The civil war that began 70 years ago in Spain “fascinated” the world: everyone supported their own in it.
Monarchists - legitimists, communists - the oppressed proletariat, democrats - defenders of the Republic from fascism. A Committee on Non-Intervention was formed, but external assistance was: “white” - from Germany and Italy, “red” - from the USSR. Franco, who was called the “Spanish Kornilov,” said about the goals of the struggle: “This is a religious war. We all who fight, Christians or Muslims, we are soldiers of God, and we are not fighting against other people, but against atheism and materialism...”
The Russian emigration did not remain indifferent to the war. The participation of “white” volunteers in the Spanish War was the first armed struggle for political reasons since the Russian Civil War.
White Russian trace
On August 1, 1936, the Harbin newspaper “Our Way,” the organ of the Russian Fascist Party, published an interview with Spanish professor E. Afenisio.
“Do you know who started the uprising here in Morocco? This was done... by Russian emigrants. 35 days ago I saw my friends who told me about the plans of the foreign legion, where Russians make up the largest percentage of soldiers and officers. The events began in Melilla and Ceuta, the garrisons of Spanish Morocco, where units consisting exclusively of Russian emigrants were stationed... The Popular Front, under the influence of Moscow, came to power in our country. The Red commanders were actually the leaders of Madrid's policies. Therefore, the Reds, who had long looked askance at white emigrants, raised the question of their eviction from the country. There are few Russians living in Spain itself, but in the colonies there are quite a large number. They were all connected by ties of sympathy with our nationalist organizations; Calvo Sotelo, who was killed shortly before the rebellion, was very sympathetic to them. Russian emigrants paid the Reds the same hatred and tried to persuade their Spanish friends to oppose the Red commissars. At the same time, the Russians shared their experience in the fight against the Bolsheviks, and they were listened to very much in military circles. I am convinced that the uprising in Morocco, which has spread to the continent, is the work of your compatriots, who put real force at the disposal of the uprising in the form of the regiments of our foreign legion.”
The role of Russian emigrants in the events preceding the Spanish Civil War is, of course, exaggerated by Professor Afenisio, but the fact that there is some truth in his statements is confirmed by other evidence and documents.
The aspirations of Russian emigrants in Spain were briefly expressed by war participant General A.V. Fok: “Those of us who will fight for national Spain, against the Third International and the Bolsheviks, will thereby fulfill their duty to White Russia.”
To fight or not?
In September 1936, on the pages of the Tsarskoye Vestnik, a controversy unfolded around Kersnovsky’s open letter “No Spaniards.”
“When will we finally grow wiser and stop crucifying ourselves for strangers? Why are we shedding streams of tears and ink in the name of some completely unnecessary, alien and indifferent Spain? And if only there were tears and ink! There were Russian officers who went to shed their blood on the fields of La Mancha, rescuing the descendants of Don Quixote - that Russian blood, which they have no right to shed for the interests of others, because Mother Russia may soon need it.
It is impossible to read the childish letter of a Russian officer, published by the Tsarskiy Vestnik, without indignation. He, you see, is “happy that he is fulfilling his duty,” as if the fight for Spanish well-being is the duty of a Russian officer! It is important for us to exterminate the Russian Bolsheviks, but we should not give a damn about the Spanish ones.
Let us not be fooled by the boring vulgarity that the fight against “world evil” is our “common cause.” Why did this suddenly become a “common cause” now, in 1936, and not in 1917-1921? What were these Spanish officers doing then, sending us their greetings now? Where were they then? Near Tikhoretskaya? Armavir? Tsaritsyn? Kharkov? Near Kyiv and Orel? Near Kakhovka? How many of them stood in the ranks of our officer companies?
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Raped Spanish women, executed Spanish priests... Just think, they found something to pity! Has anyone felt sorry for our Russian women? Did the thousands of tortured Russian clergy find a response in anyone's hearts - French, German, Spanish? This, I suppose, was not a “common matter” then.
What indignation: the Alcazar has been destroyed! And when Iverskaya was demolished, which of them was indignant? And when they destroyed the Church of the Tithes, erected by Vladimir the Red Sun, which of the Spaniards then raised an indignant voice? Show me the Spaniard who protested against the destruction of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior! Do not know? But I will show you a Russian officer, tubercular, without the right to work, with a confiscated passport, which not so long ago the Spaniards and French used to throw, like a ball, across the Pyrenees! This crippled and persecuted Russian staff captain of ours deserves a thousand times more of our attention and compassion than all the Spanish priests taken together.
When will we finally understand that foreign nationalists - be they Spanish Whites, French “fiery crosses”, German Nazis and Italian fascists - are just as enemies of us, Russian emigrants, and our Motherland, as the communists they persecute? It is not necessary to save them, but to repeat the wise words of Taras Bulba: “So that they all die, dogs!”
The same Tsarsky Vestnik published General Skorodumov’s response to Kersnovsky’s article. “The Spaniards, Germans, Japanese, French will never thank us for this anyway, but a Russian officer cannot take this into account, he must be a knight always and everywhere and, being a convinced anti-Bolshevik, must destroy the Bolsheviks in any Spanish, French, German or other territories, because if the French, Spaniards, and Japanese act negatively, this does not mean that Russian officers should do the same. Taking part in the war, the Russians should not tear Madrid and Paris with their teeth, because the hell we need them, we should only help, but not liberate. But the Russians are obliged to take part in the war, and always in Russian units with as few losses as possible, saving their strength for the last decisive battle near Moscow. Honor and glory to the Russian officers fighting against the Bolsheviks, at least in Spain. Let all the Bolsheviks die first, and then we will talk and remember everything to the foreigners.”
The same Skorodumov writes in one of his propaganda leaflets: “Does it matter where you hit the Bolsheviks: in the face, in the back of the head or on the heel, whether you hit them in Russia, Spain or Japan! The main thing is to hit and not let him come to his senses! Wherever the red muzzle sticks out, there’s a fuck in the face.”
Get in line
It is known that many Russian emigrants wanted to go to the aid of the Spanish rebels. There is information that the Guards Cossack Division in Yugoslavia negotiated with Franco about transferring to Spain. But the negotiations did not end in anything: the Cossacks demanded to provide for the families of the victims in the event of death or disability; the Spaniards did not agree to this.
In his memoirs, Captain Savin writes that during this period the transfer of Russian volunteers to Franco’s army was one of the main goals of the EMRO. General Miller, who headed it, saw this as the only way to protect the persecuted Union cadres from destruction. The connection between the leadership of the EMRO and Franco's army was established by Captain Savin through the Spanish embassy in Paris, thanks to the help of Lieutenant Colonel Blagoveshchensky, who worked in an insurance company and had business connections with many European countries. They assumed obligations to finance the first groups.
According to General Miller's plan, future soldiers were to be transferred to Spain in small groups. When a detachment of 150-200 people had accumulated, its commander, General Skoblin, was supposed to leave for Spain with the banner of the Kornilov regiment. General Peshnya was appointed Skoblin’s deputy, who, together with the Markovites subordinate to him, was planned to be sent to the Spanish border by buses under the guise of tourists. In the event of a possible conflict on the border, they had to disarm the border guards and make their way to Spain by any means. This plan was approved by Franco's representative in Paris, Filipe Rodes.
But the developed plan failed from the very beginning. General Skoblin refused to lead the action, citing his wife’s illness. General Shatilov was appointed responsible for the transfer of volunteers to Spain. However, he was soon replaced by General Peshnya. Shatilov’s removal was connected, according to Savin, “with his embezzlement of money allocated for a trip to Spain and being caught lying in a financial report for a business trip.” The offended Shatilov began to slow down the dispatch of volunteers, not even stopping to inform the French authorities.
At the beginning of March 1937, the first group of 7 people left Paris for the Spanish border. On March 16, a second group left, but were arrested by the French police, which received widespread publicity, which largely led to the "freezing" of the action. After the kidnapping of General Miller, the imminent death of General Peshni and Skoblin’s betrayal, the plan was finally put to an end.
But the idea of fighting Bolshevism, at least the “Spanish” one, was not forgotten. In the current situation, Russian white officers had to act at their own peril and risk, making their way to Spain along mountain roads, not only running the risk of being arrested by French border guards, but also being killed without trial by Republicans already on Spanish soil.
The first Russian volunteers were generals A.V. Foki N.V. Shinkaren-ko, captain N.Ya. Krivosheya and staff captain Ya.T. Half-hin who crossed the Moroccan border illegally to reach the rebels. They were greeted with caution - all Russians were personified in the eyes of the Spaniards from the USSR. But soon the opinion about them changed. It became clear that irreconcilable opponents of the “Reds” had joined the ranks of the national army. A letter from one of the volunteers tells about these moments.
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Four of us crossed the border to Morocco. At first - the same thing that happened in the Volunteer Army, when they came to us from the red side. During our first conversation with the border guards, when it turned out that we were Russians, they treated us very unfriendly and we barely avoided big trouble. However, after being interrogated by a sergeant and a lieutenant, we got to the captain commanding the post, who was aware of events in Russia, knew about the existence of Russian emigration, and treated us very cordially. For the first time, we saw from a foreigner an understanding of the danger of Bolshevism and the need to fight it to the end. We told him how bitter the experience of our civil war was, the same one they are waging now, the one we started many years ago.
We were sent to the district headquarters, where we met with a downright friendly attitude. We expressed a desire to go immediately to the front. On the third day we were enlisted in the officer reserve company and sent by airplane to the peninsula.
The officer company is the same as what we had in the first months of the Volunteer Army. Everyone has now flocked to the banners - both old and young. Next to me in the ranks are retired staff officers, and the company is commanded by a captain. We are in the reserves, but have already participated in one battle and three skirmishes.
Here in the Spanish south, the entire population is against the Bolsheviks. You just need to see how white people are greeted. The Reds commit atrocities, just like ours. We have already passed about two dozen villages, I personally saw destroyed, burned and polluted churches, the corpses of priests, children and women. I was present when the protocol was drawn up: the wife of a gendarme who had gone to the whites, the mother of 4 children, was raped in front of the children by a gang of Red Guards, then her two boys were killed in her presence. Terrible scenes that naturally embitter the whites too. “Whites” is what they call themselves.
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I, a former Russian officer, am proud and happy to be fulfilling my duty. Here the fight against the Bolsheviks is not with words, but with weapons. And what are these Bolsheviks... In one town we captured their entire “propaganda stock”: huge portraits of Stalin and Lenin, exemplary “red corners”, disgusting anti-religious posters. Spanish officers say that all this is being done on the orders of resident Stalin, who lives in Madrid... Those officers who went to serve the Reds found themselves in a tragic situation. They are kept as specialists, with commissars with them, and they are shot at the first failure in combat. We, here in the white camp, all of us, from the general to the last soldier, are fulfilling our duty - protecting faith, culture and all of Europe from the new onslaught of the red beast.”
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White destinies
In total, 72 Russian volunteers are known to have fought in Franco’s army. Most were from France, but some came from quite exotic places, such as Madagascar.
In April 1937, an order was received from Franco's headquarters to form a separate Russian volunteer unit with Russian regulations and Russian command, but due to the small number of volunteers, only a Russian detachment was created.
Throughout 1938 and the beginning of 1939, Russian volunteers, as part of their battalion, conducted active defensive and reconnaissance operations on the front on the Tagus River. In September 1938, white volunteers occupied the commanding heights of El Contandero in the Mahon Blanco region and established an exemplary stronghold there. In February 1939, the battalion with a Russian detachment was redeployed to El Toro, where the Russians occupied combat positions until the end of hostilities.
Of the 72 volunteers, 34 were killed, and of those who remained alive, 9 were injured. Among those killed was Major General A.V. Fok. During the battle in the Quinto de Ebro area, his company was surrounded and almost completely destroyed, and Fok himself shot himself to avoid being captured. In the same battle, captain Ya.T. died. Semi-khin. Wounded in the neck, he was carried to a local church for dressing and found himself buried under its ruins after shelling. Details of the death of naval pilot Senior Lieutenant V.M. are known. Marchenko. On September 14, 1937, he flew out for night bombing. After completing the mission, Marchenko's plane was attacked by several fighters. In an air battle, his plane was shot down, and the crew bailed out. Having landed, Marchenko headed towards his positions, but ran into the Reds and was killed in a firefight. His body, at the request of the Soviet pilots who took part in the air battle, was buried in the city cemetery. Local residents later dug up the coffin and buried it outside the cemetery. After the area was occupied by whites, the remains of the pilot were transported to Seville and again buried with military honors.
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The civil war that began 70 years ago in Spain “fascinated” the world: everyone supported their own in it
The Russian emigration did not remain indifferent to the fate of their compatriots who fought in Spain. To help the Russians fighting in Franco's army, the Committee for Assistance to Russian Soldiers was formed in Brussels in mid-1938. An appeal was issued: “The Committee set out to support our soldiers morally, to make them feel that the Russian emigration has not forgotten them, sympathizes with them and appreciates their exploits, and will also provide them with some material assistance within the limits of our strength and capabilities.” Baroness O.M. was elected chairman of the committee. Wrangel.
