Note: This story was dynamically reformatted for online reading convenience. BUTTERFLY AND FALCON (Part 3) By KATZMAREK ------------------------------------------------- Author's note. This is a work of fiction based on fact. Opinions and interpretations of events expressed are my own and as such are entirely contestable. This remains my property and may not be used for gain without my express permission in writing. ------------------------------------------------- If the Madrid leadership of the CNT were facilating, it was the same for the Popular Front Government. As the second day of the revolt dragged on it began to dawn on them the extent of the revolt in Barcelona. The Communists called for decisive action, but Largo Cabalero seemed overwhelmed into inaction. He refused to order Army units away from the front. Instead, he reluctantly authorised the despatch of more Assault Guards. Meanwhile, the Communists took the initiative, sending their two brigades backed by Russian NKVD troops. These came down from the Ebro to dig in before Terrassa in support of the PSUC militia. The Jose Martys and the 5th Regiment had about a dozen Russian KV1 tanks, but these would take at least a day to reach Terrassa. In the event, the situation on the Ebro delayed their departure for several days and they never did see action against the rebels. Instead they acquired the services of a Catalan artillery battery, equipped with the ubiquitous and ancient French Model 11 75mm gun. By nightfall on the 4th, the Catalans began a desultory artillery dual with the CNT/POUM's guns. The experienced Communist troops, though, weren't about to storm Terrassa across open ground against well-protected positions. Instead they began a slow strangulation of the city, taking over all major routes into Barcelona. The agricultural collectives of the CNT felt the full weight of the PCE's fury as, one after another, the Communists raided the villages, extracting a terrible revenge. Certainly the accounts were later exaggerated, but, by even the standards of the Civil War, there was a great deal of brutality. Andres Nin was powerless to prevent it. For the CNT/POUM to sorte would be just what the Communists wanted. Instead, he called Luis Companys to find out the Government's demands. These were quick to arrive, and no doubt direct from the Russians via the PCE. To whit, the CNT and POUM were to be disarmed and to accept conscription to the regular Republican Army. All industrial and agricultural collectives were to be broken up and either returned to their Capitalist owners or to the care of the Government. Companys intimated that warrants were being prepared for the arrest of the POUM leadership. No mention was made of the CNT's committees. Presumably they were considered mere dupes of the 'treacherous' POUM. Obviously the demands would not be acceptable. By dawn of the 5th of May some 11,000 Communists and 4000 Assault guards were dug in around Terrassa. And digging nearer the CNT/POUM's lines. Arriving from Valencia, Ferrer de la Garcia and Federica Montseny of the CNT's Valencia leadership called a meeting of the Supreme Joint Response Committee to try and persuade them to lay down their arms. The Committee's bottom line, however, was a demand that the Government not interfere in the Catalonian 'revolution.' The sides were wide apart and even Andres Nin couldn't move the committee nearer the Government's wishes. It was plain the Communists were calling the Government's shots and only the complete capitulation of the CNT/POUM was acceptable. Frantically, Nin called Companys to intercede witb Largo Cabalero but the Prime Minister was incommunicado. He must have known, then, that their revolution was doomed. ------------------------------------------- Benin was on her knees beside John on the bed. She had her beautiful arse facing him as she slowly worked her mouth up and down on his stiff cock. Although her trousers were loose fitting, in the fashion of the time, nevertheless they stretched tight over her rump as she bobbed. Impulsively, John slapped it. Benin jerked, her mouth coming off him. Looking behind her, she exclaimed, "hey!" But there was excitment in her eyes and a smile on her face. He slapped her again, a little harder. "Y'want me to bite you?" she asked, laughing. Her hand was still wrapped around his penis. "No!" he replied, apprehensively. It had been quite awhile since she'd been slapped on the bottom. Her Mother used to punish her that way when she was a child. But at 18 she'd had a relationship with an older man who'd liked doing that to her. It was the only aspect of that liason, she recalled, that she enjoyed. That, and the presents of money and jewelry he'd occasionally give her. People who'd pass judgement on her, must remember what it was like to be destitute, she thought. 'Morality' was fine for those that could afford it, and doubly difficult for women with almost no other opportunity to earn an independent income. Signor Garcia was in his forties, married, and the Father of one of her friends. He used to flirt with her and the other girls but took particular interest in Benin. 