In my studies people often turn up who went to Spain to only a few years later become famous Yugoslav Partisans fighting the Nazis during the years from 1941-45 – Koča Popović for example. Can similar things be said about volunteers from other countries? Did their motivation (or maybe the necessity) to fight the Nazis extend to them between 39 and 45?

Why do you believe there are so few representations of what could seem as such a romantic cause in the mainstream media? It seems like an endeavor not unlike WW2, and yet I only remember reading about it in short stories.

Implicit above is a request for media depicting said conflict.

We often hear about the Catalonians and the Basques. Especially in the context of differentiating between the Catalonians and Basques on the one hand and the Spanish on the other. Did the Galicians and the Andalusians have a similar reaction, and if yes, was it of any significance?

How did people find out, spread the word, and organize?

With my flair, I feel compelled to ask this - did anyone in the International Brigades or Republicans in general see commonality between the Spanish Civil War and the Second Sino-Japanese War as anti-fascist struggles? I know Chinese Communist Party speeches in 1938 made much of the parallels between the defence of the then-wartime capital of Wuhan and the Republican defence of Madrid.

Thank you for doing this AMA Fraser!

I'm a hot blooded young anti-fascist with pesos burning a hole in my pocket

I'm curious about the cultural exchanges which might have taken place between different nationalities, and with their hosts. Did volunteers mostly stick to their own national groups or did they tend to mix with other nationalities and the Spanish in combat and in their down time?

How did the volunteer forces overcome the language barrier? I'm assuming not all of them spoke Spanish

To what degree do you see there being a specific Scottish experience within the International Brigades separate from a broader British one (or, perhaps, opposed to a specific English one)?

Also, thoughts on Ken Loach's Land and Freedom?

Hi Fraser, thanks for doing this AMA!

As your title suggests, volunteering for the Spanish Civil War was a worldwide phenomenon, but how worldwide? For instance, were there Chinese, Japanese, or South Asian people volunteering in Spain? What about people from South America? Was their presence considered particularly remarkable, or seen as an affirmation of the international effort involved?

Modern volunteer movements like the ISIS wars in Iraq and Syria make heavy use of social media to raise awareness, recruit fighters and arrange their movement into the conflict zone and placement in units that can use their skills. Pre internet, how would one get linked up with local belligerents?

What similarities, if any, do you see between the people who fought in the international brigades, and the people who went to fight ISIS alongside the Kurds and other leftist groups in Syria?

If I could be so rude to ask another, was Ireland the only country, outside Italy and Nazi Germany, to have more people going to Spain to fight for Franco than for the Republic?

My uncle was a fighter pilot for the Franco side and was know to be fluid in German, but I didn’t have a chance to ask about his experiences as much as I would’ve liked. Him being a Spaniard, would he have volunteered or have been drafted? What level of support were they receiving from Germany? And given that there were so many foreign fighters, would all opposition have been treated the same? Also, what would have happened to the foreign volunteers after the war if captured, and how would that differ from the local opposition? Sorry for the mountain of questions, but this is a piece of family history I’ve always wanted to know more about. Thank you very much for your time!

This is something I've wanted to learn about for a long time. My grandmother was the daughter of Galician immigrants who left for the US before the war. She told me once about how connected she and her community in Detroit were to the Republican cause. They formed an organization called "Hispanos Unidos" to raise money for them. I've tried to find out more about this, but all the sources I found about American support were about the Abraham Lincoln Brigades.

Can you tell me anything about Spanish-American support for the war? How did emigrants and their children participate, and how can I find out more about them?

How did the communist societies of Catalonia function for which Orwell fought ? What were the experiences of the people living there and what were their rights ?

Can you elaborate on the relationship between Spanish Republican forces and Stalin? I find this to be one of the most difficult to explain elements of the war to students. In particular, it seems many anarchist groups desired the material support but resented the Soviet attempts to control them, but I don’t quite understand exactly what changes or policies the Soviets were trying to impose on the anti-fascist forces?

This is fascinating, but I’m too ignorant of the specifics to ask a good question. So my question is, what’s a good question nobody has asked yet?

Hello, thanks for doing such an interesting AMA!

My question: Was Anarcho-Syndicalist Catalonia as pleasant to live in during the revolutionary period of the civil war as many people like to say it was or was there a dark side that people sympathetic to the ideas practiced there tend to gloss over?

Fraser, I am so excited for the release of your book and I can't wait to get my own copy!

With that said, I am curious about the process of writing it. You already had some considerable experience within the field of foreign volunteers of the Spanish Civil War (and obviously, the Scottish volunteers). What were some challenges that you faced in researching and writing specifically about Scottish volunteers?

What were some of the causes of the Stalinist crackdown on the Worker’s Party of Marxist Unification, with which George Orwell served, and to what extent did these inter-Republican conflicts contribute to the eventual victory of the Nationalists?

Thank you for doing this! My question is more personal than a general one.

My mother's brother (and my namesake) stole away from home in Dayton, OH one night in 1937 to join the Abraham Lincoln Brigade. His family didn't know he was leaving until he wrote from NYC before leaving for Spain. His name was Laurence Morton Friedman (though I believe some records had his first and middle name reversed).

He was wounded in Brunete in June of 1937 and died of his wounds in July. That's all I've ever learned and now, everyone who would have known more has passed.

Has your research ever gotten down to the volunteers' names? Can you tell me anything about my uncle? What kind of a battle was Brunete? What kind of weapon would he have been issued? What were the hospitals like? Where would he have been buried?

What little I know of the mind-set of the volunteers for the two American Brigades (Lincoln and Washington) is that they were likely Communists and often Jewish. Can you tell me anything more about their motivations and concerns. Why did the Americans leave home and fight there? Did the Depression provide an incentive? Was it for adventure? Or, as I've often thought, was it out of a sincere desire to fight the burgeoning antisemitism in Germany?

Thank you so much for any clarity you can provide!

How was the perception of foreign volunteers by the local rank and file fighters? Were they predominantly seen as adventurers/soldiers of fortune or valuable contributors to a common cause?

And vice versa, how was the perception of local soldiers by the foreign volunteers? How were less ideologically idealistic motives such as a nationalist cause seen?

Hello!

As this was an international war effort, I would love to know if language barriers had a potential impact on either recruitment or troop co-operation!

