fifth column

1. (originally) a group of Falangist sympathizers in Madrid during the Spanish Civil War who were prepared to join the four columns of insurgents marching on the city

2. any group of hostile or subversive infiltrators

Collins Discovery Encyclopedia, 1st edition © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.

Fifth Column

a term used to designate a group of General Franco’s agents who operated in the Spanish Republic during the National Revolutionary War of 1936–39.

The term “fifth column” originated in early October 1936, when the Francoist general E. Mola declared on the radio that the rebels were conducting an offensive on Madrid using four columns, while the fifth would strike from the rear at the decisive moment. The fifth column spread panic and engaged in sabotage, espionage, and diversionary activity. During World War II the term was used to designate groups of Nazi agents in various countries who aided the fascist troops in the capture of these countries.

Mentioned in

References in periodicals archive

Hemingway wrote The Fifth Column in 1937 during his second visit to Spain while serving as a war correspondent during the Spanish Civil War.

The Space Between the Doors: Breaking through the Boundaries of War and Gender Binaries in Hemingway's The Fifth Column

He also referred to Britain as a US fifth column. "Could it be that the UK's exit from the EU means something bad is being prepared in Europe?," he asked rhetorically, in an apparent reference to NATO's decision to bolster its eastern flank in view of potential aggression coming from Russia.

Bulgaria Nationalist Leader Calls for EU In/Out Referendum after Brexit

The Fifth Column Capital, LLC strategy has been two years in the making and if initial results are as positive as anticipated, additional rounds of funding will follow.

Fifth Column Capital, LLC Partners with GetClams.com Crytocurrency Project - Invests $23M

"Camp R" held an unlikely assortment of German prisoners: Nazis, anti-Nazis, Jews, soldiers, merchant seamen, and refugees whom Britain feared might comprise Hitler's rumored "fifth column" of alien enemies residing within the Commonwealth.

The Little Third Reich on Lake Superior

They always were Capitalism's fifth column in Labour's ranks.

Blair's influence was like a virus for UK; LETTERS

If it tells them that terrorists from the Islamic State group came to Russia in order to blow up the fifth column, they'll believe it.''

Marchers mourn death of Putin foe

Fourth, the agreement creates a powerful fifth column inside Ukraine as the Donbass will have the right to be represented in Ukraine's legislature.

Making The Most Of Minsk

Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman on Wednesday denounced as a "fifth column" thousands of Arab Israelis who joined a demonstration calling for the right of return for Palestinian refugees.

Israeli FM Lieberman slams Arab Israelis over Nakba protest

they are coming after us." Christian Estrosi, the far-Right mayor of Nice, said that the event in Lyon "once again reminds us of a 'fifth column,' in France." (Ironically, the original fifth column was during the Spanish Civil War, when Franco sympathisers were waiting to join with the four columns of fascists, marching on Madrid--and to victory, in 1939.)

Editorial