The war is over, the war continues
On June 30, 1939, Russian volunteers were officially dismissed from the ranks of the Spanish army. Franco did not forget his Russian comrades. All of them were promoted to the rank of sergeant (except those who already had the rank of officer), they received a two-month leave with pay and the Spanish awards “Military Cross” and “Cross of Military Valor”. All Russian volunteers were given the opportunity to obtain Spanish citizenship, which many took advantage of.
On October 29, 1939, a group of Russian volunteers led by Colonel N.N. Boltin was accepted by Franco. Caudillo asked what more he could do for the Russians? Boltin replied: “We are not asking for anything for ourselves personally, we only ask that you place those who wish as officers in the Spanish African Legion.” The request was granted.
The further fate of the “Spanish Russians” developed differently. Many remained in Spain, choosing peaceful professions, while others continued military service. A number of Russian volunteers who fought in Spain went to fight in Russia as part of the Spanish volunteer “Blue Division”. Others fought Soviet forces as part of Italian units. Still others, with the outbreak of the war against the USSR, organized Russian volunteer units as part of the German Wehrmacht and later became part of the ROA.
The road home through Spain
According to emigrant sources, about 40 officers (according to Soviet sources - from several hundred to a thousand Russian emigrants) fought on the side of the Republic. They fought in the Canadian Mackenzie-Palino battalion, the Balkan Dimitrov battalion, the Dombrovsky battalion, and the Franco-Belgian brigade. Six Ukrainians fought in the Chapaev Battalion.
In December 1936, in the operation for the Teruel ledge, the infantry unit of the 13th International Brigade suffered huge losses. A company of former White Guards fought within it, but was almost completely destroyed.
In many republican units, Russian emigrants occupied command positions. The company commander in the Dombrovsky battalion was Lieutenant I.I. Ostapchenko, commanded the artillery of the Aragonese Front, Colonel of the White Army V.K. Glinoetsky, the commandant of the headquarters of the 14th International Brigade was a Petlyura officer, Captain Korenevsky. The son of B.V. was also a captain in the Republican army. Savinkova - Lev Savinkov. It is interesting that State Security Major G.S. took an active part in his fate and promotion. Syroezhkin, who was a senior adviser to the XIV Partisan Corps in Spain. In the 1920s, Syroezhkin was one of the central figures in Operation Syndicate-2, aimed at destroying the underground White émigré organization “Union for the Defense of the Motherland and Freedom” and arresting its leader B.V. Savinkova.
Event participant A.I. Rodimtsev notes in his memoirs that many Russians, Ukrainians and Belarusians studied at the training center for the formation of international brigades. There were especially many, according to Rodimtsev, from Western Ukraine. Their number reached a thousand people. Many of them spoke Spanish and worked as translators. Even a separate company named after Taras Shevchenko was formed from Ukrainian volunteers.
The transfer of Russian volunteers from France, Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria and Yugoslavia to Spain, together with the Spaniards, was organized by Soviet intelligence agencies. The primary selection of candidates was carried out by the “Unions for Homecoming,” which were officially registered public organizations. V.A. was an active participant in the movement for homecoming. Guchkova-Trail - daughter of A.I. Guchkov, former military and naval minister of the Provisional Government. In 1932, she began to collaborate with the GPU and in 1936 was part of a special organization to recruit volunteers to Spain.
A.A. writes in his memoirs about his meeting with white emigrants in the republican army. Vetrov, later lieutenant general.
“After the recent battles, silence reigned on our sector of the front. Suddenly distant singing was heard. A well-coordinated group of voices brought out the melody of the Russian song “Young Blacksmiths in the Forge.” Hearing singing on the front lines is not a common occurrence. But even more surprising was that they sang an old Russian song in the mountains of Spain. I followed the voices. Elderly soldiers were sitting in the shelter near the stove. “Salud, camaradas!” - I said hello. "Firework!" - someone answered. “You sing well,” I said, sitting down. “Who will you be? What are you doing here? - a soldier in a French helmet asked me. I couldn’t talk about the participation of Soviet volunteers in the war and came up with a story about “Mexican” citizenship. “Mexican tank crews on Soviet tanks?” - the soldier was surprised, but refrained from further questions. During the conversation, I learned that I was in a unit of the international brigade, composed of Russian emigrants, most of whom at one time served as privates or junior officers in the Russian army. When asked what made them, far from young people who had experienced a lot, take up arms, I heard: “We, members of the Paris Homecoming Union, joined the anti-fascist struggle because we hate fascism, and also because we want in the fight against a common enemy, earn the right to be called Soviet citizens and return to the land of our ancestors.”
Advisors from the Land of Soviets
The USSR did not immediately take part in the Spanish events. Unlike other European countries that had significant economic, political or strategic interests in Spain, the USSR had practically no such interests in this part of Europe. The facts show that at the beginning of the Spanish Civil War, the Soviet Union did not intend to take a direct part in the conflict and, having acceded to the non-intervention agreement, fulfilled the obligation not to allow the export, re-export and transit of weapons, uniforms, military materials, aircraft and ships to Spain.
A turn in Soviet policy occurred in September 1936. The war in Spain provided an opportunity for the USSR to strengthen its position and radically change the political landscape of Europe. The Politburo of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks instructed the head of the foreign department of the NKVD, A. Slutsky, to develop an action plan for Spain. The plan provided for the creation of special companies abroad to purchase and send weapons, equipment and military equipment to Spain. People's Commissariats and departments received instructions on organizing military supplies directly from the USSR. The issue of sending regular units of the Red Army to Spain was discussed, but this proposal was rejected. Instead, it was decided to send a staff of military advisers and specialists to Spain to assist in the creation of a regular Republican army.
The dispatch of advisers was preceded by the selection of candidates, which was carried out by the personnel bodies of the People's Commissariat of Defense. The main and senior military advisers, advisers to fronts and divisions were approved by the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks. Those departing were personally instructed by the head of the NPO Intelligence Directorate S. Uritsky.
To send advisers from the USSR to Spain, mainly two routes were used - by land through France and by the Mediterranean Sea to Cartagena. A small number of Soviet military specialists reached Spain through the Balkan states and Africa. All of them were supplied with false passports of other countries. Some advisers traveling to Spain were issued visas as diplomatic couriers and employees of the embassy, trade mission and consulate general in Barcelona.
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The system of the Soviet advisory apparatus in Spain consisted of several levels. The highest level - the post of Chief Military Advisor - was successively occupied by Y.K. Berzin, G.G. Stern and K.M. Kachanov. The next level was represented in the various services of the General Staff of the Republican Army. Under General Rojo, there were five advisers, including K.A. Meretskov.
Two advisers worked at the General Military Commissariat - divisional commissars of the Red Army, including N.N. Nesterenko, later a famous researcher of the history of the war in Spain. There were 9 advisors at Air Force headquarters. There were 4 advisers each at the artillery and naval headquarters. Two advisers were at the air defense headquarters and two at the military medical service.
The third level of the system consisted of advisers to front commanders. This work was carried out by 19 advisers, replacing each other. At the same level, but already at the headquarters of various fronts, there were 8 more advisers, as well as commanders-instructors, advisers to the commanders of divisions, regiments and other military units, the number of which has not been precisely established. Mention should also be made of the group of weapons engineers who helped establish the military industry in Madrid, Valencia, Barcelona, Sabadell, Sagunto, Cartagena and Murcia. They were included in the staff of factories that produced weapons and assembled fighter aircraft under Soviet licenses.
The fourth level, basic, consisted of volunteer military specialists: pilots, tank crews, sailors.
The exact number of Soviet military advisers who worked for the Spanish Republic is still not known. During different periods of activity, their numbers fluctuated. Some sources state that the total number of advisers from October 1936 to March 1939 was about 600.
Pilots, tank crews, sailors...
In addition to advisers, Soviet volunteers from among the military personnel arrived to help the Republic. In September 1936, Soviet pilots were the first to take part in the battles in the Madrid direction as part of the 1st Bomber Squadron. In October of the same year, 30 SB high-speed bombers were delivered to Spain from the USSR. By this time, 300 Soviet pilots had already fought in Spain.
There is a lot of evidence of how Soviet pilots fought in the skies of Spain. Fighter pilot S. Chernykh was the first to shoot down a German Messerschmidt-109 in Spain. Flight commander P. Putivko near Madrid made the first ram in the history of Soviet aviation. And the first night ram in the history of domestic aviation was carried out by Lieutenant E. Stepanov, who sent his I-15 at the Italian Savoy plane. A unique operation to destroy enemy aircraft at an airfield near Zaragoza on October 15, 1937 was carried out by pilots of a fighter group under the command of E. Ptukhin. In half an hour, Soviet pilots burned more than 40 Italian aircraft, hangars, and ammunition and fuel warehouses.
Tankers from the USSR also took part in the fighting on the side of the Republicans. Before the start of the civil war, the Spanish army had only two tank regiments. One of them, armed with French Renault tanks from the First World War, defected to the Republican side. At first, Soviet tank crews were used as teachers at the training center in Murcia, but already on October 26, 1936, due to the difficult situation in Madrid, they were consolidated into a tank company consisting of 15 tanks (the Spanish cadets became loaders). Some foreign researchers highly appreciate the fighting qualities of Soviet tank crews. For example, the English scientist R. Carr in his book “The Spanish Tragedy” notes that “throughout the entire war, Soviet tank crews had superiority over German and Italian tank crews.” And this appears to be true. In any case, 21 tankers who fought in Spain were awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.
Soviet sailors also took part in the fighting in the ranks of the Republicans. Six Soviet submariners were appointed boat commanders.
In total, according to surviving data, 772 Soviet pilots, 351 tank crews, 100 artillerymen, 77 sailors, 166 signalmen, 141 engineers and technicians, 204 translators fought in Spain.
By the fall of 1938, at the request of the Republican government, Soviet volunteers left Spain. Only in the central-southern zone did a small group of advisers work under the leadership of brigade commander M.S. Shumilova, who left the country in March 1939.
...and saboteurs
Representatives of Soviet military intelligence and the NKVD also worked actively in Spain. In addition to purely reconnaissance tasks, they carried out sabotage work: they blew up bridges, disrupted communications and communications, and tried to organize a mass partisan movement led by Kh.U. Mamsurov, later Hero of the Soviet Union, Colonel General. Among the famous military intelligence officers and saboteurs are G. Syroezhkin, L.P. Vasilevsky, N.G. Kovalenko, S.A. Vaupshasova. It is interesting that the translator and assistant S.A. Vaupshasova was a Russian emigrant P.I. Naumenko.
Under the 14th Partisan Corps, formed to carry out reconnaissance and sabotage missions, two special schools were created, in Barcelona and Valencia. The head of the Barcelona school was Jean Andreevich Ozol, the instructor in subversive and sabotage work was the Soviet military adviser Andrei Fedorovich Zvyagin, a former officer of the Russian imperial army.
The war in Spain was actively used by the NKVD for widespread penetration into the military, state and political structures of the Spanish Republic, creating strongholds and groups with the help of which it was planned to expand secret operations in Europe and America. NKVD employees were supposed to assist the Republic in organizing intelligence and counterintelligence, but they began to actively interfere in the political struggle, recruit agents among the Spaniards and fighters of the international brigades, and conduct special operations against political figures and organizations that were in opposition to the communists. According to information from a major specialist in the history of the Spanish Civil War, Doctor of Historical Sciences M.T. Meshcheryakova, an NKVD agent led by A. Orlov, played a decisive role in organizing and carrying out the operation to liquidate the United Workers' Marxist Party (POUM) in mid-1937. This left-wing extremist “Marxist-Leninist” party, at one time part of the Popular Front, took irreconcilable positions against the Communist Party of Spain and sharply criticized Stalin’s theoretical and political views. It was the actions of the NKVD agents that created in the non-communist parties and organizations of the Popular Front and the Western European public a strong belief that the USSR was heading towards the elimination of all opponents of the Communist Party from the political arena and the “Sovietization” of Spain.
Fulfilling the “international duty” cost the USSR dearly. Of the nearly 4,000 military specialists who took part in the fighting, more than 200 died.
Many officers who fought in the ranks of the Republican army later became prominent Soviet military leaders, 59 people were awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. Many participants in the war in Spain came under repression upon returning to their homeland (Ya.K. Berzin, G.M. Stern, Ya.V. Smushkevich, K.A. Meretskov, V.E. Gorev, B.M. Simonov, P. V. Rychagov, E. S. Ptukhin and others).
In the early 1930s, Spain was experiencing a severe economic and political crisis. In 1931, Republicans won elections to city councils in a number of large cities in Spain. This was the reason “to avoid a fratricidal war” for King Alfonso XIII to abdicate the throne.
