Hans Posted January 1, 2003 Share Posted January 1, 2003 What name did the Soviets give to the Spanish civil war? Also how did they refer to their part in it, ie "intervention", "Internationalist duty", "assistance" etc Thanks in advance Hans 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ichadwick Posted January 1, 2003 Share Posted January 1, 2003 Not sure the name or if they had a specific name for it, but the Soviets did not directly intervene in the Spanish Civil War. It was really left as a function of the Communist International (Cominterm) arm of the party. While the Italians sent a large contingent of soldiers to help Franco, and the Germans soon followed, Stalin only helped through party extensions. He formally recognized the republican government only after Franco's bid to capture Madrid failed. He sent a large mission of "advisors" to Madrid in 36, however his main goal was to repress the strongly Trotskyist factions that had developed in Spain. A lot of those "advisors" were NKVD. Stalin let the French Communists do most of the organizing of troops - the International Brigades - many under "General" Kleber, who assumed the title but was really an intelligence agent. Stalin did send some bomber pilots and tank crew, but he only sold them weapons, didn't provide for free. Ian 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Firefly Posted January 1, 2003 Share Posted January 1, 2003 Originally posted by ichadwick: While the Italians sent a large contingent of soldiers to help Franco, and the Germans soon followed, Interestingly enough, the largest contingents of the International Brigades were also German and Italian. At one point the Italian 'brigade' fought a battle against Italian blackshirts. Huw Thomas in The Spanish Civil War remarked that the Spanish Civil War briefly became the Italian Civil War. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ichadwick Posted January 1, 2003 Share Posted January 1, 2003 Interestingly enough, the largest contingents of the International Brigades were also German and Italian.According to Alan Bullock in Hitler and Stalin: Parallel Lives (and taken from Appendix Three of Hugh Thomas' The Spanish Civil War) the International Brigades numbered about 40,000 total, but no more than 18,000 at any one time. The largest contingent, he says, was French (10,000) followed by German and Austrian (5,000). There were only 557 Soviet volunteers. Ian 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Firefly Posted January 1, 2003 Share Posted January 1, 2003 Thanks Ian, it's some time since I read Thomas, i obviously mis-remembered the totals. I suppose thinking about the travelling distances the fact that the French were the most numerous is not surprising. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quinxi Posted January 1, 2003 Share Posted January 1, 2003 Tough question! 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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