"We Came Because Our Open Eyes Could See No Other Way": The Lives and Experiences of the International volunteers During the Spanish Civil War
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2014
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Haverford College. Department of History
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Thesis
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Award
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eng
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Open Access
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Abstract
The Spanish Civil War of 1936-1939 began as a military revolt by those opposed to the new left-wing Popular Front government, but the world soon interpreted it as a war between Communism and Fascism. This idea was reinforced by the support offered by fascist Germany and Italy to the rebel Nationalists, while the Soviet Union, through the Comintern, supported the beleaguered Spanish Republic. These nations quickly co-opted the conflict, using the Nationalists and the Republicans as proxies through which to fight their own ideological battles. While the Germans and Italians offered the Nationalists use of their soldiers, the Republic used the Comintern to attract an estimated 35,000 individuals from all over the world to volunteer to serve in the newly raised International Brigades. While the Nationalists did not actively search for volunteers, a number of individuals from an estimated 53 nations volunteered to fight for them. In this thesis I shall examine the experiences and motivations of four volunteers-–the ex-Irish Republican Army officers Eoin O'Duffy and Frank Ryan, who volunteered for the Nationalists and the Republicans respectively, and the Cambridge-educated English intellectuals Peter Kemp and John Cornford, who volunteered for the Nationalists and the Republicans respectively. Through an examination of these four lives, I shall show that, while they were for the most part deeply concerned by the situation in Spain, their decisions to volunteer were products of the political situations in their home countries of England and Ireland, and the Spanish Civil War served as a substitute for other wars that they were unable to fight.