Valentin
Gonzalez
was born in
Spain. He was a member of the Communist
Party and on the outbreak of the Spanish
Civil War he established a guerrilla unit to fight against the
Nationalist
Army.
Given the name El Campesino
(The Peasant) he became a commander of one of the Mixed
Brigades and fought in all the major battles around Madrid.
He also too part in the offensives at Corunna Road (December 1936)
and Guadalajara (March 1937).
On 6th July 1937, the Popular
Front government launched a major offensive in an attempt to relieve
the threat to Madrid. General Vicente
Rojo sent the
Republican
Army
to Brunete,
challenging Nationalist control of the western approaches to the capital.
The 80,000 Republican soldiers made good early progress but they were
brought to a halt when General Francisco
Franco brought
up his reserves.
Fighting in hot summer
weather, the International Brigades
suffered heavy losses. Three hundred were captured and they were later
found dead with their legs cut off. In retaliation, El Campesino executed
an entire Moroccan battalion of some 400 men. All told, the Republic
lost 25,000 men and the Nationalists 17,000 in the offensive.
El Campestino led his men
during the offensives at Aragón
(August 1937 - October 1937) and Teruel
(December 1937 - February 1938). He also fought in the Catalan campaigns
in 1938 before going into exile in the Soviet
Union in 1939. El Campestino and two other communist leaders,
Juan Modesto and Enrique
Lister, developed
the reputation as being the best successful Republican commanders
of the war.
El Campestino disliked
living under the dictatorship of Joseph Stalin
and eventually moved to France. He published
his criticisms of life in the Soviet Union in his book Listen,
Comrades (1952). Valentin
Gonzalez died
in 1965.
Available from Amazon Books
(order below)
