The Spanish Civil War, The Soviet Union And Communism

Resumen del libro

Winner of 2005 Marshall Shulman's book prize, awarded each year for an outstanding monograph dealing with the international relations, foreign policy, or foreign policy decision making of any of the states of the former Soviet Union or Eastern Europe.



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.

Biografía del autor

Stanley G. Payne es catedrático emérito de Historia en la Universidad de Wisconsin-Madison. Ha publicado una veintena de libros sobre Historia de España y Europa contemporánea. Entre los más recientes, ¿Por qué la República perdió la guerra?; Franco y Hitler; España, una historia única; La Europa revolucionaria; Franco. Una biografía personal y política (junto a Jesús Palacios); El camino al 18 de julio, En defensa de España. Desmontando mitos y leyendas negras (Premio Espasa 2017) o La revolución española (1936-1939). <br> Es miembro de la American Academy of Arts and Sciences y correspondiente de las RR. AA. de Historia y de Ciencias Morales y Políticas de España. Doctor honoris causa por la Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, Gran Cruz de la Orden de Isabel la Católica y miembro del Consejo Editorial de varias revistas, entre ellas www.kosmos-polis.com.