107

p The heroic struggle of democratic Spain in 1936-39 found complete understanding and all-round support on the part of the progressive Czechoslovak public, which quickly realised the possible consequences of the fascist generals’ revolt and the armed intervention of fascist states. One of the two main allies of the insurgents—Hitler Germany—was at that time posing a direct threat to the territorial integrity and state sovereignty of Czechoslovakia. In Czechoslovakia herself, the ruling circles were working towards the limitation of democratic freedoms and the fascistisation of the state structure. Under these conditions, the progressive forces in the country and, above all, the working class, could not remain indifferent to the intervention of Italian and German fascism and to the policy of “non-intervention”.

p In the autumn of 1936, the Committee for Aid to Democratic Spain was founded in Prague, in which anti-fascists of diverse political convictions, religious views, and occupations co-operated. In addition to individual members, it had about 50 group members representing approximately 750,000 persons. By the end of the following year, the number of individual members of the Committee was already 1,136, and the number of group members had grown to 184. At the same time, 64 local solidarity committees had been formed. All the nationalities then inhabiting Czechoslovakia were represented in the Committee (that is, not only Czechs and Slovaks, but also Germans, Hungarians, Ukrainians and Poles).

p The activity of the Committee for Aid to Democratic Spain and its affiliates was varied. They devoted much attention to the dissemination of truthful and timely information about the events in Spain, explained their meaning and significance, and tirelessly called for moral and material aid to the Spanish anti-fascists. An invaluable role in this effort was played by the illustrated monthly, Spanttsko (Spain), published in Prague between April 1937 and 108 September 1938, with a circulation of 20,000 (5,000 copies of which were in German), and also the rotoprint bulletin, Spanelskd Korespondence (Spanish Correspondence). Appealing for aid to the Spanish people were many posters (the designer of one of them was Oskar Kokoschka), post cards and leaflets. Many brochures about fighting Spain were published at the Committee’s expense (“The Struggle of Spanish Democracy”, “Durango”, “Fighting Spain”, “Spain Is in Our Hearts”, “Spain”, and others). Exhibitions and lectures were organised, and large audiences gathered to listen to political and cultural figures who had been to Spain, while theatrical performances and films about Spain enjoyed wide attendance.

p The central and local aid-to-Spain committees conducted extensive campaigns to collect money for buying food, medicine and clothing. The organisers of these campaigns displayed much inventiveness. For example, 110,000 badges with the colours of the Republican flag and the inscription in Spanish, “Viva la Libertad en Espafia" were made and sold.

p The following figures give some idea of the results of the aid campaigns: before the end of 1937, a total of over 1,000,000 korunas worth of parcels had been sent; in November and December 1937, a collection of Christmas presents was made, and parcels valued at 145,000 korunas were sent. An especially important measure was the establishment of a field hospital, named after Jan Amos Komenski, which cost 500,000 korunas to set up. Its maintenance costs after that were covered exclusively by voluntary contributions. Czechoslovak doctors received the first wounded and sick defenders of Republican Spain in that hospital as early as May 1937. The hospital was headed at first by surgeon J. Holubec, and later by Dr B. Kisch. A children’s village for evacuated Spanish children was established and maintained in Southern France through the efforts of the Committee.

p Organisations and people of good will all over Czechoslovakia took part in the search for ways to help Republican Spain. But the best results came from collections in the industrial and mining regions. The workers of some enterprises even assessed themselves several per cent of their monthly wages. Unquestionably, the greatest support for Spanish democracy came from the working class. The Communist Party of Czechoslovakia was the most active political force to come out in defence of the fighting Spanish anti-fascists. And it was the Party that in those days advanced the warning and mobilising slogan: “At Madrid they are fighting also for Prague!”

p In an address to the citizens of Prague on August 12, 1936, General Secretary of the CPCz Klement Gottwald explained the meaning of the Spanish people’s struggle and the significance of international solidarity. "Spain’s cause is our cause,” he said. “The 109
One of the ambulances sent by the Prague Committee for Aid to Republican Spain insurgents would have been smashed long ago, and the blood- letting stopped, if they had not received assistance from abroad. They are backed by world reaction, and Hitler and Mussolini supply them with arms.... Thus, the cause of Spain has become the cause of an international struggle between fascism and anti-fascism, between the dark forces of medieval barbarity and the forces of progress, between the forces of war and the forces of peace, between fascist tyranny and democracy, between reactionary decay and civilisation."  [109•1 

p The Communists took the initiative and assumed the leading role in establishing and developing the activity of the committee for aid to democratic Spain. To increase aid to Spain was the purpose for which the Party mobilised all means of influence: the press, meetings at factories and in the streets, conferences of public organisations, speeches of Communist members of Parliament.

