Photo: Dolores Ibarruri – ( La Pasionaria )

16/11/1945  Congress of Women. Paris.

French Press.                AFP stamped original photograph .

Born in the province of Vizcaya, in the Basque country, Ibarruri earned her reputation as a fiery orator of the Communist Party before and during the Spanish Civil War with well known exhortations such as, “¡No pasaran!”, which became the Spanish Republican war cry and , “It is better to die on your feet than to live on your knees”.

As a deputy in the Communist Party she became a national figure before the outbreak of the Civil War. When the Facists got into power she fled to Russia.There she became Secretary General of the Spanish Communist party in exile till 1960.She returned to Spain in 1977 after Franco’s death and a month after the Party was legalised and was duly elected her seat in parliament.

Elected President of the Congress of Women this photo shows her giving the opening speech at which there were 850 delegates from 32 countries representing over a 100,000,000 Women.