Negrin, Juan

Born in the family of a successful entrepreneur. In 1906, received a bachelor's degree from La Soledad Private College. He studied medicine in Germany , at the universities of Kiel , and then Leipzig , where his teacher was the famous physiologist and psychologist Ewald von Goering. In 1912 he received a doctorate in medicine. Then he was an employee of the University of Leipzig and, after the outbreak of the First World War and the mobilization of many pedagogical doctors, was engaged in teaching activities. In 1914, he married pianist Maria Fidelman-Brodskaya, who came from a wealthy Russian family living in the Netherlands . The family had five children - three sons (Juan, Romulo, Miguel) and two daughters who died at an early age. While studying in Germany, Negrin studied German, English and French. Translated from French into German a monograph by the famous French physiologist Charles Richet , Anaphylaxis.

In 1916, Negrin returned to Spain, where he worked in the main laboratory of general physiology in Madrid under the guidance of Nobel Prize winner in physiology and medicine Santiago Ramon y Cajal . In 1919 he received a degree in medicine and surgery (thereby confirming his German diploma) and in 1920 defended his doctoral dissertation. Since 1922, he was a professor of physiology at the Central University of Madrid, created a scientific school that gained international fame. He was considered one of the best Spanish physiology teachers of his time (along with future Nobel laureate Severo Ochoa and Francisco Grande Covian).

For a long time he was away from political activity, joined the Spanish Socialist Workers Party in 1929, during the dictatorship of Miguel Primo de Rivera . After the proclamation of Spain as a republic in 1931, he was elected to the Cortes (parliament) from Las Palmas, re-elected in 1933 and 1936 . He was the chairman of the financial commission of the Cortes, represented the republic in the International Labor Organization and the Inter-Parliamentary Union. Not being a bright speaker, he enjoyed little fame among the people. Negrin was a very atypical politician for socialists: a university professor, he was never associated with trade unions, held moderate views, and did not show much interest in Marxist theory. He was a “priestist,” a supporter of the leader of the centrist movement in the party, Indalesio Prieto . He showed his managerial abilities by participating in the organization of the construction of a campus in Madrid.

During the Civil War of 1936-1939, he was Minister of Finance in the government of the socialist Francisco Largo Caballero as a representative of the "prietists" (from September 4, 1936 to May 17, 1937). In this capacity, he streamlined the republic’s financial system under military conditions, and also led the government’s decision to send most of the Bank of Spain’s gold reserves (460 of 635 tons) through Cartagena to Moscow so that it would not be under the control of opponents of the republic. In addition, weapons and ammunition for the republican army, as well as food, were purchased from the USSR with these funds. Supporters of nationalists who fought against the government considered this operation theft, since the country's gold reserves were not the property of the government, but of the Bank of Spain, which until 1962 was officially a joint stock company.

In addition, Negrin turned the corps of carabinieri (border guards and customs officers) into an elite, well-equipped military force, focused on him personally, which in this connection was called "One Hundred Thousand Children of Negrin" and autonomous from other armed structures. Carabinieri, in particular, were involved in the seizure of valuables from banks, pawnshops, private houses, churches and monasteries. Opponents criticized Negrin for spending too much on carabinieri activities and for pursuing an “opaque” financial policy. At the same time, the toughness and decisiveness shown by the Minister, as well as his pragmatic desire to reach an agreement with the Communists, attracted the attention of the Soviet leadership.

In May 1937, the government of Largo Caballero, due to failures at the front and conflicts between various groups of supporters of the republic, lost the support of the Communists, "prietists" and left republicans and was forced to resign. On May 17, 1937, Negrin formed a new cabinet, which included, in particular, Indalescio Prieto as Minister of Defense and former Prime Minister, left Republican Jose Hiral as Minister of Foreign Affairs. The Communist Party in the government was represented by only two ministers, but their real influence on the decisions made was significantly higher due to influence in the army and close ties with Negrin. At the same time, both for the Communists and the USSR , Negrin’s figure was extremely advantageous, since his image of a respectable politician, a center-left, was acceptable to many Western democrats who sympathized with the republic.