p It is impossible, for lack of space, to list all public groups and organisations in Czechoslovakia which took part in the Aid Spain Movement. However, mention should also be made of the role of the progressive Czechoslovak intelligentsia, many members of which contributed all of their talent and organising abilities to this noble cause. Even before the emergence of the Committee, they had formed a society for the defence of rights and social progress, called “Solidarity” (later to become a group member of the Committee), which conducted a successful collection 110 campaign. In the summer of 1937, Czechoslovak writers sent delegates to the 2nd International Congress of Anti-Fascist Writers whose sittings were held in Valencia, the temporary capital of the Spanish Republic, and in Madrid, the frontline city at the time. The Czechoslovak delegation visited the positions of the Republican Army during the fighting at Brunete. The famous publicist and anti-fascist, Egon Erwin Kisch, spent several months among the internationalists.

p The solidarity movement grew. At the end of 1937, the Committee was transformed into the Society of Friends of Democratic Spain. The new organisation continued the work with doubled energy, collecting money and conducting mass meetings. For example, 3,50® persons attended a meeting of the Society in January 1938, in one of the biggest halls in Prague, and similar meetings were held in other cities. Such meetings passed resolutions denouncing the Italo-German aggression and the policy of “ non-intervention”, and called on the public to render even greater and more effective support to the Spanish Republic.

p However, the practical results and the moral effect of the Aid Spain campaign might have been much greater, had the public initiative not been restricted by the official reactionary policy and had all democratic forces achieved unity of action.

p The Czechoslovak Government continued to recognise the Spanish Republic, which had an officially accredited representative in Prague. But also staying on there as a "private party" was the former Spanish charge d’affaires, who had betrayed the Republic and now acted as a representative of the “nationalists”, that is, the fascist insurgents. The Prague authorities closed their eyes to his activities directed against the legal Spanish government. Like all the other bourgeois European states, Czechoslovakia pursued a policy of “non-intervention” in its Anglo-French interpretation, that is, in the spirit of ill will to the Spanish Republic. Therefore, the government, after formally banning the export of arms to Spain and Portugal, sold them readily to other countries, under whose flag agents of the Spanish insurgents operated. At the same time, the authorities prohibited banks from transferring money to the Spanish Republic, confiscated funds collected by the Committee for Aid, and even held up parcels with medicines.

p In the London Non-intervention Committee, the Czechoslovak representative, Jan Masaryk, supported a proposal made by fascist Italy to ban all public collections for aid to the Spanish people and to prohibit the shipment of food and medicines. And in the League of Nations, the Czechoslovak delegation voted against a motion by the Spanish Republic calling for an investigation of the facts on German and Italian intervention in Spain. Such was the essence of Czechoslovakia’s policy of “non-intervention” as pursued by the reactionary political parties, headed by the 111

A poster issued by the Society of Friends of Democratic Spain with an appeal
to help the Spanish people
112 bourgeois-landowner agrarian party that held the key positions in the government.

p The various “Socialist” parties in the government, and especially the Social-Democrats, supported the Spanish Republic in word, and their newspapers even wrote about the events in Spain and condemned the insurgents and interventionists. However, fearing that they might spoil their good relations with their reactionary partners in the government coalition, the Social-Democrats avoided any real political struggle in support of the Spanish people and against the one-sided policy of “non-intervention” that was actually aimed at strangling the Republic. The Czech Social- Democrats were hostile to the Spanish and French Popular Front, and their leaders declared that they would sooner withdraw from the Second International than agree to joint actions with the Communists.

p Under the circumstances, any manifestation of solidarity with Spain on the part of workers, peasants, the intelligentsia and other democratic forces was greatly hampered. People openly supporting Republican Spain were frequently persecuted by the authorities. At the same time, the government encouraged the activities of the small but highly influential bloc of pro-Franco parties, including such separatist organisations as the party of Hungarian landowners in Slovakia, or the party of Sudeten Germans headed by Konrad Henlein—an overt Hitler agent.

p The Right-wing press daily poured out torrents of malicious fabrications about the Spanish Popular Front, in every way trying to whitewash and justify the actions of Franco’s junta and to defame the Czechoslovak movement for solidarity with the Spanish Republic. Hypocritically citing the agreement on non-intervention and demagogically bemoaning the fate of the poor, whom the solidarity movement allegedly milked of their last means of subsistence for the sake of helping “Red” Spain, the reactionaries called on the authorities to use police and court action to suppress the “criminal” activity of the aid committees.

