A Homage to Catalonia: Origins of the "Modern Foreign Fighter"

The Spanish Civil War is like a huge flaming candle attracting many moths who soon enough singe their wings and fall into the blaze.

Albert Weisbord, the Underground Railway to Spain

On July 18, 1936 the Army of North Africa staged a coup d’état led by General Francisco Franco, hoping for a swift takeover of Spain. However, the Spanish people took up arms and defended key areas such as Madrid and Barcelona (Nelson). This marked the beginning of a prolonged struggle between the forces of the Communist-backed Republicans and the Fascist-backed Nationalists. Foreigner fighters from 53 countries, motivated by adventurism, religion, and ideology went to fight in Spain on both sides of the war perhaps without understanding the scope of the conflict they faced. On the Republican side, foreign fighters were lured surreptitiously by false promises and propaganda in places like New York City by trade unionists (Eby Comrades 9). On the Nationalist side, many fighters were already members of their nations’ militaries. All of these men fought as surrogates for greater political ambitions. For their part, many of the volunteers may have been unaware that they were being used to fight a larger conflagration between fascism and communism. The Republican side was effectively a puppet of Moscow run by the Communists and backed by Stalin. The Nationalists, foot soldiers of fascist dictators. In effect, the men of these “International Brigades” (IB) who went to Spain were used as cannon fodder for an ideological war which they did not understand.

When the Civil War began in 1936, both the Republicans and the Nationalists asked foreign powers for men and materiél to bolster their forces (Nelson). The Republicans looked to the Communist International, or the Comintern, for material aid. Meanwhile, the Nationalists petitioned for assistance from dictators such as Adolf Hitler, Antonio Salazar, and Benito Mussolini (Othen 42). Hence, the Spanish Civil War became the brutal prelude to World War Two (Eby Bullet 18). It was not just a war between Spaniards. It was the first major encounter between Communism and Fascism in the 20th century. Foreign fighters flooded into Spain from 53 countries to participate in a military exchange between Moscow and Berlin that left half a million dead and hundreds of thousands exiled.

The Leftists, supported by blue collar workers and the intelligencia, were known as the “Republicans'', “Loyalists”, or the “Popular Front.” Yet, the leftist Giral government had limited power outside of Madrid; there were various leftist factions who all vied for power throughout the country. In Catalonia, an anti-fascist anarchist group were in de facto control (Payne). There were various other regional parties who seized power in Aragon, Asturias, Santander, and Valencia as well. One of the main problems the Left encountered was infighting between the factions. In particular, the Anarchists and Partido Obrero de Unificación Marxista, (the Workers Party of Marxist Unification or POUM) were viewed with suspicion by the Revolutionary Republican Confederation, who were both signatories to treaty of cooperation to present a united front against Fascism. In a letter home in 1937 anarchist Bill Williams stated, “I was not wanted by the government as I was in the Durruti International Shock Battalion (Anarchist militant group). The Government sabotaged us since we were formed in May and made it impossible for us to stay at the front” (A soldier Returns). Much of the infighting was also due to the fact that POUM members were Trotskyists and that did not sit well considering the large amount of aid provided by the Soviets (Trotsky was Stalin’s arch rival) (Rayfield 276). According to George Orwell who was fighting for POUM, “Probably all good Republicans did believe for a day or two that the POUM was a huge spying organization in German pay” (Orwell 233). This lack of cohesion is one of the factors that led to the Republicans losing the war,

The right-wing faction was referred to as “The Nationals”, or the “Nationalists”. Much like the Republicans, there were a variety of groups under Nationalist control. These included the Adelfonsists, the Carlists, the Falange Española (Falangists), and the Spanish Confederation of Autonomous Right-wing Groups (Confederación Española de Derechas Autónomas or CEDA) (Nationalist Faction in the Spanish Civil War). Despite the variety of these political groups, there was little infighting between them, as was the case with the Republicans.

Rather, they were galvanized to form a coalition in their opposition to Communism. Members of the nationalist groups were aristocrats, landowners, and industrialists. The Catholic Church was staunchly anti-communist and as such it played a large role as the backbone of many of these organizations. The Church indicated it had to defend Christianity from the ‘Godless Communists’ who wished to destroy it (Civil War and the Catholic Church). The Nationalists played on this and began to call the War a ‘crusade’ against the Communists. The almost universal hatred for communists felt by European fascist states only furthered the appeal for Catholics in said countries to join the conflagration. Although he did not recognize Franco, Pope Pius XI named all those murdered by the Republicans “martyrs” (Civil War and the Catholic Church).

On the side of the Republicans, Communist volunteers from abroad formed the International Brigades. Joseph Broz (also known as Tito, the leader of Yugoslavia between 1944-1980), with the help of the NKVD, (the precursor to the KGB) ran the headquarters of the IB in Paris, organizing an underground railroad to funnel between 35,000 and 50,000 Republican volunteers into Spain (Malet 102). Volunteers for the IB came from 53 countries with the majority being from Austrian, French, German, and Italian nationalities. Approximately 15% were Americans, British, and Canadians (Giles 3) who were largely trade unionists, Comintern members, and some intelligencia, such as George Orwell and Ernest Hemingway. Stalin issued quotas to the Communist Party offices, instructing them to target trade unions and democratic organizations for recruits (Malet 102). “[T]heir participation was also part of a wider policy engineered by Stalin both to win an alliance with the Western democracies and to maintain his influence in the international labor movement. The International Brigades, like the rest of the Communist movement, were subordinated to this aim” (Durgan 1). Although the majority of the soldiers who fought for the Nationalists likely received training, as they were German, Italian, and Portuguese troops, many of the volunteers who were recruited to fight for the Republicans received little to no training (Orwell 12). This may have been a further indication of their lack of value to the Communists. Not only were they recruited through deception, but their lack of military training likely led to their unnecessary deaths. George Orwell observed,

…the raw recruits were getting no military training that could be of the slightest use to them… I was very anxious to learn how to use a machine gun…to my dismay I found that we were taught nothing about the use of weapons. The so called instruction was simply a parade ground drill of the most antiquated kind… Obviously if you only have a few days in which to train a soldier, you must teach him the thing he will most need; how to take cover, how to advance across open ground, how to mount guards, and how to build a parapet—above all, how to use his weapons. Yet this mob of eager children, who were going to be thrown into the front line in a few days’ time, were not even taught how to fire a rifle or pull the pin out of a bomb (Orwell 12).

The Spanish Civil War was the prologue to the Second World War. Indeed for Republicans, “Spain was seen as the battleground which would decide the future, this belief was maintained long afterward so that even to this day, there are those who argue that a Republican victory would have prevented the Second World War” (Beevor cited in Lewis).

The thousands of foreign fighters who died in Spain were forgotten as the World prepared for a greater war. Those that made it out of Spain alive, in some cases ended up in Stalin’s Gulags, while others fought for the Allies against Hitler (see, for example, Tzouliadis).

The Spanish Civil War was the start of the modern foreign fighter concept that more recently has been witnessed in countries such as Afghanistan, Iraq, and Syria. In these cases, many of the same recruitment methods that were used to recruit volunteers for the Spanish Civil War have been used to appeal to young men (and more recently, women) today (see, for example, Malet). In both cases, international rhetoric was used to appeal to the individual to convince him that he was fighting for a greater cause and could make a difference. At the end of the day, volunteers were manipulated into fighting for political causes that had little to do with them.

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John Brigham is a student studying political science and criminology at the University of Toronto Mississauga.