The outcome of the war (pt. 2)

Apart from the obvious military reasons for the Nationalist victory, there were two important developments in the popular front that would prove fatal: the dominance of the communist party and the civil war within the civil war.

Stalin would not help popular front out of charity. The war had to either result in a communist Spain, or in an only minor Soviet embarrassment in defeat. The Spanish communists played a clever game with the single most important trump card in the popular front: Soviet supplies. The communist movement would receive the supplies and hence the communist movement decided on battle tactics and weapons distribution. Battalions with a non-communist commander would receive little or no supplies, while completely communist formations received tanks and airplanes. Military leaders were forced to join the communist party and the popular front grew more and more dependent on it.

Fear of a communist coup upset both the international community and the popular front itself—almost leading to a civil war within a civil war. The popular front consisted of so many movements, parties and ideologies it would have to light a fuse at some stage. At more than one occasion left-wing forces were fighting each other rather than the nationalists. Every minority feared a take-over by every other and they all tried their best the keep the others from becoming to powerful.

The nationalist propaganda put the growing unrest and communist influence to good use. In a conflict so full of fear, desperation and hatred it is telling that people actually changed sides and joined the nationalist ranks in order to fight the communists. It seemed there was no hope for the republic to survive. The militia felt it, the women and children felt it, and—most importantly—the western democracies felt it. That the republic held out for so long as it did (until 1939) not only makes us wonder if it was really that hopeless, but also illustrates the power of people fighting out of desperation.

The number of communists in the Spanish government grew fast. But in 1939 an anti-communist coup relieved the communist party and ComIntern from the blame of the imminent disaster—defeat. With the fall of Madrid at March 10 1939 all remaining hope was crushed. Within two weeks all resistance was given up. The nationalists had won.

The country was devastated. Cities burnt, houses lay in ruins and food was scarce. Europe closed its borders out of fear of refugees. The Germans, Italians and Russians pulled out, as their attention was needed elsewhere. Pope Pius congratulated Franco: ‘Lifting our hearts to God, we give sincere thanks with your Excellency for the victory of Catholic Spain.’ The defeated republican troops could only toss away their weapons and start walking, without any goal or hope.