Ukraine's Foreign Fighters Have Little In Common With Those Who Signed Up To Fight In The Spanish Civil War
(Discussions include independent and nonprofit news, analysis, and scholarly commentary.)
(Discussion) In 1936, 21-year-old Abe Asheraff of Brooklyn, Brooklyn, recalled why he agreed to join an international brigade as a personal and ethical decision during the Spanish Civil War. .
"Some of my friends have already left. Some have been killed and wounded ... Then I began to see pictures of what happened ... Bombing, civilians were everywhere ... I knew that if I did not go, I would be ashamed of my life.
Today, his words are heard around the world among those who are willing to risk their lives to help Ukraine fight the Russian occupation.
"Sit and do nothing? I had to do it when Afghanistan was falling apart and it was hard for me. I had to take action," he told the New York Times before heading east.
At the urging of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelinsky, volunteers have joined a group the Guardian calls "Spain's most important international brigade since the Spanish Civil War," with thousands of accounts.
The Guardian was not the first newspaper to draw parallels between modern Spain and Ukraine in the 1930s. But although the temptation to compare them is not just an illusion.
In some cases, I see similarities based on distorted frameworks inherited from the Cold War; Elsewhere, it seems to be driven by obvious possibilities.
Similarities in appearance
The Spanish Civil War ended in a failed coup led by General Francisco Franco. . However, the republican government took control of the far right and half of Spain’s largest cities and half of the country. They started a bloody war.
Republican troops clashed with rebel forces with Nazi Germany and Nazi Italy. Instead, other democracies dissolved the republic, and more than twenty countries signed intervention agreements. The republic was closed to the international arms market, supported only by Soviet and Mexican military service. After the fall of the republic in 1939, Spain remained under Franco for the next 36 years.
Asher is one of about 2,800 American volunteers and more than 35,000 volunteers who flocked to Spain to fight fascism. Although most of these foreign fighters were not communists, they were mostly recruited by communist organizations. They unite against fascism. Upon arrival in Spain, the volunteers became members of the unified Spanish Republican Army, most of whom served in one of the five international brigades.
As an expert on the Spanish Civil War and its legacy, I understand why many people want to see the Ukrainian war in Spanish.
As during the Spanish Civil War, Ukrainian cities were bombed, civilians were killed, and the victims stubbornly defended themselves from a very powerful enemy. As in Spain, the war created an endless flow of refugees. And, like the Spanish war, it reflects a great moral purity - "this conflict has its pros and cons," said the American patriot of the New York Times, "but the fate of the world seems to be balanced." With a rope. from weight.
Inspired by classmates
However, historical examples are imperfect, useless and often erroneous. First, today’s geopolitics has nothing to do with the 1930s. The army was not NATO in 1936, but there was no weak and ineffective League of Nations and the threat of nuclear war.
Also, volunteers from Europe, the United States, the Middle East and Asia, who joined the International Brigades in 1936, had nothing to do with Ukrainian veterans and politicians. And he can lean to the right or completely to the right. Although the Russian occupation clearly violated Ukraine's sovereignty, Ukraine's defenders represented an ideology that encompassed the entire political landscape.
In contrast, some volunteers in Spain have military training or experience. When Asherov knew that the war with Spain was his responsibility, he explained that he was brought up in progressive politics.
Although he and his team were from the International Labor Organization, they realized they had a vested interest in the struggle. Most of them were Jews and immigrants; Historian Helen Graham writes: “Fascism is a generation that opposes attempts to impose racism and xenophobia on old and new continents.
The similarities are shaken by other factors. In the last months of the war, half a million Spanish refugees fleeing Spain were not greeted with a loud reception. With some exceptions, such as Mexico, most of the countries created by the French government in concentration camps have closed their borders. During the French occupation of France, about 15,000 Spanish Republicans were taken to Nazi camps, and about 5,000 people died.
When AD was liberated from European fascism in 1945, its allies decided to leave Franco and take control of Spain. In the 1950s, Franco became an ally of the United States during the Cold War.
Distortion of history
The Cold War changed the course of Spanish civil history. In the United States, anti-fascist volunteers are commonly referred to as communist charlatans. M. In 1984, US President Ronald Reagan went to the United States to Spain.
[You are smart and interested in the world. Interviews with writers and editors. You can subscribe to our newsletter every day.]
Some of these Cold War-era clichés have been exposed to major journalism because of the aftermath of the war in Ukraine. For example, a New York Times correspondent Zelinsky International Warriors reports that American gambling in Spain "is often seen as a heroic excuse to fight the Nazis." In fact, many of those who fought against fascism in Spain joined the Allies during World War II. Others formed the basis of protests in Nazi and Nazi territory.
It is also in the hands of the Kremlin, which seeks to "cut" a "special military campaign" in the West, describing the Spanish civil war as a conflict between fascism and anti-fascism. Neighbor.
Interestingly, one of the most favorable challenges for historical comparisons comes from Spain itself. In early March 2022, when the Spanish Progressive Alliance decided to send weapons to the Zelinsky government, the country's largest newspaper El Pays published an editorial :. Not 80 years ago. In essence, the controversial decision to supply arms split the ruling coalition; The newspaper focused on the Spanish Republic, which is struggling, was an attempt to stop the debate.
If the Ukrainian analogy can be applied to Spain, it is a tragic way to use the country as a puppet in the war between the great powers of the world.
In July 1937, Dutch director Joris Events, journalist Martha Gelhorn and writer Ernest Hemingway came to the White House to show a documentary about the Spanish War. After watching the film in 1938, President Franklin D. Roosevelt commented: "Spain is a sacrifice for the sins of us all."
The same fate awaits Ukraine and its people.
This article has been reprinted under a Creative Commons license. Read the main article here - 178976.
Komentar
Posting Komentar