Beginning of the conflict
The newborn Spanish Republic began its life with actions of leftist forces: with strikes, seizure of factories, destruction of churches, murders of wealthy and clergy. In response to this, Spanish voters in the first elections gave preference to a coalition of right-wing conservative parties. The left intensified the struggle for power and initiated the proletarian revolution raised by miners in Asturias. However, order was soon restored by units of the Asturias Military District under the command of General Francisco Franco. In the elections of 1936, right-wing conservative parties again won a majority of votes, to which the left responded with a new surge of “revolutionary” struggle. Tired of lawlessness, young people thirsting for active struggle and change began to rally under the banners of various organizations, especially the Phalanx, founded by the general’s son, the young lawyer Jose Antonio Primo de Rivera. The “Carlists” also revived, especially strong in Catalonia, the Basque Country and Navarre.
The spark in the outbreak of the civil war was the murder of the leader of the monarchists, lawyer Calvo-Sotelo, who made an accusatory speech in parliament in July 1936 against the government. On July 18, 1936, garrisons rose up against the Republicans, the command of which F. Franco took over after some time. The outbreak of the civil war “fascinated” the whole world: everyone saw their own in it. The Carlist monarchists - the legitimists, the communists - the armed proletariat, the democrats - the defenders of the republic from fascism, etc. Therefore, assistance to the belligerents came from all sides: the “whites” mainly from Germany and Italy, the “reds” - from the USSR. General Franco himself, who soon began to be called the “Spanish Kornilov,” said about the goals of this struggle: “Our war is a religious war. All of us who fight, Christians or Muslims, we are soldiers of God, and we are not fighting against other people, but against atheism and materialism...” A significant part of the Russian emigration did not remain indifferent to the war of the “whites”. The participation of “white” volunteers in the Spanish War is notable for the fact that it was actually the first “purely” armed struggle for political reasons after the Civil War in Russia.
An interesting statement concerns the participation of Russians in the events preceding the Spanish Civil War. On August 1, 1936, the Harbin newspaper “Our Way,” the central print organ of the “Russian Fascist Party,” published an interview with Spanish professor E. Afenisio under the heading “The Spanish uprising was raised by Russian emigrants, ranks of the foreign legion in Morocco.”
“Do you know who started the uprising here, in Spanish Morocco? - asked the professor. - This was done, as I am absolutely convinced, by your Russian emigrants. My conviction is based on the fact that, firstly, only 35 days ago I saw my friends who arrived before my departure from Morocco, who conveyed information to me about the plans of the foreign legion, where Russians make up the largest percentage of both soldiers and officers , and secondly, by the sentiments that surrounded the Russians in Spain. The first events that I know from telegrams began in Melilla and Tseout, the garrisons of Spanish Morocco, where units consisting exclusively of Russian emigrants were stationed... As you know, recently a “popular front”, located under the influence of Moscow. The Red commanders were actually the leaders of Madrid's policies. Therefore, the Reds, who have long looked askance at white emigrants, have recently raised the question of their eviction from Spain altogether. There are few Russians living in Spain itself, but in the colonies there are quite a large number. They were all connected by ties of sympathy with our nationalist organizations, in particular, General Calvo Sotelo, who was killed shortly before the uprising, was very sympathetic to them. Russian emigrants repaid the Reds with the same hatred and tried in every possible way for a long time to persuade their Spanish friends to oppose the Red commissars. At the same time, the Russians shared their experience in the fight against the Bolsheviks, and their opinion was greatly listened to in our military circles. Therefore, I am convinced that the uprising in Morocco, which has now spread to the continent, is the work of your compatriots, who were the first to put their real strength at the disposal of the uprising in the form of the regiments of our foreign legion.”
Apparently, the role of Russian emigrants in the events preceding the Spanish Civil War in 1936–1939 is exaggerated by Professor E. Afenisio, but the fact that these events took place is confirmed by other evidence and documents. The aspirations of Russian volunteers in Spain were briefly expressed by war participant General A.V. Fok. He wrote: “Those of us who will fight for national Spain, against the Third International, and also, in other words, against the Bolsheviks, will thereby fulfill their duty to White Russia.” One of the white officers who took part in the war later spoke similarly: “We are all here in the white camp, everyone, from the general to the last soldier - Spaniards and a few foreigners - are fulfilling our duty - protecting faith, culture and all of Europe from the new the onslaught of the red beast."
Russians in the ranks of General Franco's army
It is known that many of the White Russian emigrants wanted to go to the aid of the Spanish national forces. There is information that the Guards Cossack Division in Yugoslavia negotiated with the headquarters of General Franco about transferring the division to Spain. But the negotiations did not end in anything. The Cossacks set a condition to ensure that in the event of death or disability, the families of the victims, which the Spaniards could not accept.” There is also a mention of attempts by members of the VNRP to move to Spain from Palestine. In his unpublished memoirs, lieutenant (captain) of the engineering troops Savin writes that during this period the transfer of Russian volunteers to Franco’s army was one of the main goals of the EMRO. General Miller, who headed it, saw this as the only way to protect the cadres of the Union from destruction, primarily in France, who were subject to persecution. This idea was supported by generals M.A. Peshney and Skoblin. Communication between the leadership of the EMRO and the army of General Franco was established through Captain Savin on November 26, 1936 through the Spanish embassy, thanks to the help of former Chernetsovite Lieutenant Colonel S.N. Blagoveshchensky. The latter worked for an insurance company and had business connections with many European countries. They also took upon themselves the obligations to finance the first groups.
According to General Miller's plan, small groups of 8 people were to be transferred to Spain. Once a detachment of 150–200 people had accumulated at the formation point, its commander, General Skoblin, was supposed to leave for Spain with the banner of the Kornilov Regiment. General Peshnya, who was transferred to Spain with the Markovites subordinate to him, was appointed Skoblin’s deputy. It was planned to send Markovites to the border by car under the guise of tourists. In the event of a possible conflict with the border guards, they had to disarm the latter and make their way to Spain, depending on the current situation. This plan was approved by the representative of Franco's army in Paris, Philippe Rhodes. Later, it was planned to involve General Turkul and the Drozdovites loyal to him in the “Spanish action”. But the plan, developed in detail, began to fail at the very beginning of implementation. General Skoblin refused to lead the action, citing his wife’s illness. At his request, General Shatilov was appointed responsible for the transfer of volunteers to Spain. However, after some time he was replaced by General Peshnya. Shatilov's removal was connected, according to Savin, with his embezzlement of money allocated for a trip to Spain and being caught lying in a financial report for a business trip. The offended Shatilov began to slow down the dispatch of volunteers, not even stopping, according to Captain Savin, before informing the French authorities.
Despite this, at the beginning of March 1937, the first group of 7 people (mainly Markovian artillerymen) left Paris for Saint-Jean-de-Luce, located on the border with Spain opposite the city of Irun. It was headed by Captain P. Belin-Oleinikov, certified by Skoblin and approved by General Miller as the senior of all groups. The senior of the Paris Kornilov group, Colonel G.Z., showed particular activity in organizing the registration of white volunteers. Troshin. The group was transported across the border by Captain Savin. On March 16, the second group left under the command of Captain A. Maksimovich. However, she was arrested by the French police and taken into custody.
The arrest of Maksimovich’s group received wide publicity, which largely led to the “freezing” of the action. After the kidnapping of General Miller, the imminent death of General Peshni and the betrayal of Skoblin, it was finally curtailed.
And yet the idea of continuing the fight against Bolshevism, at least against the “Spanish” one, was not forgotten. In the current situation, Russian white officers had to act at their own peril and risk, making their way to Spain along mountain roads, not only running the risk of being arrested by French border guards, but also being killed without trial by Republicans already on Spanish soil.
The first Russian volunteers were generals A.V. Fok and N.V. Shinkarenko, captain N.Ya. Krivosheya and staff captain Ya.T. Polukhin. They came to Spain from Africa: they had to illegally cross the border of Spanish Morocco to get to the Spanish “whites”. Initially they were greeted with caution, since all Russians were personified in the eyes of the Spaniards with the Soviet Union. However, soon the opinion about them changed. It became clear that irreconcilable opponents of the “Reds” had joined the ranks of the national army. A letter from one of the volunteers, published in the Sentinel magazine, tells about these moments.
In total, today we know about 72 Russian volunteers who fought in the Spanish National Army. Most were from France, but some also came from distant, exotic places, such as Madagascar (N.E. Bark). Most of the white volunteers were sent to the town of Molina de Aragon, located 10 kilometers from the Tagus River in the province of Guadalajara. There, the Tercio Requete, a battalion of Carlist monarchists, was formed. The battalion consisted of four companies, each of which had its own name: 1st company - Donna Maria de Molina; 2nd and 3rd companies - Marco de Bello; 4th company - Numancia. The battalion itself was named after the location of its headquarters - Tercio Donna Maria de Molina.
Since March 1937, Tercio Requete Donna Maria de Molina was on the Aragonese front, where it held two positions on the Tagus River, 20 and 14 kilometers from Molina de Aragon, where the battalion headquarters was located. On the other side of the Tagus River stood the international brigades of the Republican Army. The battalion was commanded throughout the entire period of hostilities by Captain, later Major, L. Ruiz-Fernandez, whom the white volunteers informally called “Papa.”
In April 1937, an order was received from the headquarters of General Franco on the formation of a separate Russian volunteer unit with Russian regulations and Russian command - “Guerilla San Jorge” (St. George’s Militia), however, due to the small number of volunteers, only a national Russian detachment was practically created as part of the tercio Donna Maria de Molina.
Throughout 1938 and the beginning of 1939, Russian volunteers, as part of their battalion, conducted active defensive and reconnaissance operations in their sector of the front on the Tagus River. The lack of forces did not allow the battalion to have a continuous line of defense, so the companies of the battalion, stretching over 50 kilometers, occupied only individual command heights, spaced from each other at a distance of 5 kilometers or more. Communication between them was maintained using a heliograph and combat security patrols.
In September 1938, after the defeat of the Republican units in the San Juan mountain range, white volunteers occupied the dominant heights of El Contandero (mark 1639 meters) in the Mahon Blanco area and equipped an exemplary stronghold there. In February 1939, the battalion with a Russian detachment was redeployed through Teruel to the village of El Topo, where the Russians occupied the combat positions of Pena Quemada and Pena del Diablo until the end of hostilities. As of March 1939, Russian volunteers were distributed as follows: Russian detachment in Tercio Donna Maria de Molina - 26 people. under the leadership of Teniente N.E. Krivoshei and Sergeant P.V. Belina; tercio requete Navarra - 2 people; tercio Areamendi - 1; tercio Montejura - 2; legion - 3 (D.K. Golban, Z.K. Kompelsky, S. Tehli); squadron racket Burgogna - 1, and three left military service, one of whom was captain G.M. Zelim-Bek - for health reasons.
Of the 72 volunteers, 34 were killed, and of those who remained alive, nine were wounded: legionnaire N.P. Zotov - five times, Lieutenant K.A. Konstantino - three times (with loss of vision in one eye), S.K. Gursky - three times, one of which was severe, Sergeant V.A. Dvoichenko - twice, Lieutenant N.V. Shinkarenko - once, hard, to the head. Rekete: G.M. Zelim-Bek (wounded in the jaw by an explosive bullet), A.V. Bibikov, V.E. Krivosheya, A.A. Tringham, N.E. Bark - once each and Cabo Baron B.S. Wolf froze his legs during the Teruel operation.
At the head of the list of those killed is Major General A.V. Foc (Lieutenant Tercio Donna Maria de Molina). During the battle in the Quinto de Ebro area, his company was surrounded and almost completely destroyed. Having used up all the ammunition, A.V. Fok shot himself to avoid being captured by the Reds. Captain Ya.T. also died in the same battle. Polukhin. Wounded in the neck, he was carried to a local church for dressing and buried under its ruins after artillery shelling. They were posthumously awarded the highest Spanish military award - the collective laureade. At different times they died in battles: book. Laursov-Magalov, 3. Kompelsky, S. Tehli (V. Chizh), I. Bonch-Bruevich, N. Ivanov and others. Phalangist Kutsenko, wounded near Teruel, was captured and brutally tortured. Details of the death of naval pilot Senior Lieutenant V.M. are known. Marchenko. On September 14, 1937, he flew out to night bomb an enemy airfield. After completing the mission, Marchenko’s plane was attacked by several fighters. In an air battle, his plane was shot down, and the crew (pilot, machine gunner and mechanic) bailed out. Having landed, Marchenko headed to his positions, but on the way he came across the “Reds” and was killed in a shootout. According to the Marine Journal, his body, at the request of the Soviet pilots who took part in the air battle, was buried in the city cemetery. Local residents later dug up the coffin and buried it outside the cemetery. After the area was occupied by the “whites,” the remains of the pilot were found, transported to Seville and buried again with military honors.
