Comintern Army: The International Brigades and the Spanish Civil War

by R. Dan Richardson

When Spain exploded into civil war in July 1936, a conflict whose roots were deep in the Spanish past became the arena for the violent political passions that divided Europe north of the Pyrenees. Germany, Italy, and the Soviet Union intervened actively in the war, using Spain as a testing ground for their military equipment and techniques and their political ideologies. In this first in-depth study of the politics of the International Brigades in the Spanish Civil War, R. Dan Richardson views the Brigades in the wider context of both the complex political-military alignments of Loyalist Spain and the broader Soviet-Comintern strategy during the Popular Front era. While not denying the generous impulse that led many young men the world over to enlist in the cause of the Spanish Republic, he sees the Brigades primarily as instruments of communist policy. He argues that the directing force behind the enlistment, training, and deployment of the Brigades was the international communist organization—a compelling example of how the ends of propaganda and politics took precedence over military objectives. Using a wide array of sources in English, Spanish, French, Italian, and German, and a thorough analysis of the Brigades' own voluminous literary output, Richardson clearly shows that the Brigades were a significant political, ideological, and propaganda instrument, which was used effectively by the Comintern for its own purposes, not only in Spain but on the larger world stage.

232 pages, Hardcover

First published August 1, 1982

Reviews

[Cristina]

The Spanish Civil war is of special in interest to me, as family members fought on the National side, and others, civilians, were murdered by the Reds in the vanguard.
https://6millionfairytale.wordpress.c...

[Linda · Rating 3 out of 5]

Just when you think you're finally getting a hold on things......

I'm fascinated by the Spanish Civil War because, ever since I heard about it, I've been aware of its complications. It was never a war about democracy versus fascism although that was part of it. Only the fascist side was "simple." The other side was so messy it's almost exciting. And exasperating.

I've covered the Anarchist side, the Communist side, the Socialist side, the Popular Front side, but I hadn't done anything with the International Brigades. I knew about the Abraham Lincoln division and the Garibaldi one, but I didn't have any information on what they really were.

Boy were my eyes opened by this book. Richardson has done his homework and writes it up nicely. Although the book looks "scholarly," it's not really. It's easy to read although it does require some concentration and it does some repetition, but the repetition helps keep track of things.

The International Brigades were NOT, as has been widely believed, groups of foreigners fighting for democracy for Spain. In fact, they were tightly organized Communist groups set up by the Comintern. Trusted and experienced members from other nations were asked to come in to lead bridgades which then tried to attract lesser members for indoctrination. A few non-Communists were solicited to make the brigades seem to be fighting strictly for freedom. They were mostly designed to indoctrinate new Communists. They never reported to or were controlled by the actual Spanish government (if you can call it that) although the pretense put out by them was that they were. The Soviet Union was very careful to keep its hands out of the obvious running of the groups, but it did supply many of them with arms (which is where we get the idea that the Soviet Union was supplying the Loyalist side with arms).

The brigades were divided along national lines - Italians, Germans, Bulgarians, Czechs, etc. but some had to be combined because of the small number of fighters from a particular country. The Garibaldi division was the only one that was not mainly Communist and was there to actually fight for freedom. Therefore, it got in constant clashes with the political officers of its brigade and eventually began to be absorbed as its nonCommunist leadership was killed and replaced.

The celebrated Abraham Lincoln division was somewhat a farce. Since the United States was new to Communism, it did not have the seasoned members or fighters that could be found in Europe. Therefore, the Lincolns were primarily young and inexperienced, both in combat and Communism. Their record was not good.

Polical officers took precedence over military officers although the opposite was touted by the leadership. Soldiers were more often punished (often by death) for being "Trotskyites" or for not submitting to their political leaders orders than for military offenses. By the end of 1937, the bridages were killing more of their own men than the fascists were.

I had not realized how political the brigades were. They were really established to bring more members into the Communist Party without that appearance. Not that they didn't do a lot of good, especially in the beginning of the war since they were seasoned fighters while the Popular Front "army" was not. (Remember that the military was under the command of Franco and so the vast majority of regular soldiers were fighting for the fascists.)

But the recruiters, while knowing this, did their best to make sure that internationally the brigades were seen as freedom fighters. Mail to friends and relatives from the fighters was tightly censured, people who complained about being lied to were imprisoned and those who complained that they were told that they were there to serve a limited amount of time were reassigned (and escorted) straight to the front lines.

The Loyalist side just got even more tangled. With all the infighting, it's amazing that it took so long for Franco to win.