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Spain Betrayed: The Soviet Union in the Spanish Civil War (Annals of Communism Series) (Hardcover)

by Professor Ronald Radosh (Editor), Mary Habeck (Editor), Grigory Sevostianov (Editor)

3.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (10 customer reviews)

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Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal
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., Eri.
- Zachary T. Irwin, Pennsylvania State Univ., Erie
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review
"Everything that was ever suspected about the Comintern line in Spain turns out to have been true." -- Christopher Hitchens, Wilson Quarterly

"If Spain were Vietnam [the pages of Spain Betrayed] would be its Pentagon Papers." -- Sam Tanenhaus,Vanity Fair

"It will effect a complete overturn in historical perceptions of the twentieth-century Left." -- Stephen Schwartz, Weekly Standard

"Spain Betrayed gives the weight and substance of documentary evidence to a subject that has always provoked deep feeling." -- Richard Bernstein, New York Times

"This rich trove of archival correspondence between Soviet representatives and Moscow provides definitive answers. . . . Highly recommended." -- Zachary T. Irwin, Library Journal

"[In Spain Betrayed,] proof of how Stalin had been betraying the Spanish Republican from day one of the Civil War." -- Arnold Beichman, Washington Times

"[Spain Betrayed] deserves the highest commendation for presenting an absolutely unique trove of original documentation…[like] no other previous work." -- Stanley G. Payne, Los Angeles Times Book Review

"[T]his book is a highly useful map through the thicket of deceit that often passes for scholarship on the war." -- Michael J. Ybarra, Wall Street Journal

This documentary collection, introduced by summary and interpretation, is truly extraordinary and will be a major resource. -- Choice

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Product Details

Hardcover: 592 pages
Publisher: Yale University Press (June 1, 2001)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0300089813
ISBN-13: 978-0300089813
Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.3 x 1.6 inches
Shipping Weight: 2.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)

Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (10 customer reviews)

Amazon.com Sales Rank: #604,483 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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This item is part of The Annals of Communism Series.

Inside This Book (learn more)

First Sentence:
THE FIRST FEW MONTHS of the Spanish Civil War set the stage for all that would follow. Read the first page

Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
penal platoon, anarchist units, division commissar, anarchist masses, anarchist ministers, defeatist elements, individual comrades, brigade base, anarchist press, antifascist front, quartermaster service, international cadres, anarchist leaders, military commissars, opposition bloc, fascist agents, ministerial crisis, cialist party, fighting efficiency, fighting value, suspect elements, unified party, new brigades, heartfelt greetings, brigade command

Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Popular Front, Largo Caballero, Soviet Union, Fifth Regiment, Comrade Marty, Council of Ministers, Top Secret, Republican Spain, Red Army, Spanish Republic, Comrade Gallo, General Miaja, Spanish Communist, Garcia Oliver, Comrade Mije, Unified Socialist Youth, Second International, Comrade Gorev, General Asensio, Colonel Rojo, Karl Marx Division, Comrade Luis, Martinez Barrio, Mundo Obrero, Comrade Leonidov

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Citations (learn more)

This book cites 35 books:

The Spanish Civil War: Revised Edition (Modern Library Paperbacks) by Hugh Thomas on 9 pages
The Comintern and the Spanish Civil War by Edward Hallett Carr on 9 pages
The Battle for Spain: The Spanish Civil War 1936-1939 by Antony Beevor on 8 pages
The Spanish Civil War: Reaction, Revolution & Revenge (Rev. Ed.) by Paul Preston on 7 pages
Spanish Revolution by Payne G Stanley on 7 pages

See all 35 books this book cites

17 books cite this book:

Spanish Civil War A Modern Tragedy (Routledge Sources in History) by Georg Esenwein on page 24, page 50, and page 122
What Stalin Knew: The Enigma of Barbarossa by Mr. David E. Murphy in Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
Stalin's Slave Ships: Kolyma, the Gulag Fleet, and the Role of the West by Martin J. Bollinger in Back Matter
The War Against the Peasantry, 1927-1930: The Tragedy of the Soviet Countryside, Volume one (Annals of Communism Series) (v. 1) by Lynne Viola in Back Matter
Spain During World War II by Wayne H. Bowen in Back Matter

See all 17 books citing this book

Books on Related Topics (learn more)

The Spanish Civil War by Frances Lannon

Discusses:

The Spanish Civil War by Hugh Thomas

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Spanish Republic and the Civil War, 1931-1939 by Gabriel Jackson

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The Dark Valley by Piers Brendon

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	17% buy The Battle for Spain: The Spanish Civil War 1936-1939 4.2 out of 5 stars (49) $11.56

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Customer Reviews

10 Reviews

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3.7 out of 5 stars (10 customer reviews)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Important documentary evidence of Stalin's criminality, November 15, 2003

By	Craig Matteson (Ann Arbor, MI) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)

This is another wonderful volume in the very important Annals of Communism series published by Yale University Press. I can't praise this series enough for the service they have provided us in every one of these volumes.

This book provides, in English translation, 81 important documents of the true Soviet actions in its participation in the Spanish Civil War. Historians will have to make the final judgments and assessments of this material. But I am glad to have the myth of the idealistic Soviet exposed for the lie it always was.

Just as an example of what we learn, we now understand Stalin's desire and success at basically stealing the $50,000,000 Spain had in gold reserves. by shipping Spain outdated and non-functioning military junk as arms. We also know that the French, in effect, supported the Nazi's by interdicting other Soviet arms shipments to the Republic.

