Vicente Uribe Galdeano (30 December 1902 – 11 July 1961) was a Spanish metalworker and politician who became a member of the executive of the
Communist Party of Spain
The Communist Party of Spain (; PCE) is a communist party that, since 1986, has been part of the United Left coalition, which is currently part of Sumar. Two of its politicians are Spanish government ministers: Yolanda Díaz (Minister of L ...
(PCE). He served as
Minister of Agriculture during the
Spanish Civil War
The Spanish Civil War () was a military conflict fought from 1936 to 1939 between the Republican faction (Spanish Civil War), Republicans and the Nationalist faction (Spanish Civil War), Nationalists. Republicans were loyal to the Left-wing p ...
(1936–1939) for the
Republican faction. He went into exile in Mexico during
World War II
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
(1939–1945), then lived in France and Czechoslovakia after the war. He was disgraced in 1956 during the post-Stalinist power struggle.
Life
Early years
Vicente Uribe Galdeano was born in
Bilbao
Bilbao is a city in northern Spain, the largest city in the Provinces of Spain, province of Biscay and in the Basque Country (greater region), Basque Country as a whole. It is also the largest city proper in northern Spain. Bilbao is the List o ...
in 1897. He became a metalworker, and in 1923 joined the Communist Party of Spain. He was a member of the party's executive from 1927.
He married Teresa García, and they had five children.
In 1932 the Spanish Communist Party made a major change in direction when it abandoned the Comintern slogan "Workers' and Peasants' Government" and adopted "Defense of the Republic".
Uribe was among the new leaders of the party who succeeded
José Bullejos.
The others were
José Díaz,
Antonio Mije,
Juan Astigarrabía and
Jesús Hernández Tomás.
Uribe represented the PCE in creating the draft electoral manifesto of the Popular Front for the elections on 16 February 1936.
Civil War
After the start of the Spanish Civil War Uribe was appointed Minister of Agriculture in the cabinet of
Francisco Largo Caballero
Francisco Largo Caballero (15 October 1869 – 23 March 1946) was a Spanish politician and trade unionist who served as the prime minister of the Second Spanish Republic during the Spanish Civil War. He was one of the historic leaders of the ...
on 5 September 1936.
For tactical reasons the communists supported small businessmen and peasants. In September 1936 Uribe said,
On 7 October 1936 Uribe issued a decree seizing for the state all rural properties of anyone who had been involved in the military insurrection, with no compensation. The estates were given to organizations of peasants and agricultural workers, who could decide whether to cultivate them collectively or individually. Small cultivators with leased estates below a certain size were given perpetual use of their land.
''
Mundo Obrero
''Mundo Obrero'' (Spanish language, Spanish: ''Workers World'') is the periodical of the Communist Party of Spain (main), Communist Party of Spain (PCE). The paper is based in Madrid, Spain.
History and profile
''Mundo Obrero'' was first publishe ...
'' commented, "This decree breaks the foundation of the semifeudal power of the big landlords who, in order to maintain their brutal caste privileges and to perpetuate salaries of two pesetas a day and labor from dawn to dusk, have unleashed the bloody war that is devastating Spain."
Uribe's decree, represented as revolutionary, was in fact simply recognizing changes that had already occurred.
The anarchist
CNT and socialist FNTT were both intensely hostile to the decree, with its protection of the rights of small owners.
Throughout the war Uribe refused to give the agricultural collectives a permanent legal status.
In the spring of 1937 the PCE started to support return of collectivized land to landowners who had not supported
Franco's rebellion, and to tenant farmers and sharecroppers, who often held right-wing views.
A decree of 9 November 1936 established a Higher War Council consisting of the socialists Largo Caballero (War) and
Indalecio Prieto
Indalecio Prieto Tuero (30 April 1883 – 11 February 1962) was a Spanish politician, a minister and one of the leading figures of the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) in the years before and during the Second Spanish Republic. Less radi ...
(Air and Navy), the communist Uribe (Agriculture) and communist sympathiser
Julio Álvarez del Vayo (Foreign Affairs), the Left Republican
Julio Just Gimeno (Public Works) and the
CNT-
FAI Juan García Oliver
Juan García Oliver (1901–1980) was a Spanish anarcho-syndicalist revolutionary and Minister of Justice of the Second Spanish Republic. He was a leading figure of anarchism in Spain.
