Library Journal, July 2001 v126 i12
p109
Spain Betrayed: The Soviet Union in the Spanish Civil War.
Review by Zachary T. Irwin.
COPYRIGHT 2001 Cahners Business Information
* Spain Betrayed: The Soviet Union in the Spanish Civil War. Yale Univ.
(Annals of Communism). Jul. 2001. c.525p. ed. by Ronald Radosh &
others. photogs. index. ISBN 0-300-08981-3. $35. HIST
Few events in the 20th century have evoked such bitter academic and
personal controversy as the role of the Soviet-dominated Communist
International(Comintern) in the Spanish civil war. As the introduction to
this splendid collection of Comintern documents explains, "the
difficulty ... has lain in proving the common allegation about Soviet
intentions." This rich trove of archival correspondence between
Soviet representatives and Moscow provides definitive answers. Perhaps
least surprising is the obsessive concern on the part of the Communists
with "Trotskyist" and anarchist allies of the Loyalist
government. Comintern contempt for the Loyalist government and the
"sectarian" Spanish Communist Party confirms Moscow's objective
of domination before victory over the fascist rebellion. Indeed, Comintern
leader Georgi Dimitrov advises that the "guise of defending the
Republic" should not be compromised by premature efforts to install a
"dictatorship of the proletariat." For historians, this
correspondence offers detailed and multiple reports for the duration of
the war. Soviet agents such as Dimitrov, Andre Marty, Ernest Gero, and
Palmiro Togliatti anticipated Stalinist tactics in postwar Europe. The
editors offer commentary that helps explain the complex panorama of the
war and the impact of Soviet decisions on its outcome. Highly recommended
for academic and larger public libraries. [July is the 65th anniversary of
the civil war's beginning.--Ed.] --Zachary T. Irwin, Pennsylvania State
Univ., Erie |