There was only one social force that could be capable of giving a resolute rebuff to the intrigues of the reactionaries and to influence a change in the government’s policy with respect to the Spanish Republic. That force was a united working class. That is why the Communists of Czechoslovakia, like the Comintern in the international arena, championed the idea of proletarian unity. In the beginning of August 1936, the CPCz turned to the leadership of the socialist parties with a proposal to organise joint action to help the Spanish people. The proposal was rejected, but the Party repeatedly advanced new proposals, pointing to the facts of the widening Italo-German aggression and the worsening position of the Spanish Republic, caught in the vice of a diplomatic and economic blocade.

113 skozanas, my za Spane jg 10 mfscu besiti faStemus ve’SpaneWcu. Jii 10 mfejcfi se bije nejen $ najatymi vrahy.z cirinecke legie a Marokanci.-ale se statiticovyroi anfiidanri . nemeckeho a italsksho fasismu. Bombardovani civilniho ofeyvatetetva, ien a dgti, flusio- <» ten! mist, barbarske niiem oejkraantjsich vytvorfl lidskeho ducha a mkou, jim& s*-&*v, ;, I Ssmus jproslavuje* ve gpartelsku, vj-plni-prorvzdy nejtetnnJJSi stranky Kdskych d*jiW. J’ij LIDBOJUJEZA Lidova armada, WezinarodBt hrigada, SpartSjiky, katafinsky a baskitfcj lid nezapssf leu o svou svobodu a nezavirfiwt. ale poklada svi zivoty ra zajnty vieho pokrt*t>v4ho bdstva. N&necky a italsky JaSismus potozily podkop pod svftovy mir. Chtfji si jtodnunft nejen Spaneteko, ale vScchny demokratickc a male staty Evropy, PfepfaHy Sp»-, nasko bez vypovezenj valky, vyuiivje spiknuti nekolika zradnych generild. Cely mfrumilavny sviH. vSechny demokrattcki staty a zvlaste Spolefnost nirodfi, m&y vtomtookaflg&n litocniky ztrestat tak, jak je k toffiu zavazuji jejich podpfey rva rmmvtm paktu i tlenstvi ve Spofcfnosti narodu. Vsechny demokraticke staly mely, jak to odpovfda mezinarodnimu pravu, poskytnout vsechnu ponicic span^Iske repuhtice. Ale zbabflost demokralt’i posffila zasa jednnu fasistickc dobyvatelc a podnjcovatete vK*y, povzbttdila jctich zpupnost a iroufalost. Svoji vahavosti a slabosti je spiSe pobkJU k pc&rajcxvini v jejich zkrfinu. Mezmarodni pravo, Were upravnje styky mezi civHisovajiymi nirody, viechny zi- «ady Spolefnosti narodfl, zavazwaly k toimi. aby Spanelsko byto povaiovino za oMf. podleho liloku, aby povstalci byti p<K«aveni mimo mezinanxtni privo * mocnostem, ktere do Spanekka vresly valku, miHo byti tlano najevo, ie poruSHy mezinirodni privo * vvstavtly s« raslcdkem toho sankctm, kleti jsou urieay proti utoinikum. To se vide ntstalo. Jeite hflfe: ., . IVe- skuteinosti bylo pouiKo sankci proti Span«ske repuWtc* « byte profi al provadena neslychana btokada. zatim co taSisticky titoCnik shromaicTovji ttft If* nOakt piuK obrovsky valeiny material a vellke vojenskft focmace. Vie se deje tak, jakoby Spanelsky lid by] vkmikem, protoie brini ww nirodnl neiavtelost a svou svobodu. Merinarodni pravo je itapano. Svobod* Je otfOteau nejen ve Spanelsko, ale viod*. Mir sveta je ohroien tim, ie aepMtde repubHkta«keJx> Spanelska jsou za svuj lib* odnt«novani. SPANELSKY LID BOJUJE ZA ZAJMY CSR. N«pfatdi Jpantlskcho Mdu jsou i nepMWi CSR. Bezpeinoet republiky je ohrozena, protozc kazdf, kdb by fi eMH napadnoiiti, male se domnivat, Je n»u jeho zlofin projde prave tak beztrestne, jako ve Spanelsku. A ie staii vyvolat vnitfni nepokoje pomoci henlcinovcu, aby hyla ospravedlnena intervence bitterovSkych armad v Ceskostovensku. Na Spanclskych frontach ge rozhoduje i o oaSeni osudu, o nezjSvislos* Ccskoslwenska. o svobodc jfho nSrodfl, Ctay poOt’kkych rozhodajicich kruM repuWiky podle toho Of nevyfuOtf. Mtoto toboy aby republika okamtSte pSspechata <temokra«ck4 vBde Spanetoka na pomoc vSestrannoo podporou. prihlizi irpne k dobyvainym podnikum faibmu. Be co vice: U nas Jaou *» konce zakazovariy projevy solidarity a sbirky pro Spanetako, atffcaal« odtczovaoi dtti id, ktefi chtos sptnit to, co by!? povinnosti vlady.