As Prime Minister, Negrin was oriented toward the USSR, although on a personal level he tried to keep his distance from Soviet advisers. He allowed the Communists, with the support of the USSR special services, to defeat the POUM party as Trotskyist and physically destroy its leader Andreu Nin (despite the fact that the appointed phalanxian prosecutors never sought death for Nin); he was also in conflict with most of the anarchists. Negrin pursued a policy of increasing the capacity of the government and strengthening its power, strengthening the army, state control over industry, and more rational organization of the rear. Since October 1937, his government was in Barcelona , which significantly weakened the capabilities of local autonomous authorities. However, all these measures did not lead to the success of the republican forces in the fight against nationalists - the reasons for this were the continuing conflict in the republican camp, the loss of faith in victory by many supporters of the republic, and the insufficient qualification of the command staff of the armed forces. In 1937-1938, the republic lost a significant part of its territory. Negrin's rapprochement with the Communists led to his conflict with Prieto, who was also considered by the Communists and Soviet advisers to be one of the main culprits of the defeats at the front and a supporter of "capitulatory" politics. In April 1938, Prieto was dismissed, and from that time Negrin combined the leadership of the government and the Ministry of Defense. This led to a further strengthening of the positions of the Communists in the republican leadership.

Demonstrating a desire for compromise, Negrin on April 30, 1938 proposed to the nationalists a 13-point peace plan, which, in particular, provided for the independence of Spain, the absence of foreign armed forces on its territory, a democratic republic with a strong government, a referendum on the country's future structure, and regional freedom without damage to the unity of Spain, protection of legitimate property, the elimination of semi-feudal relations in the countryside, guarantees of workers' rights, an apolitical and non-partisan army, wide amnesty. However, this plan, put forward after the military failures of the Republicans and perceived by many as a strictly forced step, was rejected by Caudillo Francisco Franco , who demanded the complete surrender of his opponents.

After the failure of the peace plan, Negrin initiated a large-scale offensive of the Republicans in the area of ​​the Ebro River, which, despite the tactical successes of the first days, ended in failure. In the fall of 1938, Negrin agreed to the withdrawal from Spain of international brigades that belonged to the most combat-ready military units of the Republicans - by that time the Soviet leadership had largely lost hope of victory over the nationalists. In early 1939, Republicans lost control of Catalonia , and Negrin was forced to leave for France, from where he and his closest employees soon flew to the Madrid zone to continue military operations. By this time, Negrin was counting only on the imminent start of a major European war, which would lead to the polarization of the main European countries and to the provision by governments that entered the war against the allies of Franco - Germany and Italy - effective assistance to his government. However, the “Munich conspiracy” of October 1938 delayed the start of the war by almost a year, and the Spanish Republicans could not hold out until that time. In early 1939, even Negrin was inclined to agree to peace under amnesty, but this time Franco refused.

By the beginning of spring 1939, many republican military leaders had lost all hope of success, which led to an uprising against the Negrin government, whose leaders were Colonel Casado and General Miakha , who sought to end the war as soon as possible and who believed that Negrin’s figure was an obstacle to reaching an agreement with the Francoists . Negrin, with the support of the Communists, tried to resist the rebels, but, having failed, flew to France on March 6, 1939, together with members of his government and some communist leaders.

Negrin lived in emigration in France, and in 1940 moved to the UK (which saved his life, since the collaborating authorities of France extradited Republicans to Franco-Spain), from where he returned to France after World War II . In 1939-1945 , he was prime minister of the Spanish government in exile, but his powers were not recognized by many exiles. Negrin’s position was weakened by the incident with the Vita yacht, on which, under his orders, the values ​​seized during the war by the Carabinieri Corps were sent to Mexico . According to Negrin, they should have been used by the Spanish Refugee Evacuation Service ( SERE ) he created to ensure the republicans were transported to Latin America . However, in Mexico, this money, with the consent of President Lazaro Cardenas , came under the control of Prieto, who was there and used it to create his own organization - the Council for Assistance to the Spanish Republicans ( JARE ), which was engaged in direct assistance to refugees (supplying them with food and basic necessities). As a result of this story, Negrin not only lost control of his financial resources, but was also accused of corruption - especially since his opponents had criticized him for his love of comfort, addiction to good food and expensive drinks, as well as for numerous novels with women ( in this he also differed from the standard image of an ascetic revolutionary).

In 1945, due to disagreements with most emigrants, Negrin was forced to resign and resign from politics. He spent the last years of his life in France, not showing significant activity and refusing to join the pro-Soviet Peace Movement. For his activities at the head of the republican government, he was criticized both by the Francoists (who considered him a "red traitor") and by many republicans who accused Negrin of too much dependence on the USSR and the desire to continue the war in a hopeless situation. At the same time, it should be noted that he took a significant risk, returning in February 1939 to the Madrid zone in a situation where many prominent Republicans chose to stay outside the country.

After the death of Negrin, one of his sons, according to press reports, handed over to the government of General Franco documents about Spanish gold exported to the USSR. There is information that this was done at the request of Negrin himself.

• Juan Negrin Foundation (Spanish)
• Biography
• About the problem of Spanish gold (testimony of Orlov) .