Fifth Regiment (Spanish Republic)
제5연대 (스페인 공화국)
A volunteer militia on the Republican side, created at the start of the Spanish Civil War by the Communist Party of Spain and the Unified Socialist Youth (JSU); its full name was the Fifth Regiment of Popular Militias. It was distinguished from other militias by a discipline in which superiors' orders were not put up for discussion and by political commissars, and won fame in the defence of Madrid. It grew from about 6,000 men in August 1936 to over 20,000 in November, served as a model for the new regular army, and was merged into the People's Army in January 1937.
In depth
Right after the July 1936 coup the Republican government in effect dissolved the army, to deprive rebellious officers of troops, and armed the trade unions. Into the resulting void the Communist Party of Spain led a policy of replacing the spontaneous, disorganised bands with loyal, disciplined, militarised units. The communist-led Antifascist Worker and Peasant Militias (MAOC) formed five battalions that took part in the assault on the Montaña barracks on 20 July; one of them became the "Fifth Regiment". Its first commander was Enrique Castro Delgado.
The regiment fought at Somosierra and Guadarrama, at Talavera and at the siege of the Alcázar, and became a key unit in the defence of Madrid. Whereas orders were commonly debated in other militias, its soldiers were not allowed to discuss them, which made it more effective against the first rebel attacks. Beyond the military field it became famous for literacy teaching, mobile libraries, "theatre guerrillas", posters and murals, and drew in poets and writers such as Rafael Alberti and Miguel Hernández.
On 22 January 1937 the Fifth Regiment was merged into the reorganised People's Army of the Republic. Vittorio Vidali, one of its commanders, proclaimed that day: "The Fifth Regiment is dead! Long live the People's Army!" Many of its members went to the First Mixed Brigade and the 11th Division under Enrique Líster, and People's Army commanders such as "Modesto" (Juan Guilloto León) and "El Campesino" (Valentín González) came from its ranks. The party's general secretary José Díaz held up its dissolution as the model for his demand that all party and union militias enter the regular army. Anarchists and the POUM resisted this "militarisation" as an attempt to subordinate their militias to a communist-led central power.