Career Childhood and family
Juan García Oliver was ...
(Justice).
Largo Caballero, a socialist, found himself increasingly isolated, and by February 1937 was demanding that his ministers confirm their support for him, particularly the communist ministers Uribe and
Jesús Hernández Tomás.
On 8 March 1937 the Italians began an advance on the Guadalajara sector, which at first overcame all resistance. Uribe and Hernández Tomás demanded the resignation of the chief of the central general staff, General
Toribio Martínez Cabrera. The advanced was checked, but Martínez Cabrera was replaced.
In April 1937 Franco launched a major thrust in the north of Spain with German and Italian assistance.
The Higher War Council designated Uribe to investigate the situation. He was accompanied by the Soviet General
Vladimir Gorev
Vladimir Efimovich Gorev (1900 - 20 June 1938), known as Vladimir Gorev, was a Belarusian soldier known to have participated in the defense of Madrid as a Soviet military advisor during the Spanish Civil War. He was born in 1900 in Velizh, Vitebsk ...
.
On 15 May 1937 Uribe and Hernández caused the collapse of Largo Caballero's government.
The trigger was a disagreement in a cabinet meeting over the
May Days
The May Days (, ), sometimes also called May Events (, ), were a series of clashes between 3 and 8 May 1937 during which factions on the Republican faction (Spanish Civil War), Republican side of the Spanish Civil War engaged one another in str ...
violence in
Barcelona
Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second-most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...
, which the communists blamed on the
Anarchist
Anarchism is a political philosophy and Political movement, movement that seeks to abolish all institutions that perpetuate authority, coercion, or Social hierarchy, hierarchy, primarily targeting the state (polity), state and capitalism. A ...
CNT and
FAI and the dissident communist
POUM
The Workers' Party of Marxist Unification (, POUM; , POUM) was a Spanish communist party formed during the Second Spanish Republic, Second Republic and mainly active around the Spanish Civil War. It was formed by the fusion of the Trotskyism, Tro ...
.
They demanded that the POUM be banned and its leaders arrested as "fascists".
Largo Caballero refused to act, and most of the ministers walked out of the meeting.
On 17 May 1937
Manuel Azaña
Manuel Azaña Díaz (; 10 January 1880 – 3 November 1940) was a Spanish politician who served as Prime Minister of Spain, Prime Minister of the Second Spanish Republic (1931–1933 and 1936), organizer of the Popular Front in 1935 and the la ...
dismissed Largo and named
Juan Negrín
Juan Negrín López (; 3 February 1892 – 12 November 1956) was a Spanish physician and politician who served as prime minister of the Second Spanish Republic. He was a leader of the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (, PSOE) and of the le ...
Prime Minister of Spain
The prime minister of Spain, officially president of the Government (), is the head of government of Spain. The prime minister nominates the Spanish government departments, ministers and chairs the Council of Ministers (Spain), Council of Mini ...
.
Negrín's government included the socialists
Indalecio Prieto
Indalecio Prieto Tuero (30 April 1883 – 11 February 1962) was a Spanish politician, a minister and one of the leading figures of the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) in the years before and during the Second Spanish Republic. Less radi ...
(War, Navy and Air) and
Julián Zugazagoitia
Julián Zugazagoitia Mendieta (5 February 1899, Bilbao – 9 November 1940, Madrid) was a Spanish journalist and politician.
A member of the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party, he was close to Indalecio Prieto and the editor of the ''El Socialista ...
(Interior), the communists Hernández Tomás (Education) and Uribe (Agriculture), the Republicans
José Giral (Foreign Affairs) and
Bernardo Giner de los Ríos (Public Works), the Basque
Manuel de Irujo (Justice) and the Catalan Nationalist
Jaume Aiguader (Labor).
The Higher War Council was reorganized and consisted of Negrín, Giral, Uribe and Prieto.
In the second Negrín cabinet, formed on 5 April 1938, Uribe was the only communist representative.
According to Togliatti, the tactic of withdrawing from the government was to "convince English and French public opinion that the Communists are not interested in the conquest of power, not even in Spain, where we could do so with comparative ease. ... In this way, we shall strengthen Anglo-French ties with the Soviets. If Hitler should decide on war he will have to wage it against the USSR and the Western democracies.