The title of a leaflet circulated by the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia
read: “Spain Is with Us, We Are with Spain!”
114

p However, all these appeals remained a voice in the wilderness. Although in individual cases representatives of local socialist organisations engaged in joint actions with the Communists, an agreement on united action on a national scale was never achieved. The leaders of the socialist parties continued to adhere to the principle of “everyone on his own" and preferred a split in the workers’ movement to a break with the reactionary bourgeoisie. But overcoming all the hostile measures taken by the government and the ill will of the reformist parties, the campaign of solidarity with democratic Spain went down in the history of Czechoslovakia as one of the broadest popular movements since the founding of the Czechoslovak state in 1918. The democratic forces regarded aid to the Spanish people as one of their most important tasks, an essential part of their struggle to preserve peace and to safeguard the independence of Czechoslovakia.

p In nothing else, perhaps, did the militant anti-fascist spirit of the working people of Czechoslovakia, their internationalism and their solidarity with democratic Spain manifest themselves so strongly as in the resolve of many to defend the Spanish Republic on the field of battle. Class hatred of fascism, anxiety for the fate of their country over which the fascist threat also hung, the feeling of international brotherhood of working people—these were the main motives prompting many Czechoslovak anti-fascists to take arms in hand. In taking this decision they were influenced by the Communist Party and the Young Communist League which for many years were educating the working people in the spirit of proletarian internationalism. The example set by Communists inspired their non-party comrades and members of other political parties.

p In the very first detachments of the Spanish People’s Militia, along with Frenchmen, Germans, Italians and other foreigners, were Czechs and Slovaks who happened to be on Spanish soil for various reasons at the time of the fascist revolt. At the present time, it is impossible to determine how many of them there were. The names of only five have been preserved in the records: Milos Brozek, Roman Krobs, Milos Sedlak, Eduard Strof and Jaroslav Dula.

p The first volunteers to leave Czechoslovakia for Spain did so in the middle of August 1936, after the CPCz created a special organisation to help volunteers to reach France and then to proceed to their place of destination. The socialist parties, however, adhered strictly to the position taken by the government coalition, that is, one of hostility to the volunteer movement.

p While any manifestation of international solidarity met with official resistance, the task of organising the volunteer movement involved even greater difficulties. The reactionary press supported government repression and launched a hysterical campaign 115 against “the Communist recruitment of volunteers”. Citing a decision of the Non-intervention Committee, the authorities refused to give volunteers passports for going abroad. The police periodically searched the building of the secretariat of the CPCz and arrested several Party workers on suspicion of organising the departure of volunteers.

p The volunteers were forced to leave for Spain illegally or to give the authorities false reasons for wanting to go abroad (to work in France or Belgium, a business trip, a visit to the World Fair in Paris, etc.). But such tricks did not always work, especially for those who were known to the police as Communists or supporters of the Spanish Republic.

p The volunteers’ route to Spain as a rule went through Austria, Switzerland and France. The assembly point was Paris. Some preferred to go through Germany and Belgium, others chose a longer and more complicated route through Poland and from there, depending on circumstances, by sea to France, or through Scandinavia to Holland. No route was easy.

