Editing Spanish Revolution of 1936 (section)

=== Related subsequent events ===
On 25 May 1937, the [[Iberian Anarchist Federation|FAI]] was excluded from the People's Courts. On 8 June, the government issued a decree by which it temporarily outlawed rural communes that had not yet been dissolved. On 14 June, a new government of the Generalitat was formed, also without the anarchists and revolutionaries. On 15 June, the [[POUM]] was outlawed and its executive committee was arrested. On the 16 June the [[29th Division (Spain)|29th Division]] (formerly the POUM's [[Lenin Division]]) was dissolved.

In August 1937, criticism of the [[USSR]] was prohibited by means of a government circular. In this month, the central government also ordered the dissolution of the Aragón Defense Council, practically the last remaining body of revolutionary power, which was militarily occupied by republican army troops on 10 August. [[Joaquín Ascaso]], its president, was arrested. Likewise, the eleventh communist division attacked various committees of the Aragonese people and dissolved collective agricultural production, which soon after was reorganized. On 7 September, the government reauthorized religious worship in private, one of its many measures to reestablish the power of the government in the republican zone, while in Barcelona there were demonstrations against the dissolution of the anarcho-syndicalist publication {{lang|es|Solidaridad Obrera}}. On 16 September, political rallies were prohibited in Barcelona. On 26 September, the Asturian Council proclaimed itself the [[Sovereign Council of Asturias and León]], independent from the [[Second Spanish Republic]].

On 21 October, a demonstration by anarchist and socialist militants took place in front of the San Miguel de los Reyes prison in Valencia, threatening to break down the doors if the prisoners were not freed. On 12 November, the CNT withdrew from the FPA committees.

On 6 January 1938, the government published a decree prohibiting all new issuances of banknotes and coins by committees, municipalities, corporations, etc.; and a period of one month was given for them to be withdrawn from circulation, in an attempt to end the last remnants of the revolution.

During that year many of the large landowners returned and demanded the return of their property. Collectivization was progressively annulled despite its popular support.{{Citation needed|date=January 2025}}

[[Sam Dolgoff]] estimated that about eight million people participated directly or at least indirectly in the Spanish revolution, which he claimed "came closer to realizing the ideal of the free stateless society on a vast scale than any other revolution in history".{{sfn|Dolgoff|1974|p=5}}

{{blockquote|In Spain during almost three years, despite a civil war that took a million lives, despite the opposition of the political parties (republicans, left and right Catalan separatists, socialists, Communists, Basque and Valencian regionalists, petty bourgeoisie, etc.), this idea of libertarian communism was put into effect. Very quickly more than 60% of the land was collectively cultivated by the peasants themselves, without landlords, without bosses, and without instituting capitalist competition to spur production. In almost all the industries, factories, mills, workshops, transportation services, public services, and utilities, the rank and file workers, their revolutionary committees, and their syndicates reorganized and administered production, distribution, and public services without capitalists, high salaried managers, or the authority of the state.

The various agrarian and industrial collectives immediately instituted economic equality in accordance with the essential principle of communism, 'From each according to his ability and to each according to his needs.' They coordinated their efforts through free association in whole regions, created new wealth, increased production (especially in agriculture), built more schools, and bettered public services. They instituted not bourgeois formal democracy but genuine grass roots functional libertarian democracy, where each individual participated directly in the revolutionary reorganization of social life. They replaced the war between men, 'survival of the fittest,' by the universal practice of mutual aid, and replaced rivalry by the principle of solidarity....

This experience, in which about eight million people directly or indirectly participated, opened a new way of life to those who sought an alternative to anti-social capitalism on the one hand, and totalitarian state bogus socialism on the other.|[[Gaston Leval]]{{sfn|Dolgoff|1974|p=6}}}}