Soviet Union
During the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939), the Soviet Union supported the Republican side. Already in 1935, in the aftermath of Hitler’s rise to power, the Soviet Union had influenced the Comintern to take up the policy of building Popular Front governments. In Spain, the Partido Comunista de España (PCE), the Spanish Communist Party, joined the Spanish Popular Front, winning the elections in February 1936. Once the civil war broke out in July, the communist influence in Republican Spain grew. The Soviet Union provided weapons and military advisors and, through the Comintern, coordinated humanitarian aid to the Spanish Republic and helped organize the International Brigades. The Soviet Union used its growing influence in Spain to prevent other leftist groups, such as the Confederación Nacional del Trabajo (CNT) or the POUM (Partido Obrero de Unificación Marxista), from pursuing a social revolution, focusing instead on defeating the Spanish Nationalists.
International Brigade Memorial Trust (IBMT). “The Soviet Union and the Spanish Civil War.”
Comintern
Abbreviation of the Communist International, also known as the Third International. Established by Vladimir Lenin in 1919, the Comintern was a coalition of national communist parties headed by the Soviet Union. Its original goal was the spread of world communism. By 1935, the rise of fascism led the Comintern to abandon the ideal of social revolution and to embrace instead the defense of liberal democracy through the Popular Front. During the Spanish Civil War, the Comintern played a key role in coordinating the various policies on Spain by national communist parties. It also funneled aid to Spain and organized the International Brigades.
Marxist Internet Archive. “The Communist International.”
Communist Party of the United States of America (CPUSA)
The CPUSA was established in 1921 after a split with the Socialist Party of America two years earlier. During the 1930s, its membership grew in part due to Americans’ disillusionment with capitalism in the aftermath of the Great Depression and the rise of fascism. The CPUSA officially aided Republican Spain by raising funds for medical and humanitarian relief. Unofficially, it also helped recruit American volunteers to fight in Spain with the International Brigades. Shortly after the Spanish Nationalists won the civil war, the Soviet Union and the United States found themselves fighting as allies against Nazi Germany in World War II. After World War II, their ideological differences led to the Cold War. In the United States, during the McCarthy era, Americans suspected of supporting communism were persecuted. Many American volunteers who had served in Spain were investigated by Senator Joseph McCarthy or by the FBI because of their party affiliation.
Marxist Internet Archive. “Communist Party, USA.”
North American Committee to Aid Spanish Democracy (NACASD)
Established in 1936, this was one of the main organizations that coordinated the raising of funds and humanitarian aid to Republican Spain. While close to the CPUSA, it was an umbrella organization that included a variety of pro-Republic and antifascist associations from ethnic societies to trade unions.
Sonia García López. “Loyalist Voices Crying Out across the Ocean.” The Volunteer. 2 May 2020.
Partido Comunista de España (PCE)
The Spanish Communist Party was established in 1921 after a split with the Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party (PSOE). The PCE was one of the parties that made up the Spanish Popular Front. While relatively small before the war, the PCE gained membership and popular support during the Spanish Civil War. This was partially due to the PCE’s emphasis on fighting for a Republican military victory while stalling efforts for a broader workers’ revolution. At the end of the Spanish Cicil War, many leaders of the PCE, like the famous orator Dolores Ibárruri, known as Pasionaria, went into exile to the Soviet Union. The PCE was banned during the Franco dictatorship (1939-1975) but legalized again in 1977 during Spain’s transition to democracy.
Marxist Internet Archive. “Dolores Ibárruri ‘La Pasionaria.’”