p Before leaving the country, the volunteers usually came to Prague, where they received instructions regarding their journey. Then, individually, or in small groups, they would set out on a journey that demanded courage, discipline and, most importantly, the inflexible will to reach their goal. Many were detained en route by the police in neighbouring countries and returned to Czechoslovakia, while others never even got across the border. On a second attempt to leave the country for Spain, it was always advisable to choose a new route. Whenever a large number of volunteers gathered at one time in Prague, they would leave in small groups or individually in different directions in order to avoid attracting the attention of the police and border authorities.

p Among the volunteers leaving Czechoslovakia were many antifascist emigres, especially Germans who had found refuge in Czechoslovakia. In addition, many volunteers from Eastern and Southeastern Europe also passed through Czechoslovakia on their way to Spain. To all of them, the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, working closely with the Communist parties of the neighbouring countries, especially Poland, gave the necessary assistance for continuing on to Paris, and from there to Spain.

All in all, over 2,000 Czechoslovak volunteers, including emigres from other countries, went to Spain. No less than 1,300 of these came from Czechoslovakia herself. In addition to Czechs and Slovaks, there were hundreds of Germans and Hungarians, and dozens of Ukrainians and Poles who were citizens of the Czechoslovak Republic. Workers, miners, handicraftsmen, merchants, doctors, engineers, students, peasants and office workers left their peaceful labour to become volunteer soldiers.

116
Positions of the Klement Gottwald Artillery Battery

p Many of the volunteers were Communists, but even more were non-party people. However, after going through the crucible of combat, a considerable part of the non-party people and members of other political parties joined the Communist Party. Indeed by the beginning of 1939, over half of the Czechoslovak international bngaders were already Communists. Of the remainder, a small group belonged to the Social-Democratic and other parties. They were all united by their anti-fascist convictions and the common will to fight.

p In selecting volunteers for the International Brigades from among those wishing to go to Spain, the CPCz attached great 117 weight to their military training, since the Republican Army was in serious need of military specialists. Preference went to those who had gone through active military service, above all in the air force and in specialist units. Because of this, the Czechoslovak volunteers turned out to be especially helpful in the formation of the Republican military-technical fighting units.

p There were small groups of Czechs and Slovaks in the first two International Brigades that were formed in November 1936. One group of ten volunteers, in the Rakosi Company of the Edgar Andre Battalion, included the Slovaks, Juraj Petrocek and Ondrej Sima, and the Czech, Jan Krejci. Another group, which included Laco Holdos and Jozko Majek, went into the machine-gun company of the Thaelmann Battalion.

p At the end of 1936, 40 Czechs and Slovaks and 3 Poles made up a platoon in the Mickiewicz Company of the 13th International Brigade. They became known as the Klement Gottwald Platoon. Formed at almost the same time was a Czechoslovak platoon, under the command of Gustav Lohn, in the Slavic company of the 14th International Brigade. Soon thereafter, in the Georgy Dimitrov Battalion of the 15th International Brigade, a machine-gun company made up of Czechoslovak volunteers was formed and named in honour of the renowned national general, Jan 2izka. The company commander was Kazimierz Gede, a Pole, and its political commissar was the Czech, Jaroslav Tichy. Among the company’s platoon commanders and political delegates were Antonfn Kobylak and Antonin Kymlicka, Josef Kalas and Jaroslav Hosek, and in the third platoon, where there were Hungarians, Mate and Stefan Fabry. At first, the Jan 2izka Company was a machine-gun company in name only: because of.a shortage of arms and ammunition, it functioned in the first battles as an ordinary infantry unit.

p The military knowledge of Czechoslovak volunteers was fully utilised in another branch of the service—the artillery. Twelve Czechoslovak artillery men were with the Karl Liebknecht Battery from the first days of its formation. In a few months’ time, Czechoslovak volunteers made up its largest national group—43 men.

p When the Gottwald Platoon (under the leadership of Lorenc Lajdl and Commissar Vendelin Opatrny) together with the Liebknecht Battery were fighting at Teruel, new groups of volunteers from Czechoslovakia were gathering in the artillery barracks at Albacete. They were led by Bohuslav Lastovicka, editor of the communist newspaper, Rude prdvo, and a former regular officer in the artillery. Thus, at the end of January 1937, a new international artillery battery was born, made up of Czechs and Slovaks and named after Gottwald. The history of the new group began in much the same way as that of many other units being formed 118 at the time. Its “arsenal” consisted of obsolete weapons of various systems and calibres, but the volunteers went about the task of learning to handle their weapons and instruments and studying artillery theory with great zeal. A strict daily routine was established, and political studies began.

