The Spanish Civil War (111 page)

(6) Catalonia. Bricall’s
Politica económica de la Generalitat
(Barcelona, 1970) is a major contribution to the economic history of the war. Most of the anarchist accounts have valuable information, in particular the books previously cited of Semprún Maura, Abad de Santillán and Pérez Baró. Manuel Benavides’s
Guerra y revolución en Cataluña
(Mexico, 1946) is a vivid account favourable to the PSUC. See Carlos Pi Sunyer,
La república y la guerra
(Mexico, 1975) and Frederic Escofet, who gives a good account of 19 to 20 July 1936 in
Al servei de Catalunya i de la república,
2 volumes (Paris, 1973). George Orwell’s
Homage to Catalonia
(London, 1938) brilliantly evokes the scene in May 1937. See also the life of Companys by Ossorio y Gallardo (cited in section IV [11] above). Azaña’s diaries have ample comment. For right-wing views of Catalonia under the republic, see F. La Cruz,
El alzamiento la revolución y el terror en Barcelona
(Barcelona, 1943) and José María Fontana,
Los catalanes en la guerra de España
(Madrid, 1951).

(7) On the Basques, G. L. Steer’s
The Tree of Gernika
(London, 1938) is an exciting account of the war in Vizcaya, very pro-Basque. A. de Lizarra’s
Los vascos y la república española
(Buenos Aires, 1944) gives the views of Manuel de Irujo. José Antonio Aguirre’s
De Guernica a Nueva York pasando por Berlin
(Buenos Aires, 1944) does not help much. A military study is Sancho de Beurko,
Gudaris, recuerdos de guerra
(Buenos Aires, 1956). See also Stanley Payne’s history.

(8) For the POUM, see George Orwell,
Homage to Catalonia
(London, 1938), Joaquín Maurín’s
Revolución y contrarevolución en España
(second edition, Paris, 1966) and Julián Gorkin’s
Canibales políticos
(Mexico, 1947). A new version of Gorkin’s story had appeared as
El proceso de Moscú en Barcelona
(Barcelona, 1974). A recent essay is Andrés Suárez’s
El proceso contra el POUM
(Paris, 1974). Katia Landau’s
Le Stalinisme en Espagne
(Paris, 1938) exposes the communist persecution of the POUM. Grandizo Munis’s
Jalones de derrota
(Mexico, 1948) is a well-written view of the failure of the revolution, from a roughly
POUMista
angle. See also Manuel Casanova,
L’Espagne livrée
(reprinted Paris, 1971). One of the best memoirs is Víctor Alba’s
Sísifo y su tiempo, Memorias de un cabreado
(
1916–1996
) (Barcelona, 1996).

(9) The appalling circumstances in which many lived behind the lines are vividly described in such works as
The General Cause
(a report on the mass law suit that followed the war undertaken by the victors, Madrid, 1943, and
reprinted). See too Father Montero’s book,
La persecución religiosa en España
(Madrid, 1961), Pilar Millán Astray’s
Cautivas: 32 meses en las prisiones rojas
(Madrid, 1940), Agustín de Foxá’s novel,
Madrid, de Corte a checa
(San Sebastián, 1938), the trial reported in the book entitled
Por qué hice las chekas de Barcelona
(Madrid, 1940) by Rafael López Chacón, and some of the POUM’s attacks on the communists (e.g., the works cited by Julián Gorkin, Katia Landau and Manuel Buenacasa). Angel Cervera’s
Madrid en Guerra
(Madrid, 1998) illuminates many dark corners.

(10) The economic history of the republic demands more careful study than hitherto made. But see the works of Bricall, Semprún Maura, Mintz, Delclaux, Sardá and Stanley Payne (
The Spanish Revolution
) cited above.

(1) There is much interesting material in Jesús Salas Larrazábal’s
Intervención extranjera en la guerra de España
(Madrid, 1974). There are short diplomatic accounts by P. A. M. van der Esch,
Prelude to War
(The Hague, 1951) and Dante Puzzo,
Spain and the Great Powers, 1936–1941
(New York, 1962). Fernando Schwarz’s
La internacionalización de la guerra civil española
(Barcelona, 1971) is suggestive. N. J. Padelford’s
International Law and Diplomacy in the Spanish Civil War
(Cambridge, Mass., 1939) is still the best survey of the legal issues. A. J. Toynbee, with V. M. Boulter and Katherine Duff, still gives the best study of the war as an international problem in
The Survey of International Affairs,
1937, volume II, and for 1938, volume I (London, 1938 and 1948 respectively). The Red Cross representative in Spain, Marcel Junod, has a good section in his
Warrior without Weapons
(London, 1951). Herbert Southworth’s
La Destruction de Guernica
(Paris, 1975) is an illuminating study of press reactions. I was fortunate to have access to the memoirs and papers, then unpublished, of Pablo de Azcárate, the Republican ambassador in London in 1936–1939. Gerald Howson’s
Arms for Spain
(London, 1998), a meticulous study, reveals much.

