p The resistance of the people of Spain to the military-fascist revolt that began in June 1936 holds a special place among the political events that shook the consciousness of Europe and the world in the thirties.

p In a period when the so-called democratic governments were conceding position after position to fascism and thus helping it to gain ground, this powerful and unexpected resistance immediately won the sympathies of the most progressive forces in all countries, and particularly those of the working class, who declared their support for the Spanish people in no uncertain terms.

p A counterweight to this attitude of the popular and democratic forces was the open hostility to the struggle of the Spanish people on the part of the governments of France and Britain, which from the outset tried to stifle it with the help of the so-called policy of non-intervention, which in effect meant aiding and abetting the aggressor.

p This policy prevented the Spanish Government from purchasing the arms so badly needed for defence against the counter- revolutionary revolt, that had its origins in Mussolini’s Italy and in Hitler Germany, which were then preparing to launch acts of aggression in Europe.

p The force opposing the policy of cowardly tolerance of and concessions to fascist aggression adopted by the “democratic” governments (a policy that was very soon to turn against those who conducted it—openly or shamefacedly) was the Soviet Union. Then the only socialist state, despite its geographical remoteness from the scene of events, which made it almost impossible physically to come to the aid of the Spanish people, it declared from the very first hour of the struggle that the cause of the Spanish Republic was that of all progressive and forward-looking mankind.

p The Soviet Union consistently proved in practice that its declaration was not a mere propagandist phrase, that it reflected an unswerving determination to help the Spanish people and government in their desperate resistance to fascist aggression. And this despite the fact that between Spain and the Soviet Union at that time there had not even been any diplomatic relations.

p The fascist putsch left the Republic without means of defence. Popular resistance seemed impossible without aircraft, without tanks, without guns, without all the things that could have been used against the insurgent forces, which Italy and Germany were supplying with every kind of offensive and defensive weapon.

p The Soviet Union provided the Republican Government with military equipment to fight the revolt. But it was no easy task to deliver it both because of the distance between Spain and the USSR and because of the policy conducted by the governments of France, Britain and the U.S.A.

p How many Soviet ships were attacked and sunk on the way to Spain! How many Soviet people filled with a heroic resolve to help the Spanish people defend their right to a life of freedom in a democratic Spain sacrificed their own lives in this cause!

p How many aircraft, how many engines remained on French territory, held up by the Blum government at a time when our soldiers were crying out for arms with which to defend themselves! A considerable quantity of these arms never arrived in Spain and was subsequently used by the Germans against the French people themselves. Nothing can wash away the historical guilt of those who devised the policy of “non-intervention”!

p Appealing to the internationalist consciousness of the Communists, of the whole international working-class movement, of all progressively-minded people, the Communist International in every country mobilised for aid to the Spanish people the most capable fighting elements and organised the International Brigades. In the trenches of Republican Spain the soldiers of these brigades won eternal glory. Defending the Spanish people and the freedom of their own countries, they raised the banner of proletarian internationalism to the highest peaks of heroism and self-sacrifice.

p The Communist International, realising that all peoples of the world had a stake in the struggle of the Spanish people, called upon all working people, all progressive forces to come to the aid of Republican Spain in its resistance to fascist aggression.

p Italians and Germans, French and Poles, Britishers and North Americans, Rumanians, Bulgarians and Yugoslavs, Austrians and Swiss, Finns and Swedes, Irish, Norwegians and Albanians, Canadians, Cubans, Argentinians, Mexicans and representatives of other Latin American republics, people of all continents, arrived in Spain to fight alongside the Spanish people in the first great battle against fascist aggression, a battle that became the prologue to the Second World War. There may not have been so many of them, but all the same their participation was of immense importance because of their heroism, selflessness and spirit of self-sacrifice. The contribution of the internationalists was of invaluable assistance to us and inscribed the finest page in the history of international solidarity.

p With the deepest emotion one reads this book and feels how alive and strong, despite the passage of time, is the memory of Republican Spain, the first country to face armed fascist aggression.

p Along with the fighters of the International Brigades Soviet airmen and tank crews arrived in Spain as fighting men and instructors for our soldiers, who did not yet know how to use modern weapons. Together they fought heroically and died gloriously, showing the full significance of proletarian internationalism, how much it meant that there was such a country as the Soviet Union, the first socialist country in the world.

p Although the armed struggle ended with the defeat of the Republic because of the inequality of forces and the betrayal by the Madrid Junta led by Colonel Casado, the struggle for the Republic and democracy did not end with the establishment of the Franco dictatorship. It has heroically continued in the most difficult conditions of a terrorist regime, and it continues to this day, inspired above all by the working class and its Communist Party.

p This struggle which is being fought by the workers, peasants and students of universities and institutes in Spain, by the intelligentsia, professional people, and the basic political groups of our country, excluding of course the most reactionary section of the big bourgeoisie and the still surviving groups of the fascism of yesteryear, this struggle has brought about the crisis that the dictatorship is experiencing today. The further development of this crisis will undoubtedly condemn Francoism to extinction and lead to the establishment of a democratic system in Spain.

p The most interesting thing about this struggle is that, just as in the years between 1936 and 1939, it is being waged mainly by the young generation, not only Communists but also other democratically-minded contingents of youth. The young people are continuing the tradition, the glorious and heroic tradition which takes its source from our fighters of 1936 to 1939 and their fraternal unity with the comrades of the International Brigades. This tradition lives on consistently and vigorously. Youth today fights with the revolutionary conviction that only by struggle can they put an end to dictatorship and open up for Spain the path to democracy and socialism.

Today this struggle is supported by all the main democratic forces of our country, including many people and groups that only yesterday were supporting Franco. This struggle is shaking the fascist structure of the regime and creating conditions for the establishment of a democratic system in which the working class and democratic forces will play a role that determines the political and social structure of Spain—a Spain open to all that is progressive, whose goal is socialism, and socialism only, a goal towards which all of today’s main political forces who are aware of the historical realities of our epoch are striving.