From 1936 to 1938 the brigades, despite some difficulties, operated effectively on the Republican side, and their organization was imitated by other units of the Republican army. From 1937 on, recruits for the brigades diminished, and men lost in action or by desertion were replaced mainly by SpanisThe first group of 500 trainees arrived in Albacete, Spain, on October 14, 1936. As other trainees and Soviet arms arrived, they were placed under the command of representatives of the Comintern. There were seven brigades in all, and each one was divided into battalions by nationality (e.g., the French-Belgian Commune de Paris Battalion, the American Abraham Lincoln Battalion, the British Battalion). The number of volunteers probably never exceeded 20,000 at any one time, but the total number of volunteers, including a small number of women, reached about 60,000.
From 1936 to 1938 the brigades, despite some difficulties, operated effectively on the Republican side, and their organization was imitated by other units of the Republican army. From 1937 on, recruits for the brigades diminished, and men lost in action or by desertion were replaced mainly by Spanish Communists. The brigades were formally withdrawn from Spain late in 1938 as part of Prime Minister Juan Negrín’s attempt to win British and French support for his government. The last battle in which they