Fighting For Franco: International Volunteers in Nationalist Spain during the Spanish Civil War, 1936-39

Abstract

This is an examination of the myth that the Nationalist forces in Spain who won the Civil War consisted of patriotic Spaniards. It shows that many groups on the European right were galvanized by the Nationalist cause, and that European Fascists, conservative Catholics, and those uneasy with the idea of liberal democracy rallied to the figure of Franco, who appeared to be holding the line against secularism, modernism and Bolshevism. Also many of the volunteers came to join Franco because they saw in Spain a possible venue in which to restage and win the battles for the political causes they feared they were losing at home. The book examines the experiences of these volunteers - White Russians, French rightists, Irish nationalists, those fighting for religious reasons, simple adventurers and professional soldiers amongst them - and reconstructs their motivation in going to Spain. In so doing, it aims to shed light on the concerns of a wide variety of right-wing movements in the interwar period, and argues that the civil war in Spain was as much a defining event for the European Right in the 1930s, as the Republic was for the Left.