Thank you for your time!

Spanish here. It’s often told that a vast majority of spanish people who fought could not even chose the side to fight for. In some villages people were just called for either side and sometimes even the strict or political “aim” of the war was not even in the table, you just fought to save your life. What do you say about it? I’m interested to read a Doctor in the topic write about this.

Did Franco have any serious contenders to the top dog position on the Nationalist side and how difficult was it for him to consolidate his leadership? I ask, since he never really struck me as outstandingly competent or charismatic.

Hi, I studied the Spanish civil war in school, so I am aware that foreign volunteers were prominent in the war. I’m interested more specifically in Irish volunteers. I’ve heard a lot of stories about Irish volunteers going to fight for both the republicans and the fascist forces. How prominent were Irish volunteers in the various factions, and what drove them to volunteer, especially for the fascist armies? Thanks in advance!

As a quick note - someone asked then either deleted (or had a moderator remove due to the particular phrasing) a question about the disinterment of nuns in Republican territory. Lest anyone think there's a conspiracy afoot to avoid topics that make the Republic look bad, my answer is below:

Yes, some Republican forces did dig up nuns - we have multiple accounts and in some cases, photographic evidence. The habit (no pun intended) has been attributed to rumours surrounding the sexuality of nuns - in particular that nuns who were became pregnant were killed by the church, and therefore there was a widespread belief that their bodies would give evidence to these claims.

These kinds of rumours and direct action were quite typical of anti-clerical feeling in Spain, which also found much more direct outlets - many more members of the clergy were killed in the Spanish Civil War than in the course of the Russian Revolution. There is of course a complex history regarding the relationship between the church, state and politics in Spain, but there's no doubt that anti-clerical atrocities were very real, and were a major factor in shaping international responses to the conflict.

Hi Dr Raeburn, what are your thoughts on modern volunteer anti-fascists fighting in places like Syria against ISIS and to what extent are comparisons made to the volunteer anti-fascists in the Spanish Civil War legitimate?

I have an interest in the anarchist revolution during the spaniard civil war

Do you have some texts or information about collectivization production in fabrics or so?

Also what about the people who studied years before in the modern schol of Ferrer i Guardia who was blamed for the events of the 'Semana tragica'. Were there some important actors in the conflict with that background?

In the recent war in Syria and Iraq, we see foreign volunteers on the different sides, for example people fighting for ISIS as well as foreigners joining Kurdish forces. The things I've read or heard about the foreign volunteers in the Spanish civil war are generally about people joining the republican side. Is this because I've heard about this war mainly through Hemingway and Orwell? Or was the foreign element on the nationalist side negligible compared to the republican volunteers?

Which books would you recommend as an introduction to the Spanish Civil War? I have some general knowledge but would like to learn more.

Hi Dr. Raeburn!

I was wondering how you understood fascism. I've read Eco's Ur-Fascism and Paxton's The Anatomy of Fascism ages ago. I remember being quite unconvinced by Eco's 14 indicators + family resemblance - regimes like Salazar's Portugal doesn't look like an archetype that one would immediately recognize as fascist (in fact, Paxton, iirc, doesn't consider him a fascist). How do we address other regimes like Saddam Hussein's Iraq which seems to have moved far from Ba'athism, or Imperial Japan during and leading up to WW2?

Do you think academic discussions on the definition are helpful in understanding what people mean by the term "fascism"in popular discourse? I'm sort of at a place where I think the term is unnecessary and that it merely causes confusion when a list of other characteristics could be used instead (xenophobic, authoritarian, ultra-conservative, misogynistic, engaging in populism despite not being for the prole/average person, etc.).

Thanks in advance, and stay safe!

My question is who financed Franco?

How important do you think was the division and "infighting" between the communists (i.e. those supported by the USSR) and non-communist Republicans for the outcome of the war? It has been also said that Orwell was ultimately disappointed by the incapacity of the anti-fascist side to work well together against the Nationalist forces, was this a sentiment shared by most foreigners fighting for the Republican cause?

Also, I have some relatives that fled Spain after the Civil War, but did so like 8 or 10 years after the war ended. Having fought in the Republican side and not being imprisoned or anything, I've always found strange that these relatives had waited so long to emigrate from Spain. Do you have any info about emigration and exile being common not immediately after the end of the war?

How stark was the religious divide between Nationalists and Republicans? I often hear about the Catholic Church being pro-Franco and the Republicans executing clergymen, but were there any surprising pro-Republican religious figures during that time?

(Thinking specifically of Spanish figures, not so much foreigners like Simone Weil)

The Republicans are well known for their infighting but did the nationalist factions have any major conflicts with each other?

What were the experiences of German Republican volunteers like during the Civil War, and what were their opinions of the "Condor Legion."

I believe in Orwell's book where he describes the situation in the front lines as he was reporting back as a journalist, from what I remember the picture he painted was that it was not a fierce type of battleground where both sides were fairly tempered in their fighting style, a lot of times not really aiming to kill. Was that properly conveyed to the outside world giving the impression maybe it was not a fatally dangerous endeavor to be involved in, or am I misremembering?

Do you see parallels with Rojava?

What the truth about the so called “Oro de Moscú’, gold of Moscow.

Is it true that Spanish republic took all gold reserves and gave it to Russia in order to ruin the country for the fascist new regime?

Hello! I dunno if you still up, but I was wondering why the Canada doesn’t recognize the Mackenzie Papineau bataillon yet?

I don't know if this has been asked yet but is George Orwell's account of the Spanish Civil War considered typical and fair?

I've always wanted to read a good Spanish-language book on the civil war. A personal memoir, something like Orwell's Homage to Catalonia but in Spanish, would be ideal. Do you have any good recommendations?

What happened with volunteers who just showed up wanting to fight? I'm guessing some of them were attracted by a sense of adventure or a romantic notion of freedom fighting, which might have led to more enthusiasm than competence. Did Spain turn anyone away? Were there bands of unauthorized freedom fighters roaming the hillsides and swigging Madeira?

What impact do you think Hemingway had on how this war is covered historically?

Thank you for joining us! As far as I'm aware, nearly two hundred anarchist and communist Argentines fought in the Brigades, some of them alongside famous names like Buenaventura Durruti and Enrique Líster. Upon returning to Argentina, they suffered from political persecution at the hands of the government, with many of them being imprisoned under fabricated charges. How common was this persecution in other countries?

