Spanish Republic Research Articles

Edward K. Barsky (1897–1975): Surgery, activism, and the Spanish Civil War

Edward K. Barsky (1897–1975) was born and raised in New York City and became a surgeon at Beth Israel Hospital. During the political upheaval of the 1930s, Barsky became passionate about the cause of the Spanish Republic during the Spanish Civil War, as the democratically elected government came under siege by insurrectionists led by General Francisco Franco. Barsky transformed his beliefs into action as a founder of the American Medical Bureau to Aid Spanish Democracy, where he led a medical mission to the Spanish frontlines from 1937 to 1939. In Spain, Barsky organized American hospitals and operated under fire, contributing to significant advances in battlefield medicine. After the fall of the Republic in 1939, Barsky returned to the United States and his career as a surgeon in New York while also dedicating himself to the cause of Spanish refugees. His political activities, however, made him a target of political persecution by the House Un-American Activities Committee, and he ultimately lost both his freedom and his medical licence. Barsky was a surgeon, scientist, humanitarian, and activist, and his life illustrates the often complicated ties between politics and the practice of medicine.

DANIEL AGUIRRE-OTEIZA. This Ghostly Poetry. History and Memory of Exiled Spanish Republican Poets. Toronto: U of Toronto P, 2020. 369 pp.

Reseña de This Ghostly Poetry. History and Memory of Exiled Spanish Republican Poets de Daniel Aguirre-Oteiza.

Памяти Акилино Мата Миер, почетного президента Ассоциации летчиков-республиканцев (подразделение Катало-ния—Север—Балеарские острова)

On March 15, 2024, Aquilino Mata Mier, honorary president of the Association of Republican Pilots (ADAR, division Cat-alonia-North-Balearic Islands), laureate of the international award of the St. Andrew the First-Called Foundation “Faith and Loyalty”, passed away. Events of the Spanish conflict 1936-1939. for many years remained one of the main topics of Russian-Spanish scientific and public dialogue; it was dur-ing the civil war that the closest ties between our countries developed. The memory of the USSR's assistance to the Spanish Republic is still preserved by the Spaniards, and one of the keepers of this memory was Aquilino Mata Mier. It is difficult to overestimate the contribution that, thanks to his energy, enthusiasm, conviction in the significance of the work he is engaged in, Aquilino Mata made to the preservation of historical memory of the events of 1936-1939, as well as to the maintenance of Russian-Spanish scientific interaction and the preservation of bilateral ties in difficult modern conditions.

Del cuerpo al texto. Representaciones de la corporalidad en los relatos testimoniales de cinco republicanas exiliadas

This article analyses from a gender perspective six testimonial stories produced by women in Spanish Republican exile: Éxodo. Diario de una refugiada española (1940), by Silvia Mistral; Memoria de la melancolía (1970), by María Teresa León; Los diablos sueltos (1975), by Mada Carreño; Memorias habladas, memorias armadas (1990), by Concha Méndez; and De Barcelona a la Bretaña francesa y La hora del odio (2014), by Luisa Carnés. T he study examines how each of these exiles thinks about and translates the various facets of their corporeality into confessional literature. In this sense, the reflection on beauty or sexuality, the awareness of the ageing body or the recognition and/or denial of identity through the symbol of the mirror will be some of the recurring motifs that the authors use to address the corporeal in their works.

«Писатель-мещанин, ноющий в болоте»: первое знакомство советского читателя с Э. Хемингуэем

The paper examines early Soviet reception of Ernest Hemingway's works. The research is based on the readers’ letters to Goslitizdat (State Publishing House) from the funds of the Russian State Archive of Literature and Arts (RGALI). A small collection of letters (1935–1936) shows readers’ reaction to the first Hemingway’s Soviet book editions: a short story collection Death in the Afternoon (1934) and Fiesta (1935). The readers unanimously condemn Hemingway for his “decadent” prose and Goslitizdat for publishing such “absurd” and “harmful” books. The only exception is a short positive review of the novel A Farewell to Arms (1936) sent to Goslitizdat in 1937. To uncover the reasons for the negative readers’ reception one should turn to the literary criticism of the 1934–1935, especially the essays by Ivan Kashkin who introduced the new author to the Soviet reading audience. A comparative analysis of readers’ feedback and critical discourse shows that the ambivalent and even contradictory image of the writer created by the critics made the readers think of Hemingway’s works as “decadent”, “bourgeois” and alien to Soviet people. Another reason was the innovative nature of Hemingway’s modernist prose which seemed obscure, confusing and unintelligible; the Soviet reader obviously preferred “clarity” and “simplicity” of Erskine Caldwell’s or Theodore Dreiser’s realistic writings. The situation changed by the 1937, when Hemingway was praised by both Soviet critics and readers as an anti-fascist writer, a heroic defender of the Spanish Republic.

