Jesús Hernández Tomás

Jesús Hernández Tomás was born in Murcia in 1907.

He was one of the founders of the Communist Party in Biscay.

In 1922 he was part of the guard of Óscar Pérez Solís, Secretary General of the Spanish Communist Party (Partido Comunista Español, PCE).

Hernández participated in the failed attack on the socialist Indalecio Prieto.

In 1927 he was a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Youth

Hernández was arrested in 1929 and released the next year.

Hernández went to the Soviet Union around the time the Second Spanish Republic was proclaimed in 1931.{{sfn|Jesús Hernández Tomás – Fuenterrebollo}}

He studied at the Leninist School in Moscow.{{sfn|Dimitrov|2008|p=102}}

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".

Hernández Tomás was among the new leaders of the party who succeeded José Bullejos.

The others were José Díaz, Vicente Uribe, Antonio Mije and Juan Astigarrabía.{{sfn|Alexander|1999|p=108}}

That year Hernández became a member of the PCE Politburo in charge of agitprop.{{sfn|Dimitrov|2008|p=102}}

He returned to Spain in 1933, and was made editor of the PCE journal Mundo Obrero (Worker's World).{{sfn|Jesús Hernández Tomás – Fuenterrebollo}}

Hernández was elected Deputy for Cordoba in the 1936 elections.{{sfn|Jesús Hernández Tomás – Fuenterrebollo}}

After the outbreak of Spanish Civil War (1936–1939), on 8 August 1936 he said clearly "We cannot talk today of the proletarian revolution in Spain, because the historical circumstances do not permit it." The Stalinists did indeed provide substantial support for the Giral and Caballero governments, including important military aid from the USSR.{{sfn|Bookchin|2005|p=219}}

President Francisco Largo Caballero appointed Hernández Minister of Education and Fine Arts on 4 September 1936.{{sfn|Jesús Hernández Tomás – Fuenterrebollo}}

The Socialist Largo Caballero found himself increasingly isolated, and by February 1937 was demanding that his ministers confirm their support for him, particularly the communist ministers Vicente Uribe and Jesús Hernández.{{sfn|Graham|1991|p=91}}

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 violence in Barcelona, which the communists blamed on the Anarchist CNT and FAI and the POUM.{{sfn|Peirats|Ealham|2005|p=151}}

They demanded that the POUM be banned and its leaders arrested as "fascists".{{sfn|Bookchin|2005|p=253}}

Largo Caballero refused to act, and most of the ministers walked out of the meeting.{{sfn|Peirats|Ealham|2005|p=151}}

On 17 May 1937 the new President Juan Negrín appointed Hernández Minister of Education and Health.{{sfn|Alpert|2013|p=337}}

Hernández launched reforms that treated education as a social function.{{sfn|Bolado Somolinos|1975|p=128}}

The PCE campaign against the CNT continued.

On 2 August 1937 Hernández told reporters after a cabinet meeting "the cabinet has been concerned with examining what measures needed to be taken ... in order to forestall and curtail with the utmost vigour any attempted distirubance or upset which certain extremist elements, who are the instruments of fascism, may seek to provoke."{{sfn|Peirats|Ealham|2005|p=228}}

Hernández conducted a campaign against Indalecio Prieto, the Minister of National Defense.{{sfn|Jesús Hernández Tomás – Fuenterrebollo}}

Prieto left office early in 1938 due to his efforts.{{sfn|Alpert|2013|p=337}}

Hernández was replaced by Segundo Blanco in a cabinet reshuffle in April 1938 and was appointed political commissar in the South Central area.{{sfn|Beevor|2012|p=415}}{{sfn|Alpert|2013|p=337}}

When the Republican forces were defeated in the Battle of the Ebro (July–November 1938) and General Francisco Franco's troops reached the Mediterranean, Hernández stayed in Madrid with Pedro Checa, Luis Cabo Giorla, Isidoro Diéguez Dueñas and Antonio Mije while the main Communist leadership center was established in Barcelona.{{sfn|Elorza|Bizcarrondo|1999|p=417}}

Hernández later took virtual leadership of the party.{{sfn|Peirats|Ealham|2005|p=243}}

Hernández was forced to leave Madrid after the March 1939 coup d'état by Segismundo Casado.{{sfn|Alpert|2013|p=337}}

After the fall of the Republican government in March 1939 Hernández went into exile in Oran, and then in Moscow.

He was elected to the Executive Committee of the Communist International.{{sfn|Jesús Hernández Tomás – Fuenterrebollo}}

He lost influence during the power struggle that followed the suicide of José Díaz in March 1942.{{sfn|Hernández Sánchez|2007}}

In 1943 Joseph Stalin sent him to Mexico, and in 1944 he was expelled from the PCE for working against the party executive.{{sfn|Jesús Hernández Tomás – Fuenterrebollo}}

In 1953 Hernández published memoirs of the Civil War under the title Yo fui ministro de Stalin (I Was Stalin's Minister).

The French translation was published as La Grande trahison (The Great Betrayal).

