Spanish Civil War and Revolution photo gallery, 1936-39

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awesome stuff. i am writing a book on militant antifascism and have just started the spanish chapter (eeek!) do you know who owns copyright on these at all?

also great to see so many women in the pix too!

Fantastic photos and a reminder of a heroic era .As stated above the photos emphasise the pivotal role of the female comrades played in the struggle.

what's with the black dude (fifth row from the top, second column from the left)?

Spanish quest to identify black soldier who fought against fascism in civil war

I've added another photo of African-Americans in the Spanish Civil War, third row from bottom, second from left, who were part of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade as well

Related to this, what do people think about adding photos of the International Brigades? I was torn on this because obviously their intentions were good (understatement) but in the end they served largely as functionaries for the Communist Party who ultimately killed the revolution..

That said, not putting them in loses the international aspect of the civil war.. what do people think?

I would stick in a couple, you could always add a bit of critical text in the title box

Ed wrote:

I bought a copy of the book 'Britons in Spain' by William Rust after I heard the song 'Viva la Quince Brigada' by Christie Moore (renamed from the original and incorrect 'Viva la Quinta Brigada'). I didn't know when I bought the book that Rust was the Spanish correspondent for the Daily Worker. It is one of the most amazing pieces of 'journalism' I've ever read, maintaining right up to the Ebro offensive that the Republic was winning and that every single action was another nail in the coffin of Spanish fascism. There is an almost ludicrous section on why saluting officers is necessary for morale in the People's Army ("almost ludricous" only because it was so blatantly hierarchical it can't actually be ludicrous). As late as September 1938 Rust wrote:

"The Republican Army, now one million strong and yet to reach full strength, has broken the offensive power of Franco's forces and ... is preparing for further advances".

It is Communist doublespeak written in Boy's Own language. It concentrates on the British Battalion, who lost 500 dead, 1200 wounded. The International Brigades were renowned for their bravery and it hardly needs to be said that the vast majority went to Spain with high ideals, but those overwhelmingly working-class idealists were used shamelessly by the Communist hierarchy and its bourgeois partners. The worker-soldiers of the International Brigades were betrayed by the Stalinists just as surely as the CNT and POUM were betrayed and the revolution was betrayed. It is heart-rending to read about the personal sacrifices of those men with the benefit of hindsight where we can see the duplicity of Stalin and his henchmen and the power-obsessed machinations of the socialists.

Which is a roundabout way of saying I would add their photos. They may have been misguided (in my eyes) in their party allegiances but they often gave their lives and I can almost guarantee they would have stood by their anarchist comrades given different leadership. Communists they may have been but they were working men who fought for an ideal which, but for the nuances of left-wing ideology, we nearly share and which had a common enemy.

Ed, I'd love to have a copy of the photo of the crowd in the bullring to blow up to poster size. Do you know if there's any way of getting hold of a hi-res image?

Some great pics. Am I being daft or is it not possible to save these images? Right click - save as only gives the option to save as an HTML file?

If you want to save the images right click on the thumbnail and click "save target as"

Yes you are

New photos added..

Thanks so much for this impressive photo gallery!