Dolores Ibarruri
Ibarruri, Dolores
Born Dec. 9, 1895, in Gallarta, Vizcaya Province. Leader in the Spanish and international working-class movements.
In 1917, Ibarruri, the daughter of a miner, joined a socialist organization in the city of Somorrostro and began writing for the worker press under the name of La Pasionaria (Ardent). A few years later she became a member of the Communist Party of Spain (CPS), which was founded in 1920. She subsequently was an editor of several communist newspapers and belonged to the Vizcaya regional committee of the CPS. In 1930, Ibarruri became a member of the Central Committee of the CPS, and in 1932, a member of its Politburo (serving in the Executive Committee from 1960). From 1932 to 1942 she was a secretary of the Central Committee of the CPS. After 1932 she conducted party work among women. From 1931 to 1933 she was one of the editors of the central organ of the CPS, the newspaper Mundo Obrero. Ibarruri was arrested and imprisoned six times. At the Seventh Congress of the Comintern (1935) she was chosen a candidate member of its Executive Committee. She was elected a deputy to the cortes in 1936, becoming its vice-president in 1937.
As a leader of the Communist Party of Spain, Ibarruri played a vital role during the National Revolutionary War of the Spanish People against fascist rebels and Italian-German interventionists (1936–39). Since 1939 she has been living in exile. During World War II (1939–45), she fought actively for the unification of the Spanish people into a common national front to prevent the Spanish dictator Franco from drawing Spain into war in alliance with fascist Germany. She participated in the international antifascist movement. Her son Ruben (1920–42), a Hero of the Soviet Union, was killed while defending Stalingrad against the fascist hordes.
In 1942 (after the death of J. Diaz), Ibarruri became the general secretary of the CPS. She presented a summary report at its Fifth Congress in 1954. At the plenums of the Central Committee of the CPS after the Fifth Congress, Ibarruri’s reports were devoted to the situation in Spain and the tactics of the CPS. She called for unified action of the working class and all democratic forces to do away with Franco’s dictatorship, to achieve national independence, and to democratize Spain. At the Sixth Congress of the CPS (1960), she reported on the 40th anniversary of the CPS and was elected chairwoman of the CPS.
Ibarruri is the author of many books and articles. She headed a commission of the Central Committee which com-piled The History of the Communist Party of Spain (1960; Russian translation, 1961). Her autobiographical book The Only Way was translated into several languages, including Russian (1962), French, Italian, and German. She is a coauthor of the work War and Revolution in Spain 1936–39 (Russian translation, vol. 1, 1968).
A founder of the International Democratic Federation of Women (1945), Ibarruri is active in the international democratic women’s movement. She is a laureate of the International Lenin Prize for Strengthening Peace Among Peoples (1964). She holds a doctorate honoris causa from Moscow State University (1961) and has been awarded the Order of Lenin and several medals of the USSR.
WORKS
Por una España republicana, democratica e independiente. 1947.A los trabajadores anarquistas. Mexico City, 1953.
Informe del Comité Central presentado ante el V Congreso del PCE. Prague, 1954.
40 años del Partido comunista de España, sus raices, su base ideológica, sus actividades: Mensaje a lajuventud. Prague, 1960.
En la lucha: Palabras y hechos 1936–1939. Moscow, 1968.
De febrero a octubre 1917: En el 50 aniversario de la Revolutión socialista. Paris, 1967.
In Russian translation:
V bor’be: Izbr. stat’i i vystupleniia (1936–1939). Moscow, 1968.
Oktiabr’skaia sotsialisticheskaia revoliutsiia i ispanskii rabochii klass. … Moscow, 1960.