ABSTRACT
It is possible that the departure from these governmental bodies in fact accelerated the process of bureaucratisation in the libertarian movement, as most former Ministers and Councillors were subsequently ushered into existing or newly established comites superiors. The post-May repression had led to a particularly precarious situation for foreign revolutionaries. The initial reactions of several radical anarchists to the defeat of May were marked by continued faith in the fighting capacity of the revolutionaries and a voluntarist approach to the task of changing the course of the libertarian organisations. Because 1939 represented a defeat for both Spanish anarchism as a whole and the anti-fascist forces more generally, its experience was of a different scale to that suffered by radical anarchists after May 1937. Although they lacked credibility, there was little that purists could do beyond pointing out the absurdity of the newly rediscovered orthodoxy of Montseny, Herrera, Xena and others.