As for Marchenko’s combat opponent, we can say with very high certainty that he was a Soviet volunteer, Captain I.T. Eremenko, commander of the I-15 squadron operating near Zaragoza. This fact is confirmed by a number of Soviet sources. He fought in Spain from May 1937 to February 6, 1938 and was twice awarded the Order of the Red Banner and the star of the Hero of the Soviet Union. Moreover, he received the last award precisely for the battles near Zaragoza. The Russian emigration did not remain indifferent to the fate of their compatriots. In order to somehow help those fighting in Franco’s army, the Committee for Assistance to Russian Soldiers was formed in Brussels in mid-1938. An appeal was issued, which, in particular, said: “The Committee set out to support our soldiers morally, to make them feel that the Russian emigration has not forgotten them, sympathizes with them and appreciates their exploits, and will also provide them, within the limits of our strength and capabilities, with some financial assistance." Baroness O.M. was elected chairman of the committee. Wrangel. The committee also included the wives of chairmen or representatives of national organizations: gr. E.V. Apraksina, S.A. Arkhangelskaya, G.I. Becker, E.S. Hartman, M.M. Ivanova, M.V. Orekhova, V.A. Purpish, L.A. Rezvaya, A.R. Warnek and Sh.G. Frichero. On June 30, 1939, Russian volunteers were officially dismissed from the ranks of the Spanish National Army. Franco did not forget his Russian comrades. All of them were promoted to the rank of sergeant (with the exception of those who had already received the rank of officer during combat operations), they received two months' leave with pay and the Spanish military awards "Cross de Guerre" and "Cross of Military Valor". In addition, all Russian volunteers were given the opportunity to obtain Spanish citizenship, which many took advantage of.
On October 29, 1939, a group of Russian volunteers led by Colonel N.N. Boltin was received by Generalissimo Franco at his residence near Madrid. In parting, the caudillo asked what else he could do for the Russians. Boltin answered him: “We are not asking for anything for ourselves personally, we only ask that you place those who wish as officers in the Spanish African Legion.” This request was also granted. The further fate of the “Spanish Russians” developed differently. Many of them remained in Spain and chose purely peaceful professions (M.N. Yureninsky, L.N. Pylaev, SP. Brilliantov), others continued military service. Of the first four volunteers (generals A.V. Fok and N.V. Shinkarenko, captain N.E. Krivosheya and staff captain YaL. Polukhin), only captain of the Markov artillery division Nikolai Evgenievich Krivosheya, who actually commanded the Russian detachment in Tercio Donna Maria de Molina. While in exile, he constantly followed the development of military art (he completed General Golovin's courses in Paris), and enjoyed an exceptional military reputation not only among his compatriots, but also among the Spanish command. He successfully fought in various sectors of the front, but according to Spanish laws, as a foreigner, he had no right to occupy senior command positions; a number of Russian white volunteers who fought in Spain during the Second World War took part in hostilities on the Eastern (Soviet-German) Front as part of the Spanish Blue Division. Among them: N.S. Artyukhov, K.A. Goncharenko, S.K. Gursky, V.A. Klimenko, V.E. Krivosheya, L.G. Totsky, A.A. Tringam.
Others fought against Soviet troops as part of Italian units that, together with the Wehrmacht, invaded Soviet territory in June 1941. Among them were P.V. Belin, N.I. Selivanov, N.K. Sladkov, A.P. Yaremchuk-2nd.
Still others, with the beginning of the war against the USSR, began organizing Russian volunteer units as part of the German Wehrmacht and later became part of the ROA: Count G.P. Lamsdorf, I.K. Sakharov and others.
A significant number of Russian emigrants also fought on the side of the Republicans - according to emigrant sources, about 40 officers; according to Soviet - from several hundred to a thousand people. They fought in the Canadian battalion named after Mackenzie-Palino, the Balkan battalion named after Dimitrov, the battalion named after Dombrovsky, the Franco-Belgian brigade (later the 14th International Brigade), etc. Six Ukrainians fought in the battalion “Chapaev-battalion of twenty-one nationalities”. At the end of December 1936, in the operation for the Teruel ledge, the infantry unit of the 13th International Brigade suffered huge losses. A company of former White Guards fought within it, but was almost completely destroyed.
In many republican units, Russian emigrants occupied command positions. Thus, the company commander in the Dombrovsky battalion was former lieutenant I.I. Ostapchenko, the commander of the artillery of the Aragonese Front was former White Army Colonel V.K. Glinoetsky (Colonel Himens), the commandant of the headquarters of the 14th International Brigade was a former Petliura officer, Captain Korenevsky, and others. The son of B.V. was also a captain in the Republican Army. Savinkova - Lev Savinkov. It is interesting that the Soviet military intelligence officer Major GB G.S. took an active part in his fate and promotion. Syroezhkin, who was a senior adviser to the XIV Partisan Corps in Spain. In the 1920s, he was one of the central figures in Operation Syndicate-2, aimed at destroying the underground White emigrant organization “Union for the Defense of the Motherland and Freedom” and arresting its leader B.V. Savinkov.
Event participant A.I. Rodimtsev, in his memoirs about Spain, notes that a large number of emigrants: Russians, Ukrainians and Belarusians were trained in military affairs at the training center for the formation of international brigades. Especially many, according to Rodimtsev, who was a machine gun instructor at the center, came from Western Ukrainian lands. Their number reached about a thousand people. Many of them spoke Spanish and worked as translators. Even a separate company named after Taras Shevchenko was formed from Ukrainian volunteers. Among the cadets of the training center, the Soviet instructor mentions the Russian emigrant - volunteer Bersentyev, who fought in the Civil War in Russia as a sergeant major near Kakhovka and on the Crimean Peninsula. From there he went abroad with the units of General Wrangel, lived in Paris, from where he arrived in Spain. Rodimtsev also talks about another meeting with a White emigrant, Captain Andrei Savchenko, who served as an adviser to the commander of a cavalry squadron in Lister’s 1st Brigade. It later turned out that he arrived in Spain from France and carried out anti-communist work in Republican units to neutralize Spanish commanders and Soviet military advisers. After being exposed during interrogations, he admitted that he came from the Ural Cossacks and that his real name was Baron Skrypnik. After a short investigation, he was shot. It should be said that the transfer to Spain of several hundred Russian volunteer internationalists from France, Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria and Yugoslavia, together with the Spaniards, was organized by Soviet intelligence agencies in accordance with the personal sanction of I.V. Stalin on January 19, 1937. The initial selection of candidates, their testing, training and instruction were carried out by the “Unions for Returning to the Homeland,” which were officially registered public organizations in the countries mentioned above. V.A. was an active participant in the movement for homecoming. Guchkova-Trail - daughter of A.I. Guchkov - a former minister of war and navy (in the first composition of the Provisional Government) and a Russian volunteer in the Transvaal. In 1932, she began to collaborate with the INO OGPU and in 1936 she was part of a special organization for recruiting volunteers in Spain.
Russians in the ranks of the Republican Army
A significant percentage of the ranks of the Republican army were Soviet military advisers and volunteers who actively took part in the hostilities. It should be noted that the Soviet Union did not immediately take part in the events unfolding in and around the Iberian Peninsula. Unlike other European countries that had significant economic, political or strategic interests in Spain, the Soviet Union had virtually no such interests in this part of Europe. The facts show that even at the beginning of the civil war, the USSR did not intend to take direct part in the conflict and, having joined the agreement on non-intervention, fulfilled the obligation not to allow the export, re-export and transit in relation to Spain, the Spanish possessions and the Spanish zone of Morocco of weapons, uniforms, and military materials , aircraft and warships.
The turn in Soviet policy towards Spain occurred in mid-September 1936. It was associated to a large extent with the political situation on the Iberian Peninsula. The war in Spain provided an opportunity for the USSR to strengthen its position and radically change the political landscape of Europe. In this regard (not without certain hesitations and doubts) the Politburo of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks instructed the head of the foreign department of the NKVD A. Slutsky to develop an action plan for “X” (Spain). This plan was approved on September 29. It provided for the creation of special companies abroad to purchase and send weapons, equipment and other military equipment to Spain. Various people's commissariats and departments received instructions on organizing military supplies directly from the USSR. The question put forward by Stalin and Voroshilov about sending regular units of the Red Army to Spain was also discussed, but this proposal was rejected by the military leadership. Instead, it was decided to send a staff of military advisers and specialists to Spain to assist in the creation of a regular republican army, its training, the development of operational plans, etc. The sending of advisers was preceded by the selection of candidates for the advisory apparatus, which was carried out, as a rule, by the central departments and personnel bodies of the People's Commissariat of Defense through the commanders of military districts. The main and senior military advisers, advisers to fronts and divisions were approved by the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks. Those departing were personally instructed by the head of the Intelligence Directorate of the People's Commissariat of Defense, S. Uritsky. The transfer of people from the Soviet Union to Spain was carried out by Section “X” of the Intelligence Directorate of the HKO. Mainly two routes were used - by land through France (by rail through Warsaw, Berlin, Paris or Switzerland) and by the Mediterranean Sea to Cartagena. A small number of Soviet military specialists reached Spain through the Balkan states or through Africa. All of them were supplied with the appropriate documents: “Nansen passports”, passports of European neutral states (Scandinavian countries, Switzerland) and limitrophes (Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, as well as Poland and Finland). Some advisers traveling to Spain were issued visas as diplomatic couriers and employees of the embassy, trade mission and consulate general in Barcelona. The system of the Soviet military advisory apparatus in Republican Spain consisted of several stages. The highest level was occupied by the Chief Military Advisor. During the period from 1936 to 1939, this post was held by Ya. K. Berzin (1936–1937), Chief military adviser in Spain (1938–1939) KM Kochanov
G.M. Stern (1937–1938) and K.M. Kachalov (1938–1939). The next level was represented in the various services of the General Staff of the Republican Army. Directly under General Rojo, five advisers were replaced, including K.A. Meretskov (pseud. “volunteer Petrovich”). Two advisers worked at the General Military Commissariat - divisional commissars of the Red Army, including N.N. Nesterenko, later a famous researcher of the history of the war in Spain. There have been nine advisors at Air Force headquarters. There were four advisers at the artillery headquarters. The same number was at the naval headquarters. Two advisers were at the air defense headquarters and two at the military medical service. The third level of the system consisted of advisers to front commanders. This work was carried out by 19 advisers, replacing each other. Among them were R. Malinovsky, P. Batov and others. At the same level, but already at the headquarters of various fronts, eight more advisers acted, as well as commander-instructors, advisers to the commanders of divisions, regiments and other military units, the number of which is still not exactly established. Among them was A.I. Rodimtsev, later a colonel general, who distinguished himself during the Great Patriotic War in the Battle of Stalingrad. Mention should also be made of the group of weapons engineers who helped establish the Spanish arms industry in Madrid, Valencia, Barcelona, Sabadell, Sagunto, Cartagena and Murcia. They were included in the staff of factories that produced weapons and assembled fighter aircraft under Soviet licenses (in particular, “Moskas”). The fourth level, the basic one, consisted of volunteer military specialists: pilots, tank crews, sailors, etc., who directly took part in hostilities. The exact number of Soviet military advisers who worked in the army and navy of the Spanish Republic is still unknown.
During different periods of activity, their numbers fluctuated. Among them were, in the Navy: captain 2nd rank N.G. Kuznetsov (senior naval adviser) and those who replaced him later, V. Alafuzov, N. Abramov, senior lieutenant V. Tsypanovich (adviser to the chief of staff of the naval base), S.S. Romishvili (pseud. “Captain de frigate Juan Garcia” - adviser to the commander of the naval base in Cartagena), A. G. Golovko (adviser to the commander of the republican naval base), senior lieutenant N. Ilyin (adviser to the commander of the destroyer flotilla (beginning. 1938), V.P. Drozd (“Don Ramon”) - adviser to the destroyer flotilla, etc. In tank forces: P. Lipin (adviser to the Spanish tank battalion (1937), then commander of an armored detachment), brigade commander D. G. Pavlov (“Comrade Pavlito” - senior adviser on tanks, commander of the 1st Armored Brigade), Colonel S. Kondratyev (commander of the International Tank Regiment), etc.
In artillery: N.N. Voronov (pseud. "volunteer Voltaire", senior artillery adviser), M. Kuteynikov (adviser to the chief of artillery of the 45th division), etc. In aviation: Ya.V. Smushkevich (pseud. “Comrade Douglas”), senior aviation advisor), Lopatin (“Montenegro”, aviation advisor), etc.
