Republicans in Spain

The Spanish Civil War in the late 1930s was three-sided. Franco’s Nationalists battled a group of communists (the “International Brigades”) as well as Republicans, and it lasted for three bloody years until 1939.

This war attracted attention by writers and thinkers worldwide. The British writer George Orwell, who later penned classic anti-communist novels entitled Animal Farm and 1984, volunteered to fight for the republican government and against both the communists and Franco’s fascists. Orwell survived after taking a bullet through his neck. Britain, France and the United States remained officially neutral while Germany and Italy helped Franco. Some Americans felt that Franco was far better than the communists, and were relieved that Franco won.