Spanish Civil War
The Spanish Civil War was a conflict fought from 1936 to 1938 between the forces of the Republican popular front government and the Nationalists. Following a previous attempt by clerical fascists to seize control of the state, all anti-fascist groups coalesced under the popular front. The popular front went on to win elections on a platform of weakening feudal landowners, separating church and state, carrying out reforms for the benefit of workers and peasants, etc. Just as progressive forces had united, the forces of Catholic landlordism joined with monopoly capital, forming the basis of the nationalist faction.
Popular front government
The frente popular was first and foremost an alliance of all classes opposed to fascism. Most powerful in the front was the PSOE (Socialist Party of Spain), but they could hardly be called a unified organization, as they had been bickering about the increasingly Marxist direction of the party. The Communist Party of Spain (PCE) had initiated the front, basing the proposal on earlier attempts at unifying revolutionary sections of the socialist party with the communist party. Non-Marxist elements of the front included the petit-bourgeois Left-Radical Party, which been organized the cantonal revolts instrumental in the founding of the first republic. The Basque nationalist parties and Catalan left joined the front to preserve regional autonomy. Spain's sizable anarchist movement joined the popular front, being accompanied thereafter by the small left-communist and Trotskyist parties.
Nationalist rebellion
The landowners in contrast teamed up with church officials, conservative businessmen, and reactionaries in the armed forces in order to overthrow the Popular Front, which was disadvantaged because of its political disunity and difficulty with acquiring military supplies (considerable portions of which were held up at the French border as Britain and France insisted on "non-intervention" in Spain while Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy freely aided the Francoists). Defeatist sentiments spread throughout the Republic's supporters, after which an anti-communist coup within the Republican faction ended up opening the gates of Madrid to Franco's forces.[1][2]
The Soviet Union supported the Republic because it was the internationally recognized government that had formed an electoral alliance with the socialist and communist parties, who joined the government. The Communist Party of Spain was a relatively small party before the civil war, whereas its call for the defense of the Republic and its spirited activities in defense of said Republic caused its own ranks to greatly increase.
Legacy
While widely taught in Spain, in other countries often the Spanish Civil War is at most a footnote before World War II. In English-speaking countries it is much more likely to be taught in an English Literature class as George Orwell and Ernest Hemingway, both popular authors, wrote books about the war (Homage to Catalonia and For Whom the Bell Tolls).