War In Spain Research Articles

Wpływ wojny domowej w Hiszpanii na aktywność terenową Komunistycznej Partii Zachodniej Białorusi i jej sympatyków w latach 1936–1939

The Spanish Civil War (1936–1939) activated many political circles operating in the Second Republic. It also influenced the activity of the communist movement and, after the dissolution of its structures in 1938, its former activists and sympathisers. The article is devoted to the manifestations of the field activity of communist structures and the influence of the Iberian Peninsula conflict on that part of the Belarusian society which favourably received the message formulated by local communists or coming directly from the USSR. Issues such as the propaganda illumination of the war in Spain, the reception of recruitment slogans for the army of the Republic, and the problem of inspiring a financial effort in its favour are addressed. The echoes of the Spanish conflict, considered in the context of the functioning of the KPZB and its supporters, make it possible to conclude that this was an important but not a priority direction in the Communists’ activities. At the same time, they were part of the trend of growing pro-Soviet sentiments observable among the Belarusian community of the Second Republic.

Women on War in Spain’s Long Nineteenth Century: Virtue, Patriotism, Citizenship by Christine Arkinstall (review)

Women on War in Spain’s Long Nineteenth Century: Virtue, Patriotism, Citizenship by Christine Arkinstall (review)

Лексико-семантические особенности создания образа протагониста в романе Б. Переса Гальдоса «Сумалакарреги»

The article analyzes the linguistic features of the novel Zumalacárregui by the Spanish writer Benito Pérez Galdos, first published in 1898. The novel opens the third series of the National episodes (Episodios Nacionales) and is dedicated to the First Carlist War in Spain (1833–1840). The protagonist is the Carlist general T. de Zumalacárregui, whose Doppelgänger is the priest José Fago. General T. de Zumalacárregui is frequently mentioned in periodical publications, in memoires and in fiction of the 19–20th centuries. The article analyzes nouns, adjectives and substantive combinations used by the writer to create the image of the protagonist. The semantic fields “war”, “politics” and “religion” are distinguished among the lexical units used in relation to the general. The image of T. de Zumalacárregui is analyzed separately in the direct speech of the characters of the novel. The most common lexemes used to describe the general are “caudillo” (“leader”), “guerrero” (“warrior”), and “héroe” (“hero”). These lexical units, commonly used with positive connotations, acquire a comic connotation in the context of the novel or serve to express a negative value judgment. The vocabulary related to the semantic field “religion” at first sight repeats the clichés of Carlist propaganda, according to which T. de Zumalacárregui appears as a “martyr” who suffered for the “Cause”. At the same time, by replacing individual lexical units, the author turns the protagonist into a parody of Christ. The vocabulary related to the semantic field “politics” is analyzed. T. de Zumalacárregui appears in the work as a supporter of “Absolutism”. It is concluded that B. Pérez Galdós, copying some clichés of Carlist propaganda, created a negative image of T. de Zumalacárregui.

“СЛІПІ СОНЯХИ” АЛЬБЕРТО МЕНДЕСА: ГОЛОСИ ПОРАЗКИ, ЩО ПЕРЕМАГАЮТЬ ЗАБУТТЯ

Background. The article is devoted to the problem of reconstruction of collective memory in Alberto Méndez's novel "The blind sunflowers" (2004). Méndez's book is a part of contemporary Spanish narratives that, since the 1990s, have witnessed the emergence of the so-called "memory boom", a trend in literature and cinema aimed at preserving, restoring and transmitting the memory of the tragic events of Spanish Civil War and Franco repression. The purpose of the research is to reveal the ways and mechanisms of reproduction and elaboration of traumatic collective memory in "The blind sunflowers" by Méndez. Methods. The study is based on the following methods: a historical-cultural approach and "memory studies", which made it possible to determine the place of the Alberto Mendez's novel in the context of the Spanish "literature of memory" beginning 21st century; the narratological and intertextual approaches were used to investigate various techniques of the author's creation of a polyphonic narrative in four stories that make up the book, and which represent different voices of the same past, functioning as symbols of restoring the memory of defeat. Results. The artistic recreation in "The Blind Sunflowers" of the traumatic experience of the events and consequences of the Civil War in Spain was investigated in dichotomies typical of the depicted historical moment: winners-losers, victim-executioner, death-life, memory-oblivion and voice-silence. The analysis of this traumatic context in the novel proved that writing (the voice of memory) functions as one of the main ways of preserving the experience of erased generations, restoring life after physical death, and as a guarantee of resistance to oblivion. Conclusion. The reconstruction of the memory of the Civil War in Spain and its consequences during the period of Francoism as one of the leading trends in modern Spanish literature demonstrates the still openness of collective trauma and, accordingly, the need to find ways to overcome it. In view of this, the approach proposed by Méndez in "The Blind Sunflowers" to restore and transmit memory through a collective discourse of defeat becomes a significant step towards healing the unhealed wounds of a society traumatized by war and a dictatorial regime, as it emphasizes not only the importance of the grieving process in overcoming tragedies, but also attests to the creation of literature as a space of memory, in which the past is reproduced as a voice that breaks the silence and overcomes oblivion, not allowing to turn the page and close the past.

