The Spanish Military Rebellion Against The Second Republic Of Spain

The Spanish Civil War was a military rebellion against the Second Republic of Spain. The uprising was a direct result of the polarization of Spanish society that had been occurring during the decade that preceded the war. Those who revolted against the Republic identified themselves as Nationalists and were in the main part Catholic conservatives, landowners, influential businessmen, and most importantly the military. Republicans comprised the opposing side. They supported the ruling government and were mostly workers, and the educated middle class. During the conflict the Nationalists received support from Mussolini and Hitler, who were sympathetic of their cause, while the Republicans received aid from the Soviet Union and the ‘International

By 1928 Comintern’s agenda revolved around the observation that the seeds of conflict were already blossoming in Europe. Many Comintern representatives mentioned the growth of “state capitalism” and interlinked the notion together with “fascizanation” and “radicalization.” Since the tenth plenary session of the Executive Committee of the Communist International (ECCI) concurred with the collapse of the Spanish monarchy and the establishment of the Second Republic, the Soviets concluded that revolution was underway in Spain. The Comintern inferred that capitalism in Spain was fragile and therefore the current revolution in Spain would transition rapidly to the kind of proletariat revolution fundamental to the emergence of a Soviet-like state. In order to achieve this “Soviet Spain” the Commintern instructed the Spanish Communist Party (PCE) to avoid ties with the Spanish socialists, who were deemed as ‘social fascists,’ and to rally workers and peasants towards uprising. Accordingly, the Cominterm increased its propaganda activities in Spain and as soviet ideology spread in the Iberian Peninsula so did Comintern front organizations. The most notable one was the ‘Friends of the Soviet Union’ (AUS), which was established in 1933 and whose members included notable Spanish politicians such as Juan Negrín, the last Prime Minister of the Spanish Second