Main Trends in the Studies on the Spanish Republican Exiles

Main Trends in the Studies on the Spanish Republican Exiles

Советские танкисты в Испании в 1936–1937 гг. (по документам РУ РККА)

Introduction. The article considers the problem of the soviet tankers participation in the Spanish Civil War in its initial period. Methods and materials. The study is based on documents of the Intelligence Directorate of the People’s Commissariat of Defence of the Soviet Union. They became available after the publication of the first three volumes of the eight serial edition “Red Army and the Spanish Civil War (1936– 1939)”. Analysis. It is emphasized that the first group of Soviet tankers arrived in Spain on October 13, 1936, together with a batch of T-26 tanks (50 in total). On October 29, a tank company, which in a short time prepared the missing crew members from among the Spaniards, took part in a combat offensive operation in the Madrid area. According to documentary evidence the effectiveness of the combat use of tanks was minimal and was a result of the unwillingness and inability of the Spanish infantry, including its command staff, to act together with tanks. The documents characterize the T-26 tank as a reliable, hardy, easy-to-handle vehicle, superior in all technical characteristics to light tanks of German and Italian production, but with unsuccessful turret geometry, with weak armor, with an imperfect design of the turret swivel mechanism, with an unusable radio antenna. The article considers presented in the documents problem of the moral, political, psychological and physical condition of soviet tankers in Spain. The documentation also notes high level of military discipline, gives examples of heroic deeds of tankers, primarily members of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks). At the same time attention is drawn to cases of excessive caution of individual commanders bordering on cowardice. An important place in the documents is given to the physical condition of tankers who find themselves in unfamiliar climatic and social conditions as well as in terms of a completely different food ration. It is noted that almost 100% overwork of personnel associated with continuous participation in hostilities, accompanied by various diseases. Results. The article emphasizes the importance of the direct participation of Soviet tankers in the hostilities of 1936–1937. It made it possible to prevent the military defeat of the Spanish Republic at the stage of creating a regular People’s Army. Key words: Spanish civil war, soviet military aid, tanks, tankers, combat activity, overwork, diseases.

Republika Španija - nemoguća misija?

The subject of this research is the analysis of the history of Spanish republican thought, the implementation of the concept of the Republic of Spain in practice, and the contemporary views of the Spanish political and social public on this issue. The goal of the research is not only to describe the different phases of Spanish republicanism in the form of the First and Second Spanish Republics and their representatives but also to try to answer the question of whether in the foreseeable future, it is possible to expect the transformation of Spain from a monarchy to a republic for the third time in its history. Our initial hypothesis was that historical experience has shown that republican Spain is an "impossible mission" due to its strong royalist and Roman Catholic spirit. The results of the research point to the still significant position of the monarchy within the Spanish political system, to the small chances that the "Third Spanish Republic" will be proclaimed in the near future, but also to the fact that the debate about the form of government in Spain is still very much alive and that as such has an impact on political events in that country. During the research, we have used the historical method and the method of comparative analysis.

In Tiberii Morbum. The last Spanish republicans and their ideas of ‘transition’ and ‘reconciliation’ during the Spanish transition to democracy

The historiography about Spanish republicanism during the Transition to Democracy has had few contributions, mainly based on the problems of exile after the Spanish Civil War. The aim of this paper is focused on the ideas of "transition" and "reconciliation" developed by the last representatives of 'historical' republicanism, gathered in the institutions of the Government of the Spanish Republic in the Exile and in the political party of Acción Republicana Democrática Española, heir of Manuel Azaña’s Izquierda Republicana and the Unión Republicana founded by Diego Martínez Barrio and Félix Gordón Ordás.