2nd question if i may. How did the anarchists become so big in Spain and how did these communities work?

Did you find Orwell's Homage to Catalonia to be of any value in your research, or more of an Orwell novel than anything else? I've always wondered how his account related to others during this time.

Thank you for doing this. :-)

Dude I literally just learned about this (foreigners coming to fight against Franco) yesterday and taught it a bit to my students today, that's nuts

What is your take on the Pacto del Olvido versus La Ley de Memoria Historica? Is there any better solution, especially this far removed from the conflict itself?

Have been similar episodes on modern history like this? Or SCW has been unique in this topic?

What in your opinion was the defining moment that killed off the concept of the foreign brigade?

Were many of the foreign fighters veterans of ww1 and conflicts in eastern europe that followed the armistice? Were there any particular countries from which more experienced troops came from? Was there many ww1 vets from all countries of origin or was the typical foreign volunteer younger than those that would have had combat experience?

Did the internationalization of the Spanish Civil War lead to an exponential increase of Spanish Republican casualties without appreciably changing the balance of military power favoring the Francoists?

I remember reading that there were pilots on the Republican side that went to the USSR for training - but at least one group of them hadn’t finished their training at the time the war ended. What happened to them? Did they stay in the USSR? (If so, did they fight in WW2?) Or did they return to now-fascist Spain? (And if so, how was that received?)

Was this a novel occurrence in history? I can't imagine that foreigners would feel super compelled to go off and fight wars for foreign peoples in foreign lands based on ideological struggles alone. Sure, there were events like the Crusades and plenty of countries meddling in the conflicts of other countries with political aims, but this was a case of people, not their governments, making the choice to be involved in this foreign domestic conflict. Was the spanish civil war special because of the ideaological implications of spreading fascism in Europe, or was there always the chance that a man might hear of a struggle going on in a distant land and feel the urge to go and risk himself for their beliefs rather than personal gain, like mercenaries. And related question: were mercenaries involved in the civil war as well as volunteers?

The International Brigades were set up by the Communist International and heavily supported by the Sovjet Union, they logically consisted mainly of volunteers with a Communist but not necessarily Stalinist background. During the war the IB also fought against other leftist groups such as the POUM (anti Stalinist Marxists) and the anarchists of the CNT/FAI, for example during the may days in Barcelona. These groups also had sizeable numbers of non-Spanish volunteers (George Orwell for instance) Did this create objections from Brigades members who objected against fighting other leftist international volunteers especially if they were from countries where the left was less ideologically divided? And did these actions have any repercussions/consequences for leftist organisations in the home countries of the volunteers?

How did the international brigades react to the eventual inevitable schisms in the Republican forces? What did the NKVD think of the international volunteers? Were there fascist volunteers akin to the international brigades (so not directly sent by the fascist governments of Italy and Germany. I believe the Romanian Iron Guard sent some people)?

Spanish here, and amateur historian. I've spent a long time studying the Spanish Civil War, but I know comparatively little about the International Brigades, and about the foreign participants in the war in general, so I did have two questions:

The Spanish Civil War was horrible all around, and many horrendous atrocities were committed on both sides, though the "White" Terror is better remembered today than the "Red" one. What do we know of the reaction these foreign fighters had when faced with the horrors committed by the Republicans they had come to fight on behalf of? Did they participate in them as well?

What about the infighting within the Republican faction? The capture and (presumed) execution of Andrés Nin is the most famous example, but to my knowledge there were many more instances of this. Were foreign fighters aware of this? If so, do we know what their reaction was?

After the war ended, did many volunteers choose to stay in Spain?

In the recent Syrian Civil War, some countries used it as an excuse to get rid of extremists to reduce their domestic threat. Did a similar thing happen with the Spanish Civil War?

Hello, and thanks so much for doing this AMA.

Full disclosure: I am not a historian or political scientist. I just have specific interests, and one of them intersects here.

So my question is, have you ever read any of the books written by or that are about, Jessica "Decca" Mitford? She is rather infamous (well, this is ONE of the things she was infamous for. She went on to do others)--for joining Esmond Romilly (nephew of Winston Churchill, by marriage) and running off to Spain to assist in the war.

Her adventures don't quite start there or end there. Fascinating person. Her autobiography, <i Hons and Rebels i> outlines how strongly she felt that she must break away from her privileged life as the daughter of an aristocrat of Great Britain to join the Republicans of Spain. She was known as the "red sheep" of her rather large and politically diverse English family.

Just a wee tidbit. The tales she told in her books are astonishing.

For the foreign volunteers who fought of Spain, did they choose a faction? Were there people who signed up for the anarchists and were in anarchist militias or were they all in one international volunteer unit under the Republic of Spain or the Falangists or etc? And if your research extends to this, what happened to the monarchists during the fight?

How important were the German military aid to the Nationalist cause? There is plenty of information about the air support provided but did they really impact the outcome of the war?

Where there any fighters or organizers who had previously fought under Makhnovshchyna?

If so, how did their previous experience, especially that of failure, impact the Spanish movement? In regards to the questionable figurehead in Nestor, their failure to win over the urban areas and it's workers while being extremely successful with the peasantry.

Hi Dr. Fraser-thank you for doing this AMA about a critical piece of anarchist history and what Dr. Noam Chomsky has called “the most successful libertarian revolution.” I have heard however that the syndicalists established labor camps for war prisoners- Can you talk about the labor camps and give more background regarding them? Thanks.

You've hit on my curiosity! Why did people from all over the world show such devotion to the Spanish cause? Hemingway was only one. Intellectuals from all over Europe threw themselves into this. I suspect there was an element of "giving to a cause" and showing you're support for a cause in Europe was more of a statement than an actual belief. It seems like there was a lot of actions for "the show" rather than the actual beliefs went on. Waddaya think?

The East German government saw the Spanish Civil War as very much a formative experience in propaganda, with the DDR cast as the heir to the Germans who had fought in Spain in the International Brigades (this scene from Ernst Thälmann - Führer seiner Klasse is a classic example) and Ernst Busch's various performances of war songs.

My question is: how many East German leaders were actually old Spain fighters? Were veterans overrepresented in the government of the DDR?

Were the original Antifascists also Marxists?

