International Brigades

The International Brigades were military units made up of foreign volunteers from more than fifty countries that participated in the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) together with the Republican Army, confronting the rebels alongside the government of the Second Republic.

According to the data handled by studies carried out in the United States by the Abraham Lincoln Battalion and by the historian Andreu Castells, a total of 59,380 foreign brigade members participated; later, the historian Hugh Thomas would lower the number of combatants to 40,000, while the most recent investigations by Michael Lefebvre and Rémi Skoutelsky give a figure of almost 35,000. the rest "elements distributed in the Spanish army") comes from his investigations in the Comintern archives and his computation has been corroborated by a report from the Russian military secret service submitted to Marshal Voroshilov, Soviet Defense Commissar, on July 26 of 1938 in which it is said that at the end of the month of April the Comintern had registered 31,369 volunteers in the International Brigades during the entire course of the war. At the same time the Internationals never exceeded the number of 20,000 men present in the fronts at a certain moment of the war (it is estimated that there were between 12,000 and 15,000). The largest nationality was always French, with a figure close to 10,000 men, a good part of them from the Paris area. At least 15,000 brigade members died.

Most were not soldiers, but workers voluntarily recruited by the communist parties (Comintern) or veterans of World War I. In a confidential report submitted to the rest of the British government in January 1937, Foreign Office Secretary Anthony Eden compared the brigade members to the forces of Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany that were supporting Franco's side: "It is true that volunteers have also crossed the French border in considerable numbers. But they are in a different category. They are not organized, they have no military experience, and the vast majority are not armed or equipped."

Their base was at the Los Llanos air base in Albacete. The Brigades participated in the defense of Madrid in 1936, the battles of Jarama, Guadalajara, Brunete, Belchite, Teruel, Aragón and the Ebro, being withdrawn as of September 23, 1938, in order to modify the position of the Committee of No Intervention before foreign intervention.

History

Background

Contrary to popular belief, the International Brigades were not the first nor the only foreign volunteers who left to fight in Spain in favor of the Republic. Already before its formation (in October 1936) there was a number, although not a very high number, of foreign fighters on the Peninsula, who had been participating in the war practically since the day of the uprising. Some of them already resided in Spain before the coup of July 18 and came mostly from countries with fascist (or pseudo-fascist) governments, from where they had been forced into exile for their progressive, socialist, communist or anarchist militancy. For this reason, the two main countries of origin of these first foreign volunteers were Germany and Italy. Of this first group of foreign fighters who were already living in Spain at the outbreak of the war were, as two of the best known, the French novelist André Malraux and the Italian socialist and anti-fascist Fernando De Rosa Lenccini, who years before had attempted against Humberto II. from Italy.

Anti-fascist demonstration in London on the front page by the newspaper La Vanguardia on September 11, 1936.

There was also another group of foreigners who, starting on July 18, arrived in Spain by their own means and joined the Republican side simply because they sympathized politically with the Popular Front. But if it is difficult to give figures on the soldiers who made up the International Brigades, much more so, due to the non-existence of official documents, it is difficult to give figures on foreigners who arrived before October 1936.

Thirdly, the incorporation into the ranks of the Republican side of the participants in the popular Olympics is noteworthy. This competition, organized by left-wing political groups, was being held in Barcelona in the summer of 1936 as a counterpart to the official Olympics that were held in Berlin under the government of Adolf Hitler, and athletes from various countries of the world took part in it. Many of these athletes joined the street fights in Barcelona, participated in the erection of barricades and in the occupation of the Hotel Colón. Most of the participants, whose number ranged from 174 to 300, returned to their respective countries on July 24, after having been protagonists during the first week of the war. Precisely, the Austrian athlete Mechter, who died on July 19, is considered the first brigade member to fall in combat.

The units formed by these first foreign volunteers were baptized with the names of leftist or progressive soldiers of the previous century, such as Walery Wroblewski, commander in the Paris Commune, or of highly prestigious political figures, such as the English socialist Tom Mann. In August 1936, the Paris Commune battalion, composed mainly of French and Belgians under the command of Jules Dumont, entered the battle of Irún.

Many of the combatants that made up these spontaneous voluntary units later joined the International Brigades, but many others, due to various circumstances, remained outside them and fought in other units of the People's Army of the Republic. Numerous foreigners did not join the brigades mainly due to political discrepancies, since the Brigades began to be organized and promoted by the French Communist Party (where the first brigade officers came from), which caused foreigners of socialist affiliation, anarchists, or Marxists alien to communism, preferred to enroll in other units.

