The Fifth Regiment was
established by the Communist Party
on the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War.
Based on the ideas of the Red Army in the
Russian Civil War, important leaders
included Juan Modesto and Enrique
Lister. It fought
primarily in the battles in and around Madrid
throughout the second-half of 1936. The Fifth Regiment eventually
had a membership of 15,000 men but was dissolved on 21st January 1937.
(1)
Claude
Cockburn, The
Daily Worker (7th September, 1936)
The
story of the creation of the Fifth Regiment of the militia - which,
together with its fifteenth company being formed today is shortly
to become a division - is too long to tell here with anything
approaching adequacy.
This regiment is the backbone
of the People's Army on fronts around Madrid and its steel companies
and victory brigades have been active on other fronts, too.
In a magnificently furnished
room, among gorgeous tapestries, pictures and carved bookcases full
of rare volumes in costly bindings, I attended a few days ago a meeting
of all the commanders of the companies of the Fifth Regiment from
all sections of the sierra and Extremadura fronts.
There were present all
ages, all trades. There were mechanics, chauffeurs,
shopkeepers, bootmakers, bakers and barbers.
In overalls, with stars
showing the rank to which they had been
elected by the men under their command, with pistols and rifles,
they had come straight from the battle front to take part in a
conference.
Every man reported on
the military, political and general situation
on his section of the front. Each report was given briefly
from notes scribbled while in the front line, then briefly discussed
by all.
Problems which would have
disconcerted and even appalled men of lesser character and ability
or men fighting for a lesser cause, were described and dealt with
in a spirit of cool objectivity
and with a calm grasp of the whole situation - local, national
and international - which frequently gave one an impression
of being present at a meeting of leaders from some almost
fabulous or legendary race of persons endowed with more
than human qualities.
(2)
André
Marty,
letter sent
to the General Consul of the Soviet Union
in Barcelona
(14th October,
1936)
In the period from 18th
July to 1st September, the members of the Communist party were absorbed
with the armed struggle. Thus, all of the work of the party was reduced
to military action, but largely in an individual sense, rather than
from the standpoint of political leadership of the struggle. At best,
the party committees discussed urgent questions (the collection of
weapons and explosives, supplies, questions of housing, and so on)
but without setting forth perspectives for the future or still less
following a general plan.
Beginning on 18th July,
many leaders headed the struggle and remained at this work later,
during the formation of the columns. For example. Cordon is the assistant
commander of the Estremadura column; Uribe, the deputy for Valencia
has the same position in the Teruda column; and Romero is in the column
that is at Malaga; del Barrio is in the column at Saragossa. But it
must be said that only a very few of the leaders have the requisite
military abilities (I do not mean personal bravery). Thus, of the
four just mentioned, Cordon is a brilliant commander, del Barrio is
quite good, and the rest are worthless from a military point of view.
The political activity
of the party has been reduced to the work of the leadership (editorship
of the newspapers, several cells, demarches to the ministries). Party
agitation, not counting what is carried out in the press, has come
to naught. Internal party life has been reduced to the discussion
of important, but essentially practical and secondary, questions.
Meanwhile, recruiting
has moved and continues to move at a very rapid pace. The influx of
new members into the party is huge. For the first time intellectuals
and even officers are being drawn into the party. Already the most
active elements from the middle cadres began in July to set up militia
units which subsequently were transformed into the Fifth Regiment.
The general staff of the Fifth Regiment, consisting of workers or
officers who are Communists or sympathizers - this is the best thing
that we have in the entire fighting army.
(3)
Vladimir
Antonov-Ovseenko,
letter sent
to the General Consul of the Soviet Union
in Barcelona
(14th October,
1936)
In
Madrid there are up to fifty thousand construction workers. Caballero
refused to mobilize all of them for building fortifications around
Madrid ("and what will they eat") and gave a total of a
thousand men for building the fortifications. In Estremadura our Comrade
Deputy Cordon is fighting heroically. He could arm five thousand peasants
but he has a detachment of only four thousand men total. Caballero
under great pressure agreed to give Cordon two hundred rifles, as
well. Meanwhile, from Estremadura, Franco could easily advance into
the rear, toward Madrid. Caballero implemented an absolutely absurd
compensation for the militia - ten pesetas a day, besides food and
housing. Farm labourers in Spain earn a total of two pesetas a day
and, feeling very good about the militia salary in the rear, do not
want to go to the front. With that, egalitarianism was introduced.
Only officer specialists receive a higher salary. A proposal made
to Caballero to pay soldiers at the rear five pesetas and only soldiers
at the front ten pesetas was turned down. Caballero is now disposed
to put into effect the institution of political commissars, but in
actual fact it is not being done. In fact, the political commissars
introduced into the Fifth Regiment have been turned into commanders,
for there are none of the latter. Caballero also supports the departure
of the government from Madrid. After the capture of Toledo, this question
was almost decided, but the anarchists were categorically against
it, and our people proposed that the question be withdrawn as inopportune.
Caballero stood up for the removal of the government to Cartagena.
They proposed sounding out the possibility of basing the government
in Barcelona. Two ministers - Prieto and Jimenez de Asua - left for
talks with the Barcelona
government. The Barcelona government agreed to give refuge to
the central government. Caballero is sincere but is a prisoner to
syndicalist habits
and takes the statutes of the trade unions too literally.
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