Do you see any parallels between the anti fascists that came to Spain and Yugoslavia and the islamists that came to fight the anti soviet and anti American war in Afghanistan? Did these warriors impact their host countries in ways similar to anti fascist fighters?

I found this book about Manuel Cortes, a socialist during the civil war who was forced to hide for 30 years in his own home before the amnesty. I was just wondering if you had heard of him because i couldn't find much else about him on the web. Have you heard of him, I believe he cane from Malaga?

First of all, thanks for doing this AMA. My question is, what was the reaction of the average spanish soldiers to these volunteers coming in? Where they seen as welcome volunteers or as people who were more troublesome than useful?

How did University students in Scotland respond to the Spanish Civil War?

So far I know that in England there were students going to fight in Spain, debates over the Non-Intervention policy, and humanitarian aid projects.

Were there any other ways of responding to the events in Spain?

Given the international nature of volunteer forces do you see parallels between International Brigades in Spain and modern day volunteers that fight in place like Syria, Iraq. Both for ISIS and Kurdish forces. And also parallels with people who went to fight in Balkans in 1990s on either side, Muslim volunteers in Afghanistan in 1980s.....

Did the Soviets plan on making the Antifascists fail all along or was this something they thought of later?

Hi, This AMA is awesome! I would like to know what was the role of pacifism in the civil war? Were there any such movements on the nationalist side? And how were pacifists treated after the war?

How common was it for foreigners traveling to spain to fight for the fascist cause? Where did these activists come from?

How many of those foreign volunteers stayed to continue the fight underground?

My husband’s grandfather was a Basque Republican and fled the country in the middle of the night. Was that common for Republicans or does that mean he was higher up in the political chain than we know?

We have this quote from a bio: “On September 24, 1936, fearing possible reprisals for hisactivity as a Basque nationalist, D. Ladislao flees, leaving his wife instate of gestation, in Zumaia and on the advice of his father he finds refugein an existing room in the house of an uncle”

What was the response of Indigenous communities in the Americas to the civil war? Do we know if there were any Indigenous volunteers?

Not sure if this was asked yet.

To my understanding the majority of non-spanish regions usually sided with the Republicans in hope of autonomy or outright seperation from Spain (such as the Basque country and catalonia) if this was the case, why did Galicia quickly come under occupation by Franco

Was there any hope for galician independence?

If so was resistance to the fascist forces particularly strong in Galicia?

I've heard once that the Irish Blueshirts that went over to fight in Spain were more of a hindrance than a help. That they saw it as a holiday and were drunk, undisciplined and untrained. Is there much truth to that?

In Orwell's Homage to Catalonia, what do you think of his writing of his experiences in the conflict? Was it an accurate portrayal of the war? Did he clearly exaggerate anything? Was his experience similar to that of most other fighters, specifically foreign born fighters?

Hello Dr. Fraser! I studied the Spanish Civil War for my college history thesis and was shocked by the amount of factional infighting that occurred on the republican side between the anarchist, socialists and communists. I know from Homage to cataluña that this included propaganda attacks by the communists against the anarchists and left wing socialists, but did this feuding ever manifest itself in actual violence between the two anti fascist sides? Thanks so much

Can you talk about the difference in the various groups and political ideologies that came to support the civil war and how they managed to form a cohesive resistance against Franco? From my understanding, there were numerous factions among the international brigades and not everyone would fall under the modern conceptualization of anti fascist.

Was it the fascism vs freedom/communism/socialism etc that made it so popular?

Was there any other major factors why it grew so much?

Can it be because Germany and the USSR supported their redoective side so much?

One of my great great Uncles was an Italian who was sent to fight for Franco. I know Mussolini sent soldiers to assist Franco but did many Italians willingly volunteer to fight for the nationalist cause?

I fought in El Salvador during the revolution for the FMLN. My grandparents migrated to the U.S in the 50's and I had never visited our homeland. I fought under the FPL. I fought because I thought it was my duty to help my people liberate themselves.

I’m guessing anti-Communism wasn’t a huge movement. If you weren’t a Fascist, anyway. Is this true? Was Communism not yet considered such an evil by western nations, meaning it wasn’t considered wrong to fight for the Spanish Communists?

Do you see any parallels between these individuals and the modern-day men who join the French Foreign Legion?

Have you read Adam Hochschild's book, Spain in our Hearts, and if so what do you think of his approach to the conflict? Of course it is centered on the experience of American volunteers, but one thing I love about his work in general is how narrative it feels. More like a novel than a journal article or traditional comprehensive history tome. Thanks for your input!

What were the danger signs of fascism at the start? If it was aimed at the working class, what made the left parties leave home to fight against fascism? I've a little more time, so I'll try and expand. I know very little of this, so forgive me if the question is basic.

From Wiki, Mussolini's first manifesto it looks like fascists and Marxists would be more allied than deadly enemies."The Manifesto supported the creation of universal suffrage for both men and women (the latter being realized only partly in late 1925, with all opposition parties banned or disbanded);[122] proportional representation on a regional basis; government representation through a corporatist system of "National Councils" of experts, selected from professionals and tradespeople, elected to represent and hold legislative power over their respective areas, including labour, industry, transportation, public health, communications, etc.; and the abolition of the Italian Senate.[123] The Manifesto supported the creation of an eight-hour work day for all workers, a minimum wage, worker representation in industrial management, equal confidence in labour unions as in industrial executives and public servants, reorganization of the transportation sector, revision of the draft law on invalidity insurance, reduction of the retirement age from 65 to 55, a strong progressive tax on capital, confiscation of the property of religious institutions and abolishment of bishoprics, and revision of military contracts to allow the government to seize 85% of profits.["

What happened between June 1919 and 1936 to make the ideologies so different that the supporters ended up mortal enemies, and people willing to travel abroad to defend those ideologies?

Why did Stalin have the PCE backstab POUM and CNT/FAI, even to the point of decollectivizing farms, and how did this hamper the civil war?

Also, there's a lot said about the labour camps of the civil war, and anarchists of the future will need to work to keep from replicating that, but what were they actually like? I'm lead to believe that unlike gulags or the American prison system, they were more for prisoners of war, as opposed to your standard bad person who gets locked up. How much did these labour camps contribute to Revolutionary Catalonia's supposedly far more efficient industry?

