239 Facts About Buenaventura Durruti

Jose Buenaventura Durruti Dumange was born on 14 July 1896, in the Santa Ana neighbourhood of Leon; he was the second of eight children, born to Santiago Durruti and Anastasia Dumange.

Buenaventura Durruti began his primary education at the age of five; his teacher described him as a mischievous but good-natured child.

Buenaventura Durruti later remarked that he had been made into a rebel at an early age.

Buenaventura Durruti's family was left destitute afterwards, as many of its members were boycotted or blacklisted for supporting the strike.

In 1910, Buenaventura Durruti began his apprenticeship under the tutelage of Melchor Martinez, a master mechanic and a local leader of the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party.

Buenaventura Durruti spent the subsequent year at a workshop that assembled machines for mineral processing, after which he qualified as a lathe operator.

Buenaventura Durruti came to reject electoral politics in favour of revolutionary socialism, which caused tension between him and the party leadership; during this time, he would often remark that "socialism is either active or isn't socialism".

Buenaventura Durruti led his team of mechanics in a solidarity action, refusing to assemble any machinery until the miners' demands were met.

Buenaventura Durruti's father secured him a new job as a mechanic for the Northern Railway Company.

Buenaventura Durruti officially joined the CNT while working as a mechanic in La Felguera, before heading to La Robla, where Asturian mineworkers were on strike.

Buenaventura Durruti then attempted to meet up with some old Leonese friends in Santiago de Compostela, but was arrested by the Civil Guard, who discovered he had evaded conscription.

Buenaventura Durruti was brought before a Court Martial in Donostia, but with help from friends and his sister Rosa, he managed to escape back to France.

Buenaventura Durruti's friends kept him up to date with the development and growth of the CNT in Spain, prompting him to return to the country in early 1920.

When Buenaventura Durruti arrived back in Donostia, he found the local branch of the CNT, run by Manuel Buenacasa, which helped him find work as a mechanic in Errenteria.

Buenaventura Durruti frequented the union's branch office after he finished work, although he rarely took part in meetings and mostly sat by himself reading newspapers.

Buenaventura Durruti became close friends with the CNT leader Buenacasa, who introduced him to several of the union's militants.

In reaction to intensifying state terrorism against the trade union movement, the group decided to attempt to assassinate King Alfonso XIII; the group began constructing a tunnel under the location the King was expected to attend, while Buenaventura Durruti was set the task of acquiring explosives.

In February 1921, Buenaventura Durruti was delegated by a conference of Aragonese anarchist groups to travel around the country and contact other anarchist groups, with the intention of establishing an Iberian Anarchist Federation.

Buenaventura Durruti managed to convince several Andalusian anarchist groups to form a regional federation, but was prevented from contacting anarchist groups in Madrid after the assassination of Eduardo Dato.

Buenaventura Durruti then travelled to Barcelona and met Domingo Ascaso, who told him about the repressive conditions in the city, which prevented Catalan anarchist groups from participating in any wider coordination.

Back in Zaragoza, Buenaventura Durruti went to work as a locksmith and, other than attempting to support anarchist prisoners, lived a relatively secluded life.

Buenaventura Durruti spent much of his free time educating himself on anarchist philosophy in Inocencio Pina's library, where he read the works of Mikhail Bakunin and Peter Kropotkin, finding that their respective radicalism and practicality balanced each other out.

When trials against the imprisoned anarchists were convened, Buenaventura Durruti convinced the CNT to support calls for a general strike, which brought together sufficient public support that the defendants were acquitted.

Los Justicieros then began to discuss the role of the group in revolutionary politics, with Pina advocating for them to constitute a revolutionary vanguard, while Buenaventura Durruti argued against the proposal, which he believed would separate them from the working class.

In Barcelona, Buenaventura Durruti formed friendships with trade union activists of the CNT, with whom he established a new anarchist group, Los Solidarios.

From this group, Buenaventura Durruti participated in the establishment of a Regional Commission of Anarchist Relations, which coordinated anarchist groups in Catalonia.

Buenaventura Durruti had planned to attend a conference called by a local anarchist group, but the meeting was postponed by a week.

Buenaventura Durruti instead took the time to visit Manuel Buenacasa, who initially didn't recognise Durruti, remarking that he had "dressed like an Englishman" and wore thick-rimmed glasses.

Buenaventura Durruti said that he wanted to visit imprisoned assassins; Buenacasa attempted to dissuade him, but Buenaventura Durruti pressed forward, believing a visit would raise their morale.