Advisers to divisions, brigades and corps: M. Malyshev, Sovetnikov, Bondarev, Colonel Maksimov (adviser to the 18th corps), R. Malinovsky (3rd corps), I. Ratner (5th corps), Titorenko (adviser to the commander of the 33rd 1st brigade), A.I. Emilyev (adviser to the 14th partisan corps), captain M. Kharchenko (adviser to the commander, and since May 1938 commander of the 13th brigade, died in battle), senior lieutenant N.G. Lyashchenko (Captain Nicholas - advisor to the 20th Infantry Division, then 21st Infantry Division, 22nd Infantry Division and 18th Army Corps. In Spain, promoted to major), State Security Sergeant Bolotnikov (political advisor - Military advisor to the commissioner of the training center in Archena), Lieutenant Colonel Belov (head of the Organizational Base of International Brigades (from August to November 1937), Gomets (head of the Organizational Base of International Brigades from November 1937 to May 1938), Colonel B.M. Simonov (pseud. - “Comrade Valu a”, adviser to the 3rd Corps), P. A. Ivanov, Colonel SM. Krivoshey63 (commander of a tank group), Lieutenant (later captain) A. I. Rodimtsev (pseud. “Comrade Pavlito”, captain Geshos - machine gun instructor, then adviser to the 1st International Brigade), N.P. Guryev64, Dunavsky (pseud. "Captain Pavlov", military engineer), Karol Sverchevsky ("General Walter" - commander of the 35th division), etc.
Advisors to fronts and armies: G.I. Kulik (pseud. “General Cooper”, advisor to the chairman of the defense of the Madrid Front), R.Ya. Malinovsky (“Colonel Malino” - advisor to the commander of the Maneuverable Army of the Aragonese (Eastern) Front), A.D. Tsyurupa (employee of the military attache’s office), Chusov (“Murillo” - adviser to the Chief of the General Staff of the Catalan Army (recalled in January 1937), Colonel V.A. Frolov (senior adviser to the army under the command of Colonel Cosado, from March 1938 - 5th Army of the Eastern Front), P. S. Kurbatkin (Adviser to the Eastern Army).
Advisors and instructors-commanders of companies and battalions: Lieutenant D. Pogodin (commander of an armored detachment), Captain A. Voinovsky (commander of a separate tank company), Captain B. Baranov (commander of the 1st tank battalion), Major M. Petrov (commander of a tank battalion) and others. Advisors: M. Nedelin, I.G. German, V.Ya. Kolpakchi, P.I. Batov (pseud. “Comrade Fritze”) and others.
The total number of Soviet military advisers, according to Yu. Rybalkin’s calculations (from October 1936 to March 1939), was about 600 people66.
In addition to military advisers, Soviet volunteers also came to the aid of Republican Spain to directly participate in the hostilities. The first to arrive in Spain in September 1936 were Soviet pilots, who soon took part in the battles in the Madrid direction as part of the 1st International Bomber Squadron. On October 27, 1936, the squadron made its first combat flight to the airfield in Talavera, 160 km from Madrid. From October 15 to October 21 of the same year, 30 SB high-speed bombers were delivered to Spain from the Soviet Union. They formed a bomber group consisting of three squadrons. A fighter group (three squadrons on I-5 and three on I-6, 10 aircraft each) and an attack group (30 aircraft) were also created. By this time, 300 Soviet pilots had already fought in Spain. Soon the following arrived in the Republican army: K. Gusev, A. Evteev, A. Zlatotsvetov, 3. Ioffe, K. Kovtun, I. Kopets, M. Levin, N. Ostryakov, M. Polivanov, I. Pryanikov, A. Serov, P. Pumpur and others. On October 28, Soviet pilots on the SB made their first combat flight. The 1st squadron was commanded by E. Shakht, the 2nd by V. Kholzunov, who soon became Heroes of the Soviet Union (Decree of the Central Executive Committee of the USSR of December 31, 1936).
Volunteer pilots took part in the hostilities: P. Rychagov, G.M. Prokofiev, I.I. Proskurov, S. Tarkhanov (commander of the fighter squad that arrived in Cartagena at the end of October 1936), etc.
Much evidence has been preserved of the selfless performance of military duty by Soviet pilots in the skies of the Iberian Peninsula. Thus, fighter pilot S. Chernykh was the first to shoot down a German Messerschmitt-109 in Spain. Flight commander P. Putivko carried out a ramming attack in an air battle near Madrid - the first in the history of Soviet aviation. The first night ramming in the air in the history of Russian aviation was carried out by Lieutenant E. Stepanov, who sent his I-15 at an Italian Savoy plane. According to the memoirs of V. Aleksandrovskaya, a military translator of A. Gusev’s air squadron, a unique operation to destroy enemy aircraft at the Garapinillos airfield, near Zaragoza, was carried out on October 15, 1936 by pilots of a fighter group under the command of E. Ptukhin (chief of staff F. Arzhanukhin). In half an hour, Soviet pilots burned more than 40 Italian aircraft, hangars, and ammunition and fuel warehouses.
Tank crews from the USSR also directly participated in the fighting on the side of the Republicans. Note that before the start of the civil war, the Spanish army had only two tank regiments. One of them, armed with French Renault tanks from the First World War, defected to the Republican side.
Along with pilots and tank crews, Soviet sailors (submariners, boatmen) also took part in the fighting in the ranks of the Republicans. Volunteer sailors took part in the hostilities: V. Gavrilov, N. Basisty, S. Soloukhin, I. Eliseev, V. Bogdenko and others.
Six Soviet submariners - I. Grachev, V. Egorov, G. Kuzmin, S. Lisin, I. Burmistrov (submarine commander, arrived in Spain in February 1937) and N. Egipko (pseud. “Don Severino”, “ Matisse", later vice-admiral of the USSR Navy) - were appointed commanders of the "C" type boats. In total, according to the surviving data, 772 Soviet pilots, 351 tank crews, 100 artillerymen, 77 sailors, 166 signalmen (radio operators and cryptographers), 141 engineers and technicians, 204 translators fought in Spain.
By the autumn of 1938, at the request of the Republican government, Soviet volunteers had mostly left Spain. Only in the central-southern zone, by agreement with the Spanish authorities, a small group of advisers worked under the leadership of brigade commander M.S. Shumilova (Shilov). The latter left the country in March 1939.
Soviet intelligence officers also worked actively in Spain, arriving on the Iberian Peninsula not only through military intelligence (Intelligence Directorate), but also through the NKVD. In addition to purely reconnaissance tasks, they carried out large-scale sabotage work: they blew up bridges, disrupted communications and communications. Under the leadership of Soviet intelligence, attempts were made to organize a mass partisan movement. From August 1936 to October 1937 it was led by H.-W. Mamsurov (“Major Xanthi”, senior intelligence adviser in the 14th Partisan Corps), later Hero of the Soviet Union, Colonel General, one of the leaders of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the General Staff of the Soviet Armed Forces86. Among the military intelligence officers, G. Syroezhkin (senior adviser to the 14th partisan corps), L.P. should be noted. Vasilevsky (commander of the Madrid International Reconnaissance and Sabotage Detachment), N.G. Kovalenko, S.A. Vaupshasova (“Sharov” and “Major Alfred”, senior adviser on reconnaissance and sabotage operations at the headquarters of the 14th Partisan Corps of the Republican Army). Translator and assistant S.A. Vaupshasova was a Russian emigrant P.I. Naumenko. Interesting touch. S.A. Vaupshasov, after arriving in Spain, was appointed adviser to the partisan detachments of the Eastern (Aragonese) Front, and was introduced to the commander of the Republican Army, General Miaja. Representing him, the chief military adviser, corps commander G.M. Stern, in order to note the competence of “Major Alfred,” passed him off as a former colonel in the tsarist army. Under the 14th Partisan Corps, formed to carry out mainly reconnaissance and sabotage missions, two special schools were created, in Barcelona and Valencia. The head of the Barcelona school was Jean Andreevich Ozol, the instructor in subversive and sabotage work was the Soviet military adviser Andrei Fedorovich Zvyagin, a former officer of the Russian imperial army.”
In addition, the war in Spain was actively used by the NKVD for the widest penetration into the Spanish Republic, into its military, state and political structures, the creation of strongholds and groups, with the help of which it intended to significantly expand its secret operations in Europe.
The NKVD officers sent to Spain were supposed to assist the republic in organizing intelligence and counterintelligence, but soon they began to actively interfere in the political struggle, recruit agents among the Spaniards and fighters of the international brigades, and conduct special operations against political figures and organizations that were in opposition to the communists . Thus, according to information from a major specialist in the history of the Civil War in Spain, Doctor of Historical Sciences M.T. Meshcheryakova, an NKVD agent led by A. Orlov, played a decisive role in organizing and carrying out the operation to liquidate the United Workers' Marxist Party (POUM) in mid-1937. This left-wing extremist “Marxist-Leninist” party, at one time part of the Popular Front, took irreconcilable positions against the Communist Party of Spain and sharply criticized Stalin’s theoretical and political views. It was the actions of the NKVD agents, according to M.T. Meshcheryakov, created in the non-communist parties and organizations of the Popular Front and the Western European public a strong belief that the Soviet Union was heading towards the elimination of all opponents of the Communist Party from the political arena and the “Sovietization” of Spain.
Fulfilling the “international duty” cost the USSR hundreds of millions of dollars and hundreds of human lives. Of the nearly 4,000 military specialists who took part in the hostilities, more than 20,094 died. Among them was volunteer tankman S. Osadchy (pseudonym “Simon Osado”), who was posthumously awarded the Gold Star medal. His tank was hit during an attack in the Mostoles area near Madrid.
Many officers who fought in the ranks of the Republican army later became prominent Soviet military leaders, 59 people were awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. Many war participants upon returning to their homeland came under repression (Y.K. Berzin, G.M. Stern, Y.V. Smushkevich, K.A. Meretskov, V.E. Gorev, B.M. Simonov, P.V. Rychagov, E.S. Ptukhin, etc.).
Spanish Civil War 1936 – 1939 became a political watershed for the entire Russian Emigration. Its various organizations, groups and leaders comprehended the bloody events in the Pyrenees for their part, through the prism of the Civil War in Russia, again turned over those dramatic pages of recent history, mentally walked through the steps of the Great Schism and the armed confrontation of 1917-1922. The Russian Emigration perceived the Spanish tragedy not only as an internal affair of the state of South-Western Europe, but also as the forerunner of a great war, because the further it went, the clearer it became that this war was splitting all of Europe, and its outcome would determine the further strategic balance of political forces on the continent and the prospects for the upcoming action against the USSR.
In this work we will talk about the Russian emigrants of the first wave who stood under the banner of General Franco.
What made these already middle-aged people volunteer for a new war? What goals did they pursue? What was their future fate? We will try to answer these and a number of other questions.
The attitude of white emigration to the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War
The outbreak of the civil war “fascinated” the whole world: everyone saw their own in it. Monarchists - (Carlists) - legitimists, communists - the armed proletariat, democrats - defenders of the republic from fascism, etc. Help for those fighting came from everywhere: the Francoists mainly from Germany and Italy, the republicans from the USSR.
The fascist countries, in addition to supplies of weapons and ammunition, sent to Spain, at the request of General Franco, large military contingents: Germany Condor Aviation Corps, Italy a heterogeneous expeditionary force. In total, during the war years, these countries passed through the “Spanish training ground”, respectively, 50 and 150 – 200 thousand soldiers and officers.
The rebellion of General Franco and the events that followed it caused a real storm of emotions in the Emigration camp. The main pages of all emigrant newspapers and magazines were filled with reports about the progress of the battles in the Pyrenees. As one would expect, the attitude towards these events once again showed the fragmentation of the Emigration - as noted by the author of many books on the history of the Russian Emigration, L.K. Shkarenkov, the war in Spain caused a certain split in its environment. Indeed, the main political groups abroad defined their attitude towards the outbreak of war differently, differed in their assessment of its causes, significance, and goals of the parties, and this deepened and aggravated the contradictions that existed between them.
Immediately, three main points of view on the events taking place became quite clearly defined: unconditional support for the rebels, unconditional support for the Popular Front government, and the middle between these two - liberal - “neither one nor the other.”
In the issue of the emigrant newspaper “New Russia” published on August 1, 1936, edited by A.F. Kerensky, a large article was published entitled “Spanish Kornilovs”, in which, describing the terrible events unfolding in Spain, the author draws an analogy with Russia 19 years ago and compares the July 1936 mutiny of General Franco with the rebellion led by General Kornilov in 1917 , which undermined the foundations of young Russian democracy.
In contrast, the August issue of the Sentinel magazine publishes an editorial on behalf of the editors under the eloquent title “Greetings to the Spanish Kornilovites.” This magazine continued to periodically publish articles and materials in favor of White Spain, and its editor-in-chief V.V. Orekhov visited Franco’s headquarters, where he personally welcomed the struggle of the Spanish rebels. The leadership of the Russian All-Military Union (ROVS) takes a similar position regarding the Spanish events. Already on August 15, 1936, the Chairman of the EMRO, General Miller, characterized the Civil War in Spain as an international struggle against communism in the name of saving world culture and all moral foundations and, ultimately, as a struggle to strengthen or weaken communism. He considered participation in the Spanish Civil War “a continuation of our White War,” pointing out the desirability of sending volunteers there from among the Union members.
