The Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact - ELTE BTK Történelem Szakos Portál

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public doubt the democratic idea of the Spanish Republican government: from May 2 till 7, 1937 riots broke out in Barcelona, the city that was furthest away from the front. The fighting took place between anarchists and communist controlled police forces after the police forces had tried to regain control over the telephone exchange, which was controlled by an anarchist council since the outbreak of revolution. The fights continued for several days until the leaders of the anarchist labour union CNT summoned their affiliates to lay down their weapons. After the so called „civil war within a civil war,” 25 communists blamed the ultra-leftist Partido Obrera de Unificaón Marxista (POUM), who had been fighting on the side of the anarchists. The POUM was considered to be Trotskyist because one of their leaders had met with Leon Trotsky in the 1920s. 26 The PCE justified persecution of the POUM leaders by accusing all alleged Trotskyists of being fascist spies. The statement of Leon Trotsky that he doubted whether the Spanish working class would be strong enough to win the war was interpreted by communists as a proof of Trotsky's support for Franco. 27 These events were internationally seen in the context of the Moscow trials against supporters of Trotsky and and it is assumed that the order to eliminate the leaders of the POUM was given by Moscow. 28 The May Events were thus interpreted as a proof of the danger of Soviet influence in Spain. Due to the unfair trials in Moscow and Barcelona, communist party members like Willi Münzenberg and independent leftists like Leopold Schwarzschild broke with communism and started to consider the Stalinist regime as totalitarian as the Nazi regime or Italian fascism. 29 For conservative and liberal observers, fascism now presented itself as the lesser evil because it preserved private property and commercial interests in Spain while both ideologies persecuted dissidents and denied freedom of speech in the same fashion. In the following 15 months, the European powers negotiated the withdrawal of foreign troops from Spain. The NIC had become more and more of a farce because it was obvious for all participants that Germany and Italy continued to supply arms and troops to the nationalist side. With the aid of the axis countries, Franco's troops had managed to conquer the whole northern part of Spain and reached the Mediterranean coast, splitting the Republican territory in two parts. Under these military circumstances in autumn of 1938, it was only a question of time until the Spanish Republic would be defeated. Only then did the German 25 SCHAUFF, Frank: Der verspielte Sieg. Sowjetunion, Kommunistische Internationale und Spanischer Bürgerkrieg 1936-1939. Campus, Frankfurt am Main, 2004. 40. 26 GRAHAM, Helen: The Spanish Republic at War 1936-1939. Cambidge University Press, Cambridge, 2002. 288. 27 ANONYMOUS: „Trotzki für Franco”, in: DVZ 2.10 (07.03.1937), 4. 28 KNETSCH, Gabriele: Der Bruderkampf der Linken. Die republikanische Parteipresse im Spanischen Bürgerkrieg. In: Tranvia 41 (1996), 18. 29 JASPER, Willi: Hotel Lutetia. Ein deutsches Exil in Paris. Hanser, Munich and Vienna, 1994. 110.; BACHMANN, Jörg J.: Zwischen Paris und Moskau. Deutsche bürgerliche Linksintellektuelle und die stalinistische Sowjetunion 1933-1939. Palatium, Mannheim, 1995. 34. 98
and Italian governments agree to the withdrawal of all international troops from Spanish soil: the Legion Condor and Italian Corpo Truppe Volontarie from the Nationalist side, and the International Brigades from the Republican side. This agreement was reached a few days after the the signing of the Munich Agreement on September 30, 1938 and left the Spanish Republicans under the impression that they were let down by the international community in the same way as Czechoslovakia. In a speech at the League of Nations the Spanish Republican foreign minister Julio Álvarez del Vayo tried one last time to appeal to the international community and remind them of the danger of expanding fascism, but the agreement in the NIC over Spain and the Munich Agreement made it obvious that the League of Nations had failed to preserve peace in Europe and was replaced by bi- and multi-lateral agreements among the different states. 30 After the latest rejection to help the Spanish Republic and the Munich Agreement, Spanish and international leftist commentators were only concerned with one question: which country will be the next to be swapped by the fascist aggression? Most commentators believed that France would be the next target, as a contemporary cartoon illustrates: it shows a German and an Italian soldier marching from the destroyed Spain over the Pyrenees to France following an air plane dropping bombs on the Eiffel Tower. 31 Also Poland and the Soviet Union were discussed as being the next potential targets, leaving Stalin discomforted and after the Munich Agreement without an ally to count on. 32 On April 1, 1939 General Franco officially declared the Spanish Civil War to be over and the Nationalists to be the winners. Shortly before that date, the Republican president Manuel Azaña had declared in a speech to the international public what were the reasons for the defeat of the Spanish Republic: the first and most important reason for the loss, according to Azaña, was the reaction of the British government in initiating a non-intervention policy that actually helped the Nationalists. The second reason was the conflict within the Republican zone between communists and independent leftist groups that weakened the defence. As a third factor, Azaña gave the military support of Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy to the National side. Franco's own military power and strategy was only ranked as forth and least decisive element in the defeat of the Spanish Republic. 33 Therefore, all three major reasons for the loss of the Spanish Republic can be seen in the international dimension of the war. Since scholars agree that the fear of communism was the main motivation behind the British policy towards the Spanish republic and the communists are blamed for the escalation of the May Events in Barcelona and consequent political witch-hunts, communists are connected to the two main reasons given for the loss of the 30 ANONYMOUS: „Von den spanischen Fronten”. In: DVZ 3.39 (25.09.1938), 6. 31 ANONYMOUS: „Der neue Marsch”. In: Neuer Vorwärts 246 (06.03.1938), B1. 32 MORADIELLOS, Enrique: El reñidero de Europa. Las dimensiones internacionales de la guerra civil española. Península, Barcelona, 2001. 258. 33 Ouoted from: COLLADO SEIDEL, Carlos: Der Spanische Bürgerkrieg, Geschichte eines europäischen Konflikts. Beck, München, 2006. 164. 99