Buenaventura Durruti was only able to visit one prisoner, Mauro Bajatierra, whose deafness prevented them from having a conversation.

Buenaventura Durruti's identity was confirmed, he was charged with armed robbery, attempted regicide and desertion, and he was transferred to Donostia for trial.

Buenaventura Durruti's release was delayed after members of Los Solidarios assassinated Fernando Gonzalez Regueral in Leon; the police erroneously assumed local members of the CNT and Durruti's family had been involved, so launched an investigation into the possibility of his involvement.

Buenaventura Durruti had promised his mother that he would immediately visit her in Leon after his release, but when he heard that Ascaso and other members of Los Solidarios had been arrested, he instead went to Barcelona.

Torres Escartin was arrested, but Buenaventura Durruti managed to get away.

Buenaventura Durruti gave a speech to his comrades, attempting to make points about revolutionary action, rather than to convince anybody.

Buenaventura Durruti admitted that the news from Barcelona was discouraging, but he still believed that a revolutionary situation existed in Catalonia, due to the repression of Catalan nationalists and intellectuals, the continuation of the Rif War and the deteriorating conditions of the working classes.

Buenaventura Durruti affirmed that they had the ability to spark a revolution, and that even if they failed, they would still bring Spain closer to revolution.

Buenaventura Durruti was part of a group of revolutionaries that were to cross the Basque side of the border, between Hendaia and Bera.

Defeated, Buenaventura Durruti returned to Paris and hid out in a suburban house provided by local anarchists.

Buenaventura Durruti told Durruti and Ascaso about the defeat of the insurrection in Barcelona, and that the Revolutionary Committee was now in urgent need of funds.

Buenaventura Durruti continued to hand over large sums of money to the CGT, which aroused suspicion, forcing him to show a letter from Sebastian Faure confirming his own receipt of a large amount of money.

Buenaventura Durruti found a job as a dockworker and lived a rather unassuming life for a few months.

Police attempts to apprehend them were frustrated after ABC erroneously reported that Buenaventura Durruti had been arrested in the French city of Bordeaux.

In letters to his family, Buenaventura Durruti assured them that he had not been forced into penal labour, despite the claims by Leonese newspapers.

Buenaventura Durruti told his family to ignore anything the Spanish press wrote about him, refuting every claim the "idiotic journalists" had made about his condition, and spoke about the support he had received from sympathisers in France and Argentina.

Buenaventura Durruti thanked his family for sending their good wishes and reassured them that his deep libertarian convictions had helped him endure every hardship.

Buenaventura Durruti signed off his letter to them with a declaration that "the revolution will put an end to this social disorder".

Buenaventura Durruti nevertheless remained optimistic and expressed love for his mother, asking his siblings to take care of her.

Buenaventura Durruti met the Ukrainian anarchist revolutionary Nestor Makhno, who had been driven into exile by the Red Army after the defeat of his Makhnovist movement in Ukraine.

In early November 1927, Ascaso and Buenaventura Durruti arrived in Lyon.

Mett recalled one occasion, when Buenaventura Durruti tested the best out of any applicants for a job position, the manager asked him for his nationality; he responded that he was a mechanic.

Buenaventura Durruti was unable to find work in the city and was kept busy by his political activism, which kept him from returning to see his family in Leon.

Buenaventura Durruti declared that the regime change had marked the beginning of a process of democratisation and predicted that, if the new government disregarded the political and economic demands of the working class, it would bring the country towards civil war.

In preparation for International Workers' Day, Buenaventura Durruti was delegated to accompany foreign anarchists that would be visiting Barcelona, including the French anarchist Louis Lecoin.

When Lecoin noticed that Barcelona was covered in posters from the Communist Party of Spain, but none from the CNT and FAI, Buenaventura Durruti reassured him that a few sentences in Solidaridad Obrera would be enough to mobilise their members; on the day, more than 100,000 people turned up to the anarchist rally.

Amid the panicked crowd, Buenaventura Durruti climbed on top of a truck and addressed the demonstrators; he called for calm so that nobody was trampled and cautioned armed demonstrators from returning fire.

When writing to his family on 6 May 1931, Buenaventura Durruti advised them not to come to Barcelona, as his life at the time was too busy.

Buenaventura Durruti welcomed them to come after his partner Emilienne Morin arrived in the city, when they would be able to get a house and spend time with them.

At the third congress of the CNT, hosted in Madrid, Buenaventura Durruti welcomed Rudolf Rocker, the secretary of the International Workers' Association, and discussed the political changes in Spain with him.

