Великая Испанская революция

The Great Spanish Revolution was caused by several deep social conflicts generated by antagonism of «two Spains»: conservative religious Spain and secular progressive Spain; contradictions of transition to industrialization in the agrarian society; the choice between strategies of transition to the social state during the Great Depression. Such overlapping resulted in the formation of a wide ideological spectrum, from anarchists to fascists. Under the circumstances the liberal center degraded and enjoyed less support. The rapid development of the anarchist movement, especially anarcho-syndicalism, became an important feature of the Spanish Revolution even in comparison with the Russian Revolution where the anarchism also played an important role. Social solidarity traditions of Spanish workers also facilitated the development of socialist ideas, especially anarcho-syndicalism.

Each influential political force of the Spanish tragedy was not monolithic. The right CEDA vibrated between fascism and conservatism, and the fascism tried to combine the Italian patterns, the Spanish conservative tradition and syndicalism. The liberal organizations moved either towards conservatism (radicals) or social democratic values. PSOE was torn apart by the struggle of the left socialists (caballerists) and social-liberals (prietists, etc.). The libertarian camp included a wide spectrum of parties, from anarchist extremism to moderate syndicalism close to the left social democracy. The contradictions between Marxist-Leninists were the sharpest. The Communist Party of Spain (CPS) and National-Communist (procommunist) PSUC considered the Anti-Stalin Marxist-Leninist POUM which tried to make an collaboration with CNT to be main enemy of CPS-PSUC alongside with the fascism. The important role in a political life was played by the trade unions which in fact controlled their members not only in social, but in the political aspect as well.

The situation in Spain also depended on the world developments: Great Depression, struggle between fascism and communism. In the Spanish circumstances, the People’s Front policy initiated by Comintern was of great importance. It provided the organizational form for consolidation of the left forces and facilitated the transition of CPS to the moderate positions. However, the People’s Front won the election partly due to support of anarcho-syndicalists.

The political heat developed after the People’s Front had come to power didn’t quite match up the mildness of the reforms implemented by the liberal government. The mass moods were «piled up» and radicalized by the ideological elite. The potential victory of political opponents was considered a catastrophe. The moderate policy of liberals didn’t correspond with the depth of social crisis. The profascist militaries exploited the situation to seize power and destroy the Republic. Although Franco and his generals indentified themselves with a multiple-valued term «nationalists», their ideology had fascist character.

When the militaries tried to put an end to the governance of the Left, they immediately received a counterstroke from the trade unions and socialist parties. They secured a full mobilization and achieved distribution of arms to the people. The republican army began to form as a militia army. It assured the initial success of republicans over the greater part of the country.

Both the rebellion and fighting against it were accompanied by terror. Antirepublican terror was more regular, whereas one from the republic anarchists more spontaneous.

The assistance provided by «Axis» countries helped rebels to recover from the first attack in July. It became clear that the republican militia, which surpassed the army in the city conditions, was unable to pursue an offensive war. CNT militia failed to attack Saragossa. There the front consolidated. In the other regions where the militia system was not supported by the strong syndicalism structure in the rear, the militia could not maintain any sufficient resistance to the direct attack of the army.