NEGRN, JUAN

born Feb. 3, 1894, Las Palmas, Canary Islands, Spain died Nov. 14, 1956, Paris Republican prime minister of Spain who held office during the last two years of the Spanish Civil War (193639). He was a determined wartime leader but was forced to rely heavily on Communist support during his time in power. Negrn, of a prosperous merchant family, became a physiologist of repute and held a chair at Madrid University (192331). In 1929 he turned to politics and as a democratic Socialist was elected to the Cortes in 1931, 1933, and 1936. As wartime minister of finance (September 1936May 1937) he played an important role in shipping much of Spain's gold reserves to the Soviet Union. In May 1937 Negrn succeeded Largo Caballero as prime minister and from the outset committed himself to a policy of resolute resistance to the Nationalists. This stance led him to substantial reliance on the Soviet Union, the Republic's only source of arms. Negrn's Communist dependence contributed to the alienation of the non-Communist left and aroused suspicion among Western nations. Negrn urged resistance even after the collapse of Catalonia (February 1939), but an anti-Communist military rising in Madrid favouring a negotiated peace forced his resignation in March. He was in exile in Paris until the German occupation, when he fled to Great Britain and then to the United States. He was prime minister of the Republican government in exile but resigned in 1945.