Buenaventura Durruti wrote again to his family that he was constantly occupied by rallies and union organising, which kept him from travelling to Leon to visit them.

Buenaventura Durruti reported that Durruti and Morin lived in squalid conditions with few possessions; Morin, who was pregnant at the time, slept on an empty bed base without a mattress.

Buenaventura Durruti never sought out journalists to publicly comment on the manifesto, as he instinctively disliked journalists, believing them to be lacking in class consciousness.

Buenaventura Durruti rejected the manifesto's calls for peace with the Republican government; as the new government had not carried out any fundamental economic or political reforms, he considered it necessary for the Spanish working class to undertake a social revolution against the prevailing socio-economic order.

Buenaventura Durruti was later expelled from the Food Workers' Union, after he accused the signatory Ricard Fornells of collaborating with political parties, without evidence.

At the cafe La Tranquilidad, on the Ronda de Sant Pau, Buenaventura Durruti had a public debate over Bolshevism with the Soviet journalist Ilya Ehrenburg, during which Buenaventura Durruti criticised the Soviet Union for not providing him refuge during his period of clandestinity.

Buenaventura Durruti frequently spoke at rallies protesting the arrest, during which he decried the Republic for maintaining the repressive apparatus of the dictatorship and called for social revolution against the political system.

Buenaventura Durruti rebuffed their request, recalling the economic difficulties his family had faced and reaffirming his desire to continue fighting for social justice.

On 8 December, Buenaventura Durruti informed his sister Rosa that he no longer needed her money; he had charged the Northern Railroad Company an indemnity for his dismissal in August 1917, which gave him and Morin 2,600 pesetas to spend on essentials for their daughter and furniture for their house.

Buenaventura Durruti continued to organise for the release of anarchist prisoners, causing enough of a political scandal that he predicted he would soon be imprisoned.

When he finally spoke at the rally, Buenaventura Durruti declared that his arrest for attempting to assassinate Alfonso XIII proved that Spain was still effectively ruled as a monarchy.

Buenaventura Durruti's father died before he made it there; Satiago Durruti's funeral was co-organised by the UGT and CNT, who hoped to pay tribute to him and express support for his son.

The local CNT branch asked him to stay so he could speak at a rally, but as pretext to prevent this, the Civil Guard arrested Buenaventura Durruti and charged him for the 1923 Xixon robbery.

Buenaventura Durruti told the police chief that the money from the heist had been spent on bringing about the Republic and warned that, if he did not speak at the rally, the city would face an uprising.

Buenaventura Durruti addressed the rally the following day, speaking before workers that had come from Leon, Asturias, Galicia and Castile.

Buenaventura Durruti declared that the Republic had failed to solve Spain's social and political issues and proclaimed that a social revolution against the existing order was inevitable; in order to bring about the revolution, he called for the working class to unite.

In January 1932, Buenaventura Durruti went on a speaking tour of central Catalonia, where mine workers were being repressed by the Civil Guard.

Buenaventura Durruti was among the 110 anarchist militants who were packed onto the Buenos Aires steamship, where they were sentenced without trial to deportation.

Buenaventura Durruti reassured them that he was in good health before describing the squalid conditions on Fuerteventura, where he lived in a barracks on an allowance of 1.75 pesetas per day.

Buenaventura Durruti mentioned how the islanders warmed up to his presence, having initially been under the assumption that the anarchists engaged in child cannibalism; he even met a woman from the province of Leon, who gave him books and offered him a place to stay at her home.

Buenaventura Durruti did not know how long he would be exiled or even what the reason was.

Buenaventura Durruti quipped about returning to Leon and asking the local deputies why they had supported his deportation and whether the government was "at war with geography", due to the confused journey the ship had taken.

Buenaventura Durruti often quarrelled with his fellow exiles, who he perceived as idiotic and illiterate.

Buenaventura Durruti was one of the last anarchists that was permitted to leave the Canary Islands, from which he was taken directly to Barcelona by steamship.

Buenaventura Durruti praised the CNT and FAI for sticking to their revolutionary objectives and warned the government that the anarchists were ungovernable, despite any attempts to control or repress them.

Buenaventura Durruti rejected claims from the press that the anarchists were "thieves and criminals", countering with his belief that business owners were the real thieves, as they lived off the exploitation of labour.

Buenaventura Durruti was detained for two months on grounds of "governmental order", which again caused financial difficulties for his family.

At the meeting, Buenaventura Durruti expressed regret that the CNT had wasted time on internal debates, while the state had strengthened itself with a new, well-equipped police force, the Assault Guard.