The first of them dominated the right flank of the Emigration. The earliest news of the performance of the Spanish generals, which came on July 19, 1936, caused genuine jubilation here. The leaders of the EMRO and the Russian Central Association - the main political organizations of the right wing of the Russian Emigration - welcomed the rebels. White emigrant periodicals of General Franco “Spanish Kornilov” admired the heroism of his army, the feat of the defenders of the Alcazar; meetings of White Army officers were held everywhere, expressing support for the “Spanish patriots” and sincerely wishing them victory. The Sentinel magazine wrote in those days: “In all the 16 years that have elapsed since the day of our defeat, never before, at any point on the globe have White and Red had to intertwine again in such a tragic duel. Maybe this time White will prevail. .."
In general, the right-wing conservative camp of the Russian Emigration reacted with great sympathy to Franco's uprising, showing unanimity in its support.
The leadership of the EMRO viewed the events in Spain as a prologue to the beginning of large-scale anti-Bolshevik actions in Europe, and in the future, as the first step towards intervention in the USSR with the aim of overthrowing Soviet power and establishing a transitional regime in post-Soviet Russia in the form of a military dictatorship.
Counterintelligence of the EMRO in 1936 - 1939. She paid primary attention to events in Spain, in particular, she monitored the organization of Soviet assistance to the republican government. For example, the 1st Department of the EMRO received in October 1936 a copy of the report of the naval attaché in Spain to the French Minister of Navy “On the transportation of weapons by Spanish and Soviet ships for Republican Spain and their passage through the Dardanelles.” White émigré counterintelligence noted that at the Gelaffe military airfield on September 25, 1936, there were 40 Soviet officers in charge of the assembly of airplanes sent from the USSR. EMRO, Brotherhood of Russian Truth (BRP), Russian National Union of War Participants (RNSUV), etc. - advised Western intelligence services regarding the USSR, taking an active part in collecting and processing information about the activities of the Comintern in Spain, translated intelligence materials from Russian into French, German, English, etc. White emigrants actively advocated establishing a naval blockade of Spain in order to deprive the Republicans of support from the USSR and make the Spanish coast completely inaccessible to Soviet ships.
General P.N. Shatilov went to Spain to negotiate with Franco about the conditions for the transfer of military emigrants and their participation in the battles against the Republicans. The Brotherhood of Russian Truth recruited and sent volunteers to Spain.
However, the Russian Emigration had almost no funds to organize the transfer of volunteers, and the Franco-Spanish border was closed due to military operations. Therefore, White officers had to act at their own peril and risk, making their way to Spain along mountain paths, not only running the risk of being arrested by French border guards, but also being shot without trial by the Republican police already on Spanish soil.
All these events were perceived quite differently in the liberal, democratic camp of the Russian Abroad. In essence, the rebellion of the generals was viewed as an ordinary, fleeting phenomenon of political life somewhere on the “outskirts of Europe”, of little significance, and the first reports about it, which were purely informational in nature, did not actually contain conclusions and assessments.
At first, the Latest News, published in Paris by the former leader of the Russian cadets and Minister of Foreign Affairs of the provisional government P.N., avoided any decisive judgments. Miliukov. While reporting in detail on the state of affairs in Spain, the newspaper refrained from defining its own point of view. Even the first analytical articles published in Latest News, when the war was already raging in full force, spoke of the unprecedented ferocity of the fighting, the possibility of a “general’s rebellion” escalating into a world war, and the horrors of the civil war as a “monstrous national catastrophe.” " etc. - remained surprisingly neutral - so much so that even some White Guards were surprised, expecting more decisive support from the main print organ of the liberal public for the legitimate government.
On the one hand, this was explained by the fact that P.N. Miliukov and the newspaper's editorial team considered the civil war an internal affair of the Spanish people. The facts of military supplies to the rebels from Italy and Germany that soon became known were met with condemnation. The newspaper, in solidarity with the official point of view of the French government, advocated non-intervention, criticized statements by Hitler and Mussolini about respect for the choice of the Spanish people, the slowness of England and other European countries in preparing negotiations on non-intervention, and demanded the establishment of international control over the Spanish borders.
On the other hand, the realization of the depressing fact that democracy in Spain had come to the fore in any case had come to an end. Franco’s victory would mean the establishment of a military dictatorship, but the victory of supporters of the left government no longer guaranteed a return to parliamentary democracy: P.N. Miliukov noted with alarm the increasing radicalism of the masses and the government, the actual transfer of control over the republican army into the hands of ultra-left forces, the strengthening of communists and anarchists who discredited the government with “revolutionary tyranny.” It became obvious that in Spain there was a struggle between left-wing totalitarianism and right-wing conservatism. Moreover, according to P.N. Miliukov, “the civil war only brought to the extreme the anarchy and arbitrariness of the extreme left elements, which were one of the reasons for the uprising and the sympathy that it met in some circles of the population.” In other words, even the largest liberal figure of the Russian diaspora actually justified the rebellion.
Participation of Russian emigrants in the civil war
In August 1936, the first volunteers were able to get through Africa to Spain: Major General A.V. Fock and N.E. Torticollis, then three more people. All of them are White officers who did odd jobs abroad and were eager for active professional activity.
A.V.Fok is an amazing personality: a participant in the First World War and the Civil War, Knight of St. George (1916), Major General of the White Army (1919). In November 1920, he emigrated from Russia with the remnants of the Russian Army, lived in Bulgaria, from where he was expelled as an active opponent of the ideas of the return movement to the USSR and for opposing Smenovekhov propaganda. In 1936 he was already 57 years old, “approaching venerable” age. But Fok found the strength, remaining true to his principles, to overcome all obstacles and voluntarily join as an ordinary soldier under the banner of Franco’s army. His participation in the Spanish Civil War A.V. Fok saw it as a continuation of the struggle for the White Idea.
At the beginning of March 1937, General Miller issued an order on the EMRO, facilitating the emergence of Russian volunteers from Franco. Initially, the Russians were greeted with caution, but opinions about them quickly changed. General Franco's army lacked military specialists, and the vast majority of Russians were career officers, with experience from the First World War and the Civil War, who finally felt in their place. Russian volunteers even refused their allowance. One of them wrote: “In the White Spanish Army, I felt, like my comrades, finally fulfilling my duty. All of us here in the White camp, from the general to the last soldier, the Spaniards and a few foreigners, are fulfilling our duty - defense faith, culture and all of Europe from the new onslaught of the red beast..." The Spaniards gave the Russians a kind and cordial welcome. Most of the Russian volunteers - about 40 people - formed the Russian national detachment under the squads (Spanish - tercio) of the Carlist monarchists "Donna Maria de Molina" and "Marco de Bello".
The Carlist squads were in good standing in the Spanish White Army; among foreigners, only Russian and French monarchists were accepted there. The fighting slogan of the Carlists was in tune - “For God, King and Motherland!” - the motto of the Russian imperial army - “For Faith, Tsar and Fatherland!” To the Russian white officers, the Carlist warriors resembled volunteers and Cossacks - participants in the Kuban campaign, and immediately a complete community of views and ideals was established between the Russian and Spanish white warriors. The Russians were glad that they ended up in a monarchist military unit, especially since the Carlists always enjoyed the support of the Russian emperors. When King Carlos was defeated in the intra-dynastic struggle, he arrived in Russia; Emperor Nicholas I staged a parade, regiments of the imperial guard passed and greeted: “We wish you good health, Your Royal Majesty!” The next Carlist contender for the throne, Prince Don Jaime, was the commander of the Life Guards of the Grodno Regiment. When French President Poincaré arrived in St. Petersburg, the Russian Tsar relieved Prince Jaime of the need to represent the Grodno regiment at the parade, since he considered it inconvenient for a prince of royal blood to march with his regiment in front of the President of the French Republic. In the fall of 1937, the official representative of the Russian volunteers was received by the head of the Carlists, Count Florida. Subsequently, more than once Russian soldiers had to be convinced of the Carlists’ respect for Imperial Russia and the unity of the ideals of White Russia and national Spain.
Russians also fought in the Spanish Legion, combat units of the Falangists and in other units of General Franco’s White Army. Russian officers keenly felt the need for their participation in the war in Spain due to the fact that the USSR was on the side of the Red Republicans. The Spaniards were delighted when they learned that there were, after all, Russians who, because of their national ideas, were actively fighting in the ranks of General Franco’s army. And the white-blue-red Russian national flag was unfurled over the Russian position of the Carlists. Where else could it fly freely at that time? The Russians wanted to believe that the next stage would be the resumption of the White struggle on their native soil...
At the beginning of 1937, the first foreign journalists managed, with the help of the Portuguese authorities, to enter the territory of White Spain. In the governor's house of Salamanca, 11 journalists were present at a reception with General Franco: 5 Germans, 5 Italians and one Russian - V.V. Orekhov. Upon their introduction, it turned out that the general was familiar with the Russian White movement, highly valued it and was glad to visit the liberated territories of the “Russo Blancos” - the White Russians. Franco noted that he respects the White struggle, but also takes into account its mistakes, for example, the complete collapse of logistics support in the Volunteer Army. It is possible that Franco received truthful and valuable information on this issue from his associate General Uschiano, the last military attaché of Spain in Imperial Russia, who spent the entire First World War with its army, seeing its Glory and death.
In March 1939, at the time of the fall of the republic, Russian volunteers were distributed as follows: Russian detachment in Tercio Dona Maria de Molina - 26 people under the command of Teniente N.E. Krivoshei and Sergeant P.V. Belin; tercio requete Navara - 2, tercio - Areamendi - 1, tercio Montejura - 2, legion - 3, squadron requete Burgogna - 1 and three left military service, of which one is captain G.M. Zelim-Bek - for health reasons.
In total, out of 72 Russian volunteers in the Francoist army, 34 were killed, nine were wounded, and of these legionnaire P.N. Zotov - five times, Lieutenant K.A. Konstantino – three times (with loss of vision in one eye), K.K. Gursky - three times, V.A. Dvoichenko – twice.
After the end of hostilities, Russian emigrants - volunteers - Francoists participated in the Victory Parade, which took place in Valencia on May 3, 1939.
Conclusion
Russia and Spain experienced terrible fratricidal civil wars in the 20th century. In Russia, the war ended 15 years earlier. But its echoes were heard even after these 15 years in distant Spain. These wars had a lot in common in ideological, political, and military senses. What united these two wars were several dozen aging Russian emigrants who fought on the side of Franco and perceived participation in the Spanish War as a continuation of the war with the Reds, which they fought and lost in Russia.
Today, both Russia and Spain are striving to heal the wounds inflicted by the Civil Wars and are striving to establish lasting internal peace. However, the past years have once again confirmed the immutable truth of these Civil Wars: there is no and cannot be reconciliation and agreement between the Whites and the Reds. It is impossible to honor both Wrangel and Budyonny at the same time; it is impossible to erect monuments to both Franco and Largo Caballero at the same time. Therefore, achieving inner peace is possible only through the complete victory of the White side.
The Spanish Civil War and the role of the Soviet Union are somewhere on the periphery of the consciousness of a person passionate about history. In recent years, in the popular scientific information field, the topic of USSR assistance to the Spanish Republic has been silent; the 30s of the Soviet Union in terms of foreign policy were entirely the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, the true meaning of which, like Tilsit of the 20th century, is replaced by ideological nonsense about the allied relations of Hitler and Stalin. At the same time, all previous events of the 30s are forgotten.
When will we finally grow wiser and stop crucifying ourselves for strangers? Why on earth and why are we shedding streams of tears and ink in the name of some completely unnecessary, alien and indifferent Spain? And if only there were tears and ink! There were Russian people, Russian officers who went to shed their blood on the fields of La Mancha, rescuing the descendants of Don Quixote - that very Russian blood, which they have no right to shed for the interests of others, because Mother Russia may soon need it.
Volunteers: who are they?
It is worth dividing Soviet volunteers into two categories - advisers and military specialists. Advisors, of course, were persons seconded, carrying out orders from the leadership; in their case, the word “volunteers” can be put in quotation marks.
Soviet volunteers are mostly career officers who expressed a desire to participate in helping the Spanish Republic. The procedure was as follows: either through the party line or to the military leadership, a statement was sent about the desire to help the Republic.
It is worth saying that official military assistance to Spain from the Soviet Union began in September 1936. Let us quote researcher Platoshkin: On the recommendation of the People's Commissariat of Defense, the Politburo of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks made a decision on September 29, 1936 to conduct Operation X - this was the name given to providing military assistance to Spain. The ships transporting weapons to the republic were called “Igreks”. The main condition of the operation was its maximum secrecy, and therefore all actions were coordinated by the Intelligence Directorate of the General Staff of the Red Army.