«Love for our kind, too»: la militancia queer de Sylvia Townsend Warner desde la retaguardia durante la Guerra Civil española durante los años treinta

The outbreak of the Spanish Civil War in 1936 brought about a change of literary paradigm among the Leftist intelligentsia of the country. The experimentation encouraged by Modernism is thus gradually replaced with an increasingly ideological form of writing whose epic zeal and celebration of the virility of soldiers equally nurtured the works of those British poets who became involved by the Spanish antifascist cause. There exists nonetheless another kind of literature of the war in Spain written from the rearguard which examines the reality of the conflict from an intersectional angle. Such is the case of the political poetics of Sylvia Townsend Warner. Through a gender perspective, the contextualised study of the evolution of her poetics during the thirties can allow a revision of the dominant version of the Spanish Civil War imposed by the predominantly male cultural politics of the time.

At the crossroads of race and gender during the Spanish Civil War

Salaria Kea, the only African American nurse to serve during the Spanish Civil War, fought against racism and fascism her entire life. Her contributions during the war in Spain, as well as her legacy, have become complicated matters, as the veracity of her testimony found in archival materials is routinely questioned and at times blatantly negated. Kea's experience as an African American woman positions her at the crossroads of racial and gender hierarchies that mark her identity in complex ways. Through the lens of various theories of intersectionality, this article will grapple with the precarious modes of historical discourse found in the archive, and vindicate Kea's testimony, recognising it as making a crucial contribution – from a unique perspective – to the understanding of a more nuanced historical picture.

ОПЫТ ДЕЙСТВИЙ БРОНЕТАНКОВЫХ ВОЙСК КРАСНОЙ АРМИИ НА ХАСАНЕ И ХАЛХИН-ГОЛЕ: РЕФЛЕКСИИ ВОЕННОЙ ЭЛИТЫ

In the article, based on documents from the collections of the Russian State Military Archive (RGVA), an attempt is made to analyze the process of understanding by representatives of the Red Army command the experience of the actions of Armored forces during local military conflicts at lake Khasan and Khalkhin Gol river in 1938–1939. The conclusions made by commanders at various levels, in general, accurately recorded the main shortcomings and errors in the use of tank units and formations, which completely repeated those during the Civil War in Spain. It is concluded that by the time the conflicts began, that experience was unknown to tank and combined arms commanders. In addition, based on content analysis, the inability of specialists to assess the weak armoring of tanks is revealed as the main reason for heavy losses. Attention is drawn to the fact that while correctly recording the extremely low level of training of commanders and personnel of the tank forces, the final conclusions of the reports to the higher command contained exceptionally high assessments of combat effectiveness and assurances of readiness to carry out any order. At the same time, the country’s top military-political leadership received a sufficient amount of truthful information from its representatives from the conflict zone, but preferred to broadcast to the public a picture of the highest combat readiness of the armored forces, which was clearly and convincingly reflected in mass Soviet culture.

When Was the War in Spain? Liberal State, Illiberal Justice in the Twentieth Century

The article analyzes increasingly militarized state power and public order in twentieth-century Spain, discussing these in the context of other European states’ disciplinary regimes, with their ubiquitous social-Darwinist dimension in an era of accelerating urbanization, industrial change and emergent mass societies. The article offers a dissection of the often problematically opaque term ‘liberal’, arguing that wherever Spain or other twentieth-century European states were positioned on the dictatorial-through-parliamentary-constitutional spectrum, they all came to be ‘gardening states’ (Bauman). Each state's goal was to sculpt its population as part of a nationalist project – nationalism being the norm, whether named as such or not. Francoism is analysed in this framework, as a hybrid war-born political order blending old-style, top-down military control with new forms of populist mass mobilization from below, the latter enabled and accelerated by the war of 1936–1939. The article defines the Franco dictatorship as fascist in the 1940s and totalitarian for far longer, until macro-economic changes – which its cupola believed for a long time need not affect the deep form of Spanish society – hollowed out Francoism's own ideological categories (and its ‘disciplinary’ efficacy), but not its obsession with social control, which it called ‘social peace’.