p In the beginning of February 1937, the battery was converted into an anti-aircraft battery after receiving modern military equipment—Soviet 76-millimetre anti-aircraft guns, 1931 model. The period of intensive study ended in the middle of February, and the battery, under the leadership of the Soviet instructor, Captain Semyonov, set out for the Central Front.

p In June 1937, new Czechoslovak volunteers were organised to form the Majek Battery, which became part of the 1st Slavic Heavy Artillery Battalion. The battery got obsolete 150-millimetre guns (apparently of French origin), and after accelerated training, was sent to the front. Because most of the volunteers had been in the artillery during military service at home, the battery was able to fulfil its combat mission successfully. The battery commander was J. Douda, and the commissar was B. Machacek.

p A year after the first Czechoslovak unit—the Gottwald Platoon—was organised a Czechoslovak battalion, named after the first president of the Czechoslovak Republic, T. G. Masaryk, was formed and trained, albeit with a shortage of guns as usual, in the village of Fuentealbilla, not far from Albacete. The commanders, all graduates of international officer courses in Pozorrubio, were frontline soldiers with fighting experience. The first commander of the Masaryk Battalion was Stanislav Riha, and its commissar was Milos Nekvasil. Although the battalion was manned with newly arrived volunteers, its nucleus consisted of experienced Dimitrovites who had been through the fire of battle. By the end of January 1938, there were 700 men in the battalion, one half of whom were Czechs and Slovaks, and the rest Spaniards. Later, like other international units, it was reinforced with Spanish soldiers.

p There were some Czechs and Slovaks also in the Dimitrov and Djakovic battalions of the 45th Division. Although most of the Czechoslovak volunteers served in the units already mentioned, many also fought in other units of the Republican Army. In particular, Czechoslovak volunteers who belonged to national minorities, such as the Hungarians and Germans, were assigned, on a language basis, to German and Hungarian units of the Thaelmann and Dabrowski brigades, etc.

p Defending the Spanish Republic in the air, along with Spanish, Soviet and other foreign flyers, were Czechoslovak volunteer pilots Rudolf Bolfik, Jan Ferak, Rudolf John, Karol Gabula, Kfiz, Karel Krai, Zdenek Talas and Karel Vejvoda.

p Czechoslovak volunteers also fought in the armoured tank units, 119 some having come to Spain from the Soviet Union (Oldfich Haken, Josef Hruska, Jan Mrkva, Bfetislav Skarvada), and others from Czechoslovakia (Ladislav Pfskovsky, Bruno Pitha and others).

p In the spring of 1937, a number of Czechoslovak volunteers (Vendelin Opatrny, Alois Samec, Alois Sobeslavsky, Kamil Kozderka, Josef Bartos from the Gottwald Platoon, and Milos Knezl and Karol Matych from the 2izka Machine-Gun Company) were included in a guerrilla group operating in Estremadura in the enemy’s rear. Later, they were joined by Pavel Antos, Stanislav Sedlak and Oskar Vales.

p Beginning in March 1938, some Czechoslovak artillery men served in the Rosa Luxemburg Battalion (Karel Stefek, deputy commander of the battalion; Eugen Stern, chief of staff; Geza Krsak, battery commander; and Karel Dufek, deputy battery commander).

p About 15 Czechoslovak volunteers fought in the ranks of the international battalion of the 86th (mixed) Brigade, and two of them, Adolf Rach and Odpadlik, commanded other battalions of that brigade.

p About 120 volunteers from Czechoslovakia were members of a separate battalion of the 45th Division that took part in the operation on the Ebro. Company commanders there were A. Sobeslavsky, G. Lohn and A. Kobylak.

p Individual Czechoslovak volunteers fought in the cavalry, worked in the defence industry, made international broadcasts over the Madrid radio, served in the base apparatus of the International Brigades and in medical sub-units, where besides the staff of the Jan Komenski Hospital, Dr D. Talenberg and other Czech doctors worked. Gustav Simovic, who was commander of an infantry battalion of the llth Division, and Frantisek Knezl, commander of a combat-engineer battalion, fought in Spanish units of the Republican Army.

