A biased and incomplete version of history
Spanish Civil War was a hotbed of competing left-wing political factions
UPEI history professor Ian Dowbiggin properly points out that the history of the Spanish Civil War is complicated and was a hotbed of competing left-wing political factions. This is hardly a profound or original insight for those who know anything about that war. However, for political purposes only known to himself, Dowbiggin has chosen to spin his own biased and incomplete version of history (Guardian, June 24, 2017).
Biases play an important role in determining which interpretation of events one decides to accept. The Spanish Civil War has been studied and written about voluminously by scholars and journalists of various persuasions. Mr. Dowbiggin should be very careful about the sources he relies on, but fails to identify. The various works basically fall into two categories — standard histories and Trotskyist. Thomas, Payne, Brenan, amongst others, are comprehensive and balanced accounts of the conflict; Orwell’s Homage to Catalonia is the main Trotskyist polemic that has its own biases that Dowbiggin seems to echo.
Mr. Dowbiggin inaccurately suggests that the Spanish Republicans lost because, “support for the Republicans came from ... Stalin’s Soviet Union,” rather than their being defeated by Franco’s Falangists supported by the German Nazis. Soviet support for the Spanish Republicans is hardly a secret to anyone who knows the history of the Spanish Civil War. Indeed, if Dowbiggin had bothered to read my article, he would have noted that I explicitly stated in para 8 that, “Spain’s duly elected left-wing government ... was supported by the Soviet Union. “
The factional rivalry and discord on the left during the Spanish Civil War is hardly a secret and is well known to historians and political commentators. But this internecine warfare was hardly the primary cause of the Spanish Republic’s defeat — the primary reason was the superior military resources supplied to Franco’s fascists by Nazi Germany. Dowbiggin confuses cause and effect.
Significantly, Dowbiggin fails to mention that the Soviet Union under Stalin was virtually the only country to support Republican Spain during the civil war. Furthermore, both Britain and France (and the U.S.), the so-called democracies, failed to support the Spanish Republicans by denying them material support and weapons, in keeping with their antipathy to the left-wing Spanish Republic and their reluctance to confront Hitler. Some diplomatic historians have even suggested that if the democracies had supported the Spanish Republic, Hitler would have been forced to back down and temper his military ambitions.
The left-wing Republican government in Spain sent out a call for volunteers in 1936 to fight against Franco’s fascist forces. Some 35,000 volunteers from all over the world went to Spain to fight in the International Brigades. Most volunteers were young workers, intellectuals, and students, many of whom were highly committed communist party members. This included 1,600 Canadians who joined the Mackenzie-Papineau Battalion (Mac-Paps) that fought in three major battles; half of the MacPaps were killed in action. The U.S. and Canada made it illegal for people to fight in Spain. These brave volunteers were called “premature anti-fascists,” because they understood what was coming next. They deserve to be remembered. History proved them right.
The Spanish Republic and the International Brigades that supported it will be remembered for their idealism and courage, despite the braying of their detractors. As a survivor of the Mac-Paps put it, “I never thought that evil could win.” But history has moved on. And a few years ago as I walked the beautiful streets of Madrid, Cordoba, Barcelona, and Cadiz, and saw the trappings of a liberal democracy and a modern welfare state, I thought I heard General Franco spinning in his grave.