The group resolved to bring about a social revolution and established a revolutionary committee, on which Buenaventura Durruti served as the official representative of the CNT's National Committee.

Buenaventura Durruti was dispatched to Cadiz, where he met with the Andalusian Regional Confederation and discussed the planned insurrection.

Buenaventura Durruti rejected accusations that the insurgents had attempted to take power and establish a dictatorship, denied that they were Blanquists and Trotskyists, and reaffirmed his conviction to continue.

Buenaventura Durruti drew attention to the peasantry, who he considered of primary importance for revolution.

Buenaventura Durruti was visited in prison by the writer Pio Baroja, who portrayed him as a romantic hero and described him as an "incarnation of the Spanish guerrilla".

Buenaventura Durruti protested, asserting that they still did not know the reason they had been incarcerated.

On 14 July 1933, Buenaventura Durruti sent a letter to his family, telling them of how, after the guards murdered a prisoner, he de-escalated an impending prison riot when he noticed the guards had machine guns pointed at them; he believed they intended to provoke a massacre.

Buenaventura Durruti signed up to the job pool of the CNT Metalworkers' Union, which managed to find him and two other unemployed workers mechanical jobs at a large workshop.

Worried that it would cause a strike in the workshop, or even escalated to the entire industry, Buenaventura Durruti told them not to.

Buenaventura Durruti believed that strikes ought to be declared when workers needed them, rather than in reaction to provocations from employers.

Buenaventura Durruti concluded that a strike, at that time, would be detrimental to the workers' cause and told his two companions to go to work the next day.

Buenaventura Durruti was appointed to a National Revolutionary Committee, within which he was to organise the insurrection.

Buenaventura Durruti believed that, although the CNT did not have sufficient time or resources to establish a strong paramilitary force, they ought to carry out an insurrection anyway.

Buenaventura Durruti said that a revolutionary defeat would be preferable to inactivity or absence from political life during an election, and that an insurrection could send a warning to the incoming government about their revolutionary potential.

Buenaventura Durruti opened that, although he did not possess the oratory skills of Emilio Castelar or Peter Kropotkin, his life spent among working people had made him know how to act.

Buenaventura Durruti believed that the Republic was destabilised enough that the political system would soon collapse and that social revolution would therefore be inevitable.

Buenaventura Durruti described how political leaders such as Azana lacked sufficient popular support to hold rallies, while anarchist rallies attracted numerous and enthusiastic audiences.

Buenaventura Durruti called for Catalan anarchists to abstain from voting in the election, as he believed no political party represented Spanish workers, and declared that anarchists would be ready to confront the actions of a reactionary government.

Buenaventura Durruti then rejected claims by bourgeois newspapers that the FAI had been involved in robberies, declaring that the FAI only supported the collective expropriation of property: workers seizing their means of production.

Buenaventura Durruti rejected accusations of the FAI forming a dictatorship within the CNT, claiming that only popular assemblies governed the labour movement and accusing moderate syndicalists of abandoning their commitment to anarchist communism.

Buenaventura Durruti declared that the Spanish anarchist movement was the only anarchist movement in the world that was capable of carrying out revolutionary change, that revolutionaries around the globe expected Spanish workers to lead the start of a world revolution.

Buenaventura Durruti thus directed workers to stay in their workplaces, where they could respond to any attempt to form a fascist dictatorship by occupying factories and seizing the means of production.

Buenaventura Durruti invoked a sense of collective responsibility, calling for workers to unite against fascism and struggle for an anarchist revolution.

Buenaventura Durruti was tortured by police and narrowly saved from being executed under the ley de fugas.

Buenaventura Durruti suggested that they make the state's dossier about the insurrection disappear, which would force police to get new statements from prisoners and thus allow for the modification of numerous forced confessions.

Buenaventura Durruti was kept in solitary confinement and under constant surveillance, preventing him from communicating with other prisoners.

Buenaventura Durruti called for the alliance to exclude political parties and constitute itself from the bottom-up, based on a federation of workers' councils, which could establish workers' control over the Spanish economy.

Buenaventura Durruti was released and attempted to return to Barcelona, but he did not have money for the trip.

When Buenaventura Durruti stopped in Zaragoza, he found the city in the middle of a general strike.

The Catalan CNT had offered to provide child care for the duration of the strike, so Buenaventura Durruti continued on to Barcelona to prepare for the reception of the children.

Buenaventura Durruti quickly sought to discuss the general strike in Zaragoza with the Catalan Regional Committee of the CNT, which had come under the leadership of Francisco Ascaso.

