Life During the CW - LIFE IN THE REPUBLICAN ZONE

Question 1

What was life like in Madrid in the Republican zone?

Answer 1

organised a war economy
- key industrial industries/factories brought under gov control

employment
- factory work, industrial production & public/gov services run collectively by the state (30% collectivised)

barricades, trenches & air-raid shelters constructed by residents’ committee to prevent combat air bombardments
- blackouts a regular occurrence

Question 2

What was life like in Catalonia/Barcelona in the Republican zone?

Answer 2

70% of Barcelona’s key industry collectivised under CNT:
- encouraged greater involvement of ordinary citizens in key decisions of the workplace, wages & working conditions
- ensured regular flow of wartime resources (bullets etc.)

+ collectivised big hotels
- the Ritz = canteen for workers & soldiers
+ churches destroyed/ converted into hospitals

vouchers used in some places instead of money
&
aragon- agriculture collectivised = equal share of food distrubuted
(in 1936: 100g of sugar, meat, rice a day & free coffee/cigarettes)

ppl encouraged to call each other ‘comrade’ to emphasise equality

former owners/employers who refused to co-operate = executed by anarchists

Question 3

What was life like Generally in the Republican zone?

Answer 3

bombings - caused food shortages = inflated prices

militia a common sight - wore blue boiler suits (‘monos’) as their military uniform

LW/TU militias saw themselves as soldiers, street-fighters, revolutionaries
- known to take extreme vengeance on anyone w nationalist sympathies
(espc. CEDA/Falange)

PDR
- leader of the Falange
- arrested in Madrid & executed by firing squad in Nov 1936