Speaking of, I've heard that the production was far more efficient and labour hours were shorter, how true is this?

In general, what can antifascists of the present learn from the successes and failures of the revolution, and bolstering a defense against much larger capitalist and fascist forces? That kind of knowledge seems like it might come in handy, what with [gestures at the resurgence of fascism].

Also it seems to me that there are a lot of parallels between Catalonia and SANES.

I only very recently learned that Catalonia was under control not by republicans, but rather, strictly anti-stalin far left anarchists. I also learned that they increased the living standards and industrial productivity in their very short period in "power" (kind of an ironic way of putting it).

What I really wonder is why are they seemingly muffled away in history classes, discussions, books...? Considering they were an important faction fighting the fascists, with control over a significant area of Spain with a significant industrial capacity and being relatively successful in their implementation of their view of society (as well as they could be with both fascists and stalinists fighting them in the end).

Why had I never heard of them before?

How large percentage of the volonteers fought under different Republican flags than the International Brigades?

What was the Soviet Union's role in the Spanish Civil War?

How much truth is there to the idea that the Stalinist foreign volunteers ended up shooting the POUM and CNT international brigades in the back out of Stalin's fear of anarchists and trostkists gaining too much power and/or raising up against him? It remains, nowadays, a point of conflict between some communists and anarchists, but I've always wondered what the historical sources were on that specific point.

Did volunteers from former Spanish colonies exclusively fought on the republican side?

I'm from the Philippines and I've read before that while there were Filipinos who volunteered for the IB, there were also those who chose to fight on Franco's side.

My grandfather, who died when I was young went there front the US to fight. He was Jewish. My mother describes his going as a “mercenary” but from what I gather I assume he wasn’t paid. Is it possible he did go for money, if not why would a Jewish man from Vermont end up fighting there? Would there have been a local movement/recruitment?

I have read Homage To Catalonia, how accurate is Orwell’s depiction of the war? Specifically as a non Spaniard.

Several absolutely and completely uninformed questions occur to me.

Who were the MAJOR providers of arms and ammunition to each side?

Was the Soviet Union providing funding, arms and or Ammo?

If so did they advertise this for propaganda purposes such that global communists were encouraged to flock to Spain?

Today it seems certain countries like the UK have legal restrictions in place prohibiting the travel to a foreign country to fight for certain groups such as ISIS in Syria (AFAIK the latest large scale UK terrorist was stopped in Turkey for this crime(?))

Did such laws not exist in the 1930s?

Were there significant covert activities by the major powers in this war?

Thanks for making yourself available!

Thanks for doing the AMA Dr. Raeburn.

How true are the claims that the left didn't respect the results of the last republican election, and that violence in the form of paseillos and church burnings was already happening prior to Franco's coup?

At the time, was it really seen as a "confrontation between fascism and anti-fascism?" Reading "Spain in Our Hearts" by Adam Hoschschild, and it seems like a struggle between two coalitions, neither one of which was particularly concerned with fascism or anti-fascism. One coalition staunchly Catholic, propertied, reactionary, with the Falange being only one contingent; the other coalition including republicans, anarchists and communists, each with their own separate agendas. Is "anti-fascism" a more recent way of conceptualizing it?

Hope this wasn't asked somewhere else and I missed it...

Were there also significant numbers of international volunteers who arrived to fight for the fascists? If so, who were they and what were their motivations?

How unique were the social conditions and political tensions leading up to the breakout of armed conflict? What similarities could be seen in other nations' polarization of its people in the modern period?

Spainish guy here. Something my teachers never explained is why countries like US or UK didn't send their armies if they knew Spaish Civil War was The Great War v2.

Also, what books should I read to combat disinformation and propaganda? Our civil war is still a very controversial topic and I'd like to stay well documented.

Not a question but information; A swedish volunteer told a researcher 30 years later he was part of a unit of swedish communists that planned to invade Finland from the west during the Winter War 1940. He claims that they got to practicing skiing in the swedish archipelago.

Secondly this: " However, while the Communist Party of Spain was still a minor political force on the outbreak of war, the war itself saw them grow in strength considerably."

The communist was exploding in the months before the rebellion. For example the youth organizations of the socialist and communist parties merged and it was a communist takeover.

My apologies if this already has been covered.

Hi, thanks for doing such an interesting AMA! I have two questions:

1. Is there much comparative research about local conflicts that attract large numbers of international volunteers in modern history? What about war volunteerism on the part of Scots specifically in other conflicts?

2. I'm quite interested in the role that officials like mayors/governors played in the beginning of the war, and if there were "tipping points" where a different response to nascent uprisings might have changed the trajectory of the conflict. For instance, I have a family connection to the last Republican gobernador civil of Valladolid, who (from what I've read) correctly identified a looming conflict with local fascist groups but responded by having all the guns locked up (he ended up getting executed). It's not a very well-formed question, and maybe not well targeted to the topic of this AMA, but I've always wondered how historians read that kind of early-stage response by sort of mid-level actors when analyzing how things spiral into civil war.

My gran dad fought in the Spanish Civil war on the republican side. I used to go to his home after school just to listen his civil war stories. There is a feeling here that spain was left apart from the rest of the world with a fascist dictator for more that 40 years. That many years of dictatorship shapes a country in a really bad way punishing small nationalities like Basque and Catalan countries making them a bit of eurosceptic and with an overall sense of "nobody from outside is going to help you". This was really intense after a few years ago when catalans tried to vote pacifically for their independence, were heavy punished by spanish police and nobody outside (say europe or wherever) really cared of.

I´d love to hear your opinion, about the great powers letting spain be ruled by a dictator for their own convinience lead to a disaster for an entire society that still has not closed their wounds.

Thanks!

Dr Fraser, how much of the spanish Air Force was volunteer both Republican and Falangists. How did the command structure work, who was designating bomb targets, for example Guernica.

Nazi Germany became involved in the conflict, supporting Franco. How did Germany's involvement affect the involvement of the nations that would become the allies in ww2? Did German intervention inspire support for the Republicans from the likes of England, France, US, or soviet union?

Hello there! Thank you very much for answering our questions here. I wanted to ask about the Spanish gold reserves, used during the Civil War. It seems to be a subject that attracts a lot of theories and myths. Was all the gold accounted for, and were the Republicans hoping they would see it back some day, or they knew it was a one way trip?

