his car, Durruti was shot; eyewitness accounts vary considerably.
Shooting Accounts by Antonio Bonilla, Julio Graves and José Manzana According to Bonilla, the car that Durruti rode in was a Packard. Bonilla also said that Durruti was armed with a Colt 45, and Manzana with a submachine gun. According to Manzana, he and Durruti were also travelling with Miguel Yoldi and two messengers in the car, but Graves insisted that only he and Manzana were with Durruti. Bonilla later said that Graves was driving, with Manzana and Durruti in the back seat, but that no other men were in the car with them. Graves reported that they quickly drove to Cuatro Caminos, then down Avenida de Pablo Iglesias until arriving at a grouping of small houses east of the Hospital Clinic.
According to Bonilla, they saw a group of militiamen sun bathing behind a wall, but Manzana said a single militiaman was running in their direction while Graves said a group of militiamen was heading their way. Durruti, worried they were deserting, had Graves stop the car so he could ask them where they were going. According to Graves, they said nothing in response and Durruti ordered they return to their posts, but according to Manzana, they told him that they were going to get stretchers for the dead and wounded, so Durruti let them pass. At 14:30, as Durruti went to get back in the car – with its door open towards the Hospital Clinic – he was shot in the chest. Graves and Manzana both reported that the Moroccans and Civil Guards occupying the Hospital Clinic were shooting at them.
Bonilla reported that neither he nor his companions saw what happened, as they were putting their own car into gear at the time. He also said there was no fighting in the area and did not report hearing any shots, despite being only 20 metres away. Meanwhile, Manzana and Graves rushed to put Durruti back in the car and take him to hospital. When Bonilla saw Durruti's car quickly pulling away again, he rushed over to the militiamen, who reported that someone had been wounded, although they did not know who it was. After Bonilla, Doga and Lorente arrived back at the Durruti Column's headquarters, they met Manzana. According to Bonilla, Manzana told them that Durruti was at a meeting with the CNT National Committee. Bonilla accused him of lying, to which Manzana responded that he would quit the Column if they had lost trust in him. Bonilla insisted that Manzana tell him everything when they next saw each other and left the headquarters.
Account by Ramón García López According to a militiaman named Ramón García López (also known by the hypocorism "Ragar"), the car Durruti had left in was a Buick; Jesús Arnal later reported that it was a Hispano-Suiza. Ragar said that it had been himself, along with Bonilla, Manzana and the driver in Durruti's car. However, Manzana and Graves did not mention Ragar being with them, leading Paz to doubt Ragar's story. Militiaman Ricardo Rionda said that Durruti had been in the car with Manzana, his driver and his Catalan bodyguard. Bonilla confirmed that there were two men in the Durruti Column called Ramón García, but said neither frequented the Column's headquarters, that he did not recall either being in Madrid, and that Durruti did not have any bodyguards.
In Ragar's account, around 16:00, they had driven down until arriving at the , where they stopped amid gunfire. Graves then got out to survey the area and was followed by Durruti. Ragar said that Durruti's naranjero submachine gun hit the car's running board and went off as he was getting out of the car, hitting him in the chest. Paz points out that this version is geographically inaccurate, as Paseo del Pintor Rosales does not meet Moncloa Plaza. In Jesús Arnal's version of events, the safety on Durruti's gun slipped as he got out of his car, and when he placed it on the ground, it let off a shot that fatally wounded him. Ragar reported that Durruti was bleeding profusely as they rushed him to the hospital.
Account by Mathieu Corman and J.M. In another account, according to Belgian volunteer Mathieu Corman and an anonymous militiaman of the Durruti Column who went by the initials J.M., the shot was fired by fifth columnists from a cottage window on the Moncloa Plaza, piercing the car window and hitting Durruti. According to J.M., Bonilla, Manzana and a third unidentified person had been in Durruti's car; he said that Durruti's companions shot and killed one of the fifth columnists, but the other two managed to escape. A CNT membership card stolen from a hospital morgue was found on the dead man. Although Corman's story is supported by Solidaridad Obrera, no other sources confirm its veracity. Ricardo Rionda disputed that Durruti was shot on the Moncloa Plaza; he said that he himself had been on the Plaza at that time and that it was there that he had been told what had happened. In an interview with Hans Magnus Enzensberger in April 1971, Rionda said Ramón García had told him; but in a letter to Abel Paz in July 1971, Rionda said that it had been Manzana who told him.
Diagnosis