Stanley G. Payne - The Spanish Civil War, the Soviet Union, and Communism

THE SPANISH CIVIL WAR, THE SOVIET UNION, AND COMMUNISM

STANLEY G. PAYNE

Published with assistance from the Louis Stern Memorial Fund.

Copyright 2004 by Stanley Payne. All rights reserved. This book may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, including illustrations, in any form (beyond that copying permitted by Sections 107 and 108 of the U.S. Copyright Law and except by reviewers for the public press), without written permission from the publishers.

Designed by Rebecca Gibb. Set in Scala by Duke & Company. Printed in the United States of America by R. R. Donnelley & Sons.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Payne, Stanley G.

The Spanish Civil War, the Soviet Union, and communism / Stanley G. Payne.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 0-300-10068-X (hardcover : alk. paper)

1. CommunismSpain. 2. CommunismSoviet Union. 3. Communist InternationalHistory. 4. Soviet UnionRelationsSpain. 5. SpainRelationsSoviet Union. 6. SpainHistory1868-1931. 7. SpainHistoryRepublic, 1931-1939. 8. SpainHistoryCivil War, 1936-1939. I. Title.

HX343.P39 2004

946.08130947dc22

2003018761

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

The paper in this book meets the guidelines for permanence and durability of the Committee on Production Guidelines for Book Longevity of the Council on Library Resources.

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

To the memory of Burnett Bolloten (1909-1987)

The policy and intervention of the Soviet Union have long remained among the least explored and most controversial aspects of the Spanish Civil War. Seizure of most of the German documents in 1945, together with the general accessibility of the Italian state data, provided opportunities years ago to resolve the major problems associated with the German and Italian intervention. In the Soviet case, access to copious documentation in the Comintern and military archives was restricted to favored Soviet scholars, and only very limited material drawn from them appeared in Russian-language publications on the Spanish conflict. A new opportunity was created by the collapse of the Soviet Union, which, at least for a number of years, greatly broadened access to most, though not all, Soviet archives.

The availability of previously inaccessible documents has made possible several important new publications. The first was Queridos camaradas (1999), the excellent study of Comintern policy in Spain by Antonio Elorza and Marta Bizcarrondo, which resolved a number of problems for the first time. This work was followed by a key collection of Soviet documents, Spain Betrayed (2001), prepared by Ronald Radosh, Mary Habeck, and Grigory Sevostianov, which illuminates both political and military affairs. Other works have appeared in several languages.

This book is the first broadly synthetic account of Soviet policy and its relation to the revolutionary process in Spain during the 1930s. By combining new Soviet data with Spanish and other sources, it broadens the perspective on that conflict.

I gratefully acknowledge the pioneering work of the scholars who have ventured into the field before me, notably my former doctoral student Daniel L. Kowalsky, whose excellent account of the relations between the Soviet Union and the Spanish Republic during the Civil War I hope will soon be published. Their research has helped to make this book possible. The manuscript has been read and criticized by Juan Linz and Michael Seidman, and has profited considerably from their advice. Barbara Salazar edited the manuscript with altogether unusual care and skill.

I dedicate the book to the memory of my cherished friend and colleague Burnett Bolloten, an altogether extraordinary man who devoted much of his life to collecting and studying data on the Spanish conflict. His work remains indispensable to its understanding.