Amputar, segar, limpar e purificar: A depuración do maxisterio durante o franquismo

Abstract

In its effort to discredit the education policy established under the Republic, the Franco regime focussed on the primary teaching profession as the main target of its repressive actions. The regime designed a complex network of mechanisms to carry out the purge and demand accountability. The purge, whose purpose was twofold –punitive and preventive- began immediately after the military coup and lasted until the end of the dictatorship. The first part of the article offers a broad outline of the ideological principles and legal basis of the purge and describes the different stages and the mechanisms used. In the second part, after a review of the recent publications, the article takes stock of the issue, specifying the percentage of people who were sanctioned in the provinces under study as well as the effect of variables related to territory, gender, and pedagogical renewal. Data are also provided on the scope of the physical repression of schoolteachers. The conclusion confirms the political nature of the purge, which was carried out arbitrarily and indiscriminately.