Buenaventura Durruti believed that a political crisis was imminent in Spain, which could create the conditions for a revolutionary situation, and called for actions to strengthen the working class and weaken the capitalists.

Rather than going on strike, Buenaventura Durruti suggested that the CNT organise a boycott against the company, which would stifle the company's profits without affecting production.

Buenaventura Durruti sought to reiterate his position on the creation of a revolutionary workers' alliance, based on workers' councils, from the bottom-up.

At the meeting, Buenaventura Durruti argued against the Asturian committee of the CNT, which had already signed a pact with the UGT.

From his cell in La Model, Buenaventura Durruti kept up with the news of the revolution and its suppression.

Buenaventura Durruti posited that liberal democracy had already been defeated by fascism in the 1933 election, and that now the choice facing the Spanish people was between fascism and social revolution.

When Buenaventura Durruti was released from prison in April 1935, he discovered that he was being blamed for the rise in armed robberies by the journalist Josep Maria Planes i Marti.

Jacinto Toryho recalled that Buenaventura Durruti was particularly upset because he had just received an eviction notice, as he had not been able to pay rent while he was in prison.

At a meeting of Barcelona's anarchist groups in May 1935, Buenaventura Durruti spoke on behalf of Nosotros.

Buenaventura Durruti denounced the recent rise in armed robberies, which he believed served only to discredit the CNT, and proposed that the FAI distance itself from individuals involved in armed robberies.

Buenaventura Durruti admitted to this, but insisted that times had changed.

Buenaventura Durruti held that, as the CNT counted more than 1 million members, individual actions were no longer acceptable; conditions demanded only collective action.

Buenaventura Durruti discussed with Ascaso the new communist strategy of the popular front; the two believed that such an electoral alliance, as it was being proposed in Spain by Largo Caballero, would be used to isolate the CNT.

Buenaventura Durruti was disinterested in these debates, who was focused on other issues.

Buenaventura Durruti commented that these acts had caused many prisoners in Valencia to lose faith in the CNT and place their hopes in an electoral victory for the left-wing.

Buenaventura Durruti believed that such short-term struggles for better conditions were necessary, but that achieving libertarian communism ought to remain the main priority of the CNT.

When police attempted to arrest Ascaso for denouncing the government, Buenaventura Durruti helped him escape.

Buenaventura Durruti subsequently travelled back to his home city of Leon and spoke at a local anarchist rally, where he warned the attendees to prepare for an imminent civil war.

Buenaventura Durruti was then arrested by the Civil Guard and transferred to Barcelona, where he was released from detention on 10 January 1936.

Buenaventura Durruti believed that a right-wing victory would result in a dictatorship, while a left-wing victory would lead to a reactionary coup d'etat.

In either case, Buenaventura Durruti believed that workers needed to prepare for open conflict with the right-wing.

Buenaventura Durruti declared that the new government had been elected by workers and could just as easily be removed by those same workers.

Garcia Oliver considered the CNT-FAI to be the revolutionary vanguard, while Buenaventura Durruti wanted a wholly anarchist revolution, driven forward by all popular forces, not just the CNT-FAI.

Buenaventura Durruti thought Garcia Oliver's conception of revolution resembled Bolshevism and he worried that it would create a dictatorship by the CNT-FAI.

At a meeting of the Textile Workers' Union, Buenaventura Durruti resisted Garcia Oliver's proposals to create a paramilitary, which he believed would impose itself as a new authority and crush the revolutionary aspirations of the masses.

Strike actions and factory occupations spread throughout France and Spain, leading Buenaventura Durruti to conclude that a Europe-wide revolution was in the near future.

Buenaventura Durruti wanted to know what the anarchists were planning and admitted that the Catalan government would collapse, as it did in October 1934, without their help.

Buenaventura Durruti swiftly intervened, telling the police commander Vicente Guarner to disobey his orders and allow the workers to take the weaponry.

When Espanya objected to the CNT requisitioning cars and storming gunsmiths, Buenaventura Durruti reprimanded him, declaring that they represented "a working class that isn't going to go to battle defenselessly".

Buenaventura Durruti told them to stay put, continue to demand weapons and surveil the barracks in the city centre.

Everyone else was exhausted, but Buenaventura Durruti remained in high spirits, joking that there would not be any battle that day.

Buenaventura Durruti met with Ascaso and Garcia Oliver at the Teatre Principal, where they discussed how to gain control of the port and prevent reinforcements from being brought in by ship.

When troops began shooting at them from a nearby hotel, Buenaventura Durruti led an attack against the hotel and cleared out the shooters.