The book revealed how Andrés Nin had been tortured and then killed, the Procès de Moscou tribunal and other aspects of Stalinist interference.{{sfn|Preston|Mackenzie|1996|p=267}}

PCE loyalists called Hernández a "bon vivant", "womanizer", "degenerate" and other derogatory terms.{{sfn|Hernández Sánchez|2007}}

In 1953 Hernández founded the short-lived Independent Communist Party, based in Bucharest.{{sfn|Jesús Hernández Tomás – Fuenterrebollo}}

The party was pro-Yugoslav.{{sfn|Dimitrov|2008|p=102}}

After it dissolved he left politics and returned to Mexico where he lived until his death in 1971.{{sfn|Jesús Hernández Tomás – Fuenterrebollo}}

He was omitted from the official PCE history published in Paris in 1960.

In her memoirs Dolores Ibárruri referred to him as "the other communist minister", but would not name him.{{sfn|Hernández Sánchez|2007}}

{{refbegin}}

• {{cite book|author=Jesus Hernandez|title=La URSS en la guerra del pueblo español|year=1951}}
• {{cite book|author=Jesus Hernandez|title=A los comunistas de España|year=1951}}
• {{cite book|author=Jesus Hernandez|title=Yo fui ministro de Stalin: Memorias de la guerra civil Española 1936-39 |year=1953}}
• {{cite book|author=Jesus Hernandez|title=En el país de la gran mentira: Segunda parte del libro Yo fui un ministro de Stalin |year=1974}}

{{refend}}

{{notes}}{{reflist|30em}}

{{refbegin}}

• {{cite book|last=Alexander|first=Robert J.|title=The Anarchists in the Spanish Civil War

|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zaaRvUxm0ZAC&pg=PA108|access-date=2015-09-29

|year=1999|publisher=Janus Publishing Company Lim|isbn=978-1-85756-400-6}}

• {{cite book|last=Alpert|first=Michael|title=The Republican Army in the Spanish Civil War, 1936-1939

|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ACvghWhzB0MC&pg=PA337|access-date=2015-06-27

|date=2013-02-28|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-1-107-02873-9}}

• {{cite book|last=Beevor|first=Antony|title=The Battle for Spain: The Spanish Civil War 1936-1939

|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UyrUBgAAQBAJ&pg=RA1-PT415|access-date=2015-06-27

|date=2012-08-23|publisher=Orion Publishing Group|isbn=978-1-78022-453-4}}

• {{cite book|language=es

|last=Bolado Somolinos|first=Jose Manuel|title=Revista de educación

|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HDUXqmg34rMC&pg=PA127|access-date=2015-08-25

|year=1975|publisher=Ministerio de Educación|chapter=Del Ministerio de Instrucción Pública y Bellas Artes a la Cartera de Educación, Cultura y Deporte. 100 Minostros para un centenario.

|issn=0034-8082}}

• {{cite book|last=Bookchin|first=Murray|title=The Third Revolution

|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IBDCcHoPBiQC&pg=PA219|access-date=2015-06-27

|date=2005-06-08|publisher=A&C Black|isbn=978-0-8264-7801-6}}

• {{cite book|url=http://historiacomunista.blogspot.ca/|date=2007-06-16 |language=es

|title=Comunistas sin partido, Jesús Hernández, ministro en la Guerra Civil, disidente en el exilio

|last=Hernández Sánchez|first=Fernando |publisher=Editorial Raíces|access-date=2015-06-27}}

• {{cite book|last=Dimitrov|first=Georgi|title=The Diary of Georgi Dimitrov, 1933-1949

|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FmwnBTggMssC&pg=PA102|access-date=2015-06-27

|date=2008-10-01|publisher=Yale University Press|isbn=978-0-300-13385-1}}

• {{cite book|last1=Elorza|first1=Antonio|last2=Bizcarrondo|first2=Marta|title=Queridos camaradas. La Internacional Comunista en España 1919-1939

|year=1999|publisher=Planeta|isbn=84-08-02222-9|location=Barcelona}}

• {{cite book|last=Graham|first=Helen|title=Socialism and War: The Spanish Socialist Party in Power and Crisis, 1936-1939

|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8PlXkkh2InkC&pg=PA91|access-date=2015-06-27

|date=1991-06-28|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-39257-0}}

• {{cite web|ref={{harvid|Jesús Hernández Tomás – Fuenterrebollo}}|url=http://www.fuenterrebollo.com/Gobiernos/jesus-hernandez.html

|title=Jesús Hernández Tomás |work=Fuenterrebollo |access-date=2015-06-27}}

• {{cite book|last1=Peirats|first1=José|last2=Ealham|author-link2=Chris Ealham|first2=Chris|title=The CNT in the Spanish Revolution

|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vcauoD75eBMC&pg=PA151|access-date=2015-06-27

|year=2005|publisher=ChristieBooks.com|isbn=978-1-873976-24-1}}

• {{cite book|last1=Preston|first1=Paul|last2=Mackenzie|first2=Ann L.|title=The Republic Besieged: Civil War in Spain 1936-1939

|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OSEqR1G40HwC&pg=PA267|access-date=2015-06-27

|year=1996|publisher=Edinburgh University Press|isbn=978-0-7486-0861-4}}

{{refend}}

• [https://www.marxists.org/history/spain/writers/hernandez/index.html Jesús Hernández Archive] at marxists.org

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Hernandez Tomas, Jesus}}

Category:1907 births

Category:1971 deaths

Category:Spanish communists

Category:Members of the Congress of Deputies of the Second Spanish Republic

Category:Government ministers during the Second Spanish Republic