In some cases, some foreigners would fight by joining units of the POUM or other dissident left-wing organizations of the Communist International. Related to this matter, and after the days of May 1937 in Barcelona, the republican government ordered the June 19, 1937, by a decree implemented by Vicente Rojo Lluch following orders of the then Minister of Defense Indalecio Prieto "that all foreigners who serve in the Army were included in the International Brigades". This order was not complied with by many foreign soldiers, who fought until the end of the war in units other than those of the brigade members

Creation

The International Brigades were not formed spontaneously as the Communist International maintained, but it was it that organized them (based on the decision taken by its Secretariat on September 18, 1936 in Moscow, at the request of Stalin), in addition to the Recruitment and organizational aspects were entrusted to leaders of the French Communist Party, headed by André Marty. But the vast majority of its members were truly "volunteers for freedom" (as the republican propaganda said) arrived from countries with fascist or authoritarian governments, such as Germany, Italy or Poland, but also from democratic countries such as France (which contributed the largest number of brigade members, around 10,000), the United Kingdom or the United States (with the famous Abraham Lincoln battalion that arrived at the end of 1936 and whose entry into combat occurred in the Battle of Jarama in February 1937). Thus, the International Brigades were not the "Army of the Comintern", an instrument of Stalin's policy, as the rebels' propaganda claimed. An English worker who joined the International Brigades explained to him thus in a letter to his daughter why he had come to fight in Spain:

From all the countries of the world, workers like me have come to Spain to stop fascism. So, even though I'm thousands of miles from you, I'm fighting to protect you and all the children of England, as well as people from all over the world.

The Government of the Republic, chaired by the socialist Francisco Largo Caballero since September 4, 1936, was initially reluctant to accept the proposal, considering that the Brigades were being formed and governed by the Comintern and its affiliated party in Spain, the PCE. In fact, anarchist groups under the direction of the FAI hindered the entry of anti-fascist volunteers at the border, even detaining more than a thousand brigade members, as the FAI leader Diego Abad de Santillán came to recognize in his memoirs Why we lost the war. The opinion of these reticent sectors within the Republican side would change in October, when the advance of the rebels towards Madrid evidenced the critical military situation of the Republic, which made it urgent to recruit as many possible of soldiers.

The mobilizations in favor of recruiting for the International Brigades spread throughout Europe and then throughout the United States, but in countries like Germany and Italy they were identified as the first step to combat fascism and Nazism, which had already established dictatorships in both states. The first brigade members arrived in Albacete on October 14, 1936. The first Brigades formed (XI, XII and XIII) were made up mainly of French, Belgian, Italian and German volunteers. Within each brigade, battalions were formed, generally made up of members of the same nationality, to facilitate communications between the members.

On October 22, the government approved the constitution of the International Brigades, with the Republican Diego Martínez Barrio being designated as their organizer. As president of the Government Delegate Board for the supply of food and supplies, his coordination and logistics work was of the utmost importance, establishing the then president of the Cortes and vice president of the Republic his residence in Albacete for a time to develop this work.

The international recruitment headquarters was established in Paris under the leadership of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and the French Communist Party. The republican government processed the necessary documentation for the recruit, these documents were sent to Paris, and from there the volunteers who arrived by rail from all over Europe were shipped to Barcelona. Later, the government sent them to Albacete, where the Republic had established the headquarters and the training center of the International Brigades.

On October 23, Francisco Largo Caballero created the Organic Division of Albacete with an Organization Committee in charge of centrally assisting volunteers arriving from abroad. The French communist leader André Marty, General Secretary of the Comintern and apparently a man of complete confidence to Stalin, was appointed Head of the Albacete Base. The volunteers who arrived were then assigned to different towns: La Roda, Tarazona de la Mancha, Villanueva de la Jara and Madrigueras were the places with the highest concentration.

In the Albacete training center, the five brigades numbered from XI to XV were organized. The XI, commanded by the Soviet general Kléber, and the XII, commanded by the Hungarian writer Máté Zalka "Lukács", played a prominent role in the battle of Madrid. The volunteers Canadians formed the Mackenzie-Papineau Battalion (the Mac-Paps). There was also a small group of American pilots who formed the Yankee Squadron, led by Bert Acosta. There were famous brigade members, writers and poets like Ralph Fox, Charles Donnelly, John Cornford or Christopher Caudwell who would describe their experiences at the front.

