Francisco Franco: Biography and Political Activities

When the civil war broke out in Spain, General Francisco Franco (Francisco Paulino Ermenegildo Theodulo Franco Baamonde - his full name) celebrated his forty-fourth birthday, but looked already tired and much older than his years. To the unpresentable appearance, fatigue was added, although there are suspicions that it was mostly fake.

On a short-legged, short (157 centimeters), plump, with a piercing thin voice, the general's awkward gestures, his German friends-blond beasts looked with perplexity: are not his roots Jewish? The reasons for the bewilderment were quite large: the Iberian Peninsula sheltered about one eighth of the Semites in the population of Cordoba. There, moreover, many centuries in succession dominated by the Arabs, and Franco himself was not Castilian, he was born in the Portuguese inhabited by Galicia.

July 18th

As we know, this day of 1936 began with a daily weather forecast, which served as a signal for the beginning of the uprising: "Over the sky the sky is cloudless." The rebellion against the republic was most provoked by the Republicans themselves. Leftists of all shades were flooded by the government: the Social Democrats, the Socialists, the Trotskyites, and the Anarchists - and this left-wing deviation became steeper day by day.

Partisanship, powerlessness, economic confusion pushed the country into collapse and chaos. Political repressions were rampant , instead of working for the people only slogans were offered, the Spanish peasant could no longer feed this gathering of leaders, talker-agitators, and free trade was banned by Republicans. In this situation, the political pendulum could not find the golden mean, from the extreme left he rushed to the extreme right position.

The center of forces and the point of agreement of interests was not found. In Spain, the Catholic Church as the institution of propaganda had the most authority. And to this day, Spain is a country of deeply religious inhabitants. Although the republic did not dare to conduct dechristianization, there were repressions, so they got a bloody enemy in the face of the church, and in a huge mass of believers - enemies, until the time of the hidden.

Supporters of Francisco Franco

The right merits also did not shine: there dominated political retrograde and dense obscurantism. Aristocratic landowners and the order of moss-eaten nobles puffed their cheeks and protruded their chests baselessly, because they could not normally finance the insurrection. That is why the Spanish Nazis asked for help from Italy and Germany, and the army was recruited from the mobilized peasants and hired Arab-Berber shooters from Morocco.

The Republicans did not spare any kind of bourgeois on their territory, but they did not concede to them in cruelty at all. Rather, they zatknuli for the belt. The rebels took on ramen slogans, not at all similar to fascist-Germanic or fascist-Italian, the Spaniards wanted "people, monarchy and faith."

I must say, Mussolini despised the monarchy, and the church was indifferent to him. Hitler hated Christianity and the Semites. Franco Franco was an internationalist: for him all the citizens of the country were Spanish, without distinction of race and tribe. His ideology was Catholicism, and he was going to restore the monarchy.

Fencing under fire

At the head of the country, Francisco Franco Baumonde did not feel confident. Because in the situation he got very complicated. How to get Spain out of this quagmire and yet retain power, he did not know. I saw only that only desperate maneuvering can be achieved by solving these two issues.

Francisco Franco understood that Mussolini and Hitler would necessarily drag him into the world war. And then, if they win, Spain will not win anything, and if they lose, Spain will cease to exist.

And Francisco Franco, whose biography captures all this unthinkable maneuvering, declared neutrality. Friendly gestures, of course, in the direction of Hitler were, but such that this friend stayed at a decent distance.

Paradoxical actions

For example, Franco allowed German submarines and ships to be based in Spanish ports, gave them tobacco, oranges and fresh water. He also accepted ships from Argentina with meat and grain for Germany, allowed to transport all this through the territory of Spain. But, when the war with Russia broke out, we did not subordinate the Wehrmacht division, which he sent there. German troops on the territory of Spain did not let.

Francisco Franco, quotes and even simple statements of which have reached us in not so much, the German ambassador said: "A cautious policy is not only in the interests of Spain, but Germany is also needed." Since Spain, which gives Germany tungsten and other rare products, now Germany is even more necessary than Spain, involved in the war. "

Franco allowed himself to respectfully speak about Churchill, with Britain retained diplomatic relations. He spoke of Stalin without any emotion. There was no genocide of the Jews under the dictator, even restrictive measures were not taken against them. That is why, after the end of the war, the soldiers of the anti-Hitler coalition did not enter Spain: there were no formal reasons.

German military and high officials who tried to hide in Spain, the dictator escorted to Latin America. Such a high degree of maneuverability is worthy of study. Therefore further - from the very beginning about the caudillo Francisco Franco.

Hereditary military

Caudillo is the head of the state for life. This Spanish commander achieved such a high rank despite the fact that he was born in 1892 in the seaside town of El Ferrol, in Galicia, in a large family of a simple officer from the nearest naval base. Who also left his family, leaving among the remaining children and a small Franco Franco, whose nickname was already Pakito ("duckling"). Naturally, the boy became even more focused and secretive.

