Dolores Ibarruri (Pasionara) among the defenders of Madrid.
Dolores Ibárruri
Date: September 15, 1937;
Source: Speeches and Articles pp. 151-152, Foreign Languages Publishing House, 1938;
First Published: Frente Rojo, 1937;
Transciption/HTML Markup: Mike B. for MIA, June 2020
Public Domain: Marxists Internet Archive (2020). You may freely copy, distribute, display and perform this work; as well as make derivative and commercial works. Please credit “Marxists Internet Archive” as your source.
Anna Pauker1, (the well-known anti-fascist, sent Dolores Ibarruri a scarf she had knit in the Rumanian prison where she was incarcerated, as a token of the solidarity of the Rumanian women with the struggle being waged in Spain against international fascism. Pasionaria replied to this touching gift in the following letter:
Anna Pauker, Rumania,
Dear and universally loved comrade! I have received your gift—he friendly token of your love. A prisoner in your narrow cell, you worked knitting this scarf day after day, putting into it all your hopes, your love and your devotion. Dear Anna, your scarf is of the same red colour as our banner, as the blood shed by millions of people all over the world fighting for freedom, as the blood which drenches the villages of my wonderful country, as the blood which, with amazing self-sacrifice, our valiant men are shedding at the fronts and in the trenches, heroically laying the foundations of a free and happy Spain!
Comrade Anna Pauker, your name is well known to the Spanish women! The martyrdom to which a savage and reactionary class has condemned you—as it condemns all who like you fight for the cause of the people—has aroused a keen response in the hearts of the Spanish women. In the most out-of-the-way villages of our beautiful Spain, on the fences encircling the estates of the rich, on the walls of public buildings and humble dwellings there burned in flaming letters the slogan, “Save Anna Pauker!” It resounded like a fiery protest, it daily recalled the crime being committed against a revolutionary woman, and it bore witness to the close ties that hind the revolutionaries of all lands.
The revolutionary women of Spain have grown to know and love you. I often think of you. Comrade Anna Pauker, and each time I regard with love and respect your unforgettable picture published in the pages of our newspapers and journals, the picture of a woman whose spirit no persecution could break, who is courageously wait¬ing for the hour of her release in order to renew her revolutionary work.
Greetings to you, Anna Pauker! The revolutionary women of Spain greet you as a wonderful personification of the Rumanian woman. In the name of the revolutionary women of Spain I send you my greetings and the assurance of my heartfelt friendship.
Valencia, September 15, 1937, “Frente Rojo,” September 18, 1937
1. Ms. Pauker's first name is traditionally spelled "Ana," but is transliterated as "Anna" in the original text/translation of this article.