The English Hispanist historian Hugh Thomas, in his classic work on the Spanish Civil War, estimated the number of brigade members who fought in Spain at around 40,000, far from the 100,000 given by Francoist propaganda to inflate the influence of Communism International. More detailed and recent studies place the figure at just under 35,000, therefore not far from the figure estimated by Thomas. What is also proven is that there were never more than 20,000 combatants at a time and that about 10,000 died in combat.

Gabriel Jackson has stated that "the overwhelming motive [of the brigadistas] was despair at the failure of the democratic powers to oppose a manifestly aggressive fascism".

War Actions

The Irish brigades Frank Ryan (left) and John Robinson of the Connolly column, integrated into the Lincoln Battalion.

The first combat operations in which the brigades participated (specifically numbers XI, XII and XIV) were in the battle of Madrid from November 4, 1936 to February 1937, during the first offensive of the army rebel, who already occupied Getafe and Leganés.

With 1,550 men and women (1,628 according to Soviet archives), the headquarters were established in the Faculty of Philosophy and Letters, the brigade units being very active around the Casa de Campo, where they confronted General Varela in the accesses from the Valencia highway, the defense of the University City and the accesses to the Sierra de Guadarrama, in a wide deployment that led them on some occasions to fight at the gates of Getafe.

The XV Brigade, made up mainly of Russian, North American and British units, faced the rebel troops that tried to conquer Madrid from February 6, 1937 in the battle of Jarama, where the British and American brigade members would have a role outstanding. It also participated in the containment of the rebel offensive and captured prisoners, maintaining confrontations until the 27th inclusive.

During the battle of Guadalajara started by Italian troops from the Corpo Truppe Volontarie on March 9, 1937 to try to penetrate Madrid from the north, the Republican troops faced an army of 30,000 men, 80 tanks and 200 artillery pieces. On the scene they found themselves fighting the XI and XII International Brigades, which suffered a large number of casualties.

In the battle of Belchite, the XI and XV brigades took part from August 26 to September 10, 1937. The few results obtained by the Republican side and the distrust of the socialist minister Indalecio Prieto towards the Brigades caused that, Shortly after the end of the fight in Belchite, the Republican government issued various decrees intended to integrate the Brigades into the organizational scheme of the Popular Republican Army, taking away decision-making power from the Comintern and the PCE, and trying to frame the brigade members under command direct from professional Spanish military. Such attempts collided with the opposition of the Comintern, who, with the support of the PCE and the government of the Soviet Union (almost the only supplier of arms to the Republic), managed to keep the Brigades under their control.

In the Republican offensive that took place in December 1937 in the battle of Teruel, whose purpose was to divert the pressure of the Nationalists on the northern front, all the International Brigades (already greatly reduced) participated, except the XIV. Facing the sessions of the Non-Intervention Committee, the Republican government maintained that only the Spanish troops would fight, but this was soon shown to be false when on December 7 the order arrived at the brigade base in Albacete that the resting soldiers left for Aragon.

The brigade members also played an important role in the guerrilla groups that infiltrated behind the lines before the battle to sabotage national communications.^{[citation needed]} The The reconquest of Teruel by the Francoists in February 1938 cost a very high number of casualties, especially the XI Brigade.

Nevertheless, the Aragon offensive that began in March 1938 meant a harsh test for the International Brigades, while the severe Republican defeat in these combats also generated a high number of casualties among the brigade members. During the battle of Caspe, the brigades played a prominent role in the defense of the town, where a significant number of international and republican units had concentrated. Starting in April 1938 and given the extreme difficulty of covering the casualties of the foreign combatants, the Brigades would be reorganized incorporating a large number of Spanish recruits, with which the proportion of foreigners began to be a minority in almost all the battalions.

Repression and Francoist concentration camps

In the rear of the National zone. For example, between March and April 1938 alone, Franco's troops had shot 144 brigade members, provoking protests in Europe and the United States. They were also interned in the concentration camps opened by express order of Franco; in their case, the camp of San Pedro de Cardeña (Castrillo del Val, Burgos) was chosen to detain them, located in the monastery of the same name and which came to house more than 4,000 detainees. Franco used some of these prisoners to exchanged for German and Italian soldiers held by the Republican authorities, while others were directly deported to Germany and handed over to the Gestapo: At least thirty German and Austrian brigade members ended up in Nazi concentration camps, where most of them died.

