The Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact - ELTE BTK Történelem Szakos Portál

Republicans. In the refugee camps in Southern France, where Spanish Republicans
and German Interbrigadistas were placed in the spring of 1939, attempts to reunite
the leftist forces against fascism failed because socialists, as well as ultra-leftist and
liberals blamed the communists at least partially for the defeat of the Spanish
Republic. 34 Therefore, the communists were isolated in the leftist sphere of politics.
This isolation reflected the isolation that Stalin found himself in after the
Munich Agreement and the end of the Spanish Civil War. Because of this isolation,
it is generally agreed, that the experience of the Non-Intervention farce in Spain
and the Munich Agreement made Stalin conclude that the Soviet Union would not
receive support by the Western Democracies in case of a German attack. 35 So, he
tried to break the Soviet isolation by seeking a pact with Germany. This was the
origin of the Molotov-Rippentrop pact concluded on August 24, 1939. 36
Therefore, it can be concluded that the Spanish Civil War was in fact a
prelude to the Molotov-Rippentrop pact and World War Two: already the
international reaction to the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War showed that the
British government was more concerned about the spread of communism than
about the expansion of fascism and the French were not able to help the Spanish
due to internal pressures directed against communism. The formation of the
International Brigades can be seen as an attempt of the Soviet Union to reduce
international fears of communism by making them an explicitly non-ideological
troop and by protecting private property in the republican zone. The bombing of
Guernica raised fears against fascism in the public opinion of the Western
countries. But the public was not able to shift their governments' policies because
soon after the bombing the reaction of the Spanish communists to the Barcelona
May Events and the connection drawn between the persecution of the POUM
and the Moscow trials again discredited communism in the liberal countries. The
Munich Agreement and the NIC made it obvious that the liberal countries France
and Great Britain were not interested in curbing the expansion of fascism or
waging a war over the ČSR or Spain, and therefore would also not enter a war to
defend the communist Soviet Union. This and the general blame on communists
for the Spanish Civil War displayed the international isolation that the Soviet
Union was trapped in the beginning of 1939. Therefore, Stalin made the attempt
to break this isolation by forming a non-aggression pact with the rival, who he
feared the most: Nazi Germany. This makes the Spanish Civil War a prelude to
the Molotov-Rippentrop pact. Of course, it can be argued, as Eric Hobsbawm
34 MALLMANN, Klaus-Michael: „Kreuzritter des antifaschistischen Mysteriums”. Zur
Erfahrungsperspektive des Spanischen Bürgerkrieges. In: GREBING, Helga, CHRISTL, Wickert
(Hg.). Das „andere Deutschland” im Widerstand gegen den Nationalsozialismus. Beiträge zur
politischen Überwindung der nationalsozialistischen Diktatur im Exil und im Dritten Reich.
Klartext, Essen, 1994. 47.
35 SCHAUFF, Frank: Der verspielte Sieg. Sowjetunion, Kommunistische Internationale und
Spanischer Bürgerkrieg 1936-1939. Campus, Frankfurt am Main, 2004. 315.
36 MORADIELLOS, Enrique: El reñidero de Europa. Las dimensiones internacionales de la
guerra civil española. Península, Barcelona, 2001. 258.
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