Comrades and Commissars: The Lincoln Battalion in the Spanish Civil War

by Cecil D. Eby

In the summer of 1936, Generalissimo Francisco Franco led a group of right-wing nationalists in a military attack on the Republican government of Spain―the start of what would become the Spanish Civil War. Despite U.S. laws banning participation in foreign conflicts, American volunteers began pouring into Barcelona in January 1937. The most famous of these anti-Franco groups was the band of 2,800 American fighters who called themselves the Abraham Lincoln Battalion. In Comrades and Commissars , Cecil D. Eby pushes beyond the bias that has dominated study of the Lincoln Battalion and gets to the very heart of the American experience in Spain. Controversy has plagued the Lincoln Battalion from the very start. Were these men selfless defenders of liberty or un-American Communists? Eby has long been regarded as one of the few balanced interpreters of their history. His 1969 book, Between the Bullet and the Lie , won accolades for its rigorous and fair treatment of the Battalion. Comrades and Commissars builds upon that earlier study, incorporating a wealth of information collected over intervening decades. New oral histories, previously untranslated memoirs, and newly declassified official documents all lend even greater authority and perspective to Eby’s account. Most significant is Eby’s use of Lincoln Battalion archives sequestered in a Moscow storeroom for sixty years. These papers draw renewed focus on some of the most provocative questions surrounding the Battalion, including the extent to which Americans were persecuted―and even executed―by the brigade commissariat. The Americans who served in the Lincoln Battalion were neither mythic figures nor political abstractions. Poorly trained and equipped, they committed themselves to back-to-the-wall defense of the doomed Spanish Republic. In Comrades and Commissars , we at last have the authoritative account of their experiences.

Genres: History, Spanish Civil War, Spain

544 pages, Hardcover

First published January 30, 2007

About the author

See also Cecil D. Eby Jr.

Reviews

[Shrike58 · Rating 4 out of 5]

While I'm not familiar with Eby's earlier book on Americans in the International Brigades I'll admit that I came away very impressed with this study, as the author tries to reconstruct the experiences of these men by cutting through Party propaganda obscuring the personal side of that history. Perhaps the single biggest liability facing the soldiers in the Abraham Lincoln Battalion was the lack of leaders with serious military experience and who might have been able to transcend the chasm between the real working men on one hand, and the intellectuals driven by a will to power on the other. Never mind the ramifications of the military dilettantism and ideological sectarianism of the hierarchy of the Comintern high command. As for what the Americans were really fighting for, it's hard to avoid the sense that they were mostly fighting for their own self-respect, and that Spain was merely the arena where this drama of personal dignity was being played out. Certainly there didn't seem to be a lot of interest in the Spanish for their own sake; not unlike most American wars of the last century or so.

Originally written: November 19, 2014.

[Jonathan Gaspard · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a heavy read but entirely worth it if not for anything else but to see the similarities between the communist and the modern day Leftist of today. The means are the same, the dogmas are the same and the outcomes will also be the same.
From justifying shooting volunteers because they stray from the script of “pure” communism to the overt revisionism of even current events to fit whatever narrative they wish.

They complete insanity of the machine and it’s victims have not changed in 80 years.

[Ben Hammerslag · Rating 4 out of 5]

The information is good, though narrative threads are a little weak (which is fine!). Book could have used a stronger editing pass.

[Lamoreaux · Rating 5 out of 5]

A good antidote for any inclination to romanticize this godawful mess.