The battle for Spain: the Spanish Civil War, 1936-1939 (92 page)

5 Kowalsky, pp. 73–4.

6 Orlov was a
nom de guerre
. His NKVD name was Lev Lazarovich Nikolsky, but his real name was Felbin, Leiba Lazarovich. Most Jews who joined the NKVD were ordered to take less recognizably Jewish names (GARF R-9401/12/55, pp. 211–12).

7 From the papers of S. P. Litvinov, the radio operator for the IntelligenceDepartment of the Red Army and then the chief of radio communications at the Republican Tank Brigade under the command of D. G. Pavlov (Yury Rybalkin,
Operatsiya‘X’
, p. 39).

8 See Kowalsky, pp. 42ff.

9 Exact figures from Soviet files are hard to establish with all the conflicting sources, but in general terms the total war mate´riel supplied consisted of between 623 and 648 aircraft; between 331 and 347 tanks; between 714 and 1,228 field guns; between 338,000 and 498,000 rifles. See Howson, pp. 382–418 and Kowalsky, pp. 214–16. The Soviet Union sent six basic types of aircraft: the Polikarpov I-15 biplane fighter known in Spain as the Chato and the I-16 monoplane fighter known as the Mosca by the republicans and the Rata by the nationalists; the Tupolev SB-2 bomber known as the Katiuska and the light bomber cum reconnaissance aircraft, the Polikarpov R-5.

10 Howson, p. 181.

11 RGVA 35082/1/185, p. 352.

12 See ángel Viñas,
El oro de Moscú
, Barcelona, 1979 and
Guerra, dinero, dictadura
, Barcelona, 1984; and also Pablo Martín Aceña,
El oro de Moscú y el oro de Berlin
, Madrid, 2001.

13 Gabriel Jackson, however, argues that the idea of sending the gold to Moscow took the Soviet authorities by surprise and that Négrin had to explain the idea in detail to Rosenberg, the Soviet ambassador (
Juan Negrín
, p. 75).

14 Its value was 598 million gold pesetas, the equivalent of $195 million (Viñas,
Guerra, dinero, dictadura
, p. 170).

15 GARF 7733/36/27, pp. 25–6.

16 Viñas,
El oro de Moscú
, pp. 289–92. These figures do not, however, take into account the numismatic value of many of the coins, which was considerable in the case of old Spanish and Portuguese pieces.

17 During the course of 1937 another $256 million were transferred to the account of Eurobank in Paris. Another $131,500,000 served to pay the Soviet Union for the mate´riel which it had supplied. The balance of the gold from the Banco de España ran out early in 1938, according to the Soviet version, and in March of that year the Republic had to request from the USSR a credit of $70 million and in December another $85 million (Kowalsky, pp. 232–3).

18 Seidman,
A ras de suelo
, p. 112; Comín et al.,
Historia económica de España
, p. 335.

19 RGASPI 17/120/263, pp. 2–3.

20 Ibid., pp. 16–1.

21 Antonov-Ovseyenko’s diary, RGASPI 17/120/84, pp. 58–79.

22 Antonov-Ovseyenko’s confession was published in
Izvestia
, 24 August 1936.

23 RGASPI 17/120/259, pp. 73–4.

24 RGASPI 17/120/84, pp. 75–6.

25 RGASPI 17/120/263, pp. 32.

26 Ibid., pp. 16–17.

CHAPTER 16
: The International Brigades and the Soviet Advisers

1 Claims arising from French Communist Party sources that Maurice Thorez, their secretary-general had somehow put forward the idea at a Comintern meeting of 26 July appear to have been completely discredited. See Rémi Skoutelsky,
L’Espoir guidait leurs pas. Les voluntaires franc¸aises dans les Brigades Internationales, 1936–1939
, Paris, 1998, pp. 50–1.

2 Quoted in Elorza and Bizcarrondo, p. 303.

3 Andreu Castells,
Las Brigadas Internacionales
, Barcelona, 1974, p. 449.

4 The most accurate figures by country, but still uncertain are as follows:

France: 8,962

Poland: 3,113

Italy: 3,002

United States: 2,341

Germany: 2,217

Balkan countries: 2,095

Great Britain: 1,843

Belgium: 1,722

Czechoslovakia: 1,066

Baltic states: 892

Austria: 872

Scandinavian countries: 799

Netherlands: 628

Hungary: 528

Canada: 512

Switzerland: 408

Portugal: 134

Others: 1,122

Michel Lefebvre and Re ´mi Skoutelsky,
Las Brigadas Internacionales
, Barcelona, 2003, p. 16.