(2) The International Brigades have been widely written about. Almost every country in the world has their special history. The best general history is the encyclopedic if indigestible work of Andreu Castells,
Las brigadas internacionales en la guerra de España
(Barcelona, 1974). See also Jacques Delperrie de Bayac,
Les Brigades internationales
(Paris, 1968), and Vincent Brome,
The International Brigades
(London, 1965). Colonel Martínez Bande’s
Brigadas internacionales
(Barcelona, 1972) is less impressive than his other work and Ricardo de la Cierva’s
Leyenda y tragedia de las brigadas internacionales
(Madrid, 1969), slight. The appendix in Ramón Salas Larrazábal’s
Historia del ejército popular de
la república,
volume IV (Madrid, 1974), is interesting. But Rémi Skoutelsky’s
L’Espoir guidait leurs pas
(Paris, 1998) is in many ways the best study of all now, though it discusses France.

(3) Britain and the civil war is investigated by K. W. Watkins’s
Britain Divided
(London, 1963). British foreign policy is considered by Anthony Eden’s worthy
Facing the Dictators
(London, 1962) and
The Diplomatic Diaries of Oliver Harvey
(London, 1970). British diplomats in Spain who make a contribution include Sir Robert Hodgson (
Spain Resurgent,
London, 1953), Sir Geoffrey Thompson (
Front Line Diplomat,
London, 1959) and Sir Samuel Hoare (
Ambassador on Special Mission,
London, 1946). The best background to British diplomacy at that time is Keith Middlemas’s
Diplomacy of Illusion
(London, 1972). British intellectual reaction to the war is captured by Peter Stansky and William Abrahams,
Journey to the Frontier
(London, 1966), a study of John Cornford and Julian Bell. The best books by British participants are Esmond Romilly’s
Boadilla
(London, 1971), John Sommerfield’s
Volunteer in Spain
(London, 1937), Tom Wintringham’s
English Captain
(London, 1939), George Orwell’s book earlier cited, and Jason Gurney’s
Crusade in Spain
(London, 1974). See also Carmel Haden Guest,
David Guest: a Scientist Fights for Freedom
(London, 1939). A survey of the British volunteers can be found in William Rust’s
Britons in Spain
(London, 1939); it is uncritical. See also Peter Davison,
Orwell in Spain
(London, 2001).

The only work of a British volunteer for Franco is Peter Kemp’s vivid
Mine Were of Trouble
(London, 1957).

Irish involvement with the nationalists is commemorated by General O’Duffy’s
Crusade in Spain
(London, 1938).

(4) French foreign policy and the Spanish civil war is exposed in the several volumes of foreign policy documents published as
Documents diplomatiques français 1932–1939,
2nd series, 1968 onwards (volumes III to VII). See also the account given by Léon Blum in
Les Événements survenus en France
(Report of the parliamentary commission of inquiry into the causes of the defeat in 1940, published Paris, 1955). There is also material in Pierre Cot’s
The Triumph of Treason
(Chicago, 1944), Georges Bonnet’s
De Washington au Quai d’Orsay
(Geneva, 1946) and General Gamelin’s
Servir
(Paris, 1946–7). An excellent survey of the propaganda war in France is D. W. Pike’s
Conjecture Propaganda and Deceit and the Spanish Civil War
(Stanford, 1970). Maître Isorni’s
Phillipe Pétain,
2 volumes (Paris, 1972) has an interesting chapter on Pétain and Spain. Malraux’s
L’Espoir
(Paris, 1937) has incomparable passages.

The part of French volunteers for the republic is summarized in
L’Épopée d’Espagne
(Paris, 1957). The best book on the matter, though, is Rémi Skoutel
sky,
L’Espoir guidait leurs pas
(Paris, 1998). See also Henri Dupré,
La
‘
Légion Tricolore
’
en Espagne
(Paris, 1942) for suggestions that not all Marty’s fantasies were unfounded.

(5) On Germany and the civil war, the foreign policy documents Series D, volume III, are invaluable. German policy is analysed in Manfred Merkes,
Die deutsche Politik im Spanischen Bürgerkrieg
(Bonn, 1969), and Glenn Harper (in the book cited in section VII [4] above). There are some accounts by fliers in the Condor Legion, for example General Galland’s
The First and the Last
(London, 1957). A brilliant study is Angel Viñas’s
La alemania Nazi y el 18 de julio
(Madrid, 1974), several times reprinted.

For the Germans who fought for the republic, see Gustav Regler’s excellent
The Owl of Minerva
(London, 1959), Ludwig Renn’s
Der Spanische Krieg
(Berlin, 1955) and Alfred Kantorowicz’s
Spanisches Tagebuch
(Berlin, 1948) and
‘Tschapaiew’, das Bataillon der 21 Nationen
(Berlin, 1956).