'My wild Begonia,' he used to call her. She was flattered. He was a nice man, albeit lonely. One afternoon he'd been drinking. Benin had called to see if her friend wanted to go to the park, but she'd gone to Villafranca with her Mother to visit an old Aunt. Signor Garcia asked Benin to sit with him as he was lonely and depressed. She'd obliged him, listening to him ramble on about his life. She didn't mind, she felt 'grown up,' even though she didn't really understand most of what he was on about. "My wife Juana," he went on, "doesn't understand... a man has needs and desires... is old fashioned, very Catholic, you understand." Benin wasn't so innocent that she didn't catch that drift of conversation. She felt a little embarrassed, true, but curious at the same time. "Your such a sweet girl," he continued, "beautiful and passionate. Are you passionate, Benin? I can tell that answer already. I see... in your eyes..." He continued in much the same way until he suggested she share some wine with him. After she began to feel a little woozy from the alcohol, Signor Garcia then asked her if she had a boyfriend, was she a virgin and whether she'd let boys 'touch' her. He began to snort, not unlike 'the Father' when the priest had molested her 4 years ago. But this time Benin didn't feel revulsion. She felt sorry for the depressed man and wanted to cheer him up. It was then he'd offered her 5 pesetas as a 'gift' if she'd do something for him. By then, of course, she understood what that something was. "Just a little playing," he'd insisted, "I don't want to 'ruin' you." By that he meant he didn't want to have full sex with her. Benin was relieved, she wasn't sure she wanted to go that far. He'd kissed and cuddled her for a bit, rather kindly and gently. Unlike 'the Father,' he didn't grope and probe her. Later, he took her into the bedroom, took off his pants, and got her to kneel between his legs as he sat on the bed. Benin knew what he wanted her to do. She done it before with a boyfriend. Unlike her boyfriend, however, Signor Garcia had washed himself with a flannel beforehand. She was touched by that little consideration. The man hand grunted and snorted as she sucked his cock. He played with her hair and held her head gently with the palm of his hand. After a while he lifted her off him and, grinning, told her she was 'naughty' and needed to be punished. Benin was calmed by his playful expression. He laid her across his knee after hitching up her skirt and pulling down her knickers. At his insistance, she reached under and held his cock in her fist while he tapped her lightly on the bare bottom. As he grew more excited, his slapping increased in tempo and harshness until Benin felt his warm sticky fluid splattering over her tummy and on her fingers. The Signor was panting like a locomotive and beads of sweat ran down from his brow. Benin's arse felt warm after the beating, but not altogether unpleasantly. She'd wished the man had kept going, maybe rubbing his fingers between her legs after each stroke, but the Signor was done. Almost appologetically, he'd kissed her on the cheek before retrieving his pants. He'd then sworn her to secrecy. Benin agreed readily. ---------------------------------- That evening, the PCE opened a furious bombardment of the CNT/POUM's positions in Terrassa. Under this cover, waves of infantry debouched from their trenches and charged at the town. After two hours, the revolutionaries were fighting hand to hand, street by street, with the PCE attackers until, as the sky darkened, they were forced into a retreat towards Barcelona. By nightfall the fighting had died down with the PCE militia only a street away from the town square. The Somua tank of the POUM held the Communists at bay. But Andres Nin was already sending reinforcements in the shape of Hispano-Suiza armoured cars and more men of the Lenin Division. The orders were, that the Communists must be driven out of Terrassa at all costs. Some say he arrived personally with his Irish Aide de Camp, John Connolly. Meanwhile, in Barcelona's Southern suburbs, the Government's Assault Guards began to arrive by train from Valencia and Tarragona. These took up positions outside the army Citadel of Llobregat, which was occupied by the Lenin Division on May the 3rd. They had no armour or artillery and they were too few to take the fortress by storm. In any case, their orders were merely to wait. In Madrid, Prime Minister Largo Cabalero was locked in a raging argument with the PCE Ministers of the Popular Front and their Russian advisors. The Communists pressured him to send regular Army units into Barcelona backed by tanks and aircraft. Cabalero flatly refused, reminding them that, but for the CNT's militias, Barcelona would've been lost to Franco's Falangists back in the July Days of '36. He told them he thought Companys could cobble together a peace deal with Andres Nin. He feared that the revolt could engulf the whole of Catalonia. Already, shots had been exchanged between the Civil Guard and Anarchists in Girona and Lerida. The Communist bloc were furious at Cabalero's inaction and were adamant the Anarchist and the POUM militias should be disarmed and broken up. All military forces must be under centralised Republican control, they insisted, and that control was increasingly exerted by Russian advisors. Cabalero, meanwhile, made sure that only limited Government forces were committed to