The Civil Wars in Russia & Spain A Comparison o

The differences in the two wars are as important as the similarities, yet in a number of respects the differences themselves have a certain mirror-image similarity. Spain had once been a European Great Power, but in the 18th and 19th centuries had fallen behind overall European social and economic developments. Russia was likewise behind the European mainstream, but catching up; though ranked with the Great Powers from the time of Peter the Great it was still even in 1919-20 a rising power.

The Russian Civil War was in large measure a direct byproduct of World War I. While Russia's social and political tensions had internal roots that went back decades, it was wartime military setbacks that triggered the Russian Revolution, out of which the civil war developed. Once the war against Germany ended, the victorious Allied powers, including the United States, sent troops in concert to support the Russian "Whites" or anti-Communist side. Their assistance, however, was not sufficient aga

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ican forces ranged from Anarchists (not a paradox, but a libertarian form of radical leftism (Conlon 1994, 3-5), to the Fifth Regiment of the Spanish Communist Party (PCE), which was consciously modeled on the Red Army of the Russian Civil War (Anon 1971, 4). The conservative elements on the Nationalist side were nearly as disparate in ideology, but Franco succeeded in imposing unity of command and effort within the Nationalist forces. Thus, by 1937 the Nationalists had gained the upper hand in most of the country, while the Republicans were undermined not only by internicine strife but by hyperinflation and near economic collapse (Martin-Acena 2004, 4-5). After 1937 the Republicans were clearly fighting in a losing cause. 3. Foreign Interventions: In November of 1918, the western Allies were triumphant against Germany, but deeply anxious about developments in Russia. The Western economies and social fabrics had been severely strained by war. The turmoil in Germany as the imperial government collapsed was accompanied by the emergence of radical leftist factions (as well as far-right factions, out of which Nazism would eventually grow). In short, there was real and widespread fear that the Russian Revolution might be on
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Approximate Word count = 1975
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page)

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