(6) Italian diplomacy towards Spain can be studied in Ciano’s
Diaries 1937–1938
(London, 1952) and
1939–1943
(London, 1947), and
Ciano’s Diplomatic Papers
(London, 1948). See also Roberto Cantalupo,
Fu la Spagna
(Milan, 1948). The military intervention is summarized in José Luis Alcofar Nassaes,
CTV: los legionarios italianos en la guerra civil española
(Barcelona, 1972), and there is still a point in looking at older accounts such as Ambrogio Bollati’s
La Guerra di Spagna,
2 volumes (Turin, 1937, 1939), or Francesco Belforte,
La guerra civile in Spagna
(Milan, 1938). There are also some accounts by Italian volunteers for Franco, such as Emilio Faldella’s
Venti mesi de guerra in Spagna
(Florence, 1939) or Sancho Piazzoni’s
Las tropas flechas negras en la guerra de España
(Barcelona, 1942), and Ruggero Bonomi’s
Viva la muerte
(Rome, 1941). On the left, there are books by Randolfo Pacciardi (
Il battaglione Garibaldi,
Lugano, 1948), Luigi Longo (
Le brigate internazionale in Spagna,
Rome, 1956), Pietro Nenni (
La Guerre d’Espagne,
Paris, 1959), Giovanni Pesce (
Un garibaldino in Spagna,
Rome, 1955) and Carlo Penchienati (
Brigate Internazionale in Spagna,
Milan, 1950). The best background to the politics of the left is in Paolo Spriano’s
Storia del partito comunista italiano,
volume III (Turin, 1970).

(7) The best study of Russian policy is still D. T. Cattell’s
Soviet Diplomacy and the Spanish Civil War
(Berkeley, 1957), although it does not take into consideration the large collection of recent Russian memoirs. The most important of these is
Bago la bandera de la España republicana
(Moscow, about 1970). For Russian diplomacy, there is Ivan Maisky’s
Spanish Notebooks
(London, 1966), for unofficial war and diplomacy there is Mikhail Kolstov’s
Diario de la guerra de España
(republished Paris, 1963) and Louis Fischer’s
Men and Politics
(New York, 1963). See also Walter Krivitsky’s
I Was Stalin’s Agent
(London, 1963) and Ilya Ehrenburg’s memoirs, volume III,
The Eve of War 1933–1941
(London,
1963). Obviously, many of the studies of communism are also helpful in interpreting Russian policy.

(8) The volumes of US Foreign Policy documents in their
Foreign Relations
series (1936, volume II; 1937, volume I; 1938, volume I; 1939, volume II, Washington, 1954–1956) are interesting. See also the memoir by the US Ambassador, Claude Bowers,
My Mission to Spain
(New York, 1954). For oil policy, see Herbert Feis,
The Spanish Story
(New York, 1948). Analyses of US foreign policy towards Spain can be found in Richard Traina,
American Diplomacy and the Spanish Civil War
(Bloomington, 1968), and F. J. Taylor,
The United States and the Spanish Civil War
(New York, 1956).

There are many personal accounts of American volunteers in Spain; among them are Steve Nelson,
The Volunteers
(Leipzig, 1954), Edwin Rolfe,
The Lincoln Battalion
(New York, 1939), and Alvah Bessie’s
Men in Battle
(New York, 1939). The most balanced account of the Abraham Lincoln battalion is that of Cecil Eby,
Between the Bullet and the Lie
(New York, 1969), but see Arthur Landis’s
The Abraham Lincoln Brigade
(New York, 1967) to warm the heart.

Ernest Hemingway’s famous novel
For Whom the Bell Tolls
(New York, 1940) is often illuminating. Many American journalists wrote interestingly at the time; among them see the books of Herbert Matthews,
Two Wars and More to Come
(New York, 1938), and H. R. Knickerbocker,
The Siege of the Alcázar
(Philadelphia, 1936).

The intellectual impact of Spain on the US is considered in Allen Guttmann’s
The Wound in the Heart
(New York, 1962).

(9) Other countries affected by the Spanish Civil War include Mexico, about whose involvement see Lois Elwyn Smith,
Mexico and the Spanish Republicans
(Berkeley, 1955); Switzerland, for which see Max Wullschleger,
Schweizer Kämpfen in Spanien
(Zurich, 1939); Cuba, for which see Raúl Roa,
Pablo de la Torriente Brau y la revolución española
(Havana, 1937); as well as most of the central European countries. Some indication of the importance of the conflict for the Czechs, for example, can be seen in Artur London’s
L’Aveu
(Paris, 1969). For very detailed studies in most East European countries about their numbers and participation see Castells’s bibliography. Portugal’s role can be studied in
Dez anos de política externa
(
1936–47
), vol. III (Lisbon, 1965).