p Czechoslovak volunteers took part in all the major battles of the war. They fought in the defence of Madrid, in the first offensive at Teruel, in the fierce battles at Brunete, in the Zaragoza operation, and on various sectors of the Southern Front. Their guns defended Madrid, Valencia, Sagunto and other important Republican points. The mountains of Levante and the banks of the Ebro were witness to their courage, valour and steadfastness. ’

p The volunteers of the Gottwald Anti-Aircraft Battery and the Jan 2izka Machine-Gun Company distinguished themselves in the fierce battles on the Jarama. The Gottwaldites shot down three enemy airplanes in the first days of fighting. The Jan 2izka Company carried out its task successfully, although at the price of heavy losses. In the first week of fighting, the company’s strength was reduced from 162 to 38 men. The battalion commissar, the Bulgarian volunteer P. Tabakov, stated that "in courage, and what 120 is more important, in military skill, discipline in battle, and expert handling of arms, the first place in the heroic Dimitrov Battalion unquestionably belongs to the machine-gun company".

p In the summer of 1937, most of the Czech and Slovak volunteers entered the battle of Brunete with combat experience behind them. The Gottwald Platoon, for example, had been through heavy fighting at Teruel, in the mountains of Sierra Nevada, and at Pozoblanco in Andalucia. The Dimitrov Battalion came to Brunete after a 100-day positional defence on the Jarama. The artillery men of the Liebknecht Battery had supported the Republican infantry at Teruel, on the Southern Front and in Aragon near Huesca. It was the first combat action only for the Majek Battery.

p The Brunete operation brought the Republic a limited success and marked the end of a definite stage in the development of the regular Republican Army, including its international formations. The relationship between the volunteers and their Spanish comrades-in-arms and the civilian population had developed into one of strong fraternal friendship. The internationalists readily passed on their military experience and knowledge to young Spanish soldiers and served as an example to them in battle. During pauses in the fighting, the volunteers helped peasants gather the harvest, put on children’s plays, and distributed presents to children. They were invited into homes as especially dear guests.

p In this period the ties between the volunteers and their homeland also strengthened. The self-sacrifice and heroism of the international brigaders was regarded by the working people of Czechoslovakia as the highest expression of international solidarity, and lent impetus to an even greater development of the movement to help the Spanish people. Various progressive organisations and individuals corresponded with the volunteers, supported their families both materially and morally, regularly supplied the volunteers with newspapers and magazines, and sent them presents. Organisations of the CPCz were especially active along these lines.

p In the summer of 1937, a Czechoslovak delegation of Communist parliamentary deputies, headed by Jan Sverma, went to Spain to visit the International Brigades in which Czechoslovak volunteers were serving.

p All these expressions of sympathy and support strengthened the morale of the volunteers and gave them the feeling of close ties with their people. They themselves closely followed the political situation at home and even took part in it. In open letters published in Rude prdvo and other democratic newspapers, they expressed indignation over the policy of “non-intervention”, protested against the arrests of Communists allegedly for recruiting volunteers, and called for the unification of Czechoslovak anti-fascist 121 forces into a Popular Front and for stronger support of the Spanish people.

p With the aim of providing the Czechoslovak public with truthful information about the events in Spain and about the life of the internationalists, the magazine Salud, with a supplement called Uojdk svobody (Soldier of Freedom), began to be published in October 1937. At the same time, a group of Czechoslovak volunteers compiled and published in Barcelona a collection called For Peace and Freedom, while in Czechoslovakia, a booklet entitled Slovak Heroes in Spain was published. All such publications were distributed in Czechoslovakia by the solidarity committees and enjoyed wide popularity.

p A glorious page in the combat history of the Czechoslovak volunteers in Spain was their participation in August-September in the Aragon offensive, especially in the battles to liberate Quinto and Belchite.

p In the meantime, far from Aragon in the southern theatre of operations at Cordoba, the Majek Battery was heroically repulsing an enemy onslaught. In the unequal ten-day battle of Los Blasques, all the guns were destroyed, and the men had to fight their way out of enemy encirclement.

p Also in the south in the winter of 1937/38, the 129th International Brigade was formed out of the Djakovic, Dimitrov and Masaryk battalions. It saw its first action in the spring of that year in Levante., where its task was to hold back the advance of fascist forces to the Mediterranean Sea.