So I know that after the war, Mexico welcomed many Republicans as refugees, famously the Mexican consul to Spain, Gilberto Bosques Saldiver, rented out two castles to fill with refugees from Franco and Hitler.

But how did Mexicans see the civil war as it was happening? Did a lot of Mexicans go fight? Did they see it as akin to their own revolution?

Is there any scenario in which you see the Republicans winning? I became interested in this topic after reading Orwell’s memoirs of serving in the IB, and one thing he said that interested me was if the more radical elements of the Republican government (which were pretty much in control pretty quickly if I’m not mistaken) had decided to paint the war not as a war for democracy but as a worker’s revolution, which according to him was taking place to an extent in anarchist controlled Catalonia, they might’ve been able to garner more international support. I’d like to know how valid of an idea you think this is. Thanks for doing this AMA, this is one of the historical topics I am most interested in.

Maybe a bit unrelated, but I'm curious did workers cooperatives seem to come about at this time in Spain, and why? Were they economically viable and scalable or is it a more communitarian approach? Do we in our times have much to learn from the worker cooperative/ anarcho-syndicalism and their social/ political/economic theories and organizations or no?
Thanks, dunno much about the topic(s) but they seem related in my hazy understanding of that time and place.

Thanks for answering my earlier question about volunteers staying in Spain, however I do have another one. My best friend is an anarchist who often holds up Catalonia during the Spanish CW as an anarchist society that worked. Is this true, or is he looking at it with rose-tinted glasses?

Can you point an interested reader to topical but worthwhile histories of the Spanish Civil War? By topical I suppose I mean written for popular consumption rather than academic.
Same question about Francisco Franco.

Have you come across any historical or popular figures who took a side during the war that today's audience wouldn't expect?

Do you know if Dr Norman Bethune contributed in a significant way to the Spain Civil War?

He is almost anonymous here in Canada, but I heard that among communists he got a significant recognition, especially among Chinese. Is his contribution to Spain Civil War was as notable than his participation to chinese-japanese war?

A following question: was it odd for partisans surviving Spain Civil War to engage in others conflicts (WWII and post-WWII)?

Thank you in advance!

Hello, and thanks for this AMA.

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In the republican side, I know there were anarchists (mostly in Catalunia if I recall correctly) who were in the government, and that later on, there was a repression against them. However, in the wikipedia article (don't have a better source on this) about Buenaventura Durruti, it's said that his funeral gathered 250 000 people. That seems an incredible amount. Were the anarchists that popular ? Even more than the communists perhaps ?

Bonus question if you feel like it : What happened to the anarchist groups during the Franco era after the war ?

How did the Spaniards deal with the inevitable language barrier between them and the diverse group of volunteers?

Additionally, what were the general logistics of getting a volunteer from North America to a war torn Spain?

Awesome, one of my favorite time periods evah.

So, I've heard from a discussion once that the International Brigades were really well trained, and having spent some time researching this topic, i thought that the statement was... odd. Maybe I'm mixing things with regular Spanish army - which was very messy -, but I'm not sure how true this idea is. Your take on It?

1.) Is George Orwell's account of the May Events in Barcelona in Homage to Catalonia considered by historians to be accurate? He mentions that his account differed from most newspapers at the time, with respect to which faction initiated the fighting.

2.) Did many on the Nationalist side reject the term "fascist", or see it as a pejorative?

Thank you for doing this AMA!!

I am actually doing my undergraduate dissertation on US literature about the Spanish Civil War and I have found that lots of poets (such as Edwin Rolfe or WH Auden) fought in the international brigades and wrote afterwards about their experience. That was the case for writers who worked as war correspondants in Spain too. Do you know anything about it? Was it the case for Scottish writers too?

I would also like to ask you is what would you recommend me to read for understanding the role of the International brigades in the war? Thank you so much.

Why do you think the world seems to have forgotten that George orwell fought in the POUM and wrote Homage to Catalonia?

Is it because he is a libertarian socialist and statists wish to erase that positive representation?

I am a big fan of Michael Petrou's Renegades about Canadian IB volunteers. Petrou discusses how Canadian volunteers were persecuted for being leftists when leaving for the war, with many being labelled "premature antifascists" when they returned to Canada and/or tried enlisting for WW2.

Was this a common experience for returning volunteers in other countries? Were there countries where volunteers were celebrated as heroes?

Thanks very much!

Wasn’t the Republican Party left leaning?

Wasnt Spain the Syria of the 30’s, with alot of foreign powers involved, two major powers and a couple of small even extremer ideologies who popped up here and there?

And to what extent did the Catalans, Basque, Galicians and Andalucians try to gain independence?

Thank you for doing this AMA! What was the Nationalist's attitude towards foreign volunteers from non-Fascist countries? Were there French or English volunteers fighting on the Nationalist side, and how were Repiblican foreign volunteers treated if captured?

Why were so few latin american fighters compare against other eurpean or even american, in your opinion?

Were there any Latin American volunteers or any support for their ancestral homeland?

I recently read George Orwell’s Homage to Catalonia. How accurate is this in terms of politics of the time? He seems quite in favour of an organisation called POUM (Marxist I believe). Making them out to be good guys in the war?

Thanks for doing this, fascinating subject.

Why was Spain such a hotbed of anarchism? Was there something about the specific culture that made anarchism appealing? And where did this anarchism thrive - specifically in rural areas?

Also, if I'm allowed one more question: why were the Republicans ultimately unsuccessful?

To what extent were foreign fighters disenfranchised with the reality of fighting for communism or fascism, I.e. George Orwell.

What is your opinion on For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway?

Can this conflict be considered the first (and only?) modern proxy war on European soil between two ideologies? Or was it really just pure luck and goodwill from people that made them join without being pushed a little bit by their governments? I know Yugoslav communists were fighting in this conflict but I also know that there is no way they were pushed by the government because the KPJ (yugoslav communist party) was outlawed years back before the war but how was it in other countries?

Why was it that young writers like Hemingway and Orwell fought in the Spanish Civil War?

Also, how did the war affect modern views of Communism, Syndicalism, and Anarchism?

Thanks for the AMA, Dr. Raeburn, it's been interesting so far!

