Stalin and the Spanish Civil War

Kowalsky, Daniel

Daniel Kowalsky

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Kowalsky's study presents a critical reassessment of the role of Josef Stalin and the Soviet Union in the Spanish Civil War. Employing a wide range of declassified Soviet documents, other unpublished materials of Spanish provenance, published memoir accounts, previously unseen cinematic evidence, poster art, and sound recordings, Kowalsky argues that though Stalin's intervention in Spain was enormously ambitious, it was an operational failure of roughly the same scale. The text is accompanied by appendices of images, video clips, and reproductions of archival documents.

Cover
Title Page
Copyright and Permissions
List of Illustrations and Archive Documents
List of Video Clips
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Part I Soviet-Spanish Relations Diplomacy Before and During the Spanish Civil War
- [Intro]
- 1 Soviet and Comintern Policy in Spain Prior to July 1936
  - I Soviet-Spanish Diplomacy October 1917-July 1936
  - II Comintern Activity in Spain Prior to 1936
- 2 Soviet Diplomacy and the Spanish Civil War
  - [Intro]
  - I Soviet Diplomats and the Non-Intervention Committee
  - II Stalin's Diplomats in the Republic
  - III The Diplomats Recalled
- 3 The Spanish Republic's Diplomatic Mission to Moscow
  - [Intro]
  - I Ambassador Pascua
  - II Stagnation and Decline of the Pascua Mission
  - III The Impoverished Republican Embassy
  - IV The Crisis of Communications
  - V Consequences of Neglect
Part II The Campaigns of Solidarity and Soviet Humanitarian Aid to the Spanish Republic
- [Intro]
- 4 The Campaigns of Solidarity in the USSR
  - I The Present Historiography
  - II The Comintern's Organization of an International Solidarity Movement
  - III Five Fundraising Drives, 1936-1938
  - IV The Role of the CPUSSR in Directing the Solidarity Campaigns
  - V Soviet Humanitarian Assistance at the End of the War
- 5 The Evacuation of Spanish Children to the Soviet Union
  - I Historiographic Problems
  - II The Refugee Crisis in Republican Spain
  - III The Evacuations to the USSR
  - IV The Network of Homes for Spanish Children in the USSR
  - V Soviet-style School and Leisure
  - VI Spanish Children and Soviet Propaganda
  - VII Abandoned and Stranded
Part III Soviet Cultural Policy and the Spanish Republic
- [Intro]
- 6 Soviet-Spanish Cultural Relations Prior to the Civil War
  - I The Institutional Framework of Soviet Cultural Policy
  - II Varieties of Individual Philo-Sovietism in Spain, 1928-36
  - III VOKS Cultural Exchange, Agit-prop, or Information Gathering?
- 7 The Soviet Agit-Prop Offensive in Republican Spain, 1936-39
  - I The Dissemination of Soviet Agit-Prop in the Republican Zone
  - II The Role of Soviet Cinema in the Republican Zone
  - III The Anniversaries of the Revolution and Other Propaganda Events
- 8 The Soviet Home Front and Cultural Exchanges with the Republic
  - [Intro]
  - I Soviet filmmakers in Spain
  - II Spanish Culture in the USSR
Part IV Soviet Military Assistance Planning, Supply, and Compensation
- [Intro]
- 9 Operation X
  - I The Initiation of Operation X
  - II The Logistics of Delivery
- 10 Soviet Hardware Supplied to the Republic
- 11 The Spanish Gold and Financing Soviet Military Aid
Part V Soviet Advisors and Military Personnel in the Spanish War
- [Intro]
- 12 Command Structure and Advisory Apparatus in Spain
  - I The Republic Requests Advisors
  - II The Appointment of Soviet Personnel
  - III The Advisors in Republican Spain
- 13 General Activities of the Soviet Advisors
  - I Organization of the Popular Army
  - II Organization of the International Brigades
  - III Military Industry Advisors
  - IV Naval Advisors
  - V Guerrilla Warfare, Military Intelligence, and Counter-Intelligence
  - VI Political Commissars
  - VII Communications Engineers and Advisors
  - VIII The Linguistic Unit Translators and Interpreters
- 14 Soviet Pilots in the Spanish Civil War
  - I The State of the Republic's Air Forces
  - II The First Soviet Pilots Arrive
  - III Initial Soviet sorties in the Spanish war
  - IV The Soviets Lose the Advantage
  - V Problems of Training and Performance
  - VI From Soviet to Spanish Pilots
- 15 Soviet Tank Crews and Tank Instructors
  - I The First Soviet Tankers in Spain
  - II The 1st Armored Brigade
  - III The BT-5 A New Soviet Tank in the Spanish War
- 16 Success and Failure of Operation X
  - [Intro]
  - I Conflict and Poor Performance Among the Soviet Advisors
  - II Distrust, Reprimand, and Lack of Support from Moscow