the 'May Days' revolt. Meanwhile, at first light on the 6th, the POUM attacked the PCE troops in Terrassa and by mid-morning had practically expelled them from the town. The Communists again pounded the town with artillery, destroying several armoured cars and, again, driving the POUM back. By the afternoon the Communists were back in possession, had captured the Somua, and the rebels were in flight along the road to Barcelona. The Western defences all but collapsed, as Nin had predicted, and the CNT/POUM were steadily driven back towards the business district and the Port. Ammunition was running low. The Communists used their artillery to destroy any buildings occupied by the rebels. Casualties were mounting on both sides, but the medical facilities on the POUM/CNT side were being overwhelmed. By nightfall on the 6th, the Communists swept into the city centre and were in occupation of the port, splitting Barcelona in two. On the morning of the 7th, Andres Nin called a truce. Assault Guards quietly occupied the Telephone Exchange, comprehensively wrecked by the CNT. Nin was in a poor position to negotiate, but he did ensure that the bulk of the rebels were allowed to go free, albeit minus their guns. Many fighters elected to go North to the French border rather then accept the Government's dictates. The 29th Lenin Division reverted to the control of the Republican Army with Political Officers placed in every unit to oversee their loyalty. In the main, they were Russian NKVD Officers and, over the coming months, had many POUM soldiers executed for 'desertion.' Those that chose to remain in Spain had to accept conscription and the breaking up of the Worker's Collectives. The CNT militia gradually disappeared from Barcelona to be replaced by Government Paramilitaries, the Assault Guard and the Civil Guard. The CNT members of the Generalidad were expelled over the protestations of Luis Companys. Some 1400 people were officially killed during the May Days revolt, but that figure was on the low side. In the aftermath many hundreds more were killed in reprisals and retributions. Around Mid July the POUM's leadership, including John Connolly and Andres Nin, disappeared. The PCE initially denied any knowledge, then later claimed they had been 'rescued' by Fascist agents, adhering to the line that they'd been in the pay of Franco the whole time. The Nationalists, however, waded in through the international Press, claiming the POUM leaders had been arrested by the Russians. Franco's Falangist intelligence network was impeccably accurate and his propagandists had a field day. The POUM leaders *were* being held by the Russian GPU, at their compound at Alcala de Benares near Madrid. Rumours circulated that they were being brutally tortured and Companys, in particular, began agitating for their release or open trial by Military Tribunal. Clumsily, the Russians then claimed that, yes, they had detained them but they'd subsequently escaped with the aid of Fascist Agents. No official explanation has been offered since. Later, in a French 4th International newspaper, the claim appeared that Andres Nin had been flayed alive by NKVD torturers. The claim gained a great deal of currency during the bitter infighting between the former defenders of the Popular Front. Stalinist political Parties in Europe repeated the claim of the POUM's complicity in a Fascist plot to take over Barcelona. However, this was only part of the wider ideological struggle between the two main streams of Communist theory. Leon Trotsky, himself, was murdered in Mexico by one Juan Mercater, a GPU agent. The reins of the 4th International alternative to Russian Communism was taken up by the American Socialist Workers Party based, initially, in New York and later, Los Angeles. But, to get back to Andres Nin and John Connolly. As recently as the early 70s reliable evidence came to light about the fate of the POUM's leadership. It was probable that Nin and the others were tortured to compel them to admit complicity in a Fascist plot. The 'flayed alive' story is completely false, thankfully. Companys, in particular, began to put pressure on the Russians to give him up. When that began to be taken up by the international Press, the GPU executed them all by firing squad on, or about, the 20th of July. They then circulated the story that they'd escaped. -------------------------------------- John and Benin began to wrestle on the bed. She'd bared her teeth and began to lower her head towards his cock. It was then that he'd grabbed her, laughing. She 'suffered' her pants to be dragged off her. Eventually she found herself held firmly across his legs. 'Smack,' he slapped her across the bare bottom. "Ow!" she protested, "not so hard!" "Some soldier," he teased, "can't take a little pain." John was getting into the game. He wasn't sure who initiated it, but he was enjoying himself. "Bastard! I'll show you pain... OW!" He slapped her harder. Benin half rose and tried to punch him, but he dodged the blow. She twisted and squirmed on his lap as he continued hitting her, raising a good red colour to her bare arse. At last she rolled off and got on her hands and knees. "Now, baby, please!" she told him, "from behind... do it hard!" ----------------------------------- KATZMAREK(C)