"Your Comrades Will Not Forget": Revolutionary Memory and the Breakdown of the Spanish Second Republic, 1934-1936

Abstract

According to George Mosse, the cult of the fallen soldier formed an inexorable part of the memories of World War I. Images portraying the suffering and death of the soldiers helped create the Myth of the War Experience and provided it with powerful new symbols which could be evoked to solidify extreme nationalism. The glorification of the dead served to mask the terrible realities of war and convinced citizens that the sacrifices of the young men had not been in vain. Instead, their blood sacrifice would purify and strengthen the nation leaving it more powerful than before. The cult of the fallen soldier proved especially effective in the defeated nations but examples can be located in nearly all the countries that participated. 1 Spain, however, had remained neutral in the Great War and thus, the cemeteries and monuments so central to the creation of the Myth never materialized. 2 Nevertheless, the concept of redemption through suffering and the political use of this imagery had long played an important role in Spanish history. Chroniclers well into the twentieth century, for example, remembered and celebrated the suicidal defense of Numancia by native Iberians against the Roman legions. The memories of past heroes could be used to support current [End Page 65] political positions, as when patriotic writers in the nineteenth century christened the ninth-century Martyrs of Córdoba as the first Spanish nationalists. 3 The painter Francisco Goya commemorated the failed revolt of 2 May 1808 with two grand canvases. It is significant that the painting of the actual revolt itself is less celebrated than the famous scene depicting the executions of prisoners by the French on the following day. Eventually the uprising and combat against Napoleon became legendary components of what the Spanish call the War of Independence. 4