Stephen Schwartz, The New York Sun
". . . profoundly articulate and thought-provoking . . . masterfully establishes the truth about the Spanish Civil War -- Stalin had his own agenda."
Book Description
In this compelling book Stanley G. Payne offers the first comprehensive narrative of Soviet and Communist intervention in the revolution and civil war in Spain. He documents in unprecedented detail Soviet strategies, Comintern activities, and the role of the Communist party in Spain from the early 1930s to the end of the civil war in 1939. Drawing on a very broad range of Soviet and Spanish primary sources, including many only recently available, Payne changes our understanding of Soviet and Communist intentions in Spain, of Stalin's decision to intervene in the Spanish war, of the widely accepted characterization of the conflict as the struggle of fascism against democracy, and of the claim that Spain's war constituted the opening round of World War II. The author arrives at a new view of the Spanish Civil War and concludes not only that the Democratic Republic had many undemocratic components but also that the position of the Communist party was by no means counterrevolutionary.
From the Back Cover
"Stanley Payne offers us the most masterful, judicious, and up-to-date treatment of Communism in Spain in the 1930s. And he makes a broader contribution to the history of Communism through his many remarkable political insights."-Michael Seidman, University of North Carolina at Wilmington
About the Author
Stanley G. Payne is Hilldale-Jaume Vicens Vives Professor History at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the author of fourteen books.
The Spanish Civil War, the Soviet Union, and Communism FROM THE PUBLISHER
"In this compelling book Stanley G. Payne offers the first comprehensive narrative of Soviet and Communist intervention in the revolution and civil war in Spain. He documents in unprecedented detail Soviet strategies, Comintern activities, and the role of the Communist Party in Spain from the early 1930s to the end of the civil war in 1939. While explaining the nature of Communist activity in Spain, Payne also illuminates revolutionary programs in other countries, analyzes for the first time the transition from revolutionary "Third Period" doctrine to the tactics of the Popular Front era, and clarifies how the Communists contributed to the collapse of the Republic." Drawing on a very broad range of Soviet and Spanish primary sources, including many only recently available, Payne changes our understanding of Soviet and Communist intentions in Spain, of Stalin's decision to intervene in the Spanish war, of the widely accepted characterization of the conflict as the struggle of fascism against democracy, and of the claim that Spain's war constituted the opening round of World War II. The author arrives at a new view of the Spanish Civil War and concludes not only that the Democratic Republic had many undemocratic components but also that the position of the Communist Party was by no means counterrevolutionary.
SYNOPSIS
"Stanley Payne offers us the most masterful, judicious, and up-to-date treatment of Communism in Spain in the 1930s. And he makes a broader contribution to the history of Communism through his many remarkable political insights."-Michael Seidman, University of North Carolina at Wilmington
Author Biography: Stanley G. Payne is Hilldale-Jaume Vicens Vives Professor History at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the author of fourteen books.
FROM THE CRITICS
Foreign Affairs
Payne, whom Michael Mann calls the "preeminent comparative historian of Fascism," gives us here a well-documented and exhaustive history of both Spanish communism before and during the Spanish Civil War and Soviet policy toward Spain during that period. It does not make for easy reading: the intense factionalism of the Spanish left is mind-boggling (and helps explain the fiasco of the Spanish Republic). And the study of Soviet policy is anything but simple: after initial reluctance, Soviet support was plagued by poor preparation and overweening advisers, and as the Spanish Republic began to disintegrate Stalin found himself without an exit strategy. Payne concludes that Soviet commanders "made a fundamental mistake in taking the Spanish conflict as a valid scenario for a future European war" and that, contrary to charges that the Spanish Communists turned "counter-revolutionary," the "revolutionary Spanish Republic of the Civil War was a unique kind of regime that has no exact historical counterpart": rather than becoming a mere Soviet satellite, it never gave up its radical program of profound social and political transformation.
Library Journal
Often considered the opening round of World War II, the Spanish Civil War of 1936-39 has long been treated as just that and not much more. Payne (A History of Fascism, 1914-1945) argues that the Soviets had a major stake in the conflict; they used it as a training period for both their troops and their ideology. Using previously unavailable primary sources, Payne documents Soviet strategies and activities, as well as communism in Spain from 1917 to 1939. He challenges the accepted view of the revolution in Spain as a struggle of democracy against fascism. Instead, he believes that the civil war could not have been fought had democracy still been alive in Spain in 1936 and that the basic cause of the war was the revolutionary process-a thesis well supported by his primary sources. Likely to become the definitive work on the Soviet Union's active participation and military intervention in the Spanish Civil War, this is recommended for collections with an interest in this era.-David Lee Poremba, Detroit P.L. Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.
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