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ISBN 978-963-284-164-9
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Unknown Clauses: The Background Dea
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CONTENTS Foreword (István MAJOROS,
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Foreword The world remembers in 200
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The Historical Judgement of the Mol
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went often on emotional instead of
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What is much more interesting is th
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such an international agreement as
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Text of the Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggress
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Done in duplicate, in the German an
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Lachaise, Bernard Historiography of
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Relations) are the focus of special
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Russian agreement (…) would allow
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Europe and on the French communists
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adopted a stance of denying the fac
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Ortolan, Guillaume The 70 th annive
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government (more than twenty) came,
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War. On the contrary, it shows that
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this anniversary and more widely of
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interesting: „Illusions. In summe
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Kretschmann, Vasco The ideological
Page 49 and 50: One of the most influential associa
Page 51 and 52: Germanness in the provinces of West
Page 53 and 54: Prętkiewicz, Przemysław The syste
Page 55 and 56: interwar period and the treaty was
Page 57 and 58: situation of rising danger accepted
Page 59 and 60: Manchukuo and broke relations with
Page 61: I would like to finish my article w
Page 64 and 65: party itself but for the whole Slov
Page 66 and 67: In summary, the group of the „Mod
Page 68 and 69: make proposals or suggestions. 6 In
Page 70 and 71: (Aland), Hanko and the islands of t
Page 72 and 73: have had a less serious effect on t
Page 74 and 75: not expect strong resistance and ho
Page 77 and 78: Winkler, Paul Adolf Eichmann’s Vi
Page 79 and 80: individual offenders, 10 who used h
Page 81 and 82: esearch. But how could the suppress
Page 83 and 84: expert of this matter 29 and had as
Page 85 and 86: Arendt on the contrary is in the op
Page 87 and 88: the „matter”, where there was a
Page 89 and 90: adoption of the model it became cle
Page 91 and 92: of Eichmann. For that Heydrich deli
Page 93: esistance […] but of logistics. N
Page 96 and 97: British government refused to give
Page 98 and 99: ole in the defence of Madrid in Nov
Page 102 and 103: Republicans. In the refugee camps i
Page 104 and 105: 102
Page 106 and 107: iron? Where can one find more nicke
Page 108 and 109: According to his diaries, the main
Page 110 and 111: announced: „We have no active all
Page 112 and 113: 110
Page 114 and 115: negative, an analysis of the disapp
Page 116 and 117: can let think of an imminent war po
Page 118 and 119: de la guerre [il] ne fait que l'agg
Page 120 and 121: Party), the enemy of the inside. Of
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Page 124 and 125: Before the Pact M. Coulondre, the F
Page 126 and 127: Lets us skip a few decades and list
Page 128 and 129: argain with. Hitler had an offer th
Page 130 and 131: secret protocol clarified that the
Page 132 and 133: to reach out for Russia through the
Page 134 and 135: of a war interesting rather on civi
Page 136 and 137: At the same moment, we can note an
Page 138 and 139: Faure 2 , remains hostile to war. I
Page 140 and 141: war can still be avoided in June 19
Page 142 and 143: acked by a „belligerent” coalit
Page 144 and 145: 142
Page 146 and 147: agreement” sound anachronistic. E
Page 148 and 149: 1939 between Germany and the Soviet
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Two ideas emerge from the press: on
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soviets didn’t have motive. Blum
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Moscow's line, with the national an
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154
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2.000 German speaking inhabitants).
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The Eastern Polish border was not r
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Army. The mayor of Lviv did not wan
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162
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Budapest, and for Warsaw. The two c
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could not destroy the Polish Air Fo
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independence, Romania was forced to
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importance for the events considere
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possible future opposition to the S
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ate of communists within the Jews o
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the initial positive feeling toward
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wanted to take revenge for the NKVD
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German Reactions A last point that
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The Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact - ELTE BTK Történelem Szakos Portál

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