Enrique Líster

Enrique Líster (1907, Ameneiro (A Coruña) - 1994, Madrid) was a Spanish communist politician and army official. In 1925 he joined the Communist Party of Spain (PCE). His involvement with the revolutionary movement forced his exile until 1931, when the Second Spanish Republic began. Between 1932 and 1935 Líster received training in the Frunze Military Academy, one of the most respected in the former USSR, and as the Spanish Civil War started, he joined the Republican Army. As a high-rank Republican Army official, Líster was instrumental in the defense of Madrid and other important military actions, and he is widely regarded as a war hero for the Republican cause. After the end of the Civil War, Líster took refuge in Moscow, later fighting in the World War II as a Soviet Army general. In 1973 he split from the PCE and founded the Spanish Communist Workers' Party (PCOE). A catalyst for the split was the condemnation by the PCE of the Soviet intervention in Czechoslovakia in 1968. Líster returned to Spain in 1977, after General Franco's death, and rejoined the PCE during the Spanish transition to democracy. He died in 1994. Líster wrote to books about his personal experiences in the Spanish Civil War, Nuestra guerra (1966) and Memorias de un luchador (1977).