Julio Just was born in Alboraya on 5 March 1894. His father was a friend of Vicente Blasco Ibáñez and moved in Republican circles. Julio Just began his education in Valencia, studied engineering in Madrid, then won a scholarship to continue his studied in Paris. There he came in contact with leading French intellectuals and politicians. He completed his engineering studies successfully, but did not take up his profession. Instead he became a journalist and a translator.
Republican activist
In 1915 Just joined the Juventud Nacionalista Republicana. He contributed to the newspaper El Pueblo, the organ of the Partido Unión Republicana Autonomista. He was a founder, editor or contributor to various Republican newspapers and magazines including Alma Joven, Renovación, Línea, València Nova, La Voz Valenciana and Tauia de Lletres Valencianes. During the dictatorship of Miguel Primo de Rivera he helped disseminate illegal literature promoting the ideas of Blasco Ibáñez. In 1924 he was named chairman of the Casa de la Democracia, the Republican headquarters in Valencia. He was arrested several times for his opposition to the regime. In 1929 he published his first book, Blasco Ibáñez i València. This was followed by other books on political themes.
On 14 April 1931 Just proclaimed the Republic from the balcony of the Valencia city hall. He was elected deputy for Valencia in the national elections of 1931, 1933 and 1936. In the first two he ran on the radical blasquismo platform. He left this movement with Vicent Marco Miranda, Faustino Valentín Torrejón and Héctor Altabás Alio in 1934 after a split over support of a Valencian state within a federal Spain, and became an activist for the new Valencian nationalist party Esquerra Valenciana. He was a Freemason as well as a radical. In 1934 he joined the Republican Union led by Diego Martínez Barrio, and then the Republican Left led by Manuel Azaña. In 1936 Just was appointed head of Water Works and Ports. He developed a major irrigation scheme to contribute to the agrarian reform. During the Spanish Civil War Just was appointed Minister of Public Works in the government of Francisco Largo Caballero on 15 September 1936. He succeeded Vicente Uribe Galdeano, who had been appointed interim minister on 4 September 1936. He began construction of the fortifications of Madrid and of shelters in Madrid and Valencia. Due to disagreements with the socialist Juan Negrín he left office when Negrín formed his government. He remained in Valencia until the end of the civil war when he escaped on a British ship on 27 March 1939, and reached France the next month.