Buenaventura Durruti was then directed to remain at the Teatre, where he would coordinate their forces for another assault, while Garcia Oliver and Ascaso led their own detachments elsewhere.

At 10:00, Buenaventura Durruti arrived at the Pla de Palau, where workers' militias and Assault Guards overpowered the Spanish Army, in the first victory of the day.

When General Manuel Goded surrendered later that day, Buenaventura Durruti's name was chanted by workers' militias throughout the city.

Buenaventura Durruti warned one worker that they had not yet won, that the revolution would still be in progress until they defeated every remaining rebel soldier throughout Spain.

Buenaventura Durruti attended the inaugural meeting of the CCMA as one of the representatives for the CNT.

At the meeting, Buenaventura Durruti confronted the Catalan nationalist Jaume Miravitlles over an article he had written comparing the FAI to fascists.

Buenaventura Durruti clashed with his military adviser, Enric Perez Farras, over this form of military organisation, which Perez Farras believed would not function in battle.

Buenaventura Durruti later ended up replacing Perez Farras with Jose Manzana, a non-commissioned officer who better understood Durruti's anti-authoritarian philosophy.

Buenaventura Durruti held that solidarity, rather than obedience to authority, would be sufficient to instil discipline and individual responsibility among the column's fighters.

At 08:00 on 24 July 1936, Buenaventura Durruti spoke over the radio to Barcelona's workers, asking them to supply his column with food.

Buenaventura Durruti hoped that the response to his call would demonstrate the city's dedication to the war effort and exemplify the workers' commitment to collective responsibility.

Buenaventura Durruti disregarded the possibility of Soviet intervention, holding Joseph Stalin responsible for the rise of Nazism in Germany and the Japanese invasion of Manchuria, and claimed the Spanish revolutionaries were setting an example for anti-fascists in Germany and Italy.

Buenaventura Durruti disregarded the possibility of French or British intervention on the side of the Republic, expecting that the libertarians would have to fight the forces of Spanish, German and Italian fascism by themselves.

Buenaventura Durruti knew that the militiamen trusted him and would follow his lead, so he hoped to conduct himself well and preserve as many of their lives as possible.

At every village they passed, Buenaventura Durruti stopped to speak to the residents, who he directed to organise themselves into collectives.

Buenaventura Durruti got into an argument with Perez Farras, who tried to use the ambush as justification for the restructuring of the Column.

Buenaventura Durruti argued that those who had run during the bombardment would go on to fight bravely, if only they were treated as "surprised workers" rather than as deserters.

Buenaventura Durruti chided them for running from the airplanes, pointing out that they had promised to take Zaragoza or die trying.

Buenaventura Durruti reminded them of the peasants who were building libertarian communism in their rear, and that their efforts would be for naught if the Nationalists were victorious.

Buenaventura Durruti warned them against a repeat of what had happened that day, and said he did not want any cowards in his column's ranks.

Buenaventura Durruti welcomed anyone that did not want to continue fighting to give up their rifle to someone more willing, while encouraging those that remained to continue on to Zaragoza and Iruna.

Buenaventura Durruti requested that nobody speak of what happened that day, as he believed it would reflect badly on them.

Buenaventura Durruti constantly visited advanced positions, kept track of enemy movements and stayed up to date with reports from his guerrilla detachments, which gave him useful information to reinforce their line of defense.

Buenaventura Durruti devoted much of his attention to the agricultural collectives, building relations with local peasants and regularly visiting them to observe their progress.

Buenaventura Durruti urged the local peasantry to establish a federation of agricultural collectives, which he said would provide them with more organisational strength and help coordinate the new libertarian socialist economy.

Buenaventura Durruti successfully encouraged the militiamen to participate in the collectives, including in the wheat harvest, which helped to build relations between them.

Buenaventura Durruti began hearing complaints from villagers about the bad behaviour of some militiamen, requiring him to reprimand them.

Buenaventura Durruti expelled them from the Column and the CNT, then when they did not respond to his reprimands as he had expected, he stripped them of their clothes and sent them back to Barcelona in only their underwear.

Buenaventura Durruti was then directed to speak to the local revolutionary committee.

Buenaventura Durruti told Durruti that the committee members had been elected by a popular assembly, which considered each candidate's ability and conduct prior to the revolution, in a process conducted collectively without any involvement from political parties.

When Buenaventura Durruti acquired about dispossessed former landowners, the committee member mentioned that some had joined collectives, while others had opted for individual ownership and cultivation of their own land.

Satisfied with the conversation, Buenaventura Durruti returned to the checkpoint and said he had received the fuel for his car, before continuing on his way.