p After the fascists succeeded in dividing the territory of the Spanish Republic into two parts, the 129th Brigade was the only one of the International Brigades to remain in the Central- Southern zone, where it became part of the Levante Front. Also located there were the international Gottwald Battery, under the command of Laco Holdos, one of the first Czechoslovak volunteers in Spain; the Majek Battery and the Liebknecht Battery, whose commissar was Alexandr Bubem’cek, member of the CC CPCz. Bubenicek was killed in action; his replacement was K. Kubin. In the exhausting defensive battles on the Levante Front, the men of the Liebknecht and Gottwald anti-aircraft batteries fought on the same sector of the front as did their comrades from the infantry units. The Gottwalds distinguished themselves in the defence, of Sagunto, an important industrial centre of the Republic. For almost two months their guns defended that city and its steel plants, repulsing 51 air raids and downing 10 enemy planes. The battery saw its last action in Valencia, and while it was there, enemy planes did not succeed in damaging a single ship coming to that port.

p The participation of Czechoslovak volunteers in the fighting in Spain drew to a close basically with the battles on the Levante 122
The banner of the Gottwald Battery
Front. Despite the heavy fighting in the mountains and the constant shortage of weapons, ammunition, clothing and food, the men staunchly withstood the onslaught of the well-armed and superior forces of the enemy. In that fighting, the 129th Brigade lost many brave men, both internationalists and Spanish soldiers, who made up two-thirds of its personnel. The 129th Brigade was awarded the Medal of Valour by the Spanish Government. And there is this final fact that speaks eloquently of the fighting qualities of the brigade: The Spanish Government’s decree withdrawing all foreign volunteers from action was carried out in Catalonia on September 23-25; however, the 129th Brigade stayed on because the command of the Levante Front considered it impossible to replace it in this sector. It was withdrawn from the front only on October 10.

p The news from home was not good in those days. The dark clouds of fascism had gathered over Czechoslovakia. The front pages of the International Brigades’ newspaper, Volunteer of Freedom, dramatically underscored the fact that the defence of Czechoslovakia was taking place on the fields and mountains of Spain. Their own country’s tragedy, the realisation of the 123 importance of their international mission in Spain, and the deep sense of common ties with the heroic Spanish people, made the Czechoslovak volunteers all the more determined to continue the struggle. They regarded their withdrawal from the fronts and the coming departure from Spain only as a brief breathing spell before new battles against fascism.

p The Czechoslovak internationalists were withdrawn from the front to the outskirts of Valencia, and later transferred by sea to the North, to Catalonia. The ruling circles of Czechoslovakia were categorically against the repatriation of the volunteers. Negotiations dragged on and were still in progress when General Franco’s and the interventionists’ divisions tore into Catalonia.. The volunteers decided to return to the front.

p Thus, once again a Czechoslovak Battalion, consisting of about 450 men, and an artillery battery came into being. At the village of Llagostera, not far from Gerona, the Czechoslovak volunteers joined their last battle with the fascists on Spanish soil. After firing their last cartridges fighting off the advance guard of an Italian division, they retreated into France. No one knows how many Czechs and Slovaks were killed in that action. Among them, however, were former men of the Jan 2izka Machine-Gun Company Pavel Antes and Kagan; Jan Eisner and Stanislav Krejci were captured by the fascists. In the two and a half years of the war in Spain, more than 400 Czechoslovak volunteers lost their lives.

p On March 15, 1939, Czechia was annexed by fascist Germany. A puppet clerical-fascist government was set up in Slovakia. Soon the fascist occupation embraced almost all of Europe. All the thoughts of the Czechoslovak anti-fascists were directed towards further struggle with the sworn enemy.

p Despite the years of heavy fighting in Republican Spain and the moral and physical suffering endured in concentration camps after evacuation from Spain, the Czechoslovak international brigaders, never losing their steadfastness and resolve, again took up arms to fight against fascism. They fought in partisan detachments on their native soil, in Czechoslovak units formed in France and England, in detachments of the Resistance in occupied France, and in the Chinese National Liberation Army. Those of them who managed to get to the Soviet Union took part in the liberation of their country in the ranks of the Czechoslovak Corps under the command of Ludvik Svoboda. In the post-war years, the Czech and Slovak veterans of the International Brigades were in the first ranks of the selfless builders of their people’s socialist Czechoslovakia.

Decades have passed since the time that the Spanish people put up their heroic resistance to fascist aggression, since the days of that unparalleled international movement of solidarity of 124 which the International Brigades were part. But the events of those years and their lessons have not been forgotten. Klement Gottwald was perfectly right when in 1937 he wrote to the Czechoslovak volunteers in Spain: "You are writing pages into the history of the peoples of our country which future generations will be proud of.”