К вопросу о происхождении политики невмешательства в Испании в 1936 году (по материалам архива Форин оффис)

The article presents an analysis of the origin of the policy of non-intervention in the civil war in Spain in 1936. The archival materials of the Foreign Office’s fund (National Archives, London) make it pos-sible to widen greatly our knowledge about genesis and character of that policy, to argue the version about Great Britain as an initiator of non-intervention. Many factors influenced this process: interests of British monopolies, strategic and political considerations, such as anti-Communism of the elite of British society, their sympathy towards the rebels of Franco, wish of official London to make it possible for the left parties in France, neighbouring to Spain, not to acquire stronger positions. Non-intervention turned against the Spanish Republic, made it easier for Germany and Italy under cover of it to carry massive intervention on side of the rebels which ensured Franco’s victory in the civil war. On the basis of unknown documents of the Foreign Office the author gives an analysis of complicated diplomatic struggle of the Powers in the beginning of the civil war in Spain.

American Administration and Humanitarian Aid for the Victims of the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939)

The article is devoted to the American humanitarian aid for the victims of the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939), carried out by the American Administration in 1937-1939 through the International Committee of the Red Cross and the American Red Cross, in cooperation with the American Committee of Friends on Service. The study provides analysis of the negotiation process between Spanish Republican and American politicians and social activists regarding the assistance provided; analysis of the activities of the organizations that provided the assistance. The American humanitarian aid for the victims of the hostilities in the territory of Spain in 1936-1939 indicated contradictions in the policy of the US neutrality poliсy.

Casa en que nunca he sido extraña: Las poetas hispanoamericanas: identidades, feminismos, poéticas (Siglos XIX-XXI)

Casa en que nunca he sido extraña: Las poetas hispanoamericanas: identidades, feminismos, poéticas (Siglos XIX-XXI)

Sketches of Spain: The Role of the Left-Wing Press in Britain, the Netherlands, and amongst Exiled Germans in Recruiting Volunteers for Republican Spain during the Spanish Civil War, 1936–1939

This article investigates how, during the Spanish Civil War (1936–9), left-wing British, Dutch and German-language newspapers ‘recruited’ their readers to the cause of the Spanish Republic. Recruitment could consist of donating time, money, social and political capital, or, in extreme cases, actually joining the fighting in Spain. It employs a double comparative approach, analysing recruitment messages attuned to readers in three different national political contexts and cultures produced on behalf of socialist and communist organisations. It argues that different ‘sketches of Spain’ co-existed, aligned to different domestic political and popular cultures and through different ideological lenses. These different sketches, in turn, were vital in shaping people's expectations of the Civil War, circumscribed the scope for and content of anti-fascist transnational connections made in Spain, and helped foster new understandings of social and political circumstances at home.

Spanish Republicanism: Zuruck zu Kant?

Some Spanish republican theorists argue for recovering Immanuel Kant’s philosophy for the left, rescuing him from his unwarranted appropriation by the right and correcting his neglect by progressivism. This article argues that this project is misguided in three ways. First, the implication that conservatism has claimed Kant for its camp is simply wrong, given that intellectuals on the right have long explicitly rejected him. Second, it rests on a faulty premise: that the left and right disagree about abstract concepts. Rather, conservatism represents an ad hoc defense of existing power structures without any firm theoretical commitments. Third, Kant is clearly progressive, as he wrote against conservative contemporaries. To conclude, I claim that the progressives’ ill-founded attempt to recover Kant is symptomatic of a broader misunderstanding in how progressives define progressivism and conservatism. I propose rethinking these definitions.

El arte como testimonio tangible de la memoria. La doble cara del exilio

This article studies the parallel paths of two artists from the Spanish republican exile: Eleuterio Blasco Ferrer and José García Tella, and their differences in the recovery process. Whereas Eleuterio Blasco Ferrer has museum spaces, José García Tella does not and is absent from Spain’s art history. The return and reintegration into places of origin as basis for the vindication of memories of figures from the diaspora will be highlighted, while non-return addresses the other side, that of oblivion.

