Red Terror (Spain) on 25 July, feast day of St James, patron saint of Spain. August saw a further 2,077 clerical victims. After just two months of civil war, 3400 priests, monks and nuns had been murdered. According to recent research, some of the Republican death squads were heavily staffed by members of the Soviet Union's secret police, the NKVD. According to author Donald Rayfield, "Stalin, Yezhov, and Beria distrusted Soviet participants in the Spanish war. Military advisors like Vladimir Antonov-Ovseenko, journalists like Koltsov were open to infection by the heresies, especially Trotsky's, prevalent among the Republic's supporters. NKVD agents sent to Spain
Patron Saint (horse) 1930 and won the Plodders Chase at Nottingham Racecourse, but had no further success. In their book, "A Century of Champions", based on the Timeform rating system, John Randall and Tony Morris rated Patron Saint a "poor" Gold Cup winner. Patron Saint (horse) Patron Saint (foaled 1923) was a British racehorse who won the 1928 Cheltenham Gold Cup. Patron Saint was a bay gelding bred in the United Kingdom. He was sired by St Girons (a son of St Simon) who also sired the Grand Sefton Steeplechase winner Inversible. Patron Saint's dam VCB was a distant descendant of Canezou, who