The internationals were subjected in the San Pedro camp to the same overcrowded and precarious conditions that existed in the rest of the Francoist detention centers; British diplomat Robert MacLeod Hodgson, who visited the compound, denounced that the inmates were locked up 24 hours a day in a place full of people, with mice, lice, fleas and only three toilets for three hundred men, who also had no clothes underwear, shoes or medicines. The inmates of San Pedro also had to submit to the experiments of Antonio Vallejo-Nájera, head of Franco's Military Psychiatric Services and known as the Spanish Mengele, who tried to justify the peculiar racial and eugenic theories of the. Aided by two German scientific advisers, he concluded that these foreign prisoners were "degenerate" and "abnormal" individuals, because of the prevailing democracy and universal suffrage in "the American cultural and social milieu" where "sexual licentiousness is the tonic." ». Inmates with Asian, mulatto or African features were photographed and ridiculed in the various propaganda reports for fascism that were filmed there.

The last brigade members to be released from Franco's prisons and concentration camps would not do so until well into 1943, four and a half years after the end of the war in Spain.

The March of the Brigades

Reorganization of the International Brigades between May and July 1938.

During 1938, international organizations such as the League of Nations made attempts to end the Spanish Civil War, given the evident failure of the Non-Intervention Committee to stop the conflict.

After the serious defeat suffered in April by the Aragon offensive, the Republic was aware of its weakness, and the president of the government Juan Negrín plays the trick of betting on a pacification process, issuing on the occasion of May 1, 1938 a possible agreement based on thirteen points known as the Negrín's Thirteen Points before international public opinion, which included the withdrawal of all forces made up of foreigners that were present in the Spanish conflict.

This was added to an intense diplomatic work led by Manuel Azaña, in which France and the United Kingdom were shown the convenience of having a strong ally in the south in light of the events that were taking place in Europe after the threat directed against Czechoslovakia by Hitler. The unfavorable military and strategic situation of the Republic (since April 15 the Republican zone was cut in two) caused France and the United Kingdom to show no enthusiasm for Negrín's proposal, and even the press of the Soviet Union, under government control., seriously admitted the possibility that Franco would succeed in Spain.

The republican government headed by Juan Negrín ordered that the International Brigades participate in the republican offensive in the battle of the Ebro, and this actually happened as of July 25, with the brigades intervening as shock troops. However, the stagnation of the Republican offensive since mid-August and the severity of the rebellious counterattacks caused new casualties among the foreign combatants of the Brigades.

In 1938, the number of brigade members had been significantly reduced (approximately a third remained) and on September 21 of that year, the President of the Republican government Juan Negrín announced before the General Assembly of the League of Nations in Geneva, the immediate and unconditional withdrawal of all foreign fighters who were fighting on the Republican side in the hope that the rebel side would do the same. A month later, on October 28, 1938, the International Brigades paraded for the last time through the streets of Barcelona in an act headed by Azaña and Negrín that was attended by some 250,000 people. Around the same time, Mussolini withdrew some 10,000 soldiers from the Corpo Truppe Volontarie "as a gesture of goodwill" towards the Non-Intervention Committee, but some 30,000 Italian soldiers continued to fight on the side of the rebels until the end of the war.

The Government of the Republic officially communicated to the League of Nations and the Non-Intervention Committee its firm commitment to the withdrawal of the International Brigades when the advance of the Republican troops in the Battle of the Ebro had already stalled and when a severe struggle of attrition had begun on that combat front.

By this date, the recruitment of foreign soldiers for the International Brigades had become almost impossible, due to the intermittent closures of the border carried out by France, which prevented the free passage of volunteers, also considering that the socialist government of Léon Blum (in favor of the Republic) had left power in France in June 1937 and his right-wing successors proceeded to intermittent closures of the Spanish-French border.

Likewise, the internal struggles between the PCE and the POUM had discouraged the recruitment of foreigners in the Brigades since the events of May 1937 in Barcelona, because after these events, many non-communist foreign volunteers chose to go to Spain to join other units of the People's Army of the Republic and not the Brigades. For their part, the communist parties affiliated with the Comintern lacked more militants capable of being sent to Spain, which made it impossible to cover the casualties suffered by the Brigades.

Due to all these factors, the International Brigades had greatly reduced their number after the defeat in Aragon: the foreigners in the Brigades numbered less than 10,000 men in all of Republican Spain at the beginning of the Battle of the Ebro, adding up to that figure inclusive to non-combatant services (doctors, technicians, etc.). By then, in almost all the battalions of the Brigades, the majority of the troops were Spanish, recruited to fill the gaps left by foreigners.