The Prime Minister of the Spanish Republic L. Caballero, General Pozas, Soviet brigade commander D. G. Pavlov, his adjutant F. I. Kravchenko are sent to the disposal of the tank unit. Military advisers were attached to large military units. There were also chief advisers assigned to the Republican Army, who coordinated the actions of all military specialists and advisers. The main advisers in turn were the old Bolsheviks Yan Berzin, Grigory Stern and Kuzma Kachanov (the first would be shot during the repressions of 1937, and the second and third would be shot in the first months of the Great Patriotic War on a fabricated case).
This is how one of the military advisers, future marshal, Kirill Meretskov, describes what he had to do:
The advisers proposed the idea of operations to the Spanish command. If the idea was accepted, the advisers developed plans of operations. If a plan was accepted, they wrote draft operational orders and trained those responsible for staff work. Then it was necessary to train the senior command staff to solve operational problems, the middle command staff - tactics and show how to teach their soldiers. The advisers participated in the formation and organization of all the international and a number of Spanish brigades, and then often led them into battle, especially in the first battles, to show the officers how to manage units in battle.
Military advisers were prohibited from participating in military operations, unlike military specialists.
Military specialists were engaged in both training the Spanish military and directly participated in military operations. These were tankers, anti-aircraft gunners, saboteurs, and pilots. They went to Spain with equipment produced in Soviet factories. Mixed crews were formed from Soviet and Spanish military personnel.
In addition, it is necessary to note the political emigrants who lived in the Soviet Union and fled from fascist regimes. These were immigrants from Italy, Germany, Hungary, and Bulgaria, who often worked in the structures of the Comintern. Among them were military leaders, for example, General Lukacs (the pseudonym of the writer and revolutionary Bel Frankl, known in the Soviet Union as Matvey Zalka), an Italian pilot who was brutally killed by the Francoists, Primo Gibelli received the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, and the famous Enrique lived in the Soviet Union for several years Lister, military leader of the communist forces of the Republic.
Unknown Soviet military specialist in Spain Soviet volunteers went in two ways - either by train through Poland to France, and then across the border, posing as civilians, on trains to Barcelona, or by sea from Odessa to the port cities of Spain (primarily to the same Barcelona - this was an important transfer route).
In total, about 4 thousand Soviet volunteers visited Spain, 200 of whom died. There was frequent rotation of personnel. At the same time, there were no more than 600 advisers and military specialists in Spain. All Soviet citizens operated in Spain under fictitious names.
There were also volunteers among Russian emigrants. The majority (from two hundred to a thousand) fought in the ranks of the Republic. Among them was a relative of the Socialist Revolutionary Boris Savinkov - Lev, a colonel in the tsarist army, a friend of Anna Akhmatova - Vladimir Glinoyedsky, Lieutenant Ostapchenko and many others. The dispatch of volunteers from among the Russian emigrants was supervised by Vera Guchkova-Trail, the daughter of the Octobrist leader Guchkov. She did this with the knowledge of the OGPU. It was believed that Russian emigrants who took part in the war in Spain on the side of the Republic could return to their homeland. 42 emigrants who fought on the side of the Republic became citizens of the Soviet Union after the end of the Civil War.
A military adviser traveling through Poland, who became a hero of Stalingrad, and in 1936, Lieutenant Alexander Rodimtsev describes the contents of White emigrant newspapers published in Poland:
Colorful, catchy headlines attracted attention. Countess Perkovskaya published her memories of St. Petersburg. Baron Nevelsky agreed to sell a collection of Russian bast shoes to his worthy successor. The last page contains short information about the rebellion in Spain, about volunteers making their way through the Pyrenees. The author, who wished to remain anonymous, called on his peers with the blood shed in Spain to atone for their guilt before their Motherland and to receive permission to return home.
Rodimtsev also talks about how there were many Ukrainian volunteers who formed a company named after Taras Shevchenko.
Here is what Rodimtsev writes:
There were especially many Ukrainians, emigrants from Western Ukrainian lands that were part of bourgeois Poland. They were forced to move to France, Belgium, Argentina and other countries in search of work. Having suffered a lot of grief, having learned the delights of “bourgeois equality”, volunteers from Western Ukraine, overcoming many obstacles, came to the aid of their class brothers - workers and peasants. A Ukrainian company named after Taras was even formed. “There were about a thousand Ukrainian volunteers. Many of them knew Spanish and worked as translators. The need for secrecy hid their true names from us.
Subsequently, in his memoirs, Rodimtsev describes how, under the guise of an emigrant volunteer Savchenko, the spy Baron Skrynnik ended up in the units, only chance helped Alexander Rodimtsev not to fall under the baron’s bullet. Baron Skrynnik will be shot. This story shows that there were many who wanted the defeat of the Spanish Republic among the Russian emigrant community.
Indeed, 72 Russian emigrants went to fight with the Republican Army of Spain. The ideological justification for their action was that they continued the Civil War that began in Russia against the communists. Among the Franco volunteers were many titled military men, like General Anatoly Fok, who initiated the sending of White emigrants to the side of the rebels. The reactionary White émigré press called the rebels “Spanish Kornilovites.” It is worth saying that Leon Trotsky also called the Frankists. At the Francoist headquarters there was even an idea to create a Russian military unit, but it was rejected and Russian white emigrants fought in the ranks of the Carlists, radical monarchists, the most reactionary even by the standards of the Fraco motley coalition of right-wing forces.
It is worth dividing into three types of participation of the Soviet Union in the Spanish Civil War: military (both direct and through supplies), political and diplomatic.
Only two powers officially supported the official legal power in Spain - the Soviet Union and Mexico. The liberal regimes of Western Europe refrained from helping either side, despite the fact that the majority of society supported the Republicans. Germany and Italy sent tens of thousands of their troops to support Franco, as well as many of the most modern weapons.
Military involvement
It was decided to help Spain with weapons already in August 1936. During the war, cargo was delivered through the ports of Alicante, Barcelona and Cartagena, as well as the French ports of Le Havre and Cherbourg, from where cargo was smuggled (the Spanish-French border was formally closed for most of the war) by rail to Spain.
The first Soviet ship with military cargo arrived on September 25, 1936. And the pilots had been preparing the airfields since the beginning of September. I-15 and I-16 aircraft began to be delivered to airfields, and then SB bombers (they were also delivered through Mexico - the unofficial name for “Katyushas”) and P-Z (“Natashas”).
At the beginning of October 1936, the first Soviet T-26 tanks, which are called the best fighting vehicle of the Spanish Civil War, were delivered to Cartogena. Soviet tank crews also arrived. During the war, a total of 50 such tanks were delivered. Another type of tank, BT-5, about a hundred combat units were delivered. Armored vehicles of the BA-3 and FAI models were also delivered.
Tank T-26 In total, according to various sources, from 648 to 1003 aircraft, from 360 to 600 tanks, 60 armored vehicles, 1186 to 1555 guns, 340 mortars, 20486 machine guns, 497813 rifles, 862 million rounds of ammunition, 3.4 million shells, 110 thousand cars, 4 torpedo boats.
Three Soviet ships transporting supplies to Spain were sunk. But the Soviet Union succeeded in the main thing - to arm the army of the Spanish Republic.
The Soviet Union, of course, did not provide its assistance free of charge. The gold reserves of the Republic were sent to Odessa, amounting to approximately 2.3 billion pesetas or $788 million. This was three-quarters of Spain's gold and foreign exchange reserves. Translated into today's money, according to researcher Eremey Parnov, the amount is about 40 billion dollars. The amount seems astronomical. However, the USSR also issued a loan to the Republic in the amount of $85 million.
Soviet military specialists played a vital role in the defense of Madrid. Military assistance arrived in time and saved the city, which was under siege. Madrid was taken only after the end of the Civil War by the Francoists, and the most difficult situation of October-December 1936 was resolved with the help of the Soviet military and weapons. It is important to note the Soviet tank crews, who, under the leadership of Divisional Commander Dmitry Pavlov and Colonel Paul Arman, inflicted a decisive defeat on the Francoists, which helped avoid the capture of the former capital of Spain (during the Civil War it was moved from Madrid first to Valencia and then to Barcelona). Their actions during the war were unprecedented. One day, Arman’s tankers managed to fight in ten different sectors of the front. Soviet tank crews showed themselves heroically. Platoon commander Semyon Osadchy carried out the world's first anchor ram. Immediately crashing into an Italian Ansaldo tank, he crushed it and pushed it into the gorge. This happened near Madrid. 10 days after his feat, Osadchy will die. A total of 21 Soviet tankers will receive the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.
Soviet volunteer fighter pilots at the airfield at Alcala de Henares. First row (right): G. Zakharov, E. Yarlykin, P. Agafonov, N. Miroshnichenko. Second row: K. Kovtun, P. Rychagov, K. Kovalevsky, N. Shmelko. Soviet pilots showed no less heroism. On October 28, 1936, they began bombing rebel troops near Madrid. For the Francoists it was a shock. This was the debut of the SB bombers, which would be named “Katyushka” or “Sofya Borisovna”. During the defense of Madrid, Soviet aviation and artillery carried out joint actions. During the battles for Madrid in October-December 1936, Soviet pilots destroyed 63 enemy aircraft in air battles and 64 were bombed at Franco airfields. Soviet pilots fought along the entire front. In total, according to the Spanish historian Miralles, there were 772 people, 99 of them died. 35 volunteer pilots were awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.
Particular attention should be paid to saboteurs, whose units were formed from among Spanish soldiers and soldiers of the international brigades. Sabotage as a military method was viewed with skepticism by the leadership of the Spanish Army, but saboteurs proved their usefulness by going deep behind enemy lines. The saboteurs were led by famous specialists Hadji-Umar Mamsurov and Ilya Starinov. Hadji-Mamsurov, who had the pseudonym “Colonel Xanthi,” became one of the legends of the Spanish Civil War. The saboteurs managed to carry out a number of operations, including derailing a train near Cordoba, blowing up a bridge near Alicante, and destroying a tunnel under the same Cordoba with the help of an explosion.
Political participation
The influence of the Soviet Union on politics in Republican Spain has been greatly exaggerated. The Soviet leadership, represented by Stalin, Molotov and Voroshilov, directly stated to the Prime Minister of Spain Largo Caballero, who was nicknamed the Spanish Lenin: “It is quite possible that the parliamentary path will turn out to be a more effective means of revolutionary development in Spain than in Russia”.
Moreover, during the Civil War, the Communists were one of the most moderate forces in the extremely radicalized Republic. They opposed the socialization of private property and land, unlike the anarchists and Trotskyists-Poumovites. All political issues, according to the communists, were to be relegated to the background and resolved after the war. The Communists were considered the most disciplined party and the main support in the army.
Fighters affiliated with the POUM organization However, it is worth noting that in Spain there was an organization called SIM, which in its functions resembled the NKVD. It was the secret police, a vital organ in a civil war. It was the secret police that played a role in the defeat of POUM, an organization known throughout the world for the fact that George Orwell joined it. It was a structure in the spirit of Trotskyism, advocating the abolition of private property and criticizing the communists from left-wing positions. An NKVD representative, Orlov, was assigned to SIM. However, the defeat of POUM was an exception, due to the fact that Trotskyism was actually equated with fascism by the communist parties that were part of the Comintern.
Diplomatic participation
On the international stage, Spain's only European defender was the Soviet Union. The left-wing government of Leon Blum in Paris tried to provide assistance to the Republic, but this was insignificant and very short-lived. Liberal democracies took a stand of non-interference in Spanish affairs. That is, the legitimate government, against which the army rebelled, did not have the opportunity to purchase weapons. Government policies ran counter to public opinion in France, Great Britain and the United States. In Paris alone, 300 thousand people came to the rally. In Great Britain, according to opinion polls, about 75 percent of the population supported the Republic. Thousands of volunteers went to Spain and joined the International Brigades.
England initiated the convening of the international organization Committee for Non-Interference in Spanish Affairs, which was wittily nicknamed the “intervention committee.” This structure included 27 states. However, the main issues were discussed by a subcommittee consisting of England, France, the USSR, Germany, Italy, Czechoslovakia, Belgium, Sweden and Portugal. Military personnel from three countries (Germany, Italy and Portugal) fought openly on Franco's side: up to 150 thousand Italians, up to 50 thousand Germans and up to 20 thousand Portuguese fought through the Spanish Civil War. The only thing the committee sought was regular diplomatic notes. In general, the Committee on Non-Intervention was consistent with the policies of Western democracies to appease Mussolini and Hitler, which led to World War II.
Meaning
Considering the prevailing circumstances, the virtual absence of an army, the most combat-ready units of which sided with the rebels, the direct military assistance provided to the Francoists by Hitler, Mussolini and Salazar, the inability to officially purchase weapons, it seems surprising that the Republic lasted two and a half years. Moreover, at the time of surrender, the Republic controlled a third of the country and was six months short of the start of the World War, which the Republican leaders were counting on. The Republicans showed fantastic resilience.