When Buenaventura Durruti arrived back in Barcelona, he found it was still under workers' control, with electricity, food, fuel, hospitals and public transit, as well as cinemas and theatres, and the textile and metalworking factories, all being managed collectively by the workers themselves.

Buenaventura Durruti found that traditional social relations, including gender separation and the nuclear family, had all but evaporated.

Buenaventura Durruti visited a number of collectives, before moving on to the headquarters of the CNT-FAI.

Buenaventura Durruti found the building full of busy people, coming and going between its various offices.

Buenaventura Durruti left the encounter optimistic that the anarchists were remaining true to their principles.

Buenaventura Durruti then went to the CCMA headquarters on the Pla de Palau and met with Garcia Oliver, who he found to be stressed and sleep deprived.

Buenaventura Durruti believed that France and the United Kingdom would continue to uphold appeasement rather than confront the Italians.

Buenaventura Durruti argued that delaying the Zaragoza offensive further would allow the Nationalists to fortify their positions and thus prevent the militias from taking the city and linking up with Republican forces in the north, which he believed to be a necessary prerequisite to an offensive against the Nationalists in Andalusia.

Buenaventura Durruti argued that the legalisation of their revolutionary activities would only strengthen the Catalan government and weaken the CCMA, which he believed would lead them towards a form of state socialism.

Buenaventura Durruti left Barcelona and returned to Aragon, seeking to hold his position, strengthen the confederal militias and continue advancing the revolution.

Buenaventura Durruti defended the anarchist structure of his militia column, despite De Traversary's insistence on the need for militarisation in order to increase efficiency.

Buenaventura Durruti asked Koltsov what the Soviet Union planned to do to aid the Spanish revolution; the journalist responded that the Soviet government could not intervene directly, due to diplomatic issues, but that their trade unions had organised a support campaign which raised money for Jose Giral's government.

Buenaventura Durruti responded that it was the Spanish working class, not the government, that was fighting against fascism in Spain; he said it did not make sense to him why Soviet workers were sending money to the government rather than the workers themselves.

Buenaventura Durruti then told Koltsov it was his responsibility to better inform Soviet workers of the nature of the Spanish revolution.

When Koltsov asked him about the military situation, Buenaventura Durruti responded that he thought the Republicans should focus all their strength on taking Zaragoza and lamented that their forces were dispersed across other areas.

Buenaventura Durruti said that once their positions in Uesca and Teruel had improved, they would attack Zaragoza.

Koltsov then inquired about issues with discipline and command structure, to which Buenaventura Durruti responded that they did not have such problems in his column, as it functioned according to mutual agreement, self-discipline and collective responsibility.

Buenaventura Durruti told him about the Column's lack of arms and ammunition, which had forced them to rotate fighters between the front and the agricultural collectives, with militiamen even having to conserve empty bullet casings in order to send them back to Barcelona.

Buenaventura Durruti told Koltsov that the militiamen were trained how to use and maintain their weapons, how to protect themselves and best fight enemy soldiers, but that they were not taught to "toe the line", as the column functioned non-hierarchically.

Buenaventura Durruti requested that Souillon write that the Spanish were fighting for the French people, as much as for themselves, and that they needed planes if they were to beat the fascists.

Buenaventura Durruti was later interviewed by the American anarchist Emma Goldman; he told her that he was a life-long anarchist and would prefer to lead his comrades as an anarchist rather than command them like a military officer, and that he believed voluntary self-discipline and collective responsibility were the best ways to ensure group cohesion.

Goldman recalled that, rather than punishing militiamen who did not cohere with their responsibilities, Buenaventura Durruti calmly communicated with them about why their actions were important to the revolution.

The Italian anarchist newspaper Guerre di Clase reported that, on one occasion, when a militiaman of the artillery battery requested leave to go to Barcelona, Buenaventura Durruti put it up to a vote and the majority gave him permission.

At a meeting of the CCMA, Buenaventura Durruti confronted Villalba, blaming him for the Republican loss of Sietemo the previous month.

The CCMA then tasked Buenaventura Durruti with addressing Spanish workers over the radio and informing them of the Republican victory on the Uesca front.

Buenaventura Durruti started his speech by disregarding the distinction between workers on the frontline and in the rearguard, declaring they were all united by the same objective to build a working-class society, which he believed would be established by the CNT and UGT after the war was won.

Buenaventura Durruti said the workers' militias were not fighting to be rewarded with medals or official positions in the government, and that they would return to their workplaces once they were victorious.