The proposal to withdraw the Brigades reached the rebel side, although Franco communicated "informally" that it was too late for any agreement with the republican side, while the rebel troops had a much more advantageous military situation after their triumph in Aragon. In any case, the Government of the Republic consummated the demobilization process hoping that the goodwill would serve for the European powers (neutral or not) to put pressure on Franco. By that date the warlike value of the Brigades had been greatly reduced, and its propaganda value was not relevant for the Comintern either, after publicizing the struggles with the POUM and to a lesser extent with the PSOE. The Soviet Union also supported the withdrawal of the Brigades, wishing that numerous communist militants (especially those integrated into the command of the Brigades) would leave Spain alive as a victory for Franco became increasingly possible.

On September 23, 1938, the brigade members lived their last day of combat, but it would not be until October 27 that the internationals of the Army of the Center and the Levant, some 1,500 men, would be regrouped in Valencia. The following day the same thing happened with the brigade members of Catalonia, who were gathered in Barcelona.

The People's Army paid them a great tribute in that city under the motto: Knights of the freedom of the world: have a good road! The greatest tribute paid to them was the parade held in Barcelona on October 28, 1938. The whole city woke up with banners and posters alluding to the International Brigades. Before Companys, Azaña, Negrín, Vicente Rojo and more than 300,000 people, the internationals paraded down avenida del Catorce de Abril (now Diagonal avenue), in a highly emotional atmosphere, with a historic speech by Dolores Ibarruri.

There were similar acts of homage in Valencia and Madrid. After a parade in which the people said goodbye to them with applause, tears and covering the road with roses, after a spectacular display of republican fighters in the skies of Barcelona, the brigade members were ready to leave. For this they were concentrated in various Catalan towns, according to their unit of origin and nationality.

After withdrawal

Most of the less than ten thousand brigade members who survived the war tried to return to their countries. Many of them would have no problems (French, British, American), but many others would find themselves in difficult situations: the Italians, Germans, Austrians, Swiss, Bulgarians and Canadians found themselves between a rock and a hard place. They were formally expelled from Spain, but either they would be detained in their countries upon their return because fascism and Nazism ruled there, or they risked jail time because they had left without authorization to serve in a foreign army, or because their respective Governments persecuted communist militants, for which many brigade members had to go as exiles to third countries.

Some brigade members who did not have a country to return to safely took refuge in private homes in Catalonia and others crossed the Pyrenees border only to stay in France as exiles, even clandestinely. The Soviet Union welcomed some brigade members, but these were exclusively senior communist leaders, while the Soviet government refused to admit lower-ranking communist militants, offering them "facilities" to survive in exile.

A paradigmatic case was that of the Yugoslav brigade members: four of the volunteers who fought in the war ended up leading the four groups of the Partisan Liberation Army that fought the Nazis in World War II: Peko Dapčević the I, Koča Popović the II, Kosta Nađ the III, and Petar Drapšin the IV.

Last struggles of the former brigade members

When the troops of the rebellious side launched their campaign in Catalonia on December 23, 1938, there were still a few thousand ex-brigadistas waiting to leave Spain; Faced with Franco's advance, these foreigners rebuilt some battalions and once again offered their services to the Republican government. Initially Prime Minister Negrín rejected this support, but former brigadista commanders (such as André Marty) and PCE leaders urged that the ex-brigadistas still based in Spain take up arms again.

Thus, in January 1939, improvised battalions of former brigade members were formed, mostly Slavs, Italians, and Latin Americans, who participated in the last war operations of the Republican side before the withdrawal from Catalonia; these combatants evacuated Spanish soil on February 9, 1939 along with the remnants of the Popular Army and several thousand civilian refugees. A few ex-brigadistas had chosen to stay in the southeastern region of Spain, still in the hands of the Republic, framed in military units affiliated with the PCE; In this condition they fought against Colonel Casado's coup d'état at the beginning of March 1939. Some were able to flee at the last minute together with the leadership of the Communist Party of Spain, while others ended up captured by the Francoists.

Internal organization and structure

Origin of brigade members

Interbrigadiers of the XI International Brigade resting on a rear.

