THE MANAGER VS. THE PUPPETS::

Moscow and Madrid: Myles Kantor discusses the Spanish Civil War with honored historian Stanley Payne (Myles Kantor, 3/11/04, FrontPage)

[Q:] You referred to the war as "the contest between a semi-pluralist Left-collectivist revolutionary regime (not a democracy and increasingly under Communist hegemony) and a rightist authoritarian regime." When and how did the former's undemocratic character manifest itself?
 
[A:] Amnesty and impunity for leftist violence and terrorism; punishment of police who repressed; falsification of electoral results (March 1936) and of elections (May 1936); illegalization of legitimate opposition organizations, such as Catholic trade unions (May 1936); closing of Catholic schools, seizure of their property; manifold property confiscations and destruction; use of political militias as deputy police.

[Q:] To what extent were the Nationalists under fascist hegemony or control?
 
[A:] Here one must distinguish with regard to the native Spanish fascism that developed under Franco, though he always kept it under his personal control and saw to it that there was never a radical or revolutionary fascism in Spain. Italy and Germany had no direct influence in his government in terms of being able to control or manipulate anything, only an external indirect influence that Franco could generally manage as he pleased, though he certainly tilted in their direction. It was quite different from the situation with Negrín, who in most things simply followed the Communist line, though he was never a mere puppet.

[Q:] One often finds the civil war described as "a dress rehearsal for World War II."  What is the significance of this claim, and is it accurate?
 
[A:] This claim was soon developed by the defeated Republicans, and Negrín did indeed hope to prolong the struggle until a broader war might somehow rescue the Republic. Other Republican leaders sometimes thought that reckless and immoral. Moreover, even had the civil war continued, French military policy was so timid it might have made little difference.
 
The Spanish war was a contest between Right and Left. Hitler and Stalin were on opposite sides. But the European war could only begin after Hitler and Stalin joined forces, so what began in September 1939 was quite a different war.
 
From December 1941, the World War got to be more like the Spanish war, but even so the democracies were sometimes led by Conservatives like Churchill who, had they been Spaniards, would have been fighting against the revolutionary Republic, as indeed was Churchill’s position for part of the Spanish war.

The significance of the claim, of course, is that the Left finds it necessary to pretend that Franco was as bad as Hitler, otherwise their siding with forces that were Stalinist will be seen to be deplorable.

Posted by Orrin Judd at March 12, 2004 12:26 AM