  - III The Fate of the Advisors
  - IV The Soviet Advisors Assessed
Conclusion
Appendix A An Essay on the Sources
- I Soviet Literature on the Spanish Civil War
  - [Intro]
  - 1 Bibliographies and Historiographic Studies
  - 2 Published Archival Documents
  - 3 Soviet Memoir Accounts
  - 4 Soviet and Post-Soviet Secondary Works
- II Spanish Contributions to the Historiography
- III Western Interpretations of the Soviet Union and the Spanish Civil War
Appendix B Spanish Historical Sources in the Russian Federation
- [Intro]
- I Libraries
  - Russian State Library (former Lenin Library)
  - Russian State Library-Dissertations and Newspapers Branch-Khimki
  - Russian National Library-St. Petersburg State Historical Library-Moscow
- II Archives
  - State Archive of the Russian Federation (Gosudarstvennyi arkhiv Rossiiskoi Federatsii, or GARF)
  - Russian State Archive of Early Acts (Rossiiskii gosudarstvennyi arkhiv drevnikh aktov, or RGADA)
  - Russian State Archive of the Economy (Rossiiskii gosudarstvennyi arkhiv ekonomiki, or RGAE)
  - Russian State Archive of Literature and Art (Rossiiskii gosudarstvennyi arkhiv literatury i iskusstva, or RGALI)
  - Russian State Military Archive (Rossiiskii gosudarstvennyi voennyi arkhiv, or RGVA)
  - Rossiiskii gosudarstvennyi arkhiv sotsial'no-politicheskoi istorii (Russian State Archive of Socio-Political History, or RGASPI; formerly Rossiiskii tsentr khraneniia i izucheniia dokumentov noveishei istorii—Russian Center for Preservation and Study of Records of Modern History, or RTsKhIDNI)
  - Russian State Military History Archive (Rossiiskii gosudarstvennyi voenno-istoricheskii arkhiv, or RGVIA)
  - Russian State Historical Archive (Rossiiskii gosudarstvennyi istoricheskii arkhiv, or RGIA)
  - Russian State Archive of the Navy (Rossiiskii gosudarstvennyi arkhiv Voenno-morskogo flota, or RGAVMF)
  - Russian State Archive of Film and Photographic Documents (Rossiiskii gosudarstvennyi arkhiv kinofotodokumentov, or RGAKFD)
  - Center for Preservation of Contemporary Documentation (Tsentr khraneniia sovremennoi dokumentatsii, or TsKhSD)
  - Center for Preservation of Historico-Documentary Collections (Tsentr khraneniia istoriko-dokumental'nykh kollektsii, TsKhIDK)
  - Archive of Foreign Policy of the Russian Federation (Arkhiv vneshnei politiki Rossiiskoi Federatsii, AVP RF)
  - Archive of Foreign Policy of the Russian Empire (Arkhiv vneshnei politiki Rossiiskoi Imperii, or AVPRI)
  - Archive of the President of the Russian Federation (Arkhiv Prezidenta Rossiiskoi Federatsii, or APRF)
  - Central Archive of the Ministry of Defense (Tsentral'nyi arkhiv Ministerstva oborony, or TsAMO)
  - Central Archive of the Federal Security Service (Tsentral'nyi arkhiv Federal'noi sluzhby bezopasnosti, or TsA FSB Rossii)
- III Museums and Other Organizations
  - Museum of the Revolution (Muzei Revolut'sii, or MR)
  - German Anti-fascist Memorial Museum (Memorial'nyi muzei nemetskikh antifashistov, or MMNA)
  - Archive of War Medicine Documents in the War-Medicine Museum (Archiv Voennoi-meditsinskogo dokumentov Voennoi-meditsinskovo Muzeia, or ABMD-BMM)
  - Institute of War History-Moscow (Institut voinei istorii, or IVI) [Author: translator asks that you check this—is it "istorii voiny"?]
  - War Veterans Committee-Moscow (Komitet veteranov voiny)
Notes
- Introduction
- Part I [Intro]
- 1 Soviet and Comintern Policy in Spain Prior to July 1936
- 2 Soviet Diplomacy and the Spanish Civil War
- 3 The Spanish Republic's Diplomatic Mission to Moscow
- 4 The Campaigns of Solidarity in the USSR
- 5 The Evacuation of Spanish Children to the Soviet Union
- Part III [Intro]
- 6 Soviet-Spanish Cultural Relations Prior to the Civil War
- 7 The Soviet Agit-Prop Offensive in Republican Spain, 1936-39
- 8 The Soviet Home Front and Cultural Exchanges with the Republic
- 9 Operation X
- 10 Soviet Hardware Supplied to the Republic
- 11 The Spanish Gold and Financing Soviet Military Aid
- Part V [Intro]
- 12 Command Structure and Advisory Apparatus in Spain
- 13 General Activities of the Soviet Advisors
- 14 Soviet Pilots in the Spanish Civil War
- 15 Soviet Tank Crews and Tank Instructors
- 16 Success and Failure of Operation X
- Appendix A An Essay on the Sources
Bibliography
- Archival Materials
  - Spanish Archives
  - Russian Archives
  - Other Archives
- Published Official Documents
  - USSR
  - United States
  - Italy
  - Great Britain
  - France
  - Germany
- Published Sources (including unpublished secondary works)
- Newspapers and Periodicals
About the Author