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Dolores Ibárruri, Pasionaria (1895–1989): Communist Woman of Steel, Global Icon

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Abstract

The importance of the Spanish Communist leader Dolores Ibárruri, known as Pasionaria, goes far beyond the Spanish national framework. A woman of the popular strata, a fervent Catholic in her youth, she was for years the only woman in a leadership position in the Communist Party of Spain (PCE). She became a worldwide female communist icon in the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939), where she embodied the resistance of the Spanish people against fascism. Exiled to the Soviet Union during the years of the Cold War, she remained close to Soviet power and represented its most orthodox tendencies, especially during the Stalin years. She had also a central role in the organization of anti-fascist women at a global level. The many personal dramas she experienced made her in the popular imagination an almost mystical figure. This chapter shows the ways Dolores Ibárruri worked throughout her life for the development of a women’s movement within the Party, first, and the anti-fascist movement thereafter.

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  1. Université Paris 8, Paris, France

    Mercedes Yusta Rodrigo

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  1. Mercedes Yusta Rodrigo
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Correspondence to Mercedes Yusta Rodrigo .

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  1. Department of Gender Studies, Central European University, Vienna, Austria

    Francisca de Haan

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Yusta Rodrigo, M. (2023). Dolores Ibárruri, Pasionaria (1895–1989): Communist Woman of Steel, Global Icon. In: de Haan, F. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Communist Women Activists around the World. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-13127-1_7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-13127-1_7

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  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

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  • Online ISBN: 978-3-031-13127-1

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