I have two questions:

1. Do you have any recommendations for books or articles to read about the experience of Spanish civil war refugees who settled in Mexico? (Or non-Spanish volunteers who afterward settled in Mexico.)
2. I have often encountered accusations, especially by certain Marxist-Leninists, that Andreu Nin, or the POUM, or even the anarchists, were implicated in a conspiracy with Franco or other wise helped the fascist/nationalist side, or insinuations that Orwell was a spy. Is there any kind of truth to any of those? (Just to clarify, I mean apart from disagreements or conflicts about the strategies or tactics used by the various factions in the war effort.)

Thank you!

In the 60, the 70s, and even 80s there were a number of European and North American volunteers and mercenaries involved in Cold War conflicts in Africa. In your research on war volunteering do you find that there are some specific theoretical differences or similarities in the way these later examples of international volunteering are framed?

Do you also study the first hand accounts of foreign volunteers who supported and fought on the nationalist side: for instance Peter Kemp's "Mine were of Trouble"?

I've been researching a OSS agent for a number of years who served in the French Foreign Legion between February 1932 and January 1937. He didn't return to the US until the early part of 1938, and I've found various OSS/SOE documents that explain the missing year saying that he signed up for a sixth year in the Legion, or that he fought in the Spanish Civil War. Could both be true? Did the FFL play an official role in the Spanish Civil War?

Were most of the volunteers communists/socialists, or did liberals/others also travel to Spain to fight against fascism?

Thank you for participating in the AMA! I lived in Spain for high school and learned of the Civil War while there.

What were the contemporaneous Spanish perspectives of the foreign volunteers? Were they seen as interlopers interfering? Signs of a righteous cause? Important strategic units?

Could you give more detail on why Franco, despite getting Germany's help, did not involve in WWII? And why wasn't Spain invaded during the war when Franco refused to help?

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Thank you!

How were racial minorities treated by revolutionaries and in Catalonian society during this time? How was the Kale (Gitano) community involved in this transition?

Aside from the German Condor Legion, how many foreigners decided to fight the Republicans on behalf of the Nationalists?

What are some things that fictional media (movies, TV shows, books) depicting this time period commonly get right and get wrong?

In anarchist literature, I tend to see two claims that are not repeated that often elsewhere:

1. That the IB were used to repress peasant collectives and restore private property to the countryside, and

2. That vocally non-Stalinist IB members were often expelled, put in gaol or executed.

Is there truth to either of these?

Viva la Quinta Brigada by Christy Moore

To recruit more people, the Lincoln Battalion obscured its origins as a branch of the Communist Internationale by amplifying more Pro-democracy and Pro-liberty messaging.

For an average citizen who was non-communist or non-Stalinist, how effective would the propaganda have been into believing that they truly were fighting for the processes and rights of democracy, rather than a Stalinist organisation? How much political education would've been given to a recruit or volunteer?

What are your thoughts on homage to Catalonia by George Orwell? Have you read it?

Did Hemingway’s books about fishing in Spain in the 20s have any effect on the media’s coverage of the Spanish Civil War?

Do you agree with the assertion by the late Allan Bloom that German Nazism was a left-wing fascism while Franco's fascism was a right-wing fascism? And does that help us understand how little help Nazi Germany and Fascist Spain gave each other, i.e. because of a major ideological disageement?

Hello doctor. In my circles, Spain is well known as an example of war volunteerism in modernity, but it seems pretty rare - most places, mercenaries, standing armies and local guerrillas are the norm.

What made volunteerism loom so large in this particular conflict Are there any plain reasons it has not since?

Dr. Raeburn,

Good evening! My Grandfather served as a volunteer in the Dabrowski battalion under an alias during the war. I was wondering if you could recommend any good sources (english preferred, but I can work with polish or other languages) about this unit and their history, as my searches for info have turned up pretty fruitless. Thank You!

Were there any substantial number of foreign volunteers for the Nationalist side? For example, devout Catholics who viewed this as a struggle to defend the faith? Or anti-communists such as Russian emigres who viewed this as a continuation of their fight?

Thanks for doing the AMA!

Orwell once wrote that USSR's motives in the civil war were "completely inscrutable".

Do you think that this is a reasonable assessment of its actions?
What do you believe the primary motivation(s) of the USSR were in their engagement in the Spanish Civil War?

I read at the end of Giles Tremlett’s book that ‘most’ of the men who had volunteered in the earliest stage of the war (I guess pre-Jarama) were no longer with the Brigades by the time they left Spain in late ‘38. Do you have any idea what the chances of survival for a volunteer who joined at the establishment of the Brigades in November ‘36 and fought all the way through to September ‘38 were?

Not necessarily about the war itself, but about a couple of it's participants. I read somewhere that the organization that would go on to become the FET de y las JONS chose their black and red color scheme to try pulling people from the CNT, and that these "national syndicalists" often tried counter-recruitment from their anti-capitalist counterpart. How true is this, and how frequently did it occur?

Did WWI veterans make up any significant portion of the volunteers? Did this vary by nationality?

Good evening.

I understand this might not get answered.

I’ve read Robert A Rosenstone’s ; Crusade of the Left and a few other books over the years.

If the Russia government would not have supported the Republican forces, do you feel that any other Democratic government would have have in time to be effective?

A second point or a general statement;

As a Canadian I understand our government made it difficult for any veterans of the conflict to return and sabotaged the advancement of these persons from moving up the ranks in WW2.

Was this a common thing for Allied countries and returning veterans from the conflict?

I’m inclined to think so after the half hearted 1919 backing of White Russian forces in The Russian Revolution.

Third question :

What is your take on the Harry Turtledove’s alternative history of the Spanish Civil War in ‘The War that came early’ series , if you read it.

Other than the recent war in Syria, what have been the most recent conflicts that have drawn in large numbers of war volunteers similar to the Spanish Civil War? Are there statistics on the decline of war volunteers and how have they changed over the years?

Edit: changed scope of last question, error corrected

This isn’t really a great question buuuut lots of famous people were involved on the same side of the conflict like George Orwell and Hemingway. Do we know if any of those later celebrities knew each other or worked together at the time?

What happened with the Spanish gold? Did it really end up with Stalin is USSR?

Was the Francoist side of the civil war fully fascist, partially fascist or merely adoptive of fascist aesthetics where appropriate to gain Nazi support and satisfy internal activists, in your opinion?

