La Repressió franquista a la universitat espanyola

Abstract

This work studies the repression suffered by the Spanish university during the first years of Francos dictatorship. First of all, the efforts of the Republican government to consolidate the democracy from the bases of the education are analyzed, together with the opposition exerted by both the Spanish Catholic Church and the conservative class, who feared about the loss of power and privileges. The Civil War (1936-1939) transforms the oral violence into physical violence and triggers the burst of a fierce repression, which in the particular case of teachers, is dressed-up as a professional depuration. Political merits and a political purge against any suspicious professor or even against professors that are not enough engaged with the new regime substitute the excellence in the academic records. Contrary to the republican depuration, which was defensive and respectful with the legacy effective, the Francoist depuration beheads the university roster with general and merciless punishments murders, dismisses, imprisonments, transfers and forced retirements. Moreover, science starts to be ruled by the national-catholic ideology and the available positions become booty for those who prove to be followers of the new regimen.