Durruti Column

The Durruti Column (Spanish: Columna Durruti) was an anarchist militia column, led by Buenaventura Durruti, which fought on the side of the Spanish Republic during the Spanish Civil War. It was the first militia column established in Revolutionary Catalonia after the defeat of the July 1936 military uprising in Barcelona. It was dispatched to the Aragon front, with the aim of capturing the Aragonese capital of Zaragoza from the Nationalists. The Column captured several towns in the east of Zaragoza province, but was halted 20 kilometers outside the city and forced to wait for reinforcements.

The frontline through the province remained stagnant throughout August, while the Column involved itself in the organisation of agricultural collectives and mapped out a strategy to take Zaragoza. In September, the militia column participated in an offensive in the province of Huesca, forcing the Nationalist forces there to withdraw to the provincial capital. In October, the Nationalists launched a counteroffensive in Zaragoza province, but the Durruti Column was able to defend its positions at Osera. Amid skirmishes on the front, the column's International Group briefly captured Perdiguera from the Nationalists, but the town was quickly taken back and most of the militiamen were killed. The Column established the Regional Defense Council of Aragon, with which it aimed to coordinate the various Republican militias and eventually establish a unified command structure. However, the Catalan and Spanish governments sought to militarise the militias and bring them under state control. The Durruti Column ignored the government's decree on militarisation and continued to operate as an independent unit.

With the outbreak of the siege of Madrid in November 1936, part of the Durruti Column was transferred to defend the Spanish capital. After arriving there, the Column took part in the Battle of Ciudad Universitaria, where it fought for days without relief. Durruti himself was shot and killed during the fighting. Many of the Durruti Column's members believed he had been assassinated, either by a Nationalist fifth column or their own political rivals within the Republican faction; Stalinist historiography has alleged that insubordinate members of the Durruti Column itself had assassinated Durruti. Ricardo Sanz replaced Durruti at the head of the Column, and after the Nationalists abandoned their Madrid offensive, the Column returned to Aragon. By mid-1937, it was reorganised into 26th Division of the Spanish Republican Army, which continued fighting until the very end of the war.