The role of the Soviet Union is difficult to underestimate. The state was able to organize arms supplies across the entire continent despite the unfavorable situation: prowling fascist ships and submarines. It was difficult to provide more tangible support. The Soviet Union acted on two fronts. During these same years, the Soviet Union provided assistance to the Chinese who were at war with Japan. At the same time, aid to China was noticeably less than to Spain.
There could be no question of the full participation of Soviet troops on the side of the Republic. This was difficult to do from a logistics point of view. Questions arose even in connection with the transfer of several hundred people.
It is important to say a few words about the political repressions that affected a number of Soviet volunteers from among military advisers. The reason why they were repressed has nothing to do with Spain in any way. The military elite was broken due to the imaginary or not so imaginary conspiracy of Tukhachevsky. Unfortunately, the political leadership had quite reasonable grounds (another thing is that these grounds were partially fabricated) to believe that Marshal Tukhachevsky could turn out to be a Soviet Franco. And one can only regret that on the eve of the Great Patriotic War and in its first months, many experienced heroic military men were shot.
Nevertheless, hundreds of Soviet military experts were able to gain invaluable combat experience. Rodimtsev, Malinovsky, Krivoshein, Arman, Mamsurov, Starinov, Batov, Kuznetsov and others will fight against the fascists already in the Soviet Union.
Bonus
Interesting facts related to the Spanish Civil War
1. The Spanish Civil War began and ended with a military conspiracy. The Republican Colonel Casado carried out pronunciamento (a special word for conspiracies) in order to achieve more dignified terms of surrender. I did not achieve more worthy conditions, but saved my life.
2. “Fifth Column,” as we know, became a common expression after the Spanish Civil War. This was the name given to the Francoists who operated behind the lines of the Republic. In Madrid alone there were about 20 thousand such agents and they literally sat in embassies. When Soviet volunteers and Spanish security raided the Finnish embassy, where there was frequent gunfire, they found 2,000 people there, none of whom had any connection to Finland.
3. In August 1936, as you know, the Olympics were held in Berlin. The labor movement organized a parallel Olympics in Barcelona, which was Berlin's main rival for the Olympic venue. The Barcelona Alternative Workers' Olympics was scheduled to take place from July 19 to 26, 1936. The start of the rebellion prevented the full competition from taking place. Clashes began on the streets of Barcelona on July 19, around the same time as the athletes' march. The athletes took part in suppressing the rebellion and became the first foreign volunteers in the ranks of the Republicans. The International Brigade movement began with these athletes.
4. The International Brigades included the Abraham Lincoln Battalion. It was led by the black Oliver Lowe until his death, which was unprecedented by the standards of the 30s even for the leftist movement.
5. The main novel about the Spanish War is “For Whom the Bell Tolls” by Ernest Hemingway. The prototype of the main character of the book by Robert Jordan was alternately called three Soviet saboteurs Starinov, Mamsurov and Kirill Orlovsky, but in fact the prototype of Jordon was the American Jew Alex from Starinov’s detachment. It’s easier with other characters: General Golts is General Stern, and Karlov is an image based on two historical figures - publicist Mikhail Koltsov and Alexander Orlov. The Gaylord Hotel, described in the novel, actually existed in Madrid with the same name, and Soviet advisers, military specialists and volunteers from all over the world actually gathered there.
6. In the novel “For Whom the Bell Tolls” there is one character who appeared under his own name - the French leader of the Comintern and leader of the International Brigades Andre Marty. In the novel, he threatens to kill a character named Karlov. In fact, the publicist Mikhail Koltsov, who was said to be an ardent supporter of Stalin, was shot after Marty's denunciation.
7. Mikhail Tukhachevsky and Francisco Franco met. This happened in London in January 1936, six months before the start of the conspiracy. Mikhail Tukhachevsky led the Soviet delegation at the funeral procession on the occasion of the death of the English King George V, Franco represented Spain.
8. It was a very brutal war, but there was one unspoken rule that greatly surprised the Soviet volunteers. The combatants carefully observed siesta and gave each other lunch.
9. The son of one of the leaders of the Spanish Communist Party, Ibarruri Dolores, known throughout the world under the nickname Passionaria, Ruben Dolores will die at Stalingrad, fighting in the Red Army.
10. Before Franco's death in 1975, the Soviet Union had no diplomatic relations with Spain. Nevertheless, Franco inadvertently helped the Soviet Union national team become the European football champion in 1960. Franco will strictly prohibit his country's national team from participating in the quarterfinal match of the European Cup against the Soviet Union. The USSR national team was awarded the victory.
List of used literature:
- Nikolai Platoshkin, Spanish Civil War 1936 - 1939. M., 2005
- Hugh Thomas, The Spanish Civil War. 1931–1939
- Alexander Ilyich Rodimtsev. "Under the skies of Spain." Soviet Russia, 1985
- Kirill Afanasyevich Meretskov. “In the service of the people [with illustrations].” Politizdat, 1970.
- Botin, Mikhail. "For the freedom of Spain." "Soviet Russia", 1986
- Ilya Erenburg. Spanish reports 1931–1939, M., 1986
- Mikhail Koltsov. Spain is on fire. M., 1987
They returned to normal after the end of the Nootka crisis, and after Spain entered the war with France, consultations began regarding the conclusion of a trade treaty and an agreement on the Russian-Spanish border in North America. This was prevented by the rapprochement between Russia and England, with which an agreement on mutual guarantee of possessions and military assistance was signed on February 7 (18), 1795, as well as the conclusion by the Spaniards of a separate Basel Peace Treaty with France on July 22.
Russia was extremely dissatisfied with Spain's withdrawal from the coalition and the subsequent Treaty of San Ildefonso on August 19, 1796, as a result of which Spain entered the war with England. Military operations developed extremely unsuccessfully for Spain; a significant part of the fleet was destroyed in the battle of San Vicente, and English ships blockaded Cadiz. Weighed down by dependence on the French, the government of Manuel Godoy began to probe the ground for a new rapprochement with Russia. Emperor Paul I proposed to the Spanish king to denounce the alliance with France and announce the recognition of Louis XVIII as king, but the Madrid court could not take such a radical step, which the Russian charge d'affaires N. N. Byutsov reported to Chancellor A. A. Bezborodko on October 19, 1797 . Disappointed, Pavel decided to postpone the planned dispatch to Spain as ambassador of Baron A.I. Kridener.
Malta crisis
The cause of the Russian-Spanish conflict and Russia's entry into the War of the Second Coalition was the Maltese issue. In 1797, the Order of Malta was accepted under the patronage of the Russian Empire, and after the surrender of Malta to the fleet of General Bonaparte, some of the knights moved to Russia and in October 1798 proclaimed Paul I Grand Master. This election was contrary to the statutes of the order, but was recognized by the Western powers and all priories except the Spanish ones as needing an alliance with Russia.
Paul's dissatisfaction was caused by the actions of the Spanish representative in Malta F. Amat, who persuaded Grand Master Ferdinand von Gompesch to capitulate to the French, but after the Madrid court disavowed the actions of its ambassador and expressed its readiness to assist in the restoration of the order in Malta, the emperor's position softened.
At the end of February 1799 Paul stated that
...although we do not harbor any hostile feelings towards Spain, seeing her forced participation in the present war, we do not have any special relations with her and postpone our position on this occasion in accordance with the future behavior of the Madrid court...
The behavior of the Madrid court was determined when Spain learned about the terms of the Anglo-Russian-Neapolitan convention of November 29, 1798, plans for an allied expedition to recapture the island and create a Russian naval base there. Charles IV refused to recognize the new title of Russian emperor, which was announced through his attorney in St. Petersburg, Joaquin de Onis.
Declaration of war
Paul took Spain’s position as a personal insult and on March 23, 1799, recalled the attorney Butzov, and a few days later, without waiting for Madrid’s response, he ordered Onis and the trade vice-consul B. de Mendizábal to leave Russia.
On July 15 (26), a manifesto declaring war was published, which, in particular, said:
Having perceived with our allies the intention to eradicate the lawless rule that existed in France, they rebelled against it with all their might (...) Among the small number of European powers, outwardly committed, but in the very truth fearing the consequences of the vengeance of this dying Bohemian rule, Gishpania discovered more than others fear and her devotion to France (...) Now having learned that our chargé d'affaires adviser Bitsov (...) was forced to leave the possessions of the king of Spain, taking this as an insult to our majesty, we declare war on him, commanding all ports of the empire ours to impose sequestration and confiscate all the merchant ships in them, and send an order to all the commanders of our land and naval forces to act hostilely everywhere and with all the subjects of the king of the Guishpans.
Having received the text of the manifesto, Charles IV issued a decree on September 9 declaring war on Russia, without refraining from a caustic characterization of the deplorable state of his opponent’s mental abilities:
Among others, Russia especially wants to stand out, whose emperor, dissatisfied with the fact that the title assigned to him does not correspond to him, and the expressed intentions this time did not find sympathy on my part, issued a decree declaring war, the publication of which is already sufficient to realize the depth of his unreasonableness. (...)
I read this statement without surprise, since the treatment of my chargé d’affaires and other, no less strange actions of this sovereign had long indicated that this should be expected. Therefore, when I ordered the Russian Charge d'Affaires, Advisor Bitsov, to leave my court and state, I was guided much less by a feeling of indignation than by the need to respect my person. Based on these principles, I cannot help but respond to the attacks contained in the Russian decree. It is quite obvious that it contains threats to me and to all the monarchs of Europe. Since I am aware of the influence that England is currently exerting on the king, wishing to humiliate me, I will respond to the above decree, without intending to give an account of my political connections to anyone, except to the Almighty, with whose help I hope to repel any unjust aggression of those whose self-importance and deceitful acts are directed against me and my subjects, for the protection and safety of whom I will use the most effective methods. I declare a declaration of war on Russia and order to move against its possessions and inhabitants.
Russia's actions
According to Milyutin, “the gap between Spain and Russia, due to the geographical position of both states, could not seem to be of significant importance,” but after this the Spanish ambassador was expelled from Constantinople, since the Ottoman Empire joined the coalition, and on September 18, British diplomacy , which probably pushed the impulsive emperor to war with Spain, achieved the conclusion of a Russian-Portuguese defensive and offensive alliance against Spain and France. Under this agreement, Russia, at the first request, pledged to send 6 thousand ground forces to Portugal, and she, in turn, sent 5 battleships and a frigate to help Russia.
Another possible theater of military operations was the northwestern coast of North America, therefore, in order to consolidate the management of the Russian Pacific possessions, the somewhat delayed process of merging the commercial organizations operating there was accelerated, and already on July 9 (20), by decree of Paul I, the creation of a unified Russian-Russian American company, under whose control all lands discovered by the Russians up to 55°20" northern latitude were officially placed, as well as no-man's lands that could be developed south of this line.
The events of the Russian-Spanish War include a semi-anecdotal message from Bennigsen, according to which the extravagant emperor intended to make General J. A. Castro de la Cerda, a distant descendant of Alfonso X of Castile, king of Spain. How far Bennigsen’s words can be trusted is unknown, since it was beneficial for the participant in the conspiracy and murder of the emperor to present his victim in a funny and inappropriate manner, but it is quite possible that Paul, as a joke, could actually promise one of his generals the Spanish crown.
Military alert
Neither Russia nor Spain had sufficient forces in the North Pacific for military action, however, both sides seriously feared an enemy attack. According to information provided by Ekkehard Völkl and William Robertson, in December 1799 or January 1800 Madrid informed the Viceroy of New Spain that, according to a report from the ambassador in Vienna, the English ambassador Lord Minto proposed a plan for a joint invasion of California to the Russians. It was not possible to find traces of this plan in the archives, and perhaps we are talking about unfounded rumors, especially since such an informed contemporary as Francisco de Miranda, who maintained close contacts with Pitt Jr. and the Russian ambassador in London S. R. Vorontsov, he does not report anything like this in his notes.
For his part, Viceroy Miguel José de Asanza, in a report on December 20, 1799, proposed, due to the small number of troops in the region, to concentrate several warships in the port of Acapulco. The next day, he warned the governor of California, Diego de Borica, about the potential threat from the Russo-Spanish War. On February 8, 1800, the governor notified the garrison commanders about a possible Russian attack.
Russia also took defensive measures. A regiment under the command of Colonel A. A. Somov was urgently transferred from Irkutsk to the coast of the Sea of Okhotsk, who was entrusted with placing military units in Kamchatka, in the Gizhiginsk fortress, Okhotsk and Udsky fortress. Captain I. Bukharin arrived from St. Petersburg to the port of Okhotsk “to prepare transports.” It was ordered to “arm the corvette Slava Rossii, which was left from the Billings expedition, if it is still suitable.”