Corocotta
Active member
There has never been a war where the propaganda played such a big roll like the 1939 Spanish civil war.
We always hear the version of the fascist insurrection against the Republic renewed in 1931, and this idea must be clarified. In order to understand this insurrection it is important to revise a few events that took place in the years before the civil war began back in 1936.
Not many history books notice that since the Republic was created five insurrections tried to pull it down. Four of them came from the leftist parties and just one from the right wing. We can see that the Spanish leftist parties had (have?) a strong tendency to insurrections and violence. Mostly all leftist parties and especially the PSOE saw the Republic as the way to reach power and destroy “the burgess political system. The PSOE (the same political party that is governing Spain today) wanted to found a communist Russian style political system in Spain (his leader, Largo Caballero, was called the “Spanish Lennin”, pretty scary)
In 1933 elections were taking place in Spain. The CEDA (right wing political party) won the election with a huge majority but the PSOE and the anarchist did not accept the result of the democratic will of the Spanish electors. They accused the CEDA of being fascists (totally false, actually they strongly criticized Hitler’s & Mussolini’s regime, they always respected legality and their members suffered of assassination from the radical leftist members). In order to destabilize the democratic elected government the PSOE began with his Russian stylized policy of killing the opposition, burning churches and killing the clergy, thousand of monks and nouns were brutally killed. They also incited and gave hope to many secessionist movements in the Basque country and Catalonia. Sweet irony, they accused the CEDA of being fascists and they acted just like criminals. The PSOE also bought weapons, ammunition in order to arm the population and to begin the communist revolution. 30.000 men began the socialist revolution in Asturias and for a few days this Spanish province worked as a communist state. In this period of time many people were killed, Catholic people were persecuted and sometimes killed, hundreds of churches were desecrated and thousands of extremely valuable religious paintings and sculptures were devastated. The Government had to do something and they sent the army (phalanx) to Asturias. The Revolution was suffocated in a few months. The leftist propaganda used this event to accuse the Government of being extremely violent and mean, assassinating peasants and so on.
Of course the army killed many insurgents and thousands of them were sent to jail, but in my opinion this was perfectly legitimated.
All history books say that the war began in 1936, but it is crystal clear that the PSOE began the civil war in 1934 due to their attitude. They were instigating the revolution, giving weapons to the population and sending a revolutionary message.
In 1936 elections took place again, this time the PSOE was not going to loose their opportunity of reaching the power. The propaganda was going to be their weapon. They invented a great lie, they said that the government killed thousands of peasants during the suffocation of the Asturian revolution, but they did not give a single name to none of the victims. The propaganda worked and the Popular Front won the elections. Their revolutionary project began. The CEDA knew what was coming up next.
This is the context where Franco made his insurrection; Franco prevented Spain of becoming another communist “paradise”.
Today the propaganda is still working and it makes the Popular Front as a great defender of the democracy (sic.) Thanks to historians like Pio Moa the truth is coming up again.
We always hear the version of the fascist insurrection against the Republic renewed in 1931, and this idea must be clarified. In order to understand this insurrection it is important to revise a few events that took place in the years before the civil war began back in 1936.
Not many history books notice that since the Republic was created five insurrections tried to pull it down. Four of them came from the leftist parties and just one from the right wing. We can see that the Spanish leftist parties had (have?) a strong tendency to insurrections and violence. Mostly all leftist parties and especially the PSOE saw the Republic as the way to reach power and destroy “the burgess political system. The PSOE (the same political party that is governing Spain today) wanted to found a communist Russian style political system in Spain (his leader, Largo Caballero, was called the “Spanish Lennin”, pretty scary)
In 1933 elections were taking place in Spain. The CEDA (right wing political party) won the election with a huge majority but the PSOE and the anarchist did not accept the result of the democratic will of the Spanish electors. They accused the CEDA of being fascists (totally false, actually they strongly criticized Hitler’s & Mussolini’s regime, they always respected legality and their members suffered of assassination from the radical leftist members). In order to destabilize the democratic elected government the PSOE began with his Russian stylized policy of killing the opposition, burning churches and killing the clergy, thousand of monks and nouns were brutally killed. They also incited and gave hope to many secessionist movements in the Basque country and Catalonia. Sweet irony, they accused the CEDA of being fascists and they acted just like criminals. The PSOE also bought weapons, ammunition in order to arm the population and to begin the communist revolution. 30.000 men began the socialist revolution in Asturias and for a few days this Spanish province worked as a communist state. In this period of time many people were killed, Catholic people were persecuted and sometimes killed, hundreds of churches were desecrated and thousands of extremely valuable religious paintings and sculptures were devastated. The Government had to do something and they sent the army (phalanx) to Asturias. The Revolution was suffocated in a few months. The leftist propaganda used this event to accuse the Government of being extremely violent and mean, assassinating peasants and so on.
Of course the army killed many insurgents and thousands of them were sent to jail, but in my opinion this was perfectly legitimated.
All history books say that the war began in 1936, but it is crystal clear that the PSOE began the civil war in 1934 due to their attitude. They were instigating the revolution, giving weapons to the population and sending a revolutionary message.
In 1936 elections took place again, this time the PSOE was not going to loose their opportunity of reaching the power. The propaganda was going to be their weapon. They invented a great lie, they said that the government killed thousands of peasants during the suffocation of the Asturian revolution, but they did not give a single name to none of the victims. The propaganda worked and the Popular Front won the elections. Their revolutionary project began. The CEDA knew what was coming up next.
This is the context where Franco made his insurrection; Franco prevented Spain of becoming another communist “paradise”.
Today the propaganda is still working and it makes the Popular Front as a great defender of the democracy (sic.) Thanks to historians like Pio Moa the truth is coming up again.