Uribe remained Minister of Agriculture until 1 February 1939.
Later career
Uribe left Spain after the defeat of the Republic, and by late 1939 had reached
Mexico
Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...
. The party decided to form a secretariat in Mexico that included Uribe,
Antonio Mije,
Pedro Checa,
Santiago Carrillo
Santiago José Carrillo Solares (18 January 1915 – 18 September 2012) was a Spanish politician who served as General Secretary of the Communist Party of Spain (main), Communist Party of Spain (PCE) from 1960 to 1982.
He was exiled during ...
,
Joan Comorera
Joan Comorera i Soler (or Juan Comorera y Soler; 5 September 1894 – 7 May 1958) was a Spanish Communist politician, journalist and writer from Catalonia who spent several years in Argentina before returning to Spain in 1931 at the start of the S ...
,
Fernando Claudín and others. Uribe led the PCE group in Mexico during
World War II
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
(1939–1945).
He became second in the overall PCE leadership after
Jesús Hernández Tomás was expelled from the party in 1944.
Uribe moved from Mexico to
Paris
Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...
with Antonio Mije in May 1946.
Dolores Ibárruri
Isidora Dolores Ibárruri Gómez (; 9 December 189512 November 1989), also known as ("the passionate one" or Passion flower"), was a Spanish Republican politician during the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939) and a communist. She is renowned for ...
withdrew due to sickness in the summer of 1947, and Uribe and Mije began feuding with
Francisco Antón and Carrillo.
Moscow gave Uribe and Claudín the role of judges in the purge of PCE leadership that began in November 1947.
On 7 September 1950 the Spanish communists were outlawed in France.
Uribe moved to
Prague
Prague ( ; ) is the capital and List of cities and towns in the Czech Republic, largest city of the Czech Republic and the historical capital of Bohemia. Prague, located on the Vltava River, has a population of about 1.4 million, while its P ...
,
Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia ( ; Czech language, Czech and , ''Česko-Slovensko'') was a landlocked country in Central Europe, created in 1918, when it declared its independence from Austria-Hungary. In 1938, after the Munich Agreement, the Sudetenland beca ...
with Mije and
Enrique Líster
Enrique Líster Forján (21 April 1907 – 8 December 1994) was a Spanish communist politician and military officer. He participated in the Spanish Civil War as an officer in the People's Army of the Republic and rose to the rank of major gen ...
, while Carrillo and Antón remained underground in Paris.
Joseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Dzhugashvili; 5 March 1953) was a Soviet politician and revolutionary who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until Death and state funeral of Joseph Stalin, his death in 1953. He held power as General Secret ...
died in March 1953 and in July 1953 Antón was thrown out of the Political Bureau, leaving Uribe, Ibárruri and Carrillo as the PCE leaders.
These three led the 5th PCE Congress in Czechoslovakia in September 1954.
Carrillo began maneuvering for greater power.
After
Nikita Khrushchev
Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev (– 11 September 1971) was the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964 and the Premier of the Soviet Union, Chai ...
denounced Stalin, Ibárruri abandoned Uribe and began to support Carrillo.
In February 1956 Uribe was denounced at the post-Stalinist 20th Congress of the
Communist Party of the Soviet Union
The Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU),. Abbreviated in Russian as КПСС, ''KPSS''. at some points known as the Russian Communist Party (RCP), All-Union Communist Party and Bolshevik Party, and sometimes referred to as the Soviet ...
in Moscow.
Both Ibárruri and Uribe were accused of the "cult of personality" by Fernando Claudín and Carrillo, but Uribe was the main target.
He was eliminated from the PCE executive in the central committee plenary session of July–August 1956.
Vicente Uribe died in Prague on 11 July 1961.
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Notes
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Uribe Galdeano, Vicente
1902 births
1961 deaths
Politicians from Bilbao
Communist Party of Spain politicians
Agriculture ministers of Spain
Members of the Congress of Deputies of the Second Spanish Republic
Spanish people of the Spanish Civil War (Republican faction)
Exiles of the Spanish Civil War in France
Exiles of the Spanish Civil War in Mexico