Labour inspection after the civil war in Spain. Regulatory interventionism and abstentionist labour inspection performance

ABSTRACT This paper focuses on something not previously addressed by the literature, labour inspection in Spain in the first decades of the Franco dictatorship. Despite the Franco dictatorship’s fascist-style approach of regulatory interventionism, this research shows a relapse into an abstentionist conception of labour inspection that led to worker vulnerability. The study has not only found, as was already known, normative similarities with the contemporaneous Italian and German dictatorships, but also similar (although more severe) limitations to the functioning of the inspection service. The slight improvement registered from 1947 onwards and the effort to achieve a limited equivalence with Western democracies also failed to notably improve working conditions, occupational safety and worker protection. The Labour Inspectorate suffered from understaffing and a lack of resources up to the very end of the dictatorship, something which the incipient democracy then inherited. These human and material resource shortages continue to be a problem and are currently debated in Spain.

Is Spain Different? The Tamed Memory of the Spanish Civil War and the Limits of Spain's National Self‐Image (2008–10)

This article focusses on ongoing discussions about the place of the Spanish Civil War (1936–39) and the Franco dictatorship (1939–75) in Spain's democracy. Following the suspension of Judge Baltasar Garzón by the Spanish Supreme Court in 2010, who had indicted General Francisco Franco (1892–1975) and thirty‐four accomplices under international law for committing crimes against humanity, a debate arose between leading intellectuals in Spain about the growing international influence on Spain's war past. This debate revealed that a group of influential left‐wing intellectuals attempted to curb the social and political influence of the citizens' memory movements. The author observes how this happened by applying three strategies: the foreign strategy, the nationalistic‐ethical strategy, and the saturation strategy. He concludes that the growing international pressure on Spain's handling of the Civil War and dictatorship led to a “Spanification” of the “culture of the transición” as a national memory, causing the memory movements to lose momentum and curbing the international influence on Spain's handling of its dictatorial past.

Fanny Bré in the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939): The meaning of nursing care in the international brigades.

Fanny Bré was a volunteer nurse in the International Brigades, who fought in the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) on the side of the democratically elected Republican government. The objective of this study is to understand the relationship between Bré's antifascist ideas, her conception of care and the activities she carried out in the Spanish hospitals of Casa Roja (Murcia), Villa Paz (Selices, Cuenca) and Vic (Barcelona). We use narrative biography to describe Bré's personal, political and professional trajectory. To do so, we conducted a content analysis of primary sources archived in Spain, Russia and France and secondary sources that emerged from a thorough literature review. We identified three thematic axes: (1) a concept of nursing in the service of the antifascist struggle, (2) nursing activity for high-quality care and (3) political action for improving hospital organisation and care. The interest of Bré's texts transcends the war in Spain because, in them, Bré questions the neutrality of care by revealing that care can itself be a political act.

WAR EXPERIENCE AND ITS REFLECTION IN GEORGES BERNANOS’ POLITICAL WRITING AND NOVELS

The article analyzes the reflection of the 20th century’s war experiences both in fictional writing and political pamphlet of Georges Bernanos, a representative of the Catholic Literary Revival movement in French interwar literature. A chronological classification of the entire writer’s heritage connected with the subject of war is offered and divided into three periods. The most representative texts are proposed for each. Further research attention is devoted to the early period, namely the experience of the First World War, in which the author participated as combatant, and the problems of the first novel «Under the Sun of Satan» (1926). The novel, which does not directly talk about the war in its plot, is nevertheless classified as warlike. Metaphysical evil and the deterioration of the human soul are regarded as the main ideological constants through the images of the two protagonists of the novel. Emphasis is made on the animalistic image of evil rooted in the biblical tradition and the creation of the image of saint is, according to Bernanos, the only answer to the triumph of evil, which he saw with his own eyes during the war. The explicit manifestation of the Civil War in Spain 1936-1939, witnessed by the author, reinforced by the eschatology and prophetic nature of the narrative, as well as the use of biblical archetypes to denote the nature of violence, is analyzed on the base of the political pamphlet «The Great Cemeteries under the Moon» (1938). It is this war that becomes a turning point in the biography of Bernanos, who as a right-wing nationalist and Catholic discovers for himself the illogical impossibility of supporting the Franco regime, because of the terror. This very problem of mass violence and the propensity of human nature to evil were analyzed using the theory of mimetic violence by the French anthropologist R. Girard.

Рамон Кабрера на страницах газеты «Санкт-Петербургские ведомости» в 1833−1840 годах

Through the prism of the publications in the Russian newspaper Sankt-Peterburgskie Vedomosti, this article studies the activities of General Ramón Cabrera, who took part in the First Carlist War in Spain (1833−1840). The conflict was motivated by the dynastic dispute between Don Carlos, one of the brothers of King Ferdinand VII of Spain, who died in 1833, and the widow, Queen Maria Christina, who defended the right of her daughter Isabella II to the throne. In the course of the conflict, Cabrera led the partisans of Don Carlos in the Maestrazgo, a historical area that included parts of modern Catalonia, Aragon, and Valencia. The period of 1838−1839 became the “golden age” of Carlism in the region. This paper analyses mentions Ramón Cabrera in Sankt-Peterburgskie Vedomosti between October 1833 and July 1840, i.e. throughout the conflict. A total of 1955 issues were studied, the war being mentioned in 1453 of them. The first mention of Cabrera in the newspaper dates back to 1834. However, the majority of the mentions were made during the final part of the conflict (1838−1840). In addition, the article provides examples of fake news, biographical paragraphs, and statements about the General by his comrades-in-arms. It is noted that some episodes of the war associated with Cabrera that later became widely known were only briefly touched upon in the newspaper. The General was a controversial figure in the eyes of his contemporaries, while Sankt-Peterburgskie Vedomosti took a neutral position on Cabrera.

