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Homage to Catalonia
Jul. 3rd, 2021 05:01 pmBook Review: The Battle for Spain - The Spanish Civil War 1936-1939, by Antony Beevor
My understanding was that the Spanish Civil War was complicated, and although I knew of this book, I avoided it for some time. But Carlos Ruiz Zafón's Cemetery of Forgotton Books tetralogy eventually piqued my interest, and by coincidence I came across a copy of this book in the local Oxfam bookshop just after reading The Labyrinth of the Spirits. Various things intervened, and for a while I was avoiding too much heavy reading, but I decided it was time.
This took me the best part of a month to read, and at times it was heavy going. But this is because the subject is complicated. Beevor does his best to present the facts: polarized but weak governance in Spain, a vacuum in the political centre, an ongoing culture war on the roles of the Catholic church and the monarchy. Perhaps Spanish neutrality in the First World War meant that the prospect of violence was not as abhorrent as elsewhere. Or perhaps stereotypically Latin temperaments meant that it was inevitable. Beevor certainly reflects on these perceptions later in the book.
The attempt at a military coup in 1936 was not immediately successful, but nor was it vanquished as it could have been. Beevor repeatedly paints a picture of inadequacy on the part of the republican government, perhaps more one of denial than of incompetence. By failing to suppress the coup, it allowed a stand-off to develop, with towns and regions partitioning into the two sides. Terrible violence occurred on both sides, which perhaps feeds some of the plots in Zafón's novels. The conflict became a proxy war between Germany and the USSR; I had not appreciated quite the extent of involvement on both sides. Coinciding with the Great Terror in the USSR, the Soviet military repeatedly planned high-profile offensives that failed, but scapegoats were always found, despite poor strategy and a lack of pragmatism. German involvement was more effective, but reports back to Berlin frequently detailed indifference with regard to the nationalist army. Italian involvement is predictably relegated, if one can describe military action in such a way, to the comic relief. Yet it has to be acknowledged that the enigmatic Franco preferred steady and ruthless efficiency over propaganda victories, and he achieved success - of a sort - for far longer than Europe's other dictators. Beevor extends the final chapter beyond 1939, and invokes considerable irony to point out the way in which the Spanish regime attempted to pivot from one side to the other in the wider conflict, implemented an almost Soviet-style economic autarky for many years, but had to embrace some progress from the 1960s onwards by developing its tourism industry. As expected, it's a well-considered book that discusses its subject thoroughly, prompting yet further questions.
My understanding was that the Spanish Civil War was complicated, and although I knew of this book, I avoided it for some time. But Carlos Ruiz Zafón's Cemetery of Forgotton Books tetralogy eventually piqued my interest, and by coincidence I came across a copy of this book in the local Oxfam bookshop just after reading The Labyrinth of the Spirits. Various things intervened, and for a while I was avoiding too much heavy reading, but I decided it was time.
This took me the best part of a month to read, and at times it was heavy going. But this is because the subject is complicated. Beevor does his best to present the facts: polarized but weak governance in Spain, a vacuum in the political centre, an ongoing culture war on the roles of the Catholic church and the monarchy. Perhaps Spanish neutrality in the First World War meant that the prospect of violence was not as abhorrent as elsewhere. Or perhaps stereotypically Latin temperaments meant that it was inevitable. Beevor certainly reflects on these perceptions later in the book.
The attempt at a military coup in 1936 was not immediately successful, but nor was it vanquished as it could have been. Beevor repeatedly paints a picture of inadequacy on the part of the republican government, perhaps more one of denial than of incompetence. By failing to suppress the coup, it allowed a stand-off to develop, with towns and regions partitioning into the two sides. Terrible violence occurred on both sides, which perhaps feeds some of the plots in Zafón's novels. The conflict became a proxy war between Germany and the USSR; I had not appreciated quite the extent of involvement on both sides. Coinciding with the Great Terror in the USSR, the Soviet military repeatedly planned high-profile offensives that failed, but scapegoats were always found, despite poor strategy and a lack of pragmatism. German involvement was more effective, but reports back to Berlin frequently detailed indifference with regard to the nationalist army. Italian involvement is predictably relegated, if one can describe military action in such a way, to the comic relief. Yet it has to be acknowledged that the enigmatic Franco preferred steady and ruthless efficiency over propaganda victories, and he achieved success - of a sort - for far longer than Europe's other dictators. Beevor extends the final chapter beyond 1939, and invokes considerable irony to point out the way in which the Spanish regime attempted to pivot from one side to the other in the wider conflict, implemented an almost Soviet-style economic autarky for many years, but had to embrace some progress from the 1960s onwards by developing its tourism industry. As expected, it's a well-considered book that discusses its subject thoroughly, prompting yet further questions.