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Did the majority of volunteers or activists see themselves as fighting against fascism itself, or were many inspired also by a desire to bring about some form of socialism in Spain, especially as time progressed and the influence of independent democrats/anarchists declined?

My grandfather fought in the Lincoln brigade. He was a doctor who they called Dr Shitty because he insisted they dig latrines. I believe there is a roadway named after him but haven’t been able to find where it is, it was called Pike’s highway or passage or something like that. If you have any idea of where in might be, I would love to know

In your introduction you say Spain was a “fairly unimportant European state”. Is that so? According to my knowledge, Spain has always been an important European state in every way through history.

I’m immediately reminded of Wind, Sand and Stars by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry where at the end I believe he was involved in the Spanish Civil War as a sort of journalist. Do you know anything about the role of writers like him in covering the events of the war, especially so first hand and often with gun in hand? I know he was also an advocate for the US to get involved with WWII but I have to imagine part of the Spanish War phenomenon was driven by such personal coverage.

Hey what do you think of Antony Beevor’s The Battle for Spain, and Spain in our Hearts by Adam Hochschild? most of my knowledge of the spanish civil war comes from the former and I’ve been recommended the latter

What were the motives for volunteers that weren’t necessarily fascists or communists? How many people from the allied powers (America, Britain, Canada, Australia, France, etc) fought for Franco, but then later fought against Hitler and facism in the Second World War? Were there any cases of units composed of foreign volunteers encountering each other on the battlefield apart of different sides (I.e. Americans fighting with the republicans encountering Americans fight for Franco)? How many Americans were killed in the war. Were there any other American only units like the famous “Lincoln Battalion”?

How did Franco’s experience during the Spanish Civil War lead him to deciding not to participate in the Second World War even though ideologically he resonated most with the fascist powers as well as received most of his support from Germany, and rose to power around the same time (although a couple years later than Mussolini and Hitler).

Was there any significant participation by non-socialist volunteers?

Hey great thread and thanks for your time and answers!

My Great-grandfather was a soldier all his life (Balkan War,WW1,Spanish Civil War,WW2).

I dont know much about him except the few things his kids (Greatuncles and aunts,grandmother) told me about him.

My question is : Are there registers or official historical documents open to the public where i could look up the name of foreign Volunteers like my Great-grandfather? And where he was stationed or fought and so on.

Or was the War effort so confuse to everybody they didnt care about writing down names?

Did a similar thing happen during the Greek revolution. I think I heard some english helped. Anyone in particular? Also nowadays would it still be possible? Especially assuming you didn't know the language

Is it possible to get a signed copy?

Can I just recommend the film 'Land and Freedom' by Ken Loach starring Ian Hart. It's about a young man from Liverpool going over to Spain to fight against Franco.

Were the Scottish population primarily in favour of the Republicans?

I listened to a podcast on the Irish response , and primarily the population was pro-Franco given the power of the Catholic church and stories coming back from nuns and priests about the horrors they witnessed. I mean , who wouldn't trust a nun?

Would be interesting to hear if the Scottish response was the opposite of this given the different religious nature of the country?

How did the incoming foreign fighters affect public opinion? Did it help galvanize domestic support for Franco?

I’d like to hear your opinion on any of the following: To what extent can Franco and the nationalists be considered “fascist”? What comparisons can be drawn and distinctions made between this and Italian, German and other axis aligned models of governance? How successful were the government in reigning in fascistic sentiments from the Falangist faction in their ranks and did doing so make external powers more tolerant to Spain than they were to other fascist/National Socialist powers?

Do you see any parallels in the Kurdish independence movement in Syria/Turkey/Iraq recently? I know foreign nationals have joined and fought but nearly in the numbers that were evident in Spain. What do you see as different in the contemporary context that may have limited foreign volunteers?

Everybody knows that communists came to help in the Spanish Civil War, however, there are not a lot of mentions to the anarchists contributions to the cause. Do you know how many anarchists came from other countries to help in the war, if any?

Also, in Spain we were taught that there was kind of a 'parallel revolution' at the same time of the war. An example of this was the implementarion of a different coin instead of the pesetas. This was done by the anarchist sector. Is there another example of coin change in during another conflict?

Related to the above things, I know there were some issues between communist and anarchist sides. Do you think that if they had left their differences aside, they could have managed to win the war?

I'm very interested in this period of my country, so sorry for my enthusiasm. And of course, thank you very much!

How accurate a depiction does Orwell paint in Homage to Catalonia? It’s one of my favorite books but I’ve always wondered if his experiences there heavily skewed his writings.

In Ireland we have a song called Viva la Quinta Brigada.

https://youtu.be/xQbXO828Vio

In it they talk about the church supporting Franco. How much truth is in this? Are there accounts of the church encouraging volunteers to fight on the fascist side?

I find this war fascinating, thank you for you time! I have a football shirt of Clapton fc that pays homage to the international brigades. How has the Spanish civil war shaped the various independence movements in Spain? Were there seperatists in these regions before the civil War or was the war a predominant factor?

Did the war volunteering have a significant impact in the outcome of the war and more importantly the consequences of that? Obviously the Nationalists won while the volunteers were on the Republican side. What I mean, if there had been little to no volunteers, would the war have finished earlier, leaving Spain less devastated, meaning Spain could play a more important role in WWII?

I'm sorry for putting in an alt history question!

I can hook you up with Geroges Kopp's grandson (Quentin) if you like. He's a big SCW fan who wrote a book on him.

Was George Orwell a Trotskyist even though he hated the USSR and Trotsky was a large part in its creation? Could an alternative label be humanist?

Any interesting facts about the 5th International brigade? also have you heard the Christy Moore song about them?

Most of the volunteers on the republican side didn't acknowledged the tense years the republic had being through since the beginning and even the enemies the republic had made weren't only the fascists but also the communists backed by Stalin.

Even Orwell changed from a socialist to labour after he witnessed the anarchy in Catalonia.

What were the ideologies of the foreign volunteers and did it changed when they came to fight in Spain? Did some of them changed allegiance and went to the national side?

From what I’ve read of the Spanish civil war is that one side was fascist and one side was communist. So to me it’s two bad ideologies fighting each other. However, from what I’ve seen in the media and academia the communist side is seen as “the good guys”. Why is that?

How many of the "volunteers" in Spain on both sides were truly volunteers?