The Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact - ELTE BTK Történelem Szakos Portál

ole in the defence of Madrid in November 1936 was considered to be essential. 15
These troops were formed by the Comintern in September 1936 and consisted of
communists, socialists and independent leftists from all over Europe and the
United States. They were recruited by the French PCF and financed by Soviet
money. However, the International Brigades were explicitly dissolved from any
political movement and their goal was to defend Spanish democracy and freedom
in general against fascist aggression. 16 The motivations for the volunteers to
leave their home countries and join the Republican side in Spain were several:
many claimed to fight for their ideology or for freedom, while the definitions of
freedom differed within the political spheres. Others were motivated by a strive
for personal heroism, while recruits from Germany and Italy in exile hoped to
initiate the defeat of fascism in their home countries by beating the axis forces in
Spain. Also, they tried to escape loneliness and boredom in exile by being
integrated in the international troops. 17 Even though the brigades declared
themselves independent of any political movement, communist party members
dominated. It is estimated that 60% of the Interbrigadistas were communists. 18
Internationally, the Brigades were perceived as Stalin's personal army, an
expression that sometimes is still found in secondary literature today. 19
Especially, reports about secret service activities in the Brigades shed a bad light
on the Soviet and international leadership and made many liberal leftists doubt
that communism would offer the freedom that they aspired. Many leaders of the
International Brigades continued their political careers and gained leading
positions in communist regimes after 1945, such as Walter Ulbricht and Erich
Mielke in GDR and Josip Broz Tito in Yugoslavia.
The Soviet support of the Spanish Civil War has always been criticized as
being only half-hearted because hardly any Soviet soldiers were involved in the
International Brigades and the weapons sold to the Republic were outdated. It
can be assumed that this was due to the fact that Stalin feared an attack by
Germany and did not want to weaken his forces in an attempt to help the
Spanish. Also, Stalin did not pursuit to create a Soviet republic in the parts of
Spain controlled by his brigades because he did not want to alienate the British
and French government. 20 Instead, he was seeking an alliance with them
15 SCHWARTZ, Stephen: The Spanish Civil War in Historical Context. In: Critique, Journal
of Socialist Theory 32-33 (2000), 149.
16 CASTELLS, Andreu: Las Brigadas Internacionales de la guerra de España. Ariel,
Barcelona, 1974. 93.
17 McLELLAN, Josie: ‚I Wanted to be a Little Lenin’: Ideology and the German
International Brigade Volunteers. In: Journal of Contemporary History 41 (2006) No. 2, 293.
18 SCHWARTZ, Fernando: La Internacionalización de la Guerra Civil Española. Ariel,
Barcelona, 1999. 203.
19 SCHWARTZ, Stephen: The Spanish Civil War in Historical Context. In: Critique, Journal
of Socialist Theory 32-33 (2000), 151.
20 SCHAUFF, Frank: Der verspielte Sieg. Sowjetunion, Kommunistische Internationale und
Spanischer Bürgerkrieg 1936-1939. Campus, Frankfurt am Main, 2004. 20.
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