page_title: Fernando de los Ríos
section_title: Dictatorship (1923–31)
hierarchical_section_title: Fernando de los Ríos / Dictatorship (1923–31)
caption_attribution_description: English: Spanish Politician Indalecio Prieto
context_page_description: Fernando de los Ríos Urruti was a Spanish professor of Political Law and Socialist politician who was in turn Minister of Justice, Minister of Education and Foreign Minister between 1931 and 1933 in the early years of the Second Spanish Republic. During the Spanish Civil War he was Spanish Ambassador to France and then to the United States.
context_section_description: De los Ríos resigned from his university chair after the military coup of Miguel Primo de Rivera in September 1923.
  He could not accept socialism outside of democracy, so opposed any collaboration between the PSOE and the regime.
  However, the majority of the party led by Besteiro agreed to take advantage of the possibilities offered by the dictatorship, leaving de los Ríos and Indalecio Prieto in a minority.
  Prieto left the executive but de los Ríos remained, despite protests.
  In 1925 de los Ríos joined the Freemasons with the symbolic name of "Jugan".
  He was a member of the "Alhambra nº 34" Freemasons lodge in Granada where he reached grade 33.
  In 1926 he published El sentido humanista del socialismo (The Humanist Sense of Socialism) in which he argued that moral redemption of the workers must precede economic redemption, and a long period of education was needed before the workers could achieve power.
  He described socialism as a way to "refresh and spiritualize souls ... to open wide the floodgates of the sentiment, buried these days, of the religiosity of life.
  On 12 September 1927 de los Ríos was appointed to the National Assembly as a "Representative of Activities of National Life".
  The government appointed six socialists to the Assembly: Largo Caballero, Lucio Martínez, Santiago Pérez, Francisco Núñez Tomás, Fernando de los Ríos and Manuel Llaneza.
  The PSOE and the UGT convened extraordinary sessions to consider the problems associated with the National Assembly.
  A resolution by the PSOE National Committee was approved on 8 October that said, 
  The PSOE protests with all its energy and without the slightest reservation against the dictatorial regime that has prevailed for four years. It also protests against the creation of the A.N. [National Assembly], in which no militant in our ranks will be able to take part, congratulating itself in thus agreeing with the resolution adopted yesterday in the same sense by the Unión General de Trabajadores. And it declares the imperative need for the country to be governed by sincere and comprehensive standards of freedom that allow development of our ideals, and agrees that in the governance of Spain the national will should be faithfully reflected, which is often invoked but is not consulted by democratic procedures that make known the people's true designs and oblige the government to respect them. 
  De los Ríos and four regional delegates formed a minority in the PSOE that voted against having a Socialist accept the position of Councilor of State, but on 25 October Largo Caballero accepted this post.
  De los Ríos announced his resignation from the National Assembly in the plenary session of 29 October 1927, and this was confirmed by royal order of 6 November 1927.
  De los Ríos, Teodomiro Menéndez, Indalecio Prieto, Gabriel Morón, Miguel Mora Requejo and others took the position that the PSOE should work with other republicans in taking action against the dictatorship, although the majority in the party was opposed to such an alliance.
  In 1928 Fernando de los Ríos joined the student strike caused by recognition of degrees issued by private schools sanctioned by the government, which were mainly run by the Catholic Church.
  In 1929 he accompanied Federico García Lorca in his trip to the United States.
  After the fall of Primo de Rivera in March 1930 he was reinstated in his chair in the University of Granada.
  He moved to Madrid in 1930 and was chosen as Professor of Political Law at the Central University of Madrid.
  In August 1930 he and Prieto signed the Pact of San Sebastián.
  He, Prieto and Francisco Largo Caballero were members of the Revolutionary Committee of December 1930.
  When the Republican uprising of 12–13 December 1930 failed he was imprisoned, as were other leaders of the movement.
caption: Indalecio Prieto, an ally of de los Ríos in opposing the dictatorship
exif: {"Image Artist": "C\u00e9sar", "Image ExifOffset": "2130", "Image XPAuthor": "C\u00e9sar", "Image Padding": "[]", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2011:04:07 06:48:19", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2011:04:07 06:48:19", "EXIF SubSecTimeOriginal": "45", "EXIF SubSecTimeDigitized": "45", "EXIF Padding": "[]"}