This Ghostly Poetry: History and Memory of Exiled Spanish Republican Poets by Daniel Aguirre-Oteiza

This Ghostly Poetry: History and Memory of Exiled Spanish Republican Poets by Daniel Aguirre-Oteiza

„Špansko pismo“ iz 1984. u dnevničkim beleškama Koče Popovića

From October 20 to 27, 1984, an assembly of the Association of Yugoslav Volunteers of the Spanish Republican Army was held in Sarajevo from which an open letter was sent to the Central Committee of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia. This paper (re)constructs a chronology of events, following the thoughts and activities of Konstantin Koča Popović, which he wrote in his diary (from August 1984 to February 1985) during the preparations for the Sarajevo meeting, as well as his reactions to the talks held by representatives of the CC LCY and members of the Board of the Association. Today, the diary notes of Koča Popović are kept in the Family Fund – Legacy of Koča Popović and Lepa Perović in the Historical Archive of Belgrade.

Medicine, Religion, and the Humanitarian Ethos: Walter B. Cannon, Unitarianism, and the Care of Spanish Republican Refugees in France.

Biographies of Walter B. Cannon (1871-1945) usually present two sides of his life: one, where he was an outstanding man of science in the United States during the so-called “Golden Age of Medicine,” and the other, where he was a leading humanitarian activist engaged in myriad causes, notably in the defense of Spanish democracy during the Civil War (1936-1939). However, these biographies fail to take into account that the apparent link between these two sides of his life was his religious conviction.This study summarizes the aims and accomplishments of the American Medical Bureau to Aid the Spanish Democracy (AMBASD) of which Cannon was chair between 1937 and 1939. Then, it examines Cannon’s inspirational role on the international relief work with Spanish Republican refugees in France, through the case of the Varsovie Hospital of Toulouse that between 1945 and 1949 was jointly managed by the Unitarian Service Committee (USC) and the Joint Anti-Fascist Refugee Committee (JAFRC), and renamed Varsovie Hospital/Walter B. Cannon Memorial in recognition of the Spanish Republicans’ debt for his extraordinary contribution during the Spanish Civil War and beyond. Finally, the article investigates the Unitarian roots of Cannon’s humanitarian ethos by exploring the historical relations of this religious movement with science and with many major actors at Harvard University as well as the links of Cannon's relatives to Unitarianism.The analysis reveals Unitarianism’s influence on Cannon’s views about science, democracy, and liberty, as well as on his remarkable involvement in the medical solidarity movement with the Second Spanish Republic and other similar commitments. In sum, it shows how important is to branch out in our studies of medical and scientific practice to include practitioners’ broader social and religious communities in order to understand their motivations, achievements, and behavior.

British Quaker Aid to Spanish Republican Exiles in Concentration Camps in the South of France (1939–1940)

When a failed military coup provoked civil war in Spain in July 1936, British Quakers were among the first t respond to the tremendous need for humanitarian aid among the civilian population. They distributed food and clothing, set up canteens and hospitals, provided schooling and workshops, and organized the evacuation of children from war zones. Then, in January 1939, when the Spanish Republic finally succumbed to the might of the rebel forces, the Quakers accompanied thousands of refugees in their flight towards the French border. This became known as ‘la retirada’ (the Retreat). Once in French territory, the refugees were herded into improvised internment camps. These were simply vast open spaces on the beaches encircled by barbed wire, with no shelter, no latrines and barely any food. Quakers were the first to obtain permits to access the camps in order to alleviate the suffering and deprivation found there. They distributed not only the most basic aid such as food and clothing, but also pencils and notebooks, as well as tools and materials of all kinds to work with. Thus, in characteristic fashion, they provided people with the means by which they could help themselves.

Spain’s Loss of Human Capital after the Civil War: Spanish Refugees in Mexico

Abstract Among the important consequences of non-voluntary migration due to forced exile is the loss of human capital in the country of origin. Quantitative measurement of the human capital represented by the Spanish refugees who migrated to Mexico after the Spanish Civil War is largely missing from the economic-history literature. The use of multivariate regression models, focusing on occupation, height, and foreign-language facility as proxies of human capital, finds that the Spanish Republican refugees to Mexico presented a premium of human capital exceeding that of traditional economic migrants from Spain to Mexico, who were already considered “privileged.” The data sources also allow the analysis to isolate the human capital of the exiled women, thereby overcoming the traditional invisibility of women in recorded economic history.