5 Kowalsky, p. 267.

6 Esmond Romilly,
Boadilla
, London, 1971.

7 Castells,
Las Brigadas Internacionales
, p. 80.

8 Jason Gurney,
Crusade in Spain
, London, 1974.

9 George Orwell,
Collected Essays, Journalism and Letters
, London, 1968.

10 Abad de Santillán,
Por qué perdimos la guerra
, p. 175.

11 Bennassar believes that Marty was responsible for the death of the French commander Gaston Delassale and a dozen International Brigaders, ‘but not, however, of systematic executions’ (
La guerre d’Espagne et les lendemains
, p. 146). Soviet documents, on the other hand, indicate that Marty’s obsession with ‘fifth column’ infiltration and the executions of deserters and ‘cowards’ may well have contributed to the very high rate of executions.

12 Castells, p. 73n.

13 Commissariat XV International Brigade,
Book of XV International Brigade
, Madrid, 1938.

14 TsAMO 132/2642/77, p. 47.

15 RGASPI 545/3/309, p. 2.

16 RGVA 33987/3/870, p. 346.

17 The figures in Soviet files do not entirely agree, mainly because of differences in category definition. One of the clearest breakdowns states that in addition to the Red Army advisers attached to various headquarters, a total of 772 Soviet pilots, 351 tankists, 100 artillerists, 77 sailors, 166 signals experts, 141 military engineers and technicians, and 204 interpreters served in Spain (RGVA 33987/3/1143, p. 127). There were about 150 advisers in 1937 and about 250 in 1938. In January 1939 their number was reduced to 84 (RGVA 35082/1/15, pp. 47–9). For casualty figures, see G. F. Krivosheev (ed.),
Rossiya i SSSR v voihakh 20 veka. Poteri vooruzhennykh sil
(Russia and the USSR in the wars of the twentieth century. Losses of the armed forces), Moscow, 2001.

18 TsAMO 132/2642/192, p. 1.

19 Rybalkin, p. 56.

20 TsAMO 132/2642/192, p. 15.

21 Ibid., p. 32.

22 RGVA 35082/1/40, p. 78.

23 RGVA 9/29/315, p. 70; 33987/3/1149, p. 172.

24 RGVA 33987/3/960, pp. 180–9, quoted in Radosh and Habeck, p. 127.

25 RGVA 35082/1/185, pp. 356 and 408.

26 See Rybalkin, pp. 38–42 and RGVA 33987/3/870, pp. 341–2; RGVA 33987/3/961 p. 166; RGVA 35082/1/18, pp. 49, 64–6; RGVA 33987/3/961, pp. 155–6; TsAMO 16/3148/5, pp. 23–5. According to Rybalkin, p. 42, the experience gained in this operation was later used in the Soviet planning and organization of transport during the Second World War and then later in 1962 when Soviet weapons and troops were transported to Cuba as part of Operation ‘Anadyr’, an enterprise directed by the then minister of defence, Marshal Rodion Malinovsky, who had himself served in Spain.

27 RGASPI 545/3/302, p. 118.

CHAPTER 17
: The Battle for Madrid

1 The first line, some 30 kilometres out from Madrid, linked Navalcarnero with Valdemoro passing by Batres, Griñón and Torrejón de Velasco. The second, about twenty kilometres out, consisted of Brunete, Villaviciosa, Móstoles, Fuenlabrada and Pinto; the third, at about ten kilometres out, went from Villaviciosa de Odón to Cerro de los á ngeles; and the fourth, at the gates of the capital, consisted of fortifying Pozuelo, la Casa de Campo, Campamento, Carabanchel, Villaverde and Vallecas (José Manuel Martínez Bande,
La guerra en el norte
, Madrid, 1969, p. 130.)

2 Preston,
Franco, caudillo de España
, p. 255.

3 These first mixed brigades came under the División Orgánica de Albacete, commanded by Colonel Segismundo Casado. The first was led by Major of Militia Enrique Líster; the second by Major Jesús Martínez de Aragón; the third, composed of
carabineros
, by José María Galán; the fourth, commanded by an infantry captain Eutiquiano Arellano, was made up of conscript soldiers; the fifth, also
carabineros
, was led by Fernando Sabio; and the sixth, of reserve soldiers based in Murcia, was commanded by Miguel Gallo Martínez.

4 Rodimtsev, Aleksadr Ilyich,
Dobrovoltsy–internatsionalisty
, Sverdlovsk, 1976, p. 31.

5 Louis Aragon, the French poet and communist, and his partner, Elsa Triolet, a writer, were regarded as ‘the royal couple’ of the French Communist Party. Koltsov,
Ispansky dnevnik
, Moscow, 1957, p. 199. Many people suspected Triolet of being an NKVD agent, but no documentary proof has emerged.

6 Francisco Largo Caballero,
Arenga a las fuerzas armadas
, 28 October 1936, reported in the daily press.

7 The republican tank force was formed on the basis of a brigade which arrived from the Belorussian military district, 60 per cent of the unit were Soviet ‘volunteer’ tankists. RGVA 31811/4/28, pp. 104–10. The brigade was commanded by Colonel D. G. Pavlov, who was executed in the 1941 as a scapegoat when the
Wehrmacht
smashed the Red Army in its invasion. Arman was not the son of Lenin’s close friend Inessa Armand, as some people think.