There were brigade members from more than fifty countries around the world. The country that contributed the most volunteers was France, with more than 10,000 according to some sources (Andreu Castells raises it to 15,000). The second most important contingent was that of Germans and Austrians with about 5,000, mostly exiled in Paris and Brussels. The Italian contingents (4,000), 2,500 British, 2,000 Americans, 1,700 Yugoslavs, 1,800 Mexicans, 1,200 Canadians, 800 Cubans, and 600 Argentines also stood out. Volunteers from countries such as Peru, Bolivia, Abyssinia, Poland, Belgium, Albania, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Bulgaria, Sweden (500), Switzerland, the Netherlands, Romania, Colombia, China, Japan, Chile, Brazil, Uruguay, Algeria, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Egypt, Morocco, Palestine and New Zealand.

A significant number of brigade members were of Jewish origin, a group that mostly understood the fight against fascism in the context of the fight against the rise of anti-Semitism that was taking place in Europe. According to different estimates, up to 8,000 of these volunteers, 15% of the total international brigade members, fought for the Republican side. In general, these volunteers had previously been communist and anarchist militants, with little or no Jewish awareness, but there were also cases of specifically Jewish units, such as the Botwin Jewish Unit (previously called the 2nd Company of the Palafox Battalion). This Jewish participation in the international brigades was systematically silenced.

Political background

The brigade members came from very different social strata, from intellectuals to manual workers, including retired soldiers or veteran soldiers. There was a great variety of origins in its ranks: trade unionists, miners from Central Europe, stevedores and shippers from the main European ports, some ex-combatants of the First World War, doctors, Afro-Americans and Orientals from the New York suburbs, as well as a large group of university students. British from areas of industrial concentration, some writers, artists, politicians and many unemployed soldiers from Eastern Europe. As we can see, the geographical, social and professional origin was impressively heterogeneous. The significant number of intellectuals, doctors, artists and scientists that made up the brigades has led them to be defined on many occasions as "the most intellectual military unit in history".

It should be added in this section that there were several writers, such as Ernest Hemingway and George Orwell, who, although they were direct witnesses to the war and wrote some works that have become very popular (For Whom the Bell Tolls or Homage to Catalonia, or that served as inspiration to write Animal Farm ), did not qualify as combatants within the International Brigades.

The majority political affiliation was communist, since almost all the brigade members had invariably been recruited by the communist parties of different nations, affiliated with the Comintern, although a few went to Spain to enlist directly without previously joining a political party. However, political militancy varied according to the country of origin; For example, among the American brigade members, the recruits who were militant leftists (socialists, communists, or anarchists) did not reach even half, while in the German contingent, the soldiers of communist affiliation were around 80%, the percentage being equally high. proportion of communists in French or Italian units. Meanwhile, the British and Eastern European battalions showed a majority presence of unionized workers, with a minority of party members.

The affiliation of the non-communist brigade members was also very varied: it ranged from socialism to anarchism, passing through all forms of anti-fascist or social-democratic progressivism. However, in almost all the battalions the Comintern insisted that the leadership positions remain in the hands of communist militants, which was imposed from the first weeks of the Brigades' existence. The only exception to this communist control occurred in the 'Garibaldi' Battalion, where the Comintern allowed Italian recruits to be led by anarchist officers.

There were many brigade members who would later end up becoming characters of notable historical importance. To give some examples, one could cite the names of the German Willy Brandt, who would be mayor of Berlin and later chancellor of Germany, the Dutch intellectual Jef Last, the Hungarian soldier Kleber, the Mexican painter David Alfaro Siqueiros, the Polish general Walter, the president Yugoslav Tito (the participation of the latter has been quite discussed), and many other Germans who would come to occupy important positions in the German Democratic Republic. The Albanian Enver Hoxha, who would be Prime Minister of that country from 1946 until his death in 1985, during the People's Republic of Albania, also participated in the International Brigades.

Name and composition

Members of the International Brigades in the Guadalajara area in 1937.

The first volunteers arrived in Albacete on October 12, 1936, and from there convoys arrived almost daily for the next few days. On the 15th, Luigi Longo (later he will call himself Luigi Gallo) began to organize the first companies. Others who join the first leadership body are the communist militants Allard, Wisniewski, Hans Kahle, Jean Marie François, Lalmanovic or Ribiere. This organizing committee was overwhelmed by the arrival of so many volunteers and soon became a military committee, in which, apart from those already mentioned, others joined, such as Commander Vidal and André Marty, who would become the head of the base and of the International Brigades.