Buenaventura Durruti then addressed the upcoming harvest, which he declared would be distributed equally to everyone, with no special privileges, not even for himself.

Buenaventura Durruti told Catalan workers that he was proud to represent them on the frontlines, but that the struggle was a collective action and that they needed to ship all the weapons they had to the front; he asked women not to send bad news to the front lines, so that militiamen could focus on fighting.

Buenaventura Durruti then addressed workers in the Nationalist zone, calling on them to sabotage the Nationalists' military industry and form guerrilla cells to fight them behind their lines.

Buenaventura Durruti supported the plan to involve the exiled Riffian rebel leader Abd el-Krim, despite him being incarcerated in Reunion, as he believed he would provide more effective leadership to a rebellion than the Fez-based Moroccan Action Committee.

Buenaventura Durruti briefly met with the originator of the plan, the French syndicalist leader Pierre Besnard, who spoke highly of Durruti.

Buenaventura Durruti requested that Besnard contact a munitions dealer to supply his Column with weaponry, before he was himself recalled to the front lines to aid in a Republican offensive.

Later that night, Buenaventura Durruti met Andre Malraux, who agreed to put him on a flight to Madrid, despite him lacking an official pass.

The paper reported that Buenaventura Durruti's visit to Madrid had achieved all its goals, but kept the details vague.

Buenaventura Durruti began the interview by addressing the ongoing Madrid offensive, saying it did not make strategic sense to him why the Nationalists were focusing so much effort on the capital.

Buenaventura Durruti stated with certainty that all of Aragon, including Uesca, Teruel and Zaragoza, would soon come under Republican control and that this would represent the beginning of the end for the Nationalists.

Buenaventura Durruti then said they would fight through the north towards Asturias, which he believed they would capture in only a few days, before going on to take Galicia and Castile.

Buenaventura Durruti thought it likely that the Nationalists would transfer their troops from other fronts to Madrid, which he said would be defeated by the combined effort of the Republican resistance in Madrid and Republican offensives in the rest of the country.

Buenaventura Durruti then discussed the use of defensive fortifications in Aragon, which he characterised as the application of self-preservation to combat scenarios, noting that they allowed militiamen to survive attacks without retreating; he advised that people in Madrid construct similar fortifications to defend themselves against the Nationalist advance.

Buenaventura Durruti said that, as revolutionaries, the anarchist militiamen understood what they were fighting for and pushed for revolutionary change in every frontline town they captured, which gained them grassroots support from local inhabitants.

Buenaventura Durruti then went on to discuss his understanding of discipline, which he conceived of as a form of collective responsibility.

Buenaventura Durruti believed it was this sense of responsibility that compelled militiamen to obey orders and remain at the front, although they were able to remove their commanders and leave the frontlines if they chose to.

Buenaventura Durruti concluded the interview by declaring his satisfaction with the militiamen he was leading, although he admitted that they did not know he was in Madrid.

Antony Beevor in The Spanish Civil War maintains that Buenaventura Durruti was killed when a companion's machine pistol went off by mistake.

Buenaventura Durruti assessed that, at the time, the anarchists lied and claimed he had been hit by an enemy sniper's bullet "for reasons of morale and propaganda".

Buenaventura Durruti died on 20 November 1936, at the age of 40, in a makeshift operating theatre set up in what was formerly the Ritz Hotel.

On 14 July 1927, Buenaventura Durruti met French anarcho-syndicalist, writer and shorthand typist Emilienne Morin at the Librairie internationale anarchiste in Paris.

When Buenaventura Durruti was expelled from France in July 1927, Morin accompanied him into Belgium, and worked to feed them both when he was unemployed.

The couple travelled to Spain in 1931 and on 4 December 1931, their daughter Colette Buenaventura Durruti was born in Barcelona.

Buenaventura Durruti returned to France after Durruti's death, remaining heavily involved in anarchist politics and writing, and worked to raise funds for Spanish refugees in France.

At first, Buenaventura Durruti's death was not made public, for morale reasons.

Buenaventura Durruti's body was transported across the country to Barcelona for his funeral.

In 1937, as a response to the further participation of the CNT-FAI in the Republican government, and after the May Days in 1937 in Barcelona, the Friends of Buenaventura Durruti Group was founded, to try and save the anarchist principles of the revolution.

The name of Buenaventura Durruti clearly taken because of the revolutionary commitment and the symbol that he still was for that in the anarchist camp.

The Friends of Buenaventura Durruti group had a newspaper called El Amigo del Pueblo and tried to make revolutionary propaganda among the rank and file of the CNT.