The Republicans

• Supported and encouraged by Dolores Ibàrruri (a.k.a La Pasionaria) : “Resist, resist ! To your last gasp, to your last drop of blood, resist ! Fight with any weapon, pour boiling water on the traitors, gouge out their eyes with kitchen knives, resist ! It is better to die on your feet than live on your knees.”

• Madrid turned into a “fortress”, the madrillenos united to fight fascism (Franco). 17 November: 2,000 missiles falling on the city centre every hour

• Madrid remained the focus of battle for 4 next months, but the nationalists were too powerful, the madrillenos failed at defending themselves.

ARTPablo Picasso’s “Guernica” was commissioned by the Spanish Republican government in response to the bombing of Guernica (in the Basque country), at the behest of the Nationalists. The painting symbolises chaos, death and the terrible tragedies occurring as the Italian fascists and German Nazis attacked. Like Dali, Picasso was against war, but he was a strong supporter of the republic.“The dream and Lie of Franco” (1937): etchings + prose to raise funds for the Spanish Republican government.

Guernica: 1000 deaths, 900 wounded-> Experiment: tested explosives and bombs

Literature“Homage to Catalonia”

“At this stage we are not fighting for the dictatorship of the proletariat, we are fighting for parliamentary democracy. Whoever tries to turn the civil war into a social revolution is playing into the hands of the Fascists and is in effect, if not in intention, a traitor.”

• Orwell, political journalist, writes an account of his personal experience during the Spanish civil war, published 1938.

• He left Spain a “convinced democratic Socialist”

• Joined the International Brigades to fight closer to Madrid, where he was wounded by a sniper. The POUM (Partido Obrero de Unificación Marxista) were accused of being ‘objectively’ fascist: political deterioration: Orwell had to flee back to England with his wife in 1938.

The Nationalists

• Also called “insurgents”, “rebels”, “fascists”…• According to Payne: “More than 1,000 were killed, the

majority revolutionaries, and there were atrocities on both sides. The revolutionaries shot nearly 100 people in cold blood, most of them policemen and priests, and an almost equal number of rebels–possibly even more--were executed out of hand by the troops that suppressed the revolt”

• Wanted to confront anti-clericalism and defend the Church• Feared national fragmentation and communism • Massacred 20,000 republicans in the first weeks of the civil

war

ArtSalvador Dali’s painting “Premonition of civil war” illustrates the Spanish state in civil war: the hand is symbolic of the Spanish government grasping upward toward itself, holding itself down: conflict within its own system.(Dali = supporter of General Franco but utterly against war, uses this distorted painting to show his animosity.)

Involvement of Europe• Authors, such as Orwell, Hemingway and Laurie Lee

joined the Republican International Brigades, to help the Spanish republicans

• Intellectuals from every country joined the fight. Anti-Nazi German veterans, escapees from concentration camps, Russian communists, Italian anti-fascists, etc

• Germans and Italians supported and helped Franco conquer the Spanish territory

• Fascism and the Nazi movement influenced Franco’s views and encouraged him

Support for nationalists

• Irish, Portuguese (weapons), Romanians... • Non-intervention committee: gathering of

representatives of many different countries. Agreement not to intervene in the Spanish conflict: signed a declaration to isolate the war

• Germany and Italy responded rapidly to Franco’s appeal for assistance; on the 18th of November, they recognised the Franco regime

Germany• Franco asked Hitler for his help: • Ordered three major military operations• Authorized Operation Feuerzauber ("Fire Magic") July 1936.• Mobilized 85 Germans on the SS Usaramo ship to work on the

planes, and transferred German troops stationed in Morocco to Spain.

• Sent tanks, a flak, and some radio equipment.• October: estimated 600–800 German soldiers in Spain.• Nov. 1936 -Condor Legion: Hitler sent an additional 3,500 troops

into combat + 92 planes, kept in Spain until May 1939. • 19,000 Germans fought in Spain. In total Nazi Germany provided

Nationalists with 600 planes, 200 tanks, and 1,000 artillery pieces.

Italy• Franco also request Fascist Italy’s help: encouraged by Hitler’s

cooperation, Benito Mussolini joined the war.• Mussolini sent more ground troops than Hitler (75,000 men

fighting for the nationalists). He supplied fewer materials though.

• -September 1936, Mussolini only supplied 68 aircraft and several hundred small arms.

• Royal Italian Navy played a major role in the Mediterranean blockade and ultimately Italy supplied machine guns, artillery, aircraft, etc.

• In total, Italy provided Nationalists with 660 planes, 150 tanks and 1,000 artillery pieces.

Support for Republicans• Many non-Spanish people joined the International Brigades. They

believed the Republicans were fighting for a good cause: against fascism/ dictatorship.

• Approximately 30,000 foreign nationals from 53 nations fought in the brigades. Most of them were communists or trade unionists: almost all individual volunteers.

• Likely more than 1,000 volunteers came from each of France, Italy, Germany, Poland, USSR, USA, UK, Belgium, Czechoslovakia, Ireland, Yugoslavia, Hungary and Canada..

• The American troops fought in units such as the Abraham Lincoln Brigade and Canadians in the Mackenzie-Papineau Battalion.

• Over five hundred Romanians fought on the Republican side (including members of the Romanian Communist Party)

• Few Chinese joined the International Brigades. Though those who did either returned to China at/before the end of the war, or went to prison, others went to refugee camps in southern France, and several remained in Spain.

The Soviet Union• The USSR provided Spain with 806 planes, 362 tanks, and 1,555 artillery pieces. S.U

ignored the League of Nations embargo and sold arms to the Republic when few other nations would do so Republic's only important source of major weapons.

• Stalin signed the Non-Intervention Agreement but broke the pact. Unlike Hitler & Mussolini who openly violated the pact, Stalin tried to do so secretly.

• Stalin did not want the arms to be traceable to the S.U: most were taken from museums from around the country. However, very modern weapons were also supplied to Spain.

• Stalin gave short notice for the deliveries: many weapons were lost in the process. + ships were sent, but the journey was extremely long + slow. However in 1938, Stalin withdrew his troops and tanks as government ranks struggled.

• The Republic paid for Soviet arms with the official gold reserves of the Bank of Spain (later: Franco propaganda) The cost was more than US $500 million, 2/3 of the gold reserves that Spain had at the beginning of the war.

• The S.U also sent a number of military advisers to Spain (2,000-3,000). While Soviet troops amounted to no more than 700 men, Soviet "volunteers" often operated Soviet-made Republican tanks and aircraft.

• S.U directed Communist parties around the world to organise and recruit the International Brigades.