The framing in the different groups was carried out according to language groups and origin. The chiefs at first were chosen by the volunteers themselves, but later the election became based on need, although the Comintern soon managed to impose that all the officers (and candidates to be) were communist militants. Next to each military chief there was a political commissar, whose main tasks were of a political nature (maintaining morale, politically haranguing the troops, etc.) although on occasions they also had to assume purely military tasks.

Seven brigades were formed, called XI, XII, XIII, XIV, XV, 129th and 150th; Each brigade was divided into three battalions (except in some cases in which there were four) that initially numbered around 650 men each. These battalions received names with a clear political content, such as Garibaldi or Commune de Paris.

The Brigades were organized as follows:

• XI BRIGADA

The XI Brigade was the first to be formally constituted on October 22, 1936 with three battalions: Edgar André, Commune de Paris and Garibaldi, supported by a Spanish battalion. Head of the Brigade was Manfred Stern first and Jean Marie François later.

1.♪ "Edgar André" battalion. German.

2.o Battalion "Commune de Paris". Franceses and Belgians. Afterwards moved to XIV.

3.♪ "Dabrowski" battalion. Polish, Hungarian, Yugoslav, Paraguayan. Subsequent transfer to Brigades XII, XIII and 150. (Bandera in the image).

4th Battalion "Garibaldi". Italians. Transferred later to XII.

• XII BRIGADA

Flag of the Italian Battalion "Garibaldi" - 12 International Brigade

The XII Brigade was formed on November 1, 1936 with the Ernst Thälmann, André Marty battalions and, from the XI Brigade, the Garibaldi i>. The Head of the Brigade was General Máté Zalka.

1.♪ Thaelmann Battalion. German. Afterwards moved to XI.

2nd Battalion "Garibaldi". Italians.

3.♪ "André Marty" battalion. Franceses and Belgians. Subsequent transfer to 150, XII and XIV.

• XIII BRIGADA

The XIII Brigade was formed on December 1, 1936 with the Chapaiev, Henri Vuillemin and Louise Michel battalions. The head of the Brigade was Wilhelm Zaisser.

1.♪ Battalion "Louise Michel". Franceses and Belgians. Afterwards moved to XIV.

2nd Battalion "Chapayev". From different Balkan countries. Translated later at 129.

3.♪ Battalion "Henri Vuillemin". Franceses and Belgians. Afterwards moved to XIV.

4th Battalion "Mickiewicz Palafox". Polish and Jewish mostly, in addition to dozens of Ukrainian survivors of the anarchist army of Nestor Majnó.

• XIV BRIGADA

The XIV Brigade, which became known as La Marseillaise because it was made up of a majority of Frenchmen, was created on December 1, 1936 and completely reorganized on November 27, 1938.

1.♪ Battalion "Noves Nacions". Then transferred to the "Commune de Paris".

2. Battalion "Germinal Sunday". Spanish and Portuguese anarchists.

3.♪ Henri Barbusse Battalion. Franceses.

4th Battalion "Pierre Brachet". Franceses.

Battalion Vaillant-Couturier.

• XV BRIGADA

The XV Brigade was formed on January 31, 1937 with the Dimitrov, February 6, Pierre Brachet Battalions (which moved soon to the XIV Brigade), British, Lincoln and Washington. The head of the Brigade was Janos Galicz.

1.♪ "Dimitrov" battalion. Yugoslavs and Bulgarians. Afterwards moved to 150 and then to XIII.

2.o British Battalion.

3.♪ Battalion "Lincoln", "Washington", "Mackenzie-Papineau". American, Canadian, Cuban and Argentine. This battalion joined the Connolly Column formed by a small group of Irishmen.

4th Battalion "February 6". Franceses. Later transferred to Brigade XIV.

5.o Volunteer Corps "Benito Juárez García". Mexican brigades. But the semi-independent Mexican guerrillas called "Unidad Pancho Villa" or "the Villas".

• CXXIX BRIGADA

The 129th Brigade was formed on April 28, 1937 with remains of battalions from other Brigades and members of the POUM. The different origin of its members led it to be known as the Brigade of the forty nations. The differences between the political forces and the conflict in Catalonia with the POUM made it ineffective, and it had to be reorganized in February 1938. Wacek Komar (who came from the Dabrowski Battalion) was then appointed head of the Brigade. of the XI Brigade).

1.er Battalion "Dimitrov". From various Balkan countries.

2.o Battalion "Djakovic". Yugoslavs and Bulgarians.

3.er Battalion "Masaryk". Czechoslovaks.

