 Estimation is difficult and controversial, but the total number of people who were killed during this period probably lies somewhere between 15,000 and 50,000.By the start of the 1950s Franco's state had become less violent, but during his entire rule, non-government trade unions and all political opponents across the political spectrum, from communist and anarchist organisations to liberal democrats and Catalan or Basque separatists, were either suppressed or tightly controlled with all means, up to and including violent police repression.The "Confederación Nacional del Trabajo" (CNT) and the "Unión General de Trabajadores" (UGT) trade unions were outlawed, and replaced in 1940 by the corporatist "Sindicato Vertical".