There is much more valuable information between the covers of this wonderful book. It reads shorter than its five-hundred plus pages because the documents can be read quickly and the commentary on them is completely fascinating.

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17 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The bitter taste of Soviet bureaucracy, August 5, 2002

By	Wayne K. Mathias (Santa Monica, CA United States) - See all my reviews

The facts speak for themselves. But in this case the casual student of history might nod off during the lecture. The numerous translated documents lose their novelty appeal rather quickly. I recommend it only to the hardcore SCW scholar who can use it for citing references or teaching college courses. It really is a huge, valuable piece of the puzzle. However I would not take it as total vindication for the Republic's detractors: the Popular Front had some support from the Comintern, but it is a slippery-slope fallacy to claim that its decline into Stalinism was therefore inevitable. Its decline was greatly helped along by the war, a condition that always tends to centralize authority and rationalize police-state tactics, and by European & American isolationism. France also elected a Popular Front coalition which, like Spain's, had all the left factions from moderate liberal to communist. Despite the fragmentation of this multiparty system, France managed not to have a civil war over it, and was not undermined by Stalinism. Conspiracies can only do so much; if you look at the documents, the Soviets in Spain had their hands full dealing with the chaos. One could just as easily argue that quick intervention by France, the UK & USA could've saved the Republic from Stalin AND Franco. FDR later admitted to US Ambassador Bowers that he had been right on this point all along.

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9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars RIPS AWAY THE ROTTING SCAB OF STALINISM, January 14, 2005

By	Alan Rockman (Upland, California) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER) (REAL NAME)

Ron Radosh, whose own uncle, Irving Keith died in fighting the Fascists in Spain, has written a gripping, if ponderous, terrifying if also mundane account of the Stalinist grip on the Republic of Spain.

In a series of documents, culled from the former Soviet archives, Radosh spins a thoroughly believeable tale of cunning, avarice, deceit and betrayal not only of the Spanish Republic, but of the thousands of idealistic young men - the vast majority of them Communists - who flocked to Spain believing that MOTHER RUSSIA was the great white hope of stopping Hitlerism in its tracks. And thousands died, never knowing of the deals that pockmarked scum toady was making with Herr Hitler.

Radosh also presents the documents of those International Brigade men who went to Spain fighting for Democracy and Revolution, and when they found out that the revolution and fight against Fascism had been betrayed, they themselves were arrested and many shot. Close to a dozen Americans were shot by the GPU, some on charges of desertion, others like Albert Wallach, Vernon Selby, Marvin Stern and Harry Perchik on political grounds. Even non-Communist Lincoln Brigaders like one-time commander Philip Detro, a self-described Roosevelt Democrat, may have been terminated by a Party that was little tolerant of dissent.

One of the foremost documents Radosh features is one written by "M. Fred" M. Fred was Manfred Stern or Emil Kleber the vaunted General Emilio Kleber who saved Madrid during the November 1936 siege. Kleber writes a critical document, encompassing almost 75 pages, justifying his role in the International Brigades and acknowledging mistakes. What Kleber was really writing here was a plea for his life, because Stalin had already begun the purges of International Brigade commanders (1938) when this document was written.

And little did Kleber know - he was to perish shortly after returning to Moscow - that Stalin had already made up his mind that no matter how many victories the International Brigades would win, the Republic was doomed and just a pawn, a toy to be played with Herr Hitler.

Many, like Bill Herrick in his excellent "Jumping the Line" would learn the bitter truth early on. Others, like Harry Fisher, would parrot the Party Line till the day he died protesting the just war against the Stalin of the Middle East, Saddam Hussein.

This is a five star book that only received four stars because I wish that Radosh would write more of the Lincolns and his uncle. Their idealism, and in many cases a sincere fight against Hitlerism and to support the democratic republic of Spain - instead of the cynical betrayal of it by Joe Stalin.

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

1.0 out of 5 stars Read Beevor's The Battle for Spain instead
I've written a few comments on other people's reviews, but after reading both Mr. Anthony Beevor's 'The Battle for Spain' and much of Mr. Read more

Published 10 months ago by Bill Abendroth

4.0 out of 5 stars valuable documents on Communist role in Spain
Don't let Ron Radosh's move to the political right discredit the
value of this book from a leftwing point of view. The documents
are of value in themselves. Read more

Published on February 4, 2005 by disidente

1.0 out of 5 stars A poor work
This work contains many false statements, poor use of evidence, and just plain incompetence. Far from showing Soviet "betrayal," these 81 documents make the Comintern,... Read more

Published on September 29, 2003 by Grover C. Furr

4.0 out of 5 stars Accurate, descriptive, and unfortunate
I saw this book as I was browsing one day and I had to get it. The Spanish Civil War has always intrigued me because I think if the Republicans had won, World War II may not have... Read more

Published on December 23, 2001 by Bryan

5.0 out of 5 stars Correcting an error
I hope that reviewing a review isn't in bad taste, but something written below in Mr Jewett's review is demonstrably false. The excellent point made by Radosh et al. Read more

Published on August 15, 2001

4.0 out of 5 stars iconoclastic view of the spanish civil war (1936-1939)
this book thoroughly debunks several myths of the spanish civil war and refutes the widespread view that the republicans were the good guys of the conflict. Read more

Published on July 12, 2001

5.0 out of 5 stars And the shroud of the sea rolls on and on
This is another fine book by Ronald Radosh who became a neo-conservative after undergoing what Sidney Hook referred to as the "shock of recognition". Read more

Published on July 11, 2001 by Eugene A Jewett

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