• CL BRIGADA

Formed in June 1937 on the basis of the Dabrowski Battalion of the XI Brigade.

1.er Battalion "Rakosi". Hungarian.

After the War

RDA post seal in homage to the brigades.

After the dissolution of the International Brigades, and with the return to their countries of origin, its members were welcomed in a different way. At first, many were branded as simple mercenaries, while others were decorated in their own land. The arrival of the Second World War evidenced the role that these fighters had played in Spain as they were the first soldiers from their respective countries to have fought against the fascist expansionism of Germany and Italy.

On January 26, 1996, the Spanish Congress of Deputies granted Spanish nationality to the brigadistas if they renounced their own nationality, thus fulfilling the promise made by Juan Negrín when they left Spain fifty-seven years earlier. Even so, most veterans chose not to resign.

Subsequently, the Law of Historical Memory recognized the brigadistas with Spanish nationality by naturalization, without having to renounce their own. In June 2009, the Spanish embassy in London gave several brigade members their Spanish passports.

The best-known brigade members

The International Brigades counted among its members personalities such as the young Willy Brandt, who would later become Social Democratic Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany, Wilhelm Zaisser, Minister of State Security in the German Democratic Republic and head of the Stasi political police from 1950 to 1953, as well as the writers Ralph Fox, Charles Donnelly, John Cornford, Gustav Regler, Christopher Caudwell, Nick Gillain, George Orwell, scientists like Guido Nonveiller, painters like Wifredo Lam and soldiers.

Perhaps less well known although more legendary were the women brigade members, among whom we should remember the names of Felicia Browne, Fanny Edelman, Mika Feldman, Tina Modotti, Elisaveta Párshina, Salaria Kea O'Reilly, Adelina Kondrátieva or Lise Ricol.

Famous brigade members

• Willy Brandt, Foreign Minister of the German Federal Republic between 1969 and 1974.
• Enver Hoxha, Prime Minister of Albania between 1944 and 1985.
• Josip Broz Tito, president of Yugoslavia between 1943 and 1980.
• Wilhelm Zaisser, Minister for Security of the State of the German Democratic Republic between 1950 and 1953.
• Paul Robeson, an Afro-descendant artist, died in 1976.
• Simon Radowitzky, a Ukrainian-Argentine anarchist known for killing Argentine Police Chief Ramón Falcón.
• David Alfaro Siqueiros, Mexican muralist.
• Apolônio de Carvalho, military, intellectual and Brazilian communist leader.
• Luigi Longo, outstanding Italian Communist politician.
• Willi Bredel, President of the Academy of Arts of the German Democratic Republic.
• Frank Ryan, Irish politician, IRA member during the Irish Civil War.
• Koçi Xoxe, Albanian politician.
• Henri Rol-Tanguy, a French communist, head of the Paris insurrection during the liberation of the city in 1944.
• Pablo de la Torriente Brau, renowned Cuban writer and journalist. Miguel Hernández dedicated his "Second Elegy."
• James Robertson Justice, British actor.
• František Kriegel, Czechoslovak physician and politician.
• Hans Beimler, prominent German communist unionist.

Monuments dedicated to brigade members

In some places, monuments were built in honor of the brigadistas during the war. For example, in the area of the Jarama battle, on June 30, 1938, a fist-shaped monument was inaugurated. He returned a group of brigade members for a farewell ceremony in November. The monument was destroyed after the war.

The first monument to the brigade members after the war was inaugurated on October 28, 1988, just on the fiftieth anniversary of the emotional farewell that Barcelona offered to the International Brigades. We are talking about the work "David and Goliath", by the American sculptor Roy Schifrin, which can be seen at the north mouth of the Rovira tunnel, in the Carmel neighborhood of the Catalan capital, thanks also to the Spanish Civil War Historical Society, which with contributions among others from personalities such as Woody Allen, Leonard Bernstein or Gregory Peck, promoted its creation. The monument is accompanied by a plaque with a fragment of the speech that on October 28, 1938 Dolores Ibárruri, la Pasionaria, delivered in the goodbye of the brigade members: "When the years pass and the wounds of the war heal, when the grinding of painful and bloody days vanish in a present of freedom (...) talk to your children, tell them about these men from the International Brigades (...) We will not forget you, and when the olive tree of peace blooms... come back ».

Another monument to the brigadistas in Spain can be seen since 2012 at the Complutense University of Madrid, although it is questionable whether it remains.

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