In the military academy of the city of Toledo, the medieval capital of the country, the future dictator held his not very joyful youth. Thin, short, torn from his mother and abandoned by his father, he plunges headlong into his studies and makes success in this field. In the future, already in the service, the priorities of Francisco have not changed, and at thirty-three years he becomes a general - younger than his general at that time was not in Spain or in Europe.

Morocco

Until 1926 - service in the colony, Morocco, where the Spanish Legion was formed, which gathered many outcasts of society. It will be the main striking force when Francisco Franco and his time will require immediate intervention.

By this time, the future dictator had already married Carmen Polo, a noble noblewoman, whom he had sought for six years. King Alphonse XIII personally honored their wedding and was even the planted father of the future general. In this marriage, a daughter was born - Maria del Carmen - after her return to Spain.

Achievement list

The dictator of the time, who ruled the country, Primo de Rivera, merged four military academies into one. So the city of Zaragoza became the new refuge of Franco Franco, whose nickname no one remembered. The chief of the General Military Academy can not be like a duckling. In 1931 this institution was abolished.

Further, the track record of Francisco Franco is very large and interesting. He served under the monarchs, republicans and conservatives. And marching through Galicia, and suppressing the insurrection in Asturias, and almost being exiled to the Balearic, and then to the Canary Islands, still continued to advance through the ranks. From the Canary Islands, he flew in a telegram sent on July 17, 1936. But he flew first to Morocco.

Fratricide

And in Spain, the slaughter began. Francisco Franco was at the very top of the anti-republican rebellion, because both fascists and monarchists, despite mutual hostility, saw in him a compromise figure capable of finding a common denominator for the agreement of the opposing groups.

It was Franko who reached an agreement with Hitler and Mussolini on military assistance, thus defeating the Republicans. And he became Generalissimo. And the country for three bloody years has lost seven hundred thousand of its citizens in battles, fifteen thousand under bombing and thirty thousand executed.

Postwar time

All the surprising paradoxes of governance only contributed to the strength of the dictator's power and the growth of his authority. In the world war did not enter: civil enough. With the countries of the anti-Hitler coalition, relations were not spoiled. Even externally, he changed with age, became majestic and eloquent. The photos of Francisco Franco of those years clearly demonstrate a confident person with a strong-willed and piercing look.

True, the country's economy was so undermined by the civil war that it was not possible to withdraw it from the comatose state. Adherent of autarky and state regulation of the economy, Franco could not keep reforms. The country became economically liberal, the import of capitals of other countries flowed to Spain.

The path to monarchy

The UN condemned the Franco regime as dictatorial, but almost all Western countries supported this person for their irreconcilable anti-communism. In 1969, a very old dictator proclaimed his successor Juan Carlos, the prince, the grandson of Alfonso - the seated father at the Franco's wedding. So gradually, Spain returned to democracy and constitutional monarchy. But until 1975, when this is accomplished, it is still very far away.

The post-war situation was very grim. Spain refused financial assistance, was not admitted to the UN until 1955, was not accepted into NATO. Since 1947, the caudillo was personally engaged in the education of a young prince, preparing him for the monarch's fate. I visited the temple with him, talked to him, read to him, realizing that an unready king would become a toy in the hands of adventurers or intriguers, would ruin the country without coping with such an ossified heritage.

Conservative-patriotic regime in the country rules by the military-oligarchical method. Seals - censorship, political opposition - repression, parties and trade unions - complete prohibition, underground activities - the death penalty. First of all, discipline. Even the church was ordered not to increase the amount of monasticism, more to participate in worldly activities.

Economic stabilization

In 1955, Spain at the UN was finally accepted, and gradual modernization began. Technocrats, opponents of isolating the country from the economic influence of foreign capital (autarky), gained control over the economy. Credits were received under the plan of economic stabilization from international organizations, the administration's control over the economy was weakened.

Foreign capital flowed broadly into Spain, the peseta became freely convertible. But Franco was closely watching that democracy did not penetrate into the social and political life of society. Only the sphere of economy was open to her. So, until the dictator's death in November 1975, Spain was an authoritarian state.

Books worth reading

"Secret diplomacy of Madrid", "Francisco Franco and his time" and some other books thoroughly reveal the course of events in Spain for almost a century. This is very cognitive work. Svetlana Pozharsky wrote them. Francisco Franco, the dictator and reformer, stands before the reader in all his small growth and shows him all his gigantic character. Pozharsky completed the first monograph in our country about Franco, covering the life of the caudillo and the vast historical background. Here there is an in-depth analysis of the crisis of society and the causes of Francoism. Contribution to the Russian Spanish SP Pozharsky was highly praised in Spain.

The search for one meticulous journalist led to an amazing discovery: the author of the book he bought in Spain "Freemasonry" - Francisco Franco, used a pseudonym for conspiracy. This work - a huge work on philosophy and conspiracy, it reveals many mechanisms of influence on high-ranking people, the introduction of the power of representatives of Freemasonry.