Suppression of the POUM
Poet involved
What happened
Following the May Days in Barcelona, the Republican government, under pressure from the Communist Party, moved to suppress the POUM (Workers' Party of Marxist Unification), a small but influential anti-Stalinist leftist party. The POUM was declared illegal in June 1937, and its leaders, including Andrés Nin, were arrested and executed by Soviet agents. The suppression of the POUM was a major blow to the anti-fascist left and a demonstration of the growing influence of the Soviet Union in Republican Spain.
Literary impact
The suppression of the POUM was condemned by many left-wing poets, including George Orwell, who wrote about the POUM's persecution in 'Homage to Catalonia.' The POUM's fate also inspired a number of poems by anarchist and Trotskyist writers, who saw the suppression as a betrayal of the revolution. The event contributed to the disillusionment of many intellectuals with the Communist Party, a theme that would recur in the poetry of the post-war years.
Source: Wikipedia
