Великая Испанская революция

The European diplomacy was caught off guard by the internationalization of the conflict in Spain. At first, it seemed like the situation would be quickly resolved either by a victory or defeat of revolution. Instead of which a prolonged war began; moreover, in many respects it began due to external intervention. Intense diplomatic activity around the Spanish tragedy made some authors to believe that the destiny of Spain was not solved in Madrid. That corresponded to the opinion of the rulers of destinies of the World in London, Paris, Berlin and Rome. But the Spaniards fighting spoilt a game to the European diplomacy. If the republicans had not defended Madrid, not continued struggling up to 1939, «the Spanish item» would have been quickly removed from the agenda. The destiny of Spain was shaped not only in Madrid, but in Madrid as well. Contrary to the opinion of some politicians of the Republic (including President Aza~na) and some modern historians, the war had not been initially lost by republicans, all the more so as they had received the timely aid from the USSR which alongside with inter-brigades counterbalanced the factor of fascist intervention up to 1938.

Showing resistance to the fascism, Spain changed a situation in the Europe. It built up strained relations between the conservative government of the Great Britain and People’s Front of France which was «ideologically aligned» with the Republic. However, the leaders of French People’s Front in fact betrayed the Spanish Republic being afraid of both the revolution and fascism. The war in Spain enabled rapprochement between Germany and Italy, and in order to return Italy to «Antanta» the Great Britain and France were ready to sacrifice the Spanish Republic. The policy of appeasement which reached a «Munich moment» had first been «approbated» in Spain in the form of hands off approach. The USSR participated in it for tactical reasons. After having checked that the fascists didn’t stop helping the rebellion, the Soviet management also began to assist the Republic. It was of the essential importance for the USSR both for ideological and foreign policy reasons that the Republic didn’t crash. The war in Spain was not only the first large-scale fight against fascism. It distracted attention of the West including Nazism from the borders of the USSR in an opposite direction.

Spain affected the course of events in the crucial second half of the 1930s by becoming the major political and military testing ground. Spain provided the invaluable military and political experience in such matters as a role of aviation and artillery in modern war (tanks hadn’t won their spurs yet), relationship between the front line and rear, etc. Not always that experience was apprehended, and partly it became outdated with the beginning of the Second World War and its blitzkriegs. Military experts of the USSR and France could make sure that a «war of motors» might be a positional war — as the First World War was. It led to tragic mistakes in 1940–1941.

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The beginning of the Civil War, distribution of arms among civilians in the Republic led to the beginning of not just a socio-political, but deep social revolution, qualitative changes in property relations and the political system. As a result of industrial collectivization (incautation, socialization) in Spain, first of all in Catalonia and Aragon, a new sector of economy appeared that qualitatively differed both from the capitalist ones, and from the state ones — first of all by the advanced system of industrial democracy, participation of a worker in taking industrial decisions. The negative attitude of the anarchist doctrine to the «democracy» as to the multi-party parliamentary system didn’t prevent anarcho-syndicalists from incorporating democracy in the sphere of production. Relying on the trade-union structures, the аnarcho-syndicalists and the left socialists made a practical step to divorce a producer from the means of production. But it was just a step.