Проблемы внешней политики Святого престола в период понтификата Григория XVI (1831–1846)

The analysis of the main directions of the foreign policy of the Holy See under Pope Gregory XVI (1831–1846) is carried out. A review of the scientific literature on the life and work of the pontiff is made. Attention is paid to the works of historians devoted to the international relations of the Roman court with individual states. Five main problems in the foreign policy of the Roman court in 1831–1846 are highlighted: 1) France and interaction with the July Monarchy; 2) the Polish problem; 3) the situation of Catholics in non-Catholic countries (primarily in Prussia and Great Britain); 4) the crisis on the Iberian Peninsula (the Miguelist War in Portugal and the First Carlist War in Spain); 5) the problem of relations with the former Spanish colonies in the New World. A brief analysis of the work of the Foreign Ministry of the Holy See in each of the identified areas is proposed. The different reactions of the Roman court to the liberalization of political regimes in a number of European countries are shown. Another range of problems of the Holy See in the era under study is related to the situation of the Catholic minority in non-Catholic countries. In this case, it is also possible to note different models of interaction between the Holy See and the authorities of these states: from direct confrontation (Prussia) to condemnation of the Polish uprising of 1830–1831, directed against the authorities of the Russian Empire. It is shown that the break with liberal Spain under Gregory XVI facilitated the simplification of the procedure for recognizing the independence of the former Spanish colonies in the New World.

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.

Comparative Analysis of Two Versions of A Chapter from the History of Charles V by Baron de los Valles

This article features two versions of A Chapter from the History of Charles V written by Louis Xavier Auguet de Saint- Sylvain, Baron de los Valles. The original French version was published in 1835, while the Spanish translation appeared 1837. The text describes the background and the start of the First Carlist War in Spain in 1833–1835. The author was a confidant of Don Carlos, and so his book reflected the Carlist perspective. The author believes that the Spanish translation included certain semantic modifications and additions made due to fit the changing political situation. These almost imperceptible modifications were able to change the perception of some military and political figures of the era, e.g., former Minister F. T. Calomarde, Carlist general V. Gonzalez Moreno, Christino general and future Regent B. Espartero, etc. The research objective was to show how Baron de los Valles interpreted the events related to the capture of Villafranca by the Carlists in 1834. This historical episode, later popularized by numerous memoirs and fiction, appeared only in the Spanish version of the book. The account made by the Baron de los Valles differed from the versions of other memoirists, as well as from the official press reports. A Chapter from the History of Charles V by Baron de los Valles has a low value as a historical source, but presents a considerable interest as an example of Carlist propaganda during the war of 1833–1840.

Система персонажей как способ оценки событий гражданской войны в Испании в романе Хавьера Серкаса «Царь теней»

The aim of the study is to determine the types of assessing the Spanish Civil War events of 1936-1939 contained in the system of characters in Javier Сercas’ novel “Lord of All the Dead”. The scientific novelty lies in the fact that for the first time an attempt is made to analyse the system of characters in this novel as a way to assess the events of the civil war in Spain. As a result, it has been found that the characters of the older and middle generation groups demonstrate a similar multidimensional assessment of the civil war events containing somatic, emotional and rational components. The older generation is mainly characterized by somatic reactions caused by direct contact with the traumatic events of the past. Emotional and rational assessment is more vividly presented in the characters of the middle generation, while the object of assessment in this case is not the events of the civil war itself but attitude towards them in modern Spain.

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.

The USSR and Spain during the Civil War: 85 years later

The peer-reviewed publication presents speeches by famous Russian and Spanish historians, scientists, diplomats, members of the Association of Republican Pilots (Catalan division), who took part in international scientific conferences entitled "The Civil War in Spain and soviet participation: 80 years later" (Barcelona, 29 –May 31, 2017) and "Soviet-Spanish relations during the Spanish Civil War of 1936–1939" (Moscow, September 12–14, 2018). Also, the collection contains documents and materials from the funds of the Russian State Military Archive.

White Emigrants’ Memories about the Civil War in Spain 1936-1939: Features of Military Narrative

White Emigrants’ Memories about the Civil War in Spain 1936-1939: Features of Military Narrative