Pros And Cons Of Stalin

When the USSR began supplying weapons and ‘volunteers’ to the Spanish Republic during their Civil War, it seemed as if Stalin was coming to the aid of international communism to defeat Franco. However, most modern historians believe this view is too simplistic and that the USSR’s aid was more motivated by the opportunity to advance the needs of their own foreign policy. Stalin attempted to regain support through Spain, which some historians believe was to unite international socialism against fascism although some believe it was to maintain the USSR’s leadership over global socialism. Stalin needed the western democracies on his side to protect the USSR as he was afraid of the Nazis’ Lebensraum. His idea to incorporate the Spanish Republic
The bourgeoisie, whose businesses had been collectivised, as well as the Catholic Church, whose churches were ransacked, feared revolution. Stalin was aware of the fear the democratic countries had of this, and for this reason felt the need to not only suppress, but completely deny that there ever had been a revolution in Spain (done through the Communist press: The Daily Worker and Pravda). In order to do this, Stalin made the outlawing of the POUM, a revolutionary (supposedly Trotskyite party), a term that must be adhered to if the USSR was to supply any further arms to the republic. George Orwell argued that the Spanish communists’ line was ‘undoubtedly influenced by the fact that France, Russia’s ally, would strongly object to a revolutionary neighbour’ . As Comintern policy was subordinated to the defence of the USSR, the Spanish communists’ line was undoubtedly Stalin’s line, which is shown in the slogan chosen for the central communist parties - ‘the fight for peace and for the defence of the USSR’ . The anarchist historian, Conlon, takes into account this prevention of revolution as Stalin believed that ‘above all else Socialism in the USSR had to be defended’ , supported by Stalin’s reluctance to support the spread of International Communism. The USSR wanted to maintain French support
Quoted in A.J.P Taylor – The
Origins of the Second World War
Dolores Ibárruri – Guerra y revolución en España 1936-1939. Quoted in Danny Kowalsky,
Stalin and the Spanish Civil War (Columbia University Press,
2004)
George Orwell, Homage to Catalonia (Secker & Warberg, 1938)
Luis Araquistain, El comunismo y la Guerra de España. Quoted in Danny Kowalsky,
Stalin and the Spanish Civil War (Columbia University Press,
2004)

B Secondary Sources
Peter Anderson, ‘Why did the Spanish Civil War start in 1936?’, History Review
March 2004
Antony Beevor, The Spanish Civil War (Orbis Publishing Ltd, 1982)
Raymond Carr, Modern Spain 1875-1980 (Oxford University Press, 1980)
Eddie Conlon, The Spanish Civil War – Anarchism in Action
(http://flag.blackened.net/revolt/spain/pam_intro.html)
Robert Conquest, Stalin: Breaker of Nations (Penguin, 1992)
Isaac Deutscher, Stalin: A political biography (Oxford University Press, 1949)
Helen Graham, The Spanish Civil War – A Very Short Introduction (Oxford
University Press, 2005)
Habeck and Radosh, Spain Betrayed (Yale University Press, 2001)
Eric Hobsbawm, Age of Extremes (Vintage