8
Ispansky dnevnik
, Moscow, 1957, p. 231.

9 Letter from Federica Montseny to Bolloten:
La revolución española
, p. 288.

10
Ispansky dnevnik
, p. 235.

11 Azaña,
Diarios completos
, p. 956.

12 For this massacre and those from other prisons, such as Antón, Porlier and Ventas, see Gibson,
Paracuellos cómo fue
, pp. 185ff., which gives a total figure of 2,400 murders between 7 November and 4 December 1936. Javier Cervera (Madrid en guerra. La ciudad clandestin, Madrid, pp. 84–103) states that there were more than 2,000 killed at Paracuellos and Torrejón.

13 See Martínez Reverte,
La batalla de Madrid
, Barcelona, 2004, pp. 226–7, 240. The document is reproduced pp. 577–81.

14 RGVA 35082/1/185, p. 365.

15 R. Salas Larrazábal,
Historia del Ejército Popular
, p. 574 and General Alonso Baquer,
El Ebro. La batalla decisiva de los cien días
, La Esfera, Madrid, 2003, p. 33.

16 ‘French direction had been unmistakably evident on the side of the reds in their whole tactical procedure’ (DGFP, p. 259).

17 Paul Schmidt,
Hitler’s Interpreter, The Secret History of German Diplomacy, 1939–1945
, London, 1951.

18 J. Delperrie,
Las brigadas internacionales
, Madrid, 1978, p. 94.

19
Hoy
, Las Palmas, 24 July 1936.

20 Blanco Escolá,
El general Rojo
, p. 173.

21 Karl Anger, alias Dobrovolsky, RGVA 35082/1/189, p. 83.

22 RGVA 35082/1/95, pp. 33–58.

23 Rodimtsev,
Dobrovoltsy–internatsionalisty
, p. 46,

24
Koltsov, Ispansky dnevnik
, Moscow, 1957, p. 279.

25 RGVA. 35082/1/189, p. 103.

26 A biographer of Durruti suggests that the doctors did not dare intervene surgically when they might have saved him. He died of an internal haemorrhage (Abel Paz,
Durruti en la revolución española
, Madrid, 2004, p. 678).

27 J. Salas Larrazábal,
La guerra de España desde el aire
, p. 140.

28 See Solé Sabaté, pp. 48–9.

29 BA-MA RL35/38.

30
Venid a ver la sangre por las calles,
venid a ver
la sangre por las calles,
venid a ver la sangre
por las calles!
‘Explico algunas cosas’ in
Poesía política
, Santiago de Chile, 1953, I, p. 60.

31 RGASPI 495/120/261, p. 14.

32 Cowles,
Looking for Trouble
, p. 18.

33 Dobrovolsky (Karl Anger), RGVA 35082/1/189, p. 126.

34 Richthofen, BA-MA RL 35/38. The request, supported by General Faupel, was rejected in Berlin on both political and technical grounds, principally the problem of shipping such a large body of men past Britain without being seen. See Dieckhoff’s memorandum of December 1936, DGFP, pp. 155–6, 162, 165 and168.

CHAPTER 18
: The Metamorphosis of the War

1 Chargé d’affaires in Madrid, v. Tippelskirch to Foreign Ministry, 23 September 1936, DGFP, p. 94.

2 Faupel to Foreign Ministry, 10 December 1936, DGFP, p. 159.

3 Richthofen personal war diary, BA-MA RL 35/38.

4 Karl Anger (Dobrovolsky), RGVA 35082/1/189.

5 Koltsov,
Ispansky dnevnik
, p. 309.

6 RGVA 35082/1/185, pp. 400, 407.

7 Ibid., pp. 680–95.

8 Castells,
Las Brigadas Internacionales
, pp. 130–1.

9
The Owl of Minerva
, London, 1959.

10 Gillain,
La Marseillaise
, p. 16.

11 Preston,
La guerra civil española
, Barcelona, 1999, p. 125.

12 See Gabriele Ranzato,
L’eclissi della democrazia. La guerra civile spagnola e le sue origine
, Turín, 2004, pp. 372–3.

13
Diarios 1937–1943
, Barcelona, 2004, p. 15.

14 When Villalba returned to nationalist Spain after the war, his claims of ‘
negligencia deliberada’
were fully accepted and he was restored to the rank of full colonel, with pension. See ‘Rectificaciones’ in vol. iv of
Crónica de la guerra española
, Buenos Aires, 1966, p. 491.

15 Richthofen personal war diary, BA-MA RL 35/38.

16 Borkenau,
The Spanish Cockpit
, p. 227.

17 23 March 1937, RGVA 33987/3/991, pp. 81–96, quoted in Radosh and Habeck, p. 162.