Confederación Nacional del Trabajo (CNT) and POUM (Partido Obrero de Unificación Marxista)
The CNT, or National Confederation of Labor, was a Spanish confederation of anarcho-syndicalist labor unions, and not a communist organization. They wanted to give full control of the means of production (like factories) directly to the labor unions without an overarching government. During the Spanish Civil War, the CNT and the POUM (the anti-Stalinist Workers’ Party of Marxist Unification) pushed for a workers’ revolution. But other supporters of the Spanish Republic, including the Spanish Communist Party (PCE), prioritized winning the war against Franco’s Nationalists. In May 1937, infighting between these groups broke out in Barcelona, which led to the eventual repression of anarchists in Catalonia in 1937. Supporters of the CNT and POUM were militarily defeated by Republican forces, the latter backed by the PCE and the Soviet Union. Under Franco’s dictatorship the CNT was persecuted and forced to act clandestinely.
Andy Durgan. “Revolutionary Anarchism in Spain: the CNT, 1911-1937.”
Marxist Internet Archive. “Workers’ Party of Marxist Unification (POUM).”
Warwick Library. “The Barcelona May Days, 1937.”
Popular Front
A policy established officially by the Comintern in 1935, the Popular Front was part of the Soviet strategy to build friendlier relations with their former political adversaries, like social and liberal democrats. The Popular Front wanted to create unity against the common enemy of fascism, particularly in Nazi Germany and then in Spain. In Spain, the Frente Popular (a coalition that included socialists, communists, and liberal Republicans) won the elections in February 1936. It was against this elected government that General Franco would rebel in July 1936 and start the civil war.
Encyclopedia of Marxism. “Popular Front (aka People’s Front).”
Young Communist League (YCL)
The youth wing of the Communist Party of America (CPUSA), whose membership grew in the 1930s. Many volunteers of the International Brigades belonged to the YCL. Two of the men who signed the fan, Michael Feller and Michael Sidorovich, were members of the Young Communist League.
Marxist Internet Archive. “Young Communist League.”
Communist Leaders
Stalin/Trotsky divide
Communists began to split along different ideological lines after Vladimir Lenin, the leader of the Soviet Union, died in 1924. Josef Stalin took control of the Soviet Communist Party after he defeated Leon Trotsky, another leader of the Russian Revolution and head of the Red Army. Stalin exiled Trotsky in 1929. In 1938, Trotsky and his followers established the Fourth International as an alternative to the Third International (Comintern) supported by Stalin and the Soviet Union. Trotsky’s Fourth International was committed to the revolution and world communism. In Stalinist Soviet Union, Trotskyists suffered the repression of the Great Purges (1937-1938). In Spain, this conflict pitted the Spanish Republican government, backed by the Soviet Union, against the Trotskyist Workers’ Party of Marxist Unification (POUM). After the infighting in May 1937, the Spanish Republic banned the POUM and arrested many of its leaders. In 1940, Trotsky was assassinated in Mexico City by Ramon Mercader, a Spanish communist agent who had fought in the Spanish Civil War.
Leon Trotsky. “Collected Writings on the Spanish Revolution.” Trotsky Internet Archive.
Earl Browder (1891- 1973)
General Secretary and Chairman of the Communist Party of the USA (CPUSA) from 1930 to 1945, and twice Presidential candidate (1936 and 1940). Browder visited Spain during the Spanish Civil War. In 1937, he addressed volunteers from the Abraham Lincoln Brigade after the battle of Teruel.
David Jorge and Sebastiaan Faber. “Naming the Lincoln Battalion.” The Volunteer (13 March 2016).
Encyclopedia of Marxism. “Earl R. Browder”
Ernst Thälmann (1886-1944)
German communist and head of the German Communist Party (KPD) from 1925 to 1933. Following Hitler’s rise to power in 1933, Thälmann was arrested by the Gestapo (German Secret Police). He was imprisoned for eleven years and eventually executed in the concentration camp of Buchenwald on Hitler’s personal orders. Several units of German volunteers in the International Brigades, who were themselves political exiles of Nazi Germany, were named after Thälmann, like the well-known Thälmann Battalion. Hans Maslowski, the owner of the fan with the signatures, was originally assigned to the Thälmann Battery.
Gedenkstätte Deutscher Widerstand. “Ernst Thälmann.”
Memorials in Hamburg in Remembrance of Nazi Crimes. “Ernst Thälmann memorial.”