Valentín González
{{Short description|Spanish Army commander}}
{{other uses|Valentín González (disambiguation)}}
{{family name hatnote|González|González|lang=Spanish}}
{{Refimprove|date=March 2009}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2022}}
{{Infobox military person
|width_style = person
|name = Valentín González
| image = Valentín González González (28-11-1936) retrato de El Campesino vestido de uniforme.png
|birth_name = Valentín González González
|nickname = El Campesino
|birth_date = {{birth date|1904|11|04|df=y}}
|birth_place = {{nowrap|Malcocinado, Badajoz, Spain}}
|death_date = {{death date and age|1983|10|20|1904|11|04|df=y}}
|death_place = Madrid, Spain
|allegiance = Spanish Republic
|branch_label = Branch
|branch = Spanish Republican Army
|serviceyears_label = Years of service
|serviceyears = 1936–1939
|rank = Lieutenant colonel
|commands = {{plainlist|
|battles_label = Conflict
|battles = Spanish Civil War
}}
Valentín González González (4 November 1904 – 20 October 1983), popularly known as El Campesino (the Peasant), was a Spanish Republican military commander during the Spanish Civil War.
Life
= Spanish Civil War =
Born in Malcocinado, Badajoz, González worked as a miner and was a member of the Communist Party, establishing one of the first militia units to counter Francisco Franco's Nationalist Army upon the outbreak of the Civil War. As a brigade commander, González personally took part in all of the major actions that occurred during the Nationalists' assault on Madrid in 1936. He also commanded formations during the battles of the Corunna Road (December 1936),{{sfn|Thomas|2003|p=477}} the Jarama, and Guadalajara (March 1937).{{sfn|Thomas|2003|p=581}}
In the summer of 1937, he led the 46th Division in the Battle of Brunete.{{sfn|Thomas|2003|p=691}} Heavily promoted as a heroic figure by Soviet propaganda, González was accused by other officers in the Ejercito Popular of being brutal in his treatment of his men, unsuited for modern battle, and an egomaniac.{{Cite web|url=https://laestaciondefinlandia.wordpress.com/2013/12/20/orto-y-ocaso-de-valentin-gonzalez-el-campesino/|title=Orto y ocaso de Valentín González, el Campesino|date=20 December 2013}}
He led his men in the Battle of Belchite,{{sfn|Thomas|2003|p=701}} the Battle of Teruel,{{sfn|Thomas|2003|p=773}} and Catalonia. After the Nationalist victory in 1939, he emigrated to the Soviet Union.
= Soviet Union =
Along with other exiled Spanish Republican commanders, he was enrolled in the Frunze Military Academy but was expelled for incompetence.{{Cite web|url=https://bremaneur.wordpress.com/2008/03/31/vida-y-muerte-de-valentin-gonzalez/|title=Vida y muerte de Valentín González|date=31 March 2008}} He was later imprisoned in Vorkutlag Gulag labor camp with other Spanish Communists. There he worked as a brigadier of miners. The Soviets transferred him to other camps. In 1949 he escaped from Soviet Union to Iran.{{sfn|Thomas|2003|p=924}}{{cite book|last = Solzhenitsyn|first = Aleksandr|author-link = Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn|title = The Gulag Archipelago, 1918–1956: An Experiment in Literary Investigation, III–IV|year = 1973|publisher = Harper & Row|page = 186}}
In 1951 he published an autobiography, [https://books.google.com/books?id=VWVEAAAAIAAJ Vida y muerte en la URSS] (translated into English a year later as [https://archive.org/details/elcampesinolifea007506mbp El Campesino: Life and Death in Soviet Russia].)
After the Spanish transition to democracy in 1978, he returned to Spain. He died in Madrid.
References
= Footnotes =
{{reflist|30em}}
= Bibliography =
- {{citation|last=Beevor|first=Antony|author-link=Antony Beevor|title= The Battle for Spain: The Spanish Civil War, 1936-1939|publisher=Phoenix|year=2006|isbn=0-7538-2280-6}}
- {{cite book|last=González|first=Valentín|title=Vida y muerte en la URSS|publisher=Bell|year=1951|language=es|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VWVEAAAAIAAJ&q=Vida+y+muerte+en+la+URSS}}
- {{cite book |last1=Thomas |first1=Hugh |title=The Spanish Civil War |date=2003 |publisher=Penguin Books |isbn=0141011610}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gonzalez, Valentin}}
Category:Communist Party of Spain politicians
Category:Exiles of the Spanish Civil War in France
Category:Exiles of the Spanish Civil War in the Soviet Union
Category:Foreign Gulag detainees
Category:People from Campiña Sur (Badajoz)
Category:Spanish military personnel of the Spanish Civil War (Republican faction)