Editing International Brigades (section)

== Formation and recruitment ==
[[File:Bulgarian interbrigadiers in 1937.jpg|right|thumb|A unit of the Bulgarian International Brigade, 1937]]
[[File:International brigades hungary flag.svg|right|thumb|Flag of the Hungarian [[Rákosi Battalion|Rakosi Group]] (part of the anarchist [[Iron Column]]).]]
Using foreign [[Communist party|communist parties]] to recruit volunteers for Spain was first proposed in August 1936 by British writer and military theorist [[Tom Wintringham]] who had already travelled to Spain, but the idea was not formally raised with the Comintern in the Soviet Union until September 1936—apparently at the suggestion of [[Maurice Thorez]]<ref>{{harvnb|Beevor|1999|p=124}}</ref>—by [[Willi Münzenberg]], chief of [[Comintern]] propaganda for Western Europe. One week after the London meeting of the [[Non-intervention in the Spanish Civil War|Non-Intervention Committee]] confirmed that none of the Western democracies would provide military aid to the Spanish Republican side, the Comintern agreed to start recruiting international volunteers.<ref>{{cite news |last=Kaufman |first=Dan |title=Soldiers of Solidarity |date=24 February 2022 |url=https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2022/02/24/soldiers-of-solidarity-spanish-civil-war/ |url-access=limited |newspaper=[[New York Review of Books]]}}</ref> As a security measure, non-communist volunteers would first be interviewed by an [[First Chief Directorate|NKVD]] agent.

By the end of September, the British, Italian and French Communist Parties had decided to set up a column. [[Luigi Longo]], ex-leader of the Italian Communist Youth, was charged to make the necessary arrangements with the Spanish government. The [[Soviet Ministry of Defense]] also helped, since they had an experience of dealing with corps of international volunteers during the [[Russian Civil War]]. The idea was initially opposed by [[Largo Caballero]], but after the first setbacks of the war, he changed his mind and finally agreed to the operation on 22 October. However, the Soviet Union did not withdraw from the Non-Intervention Committee, probably to avoid diplomatic conflict with France and the United Kingdom.

The main recruitment center was in Paris, under the supervision of Soviet colonel [[Karol Świerczewski|Karol "Walter" Świerczewski]]. On 17 October 1936, an open letter by [[Joseph Stalin]] to [[José Díaz (politician)|José Díaz]] was published in ''Mundo Obrero'', arguing that victory for the Spanish second republic was a matter not only for Spaniards but also for the whole of "progressive humanity"; in short order, communist activists joined with moderate socialist and liberal groups to form anti-fascist "popular front" militias in several countries, most of them under the control of or influenced by the [[Comintern]].<ref>{{Britannica|id=290606|title=Third International {{!}} association of political parties}}</ref>

Entry to Spain was arranged for volunteers, for instance, a Yugoslav, Josip Broz, who would become famous as [[Marshal of Yugoslavia|Marshal]] [[Josip Broz Tito|Tito]], was in Paris to provide assistance, money, and passports for volunteers from [[Eastern Europe]] (including numerous [[Yugoslav volunteers in the Spanish Civil War]]). Volunteers were sent by train or ship from France to Spain, and sent to the base at [[Albacete]]. Many of them also went by themselves to Spain. The volunteers were under no contract, nor defined engagement period, which would later prove a problem.

Also, many Italians, Germans, and people from other countries joined the movement, with the idea that combat in Spain was the first step to restore [[democracy]] or advance a revolutionary cause in their own country. There were also many unemployed workers (especially from France), and adventurers. Finally, some 500 communists who had been exiled to Russia were sent to Spain (among them, experienced military leaders from the First World War like [[Manfred Stern|"Kléber" Stern]], [[Wilhelm Zaisser|"Gomez" Zaisser]], [[Zalka Mate|"Lukacs" Zalka]] and [[Janos Galicz|"Gal" Galicz]], who would prove invaluable in combat).

The operation was met with enthusiasm by communists, but by [[anarchist]]s with skepticism, at best. At first, the anarchists, who controlled the borders with France, were told to refuse communist volunteers, but reluctantly allowed their passage after protests. Keith Scott Watson, a journalist who fought alongside Esmond Romilly at Cerro de los Ángeles and who later "resigned" from the [[Thälmann Battalion]], describes in his memoirs how he was detained and interrogated by Anarchist border guards before eventually being allowed into the country.<ref>{{cite book |title=Single to Spain |first=Keith Scott |last=Watson |orig-date=1937 |url=https://theclaptonpress.com/single-to-spain-escape-from-disaster-by-keith-scott-watson/ |year=2022|access-date=15 December 2022|archive-date=15 December 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221215050331/https://theclaptonpress.com/single-to-spain-escape-from-disaster-by-keith-scott-watson/|url-status=live |isbn=978-1-913693-11-4 |publisher=The Clapton Press}}</ref> A group of 500 volunteers (mainly French, with a few exiled Poles and Germans) arrived in Albacete on 14 October 1936. They were met by international volunteers who had already been fighting in Spain: Germans from the [[Thälmann Battalion]], Italians from the [[Centuria Gastone Sozzi]] and French grouped together with Belgians under the Commune de Paris Battalion. Among them was the poet [[John Cornford]], who had travelled down through France and Spain with a group of fellow intellectuals and artists including Wintringham, [[John Sommerfield]], [[Bernard Knox]], [[Ralph Bates]] and Jan Kurzke, all of whom left detailed memoirs of their battle experiences.<ref>{{cite book|first=John |last=Sommerfield |title=Volunteer in Spain |location=London |publisher=Lawrence & Wishart Ltd. |year=1937}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |first=Tom |last=Wintringham |title=English Captain |location=London |publisher= Faber & Faber |year= 1939}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |first=Ralph |last=Bates |title=The Miraculous Horde |location=London |publisher=Johnathan Cape |year=1939}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |first=Jan |last=Kurzke |title=The Good Comrade: Memoirs of an International Brigader |url=https://theclaptonpress.com/jan-kurzke-the-good-comrade-memoirs-of-an-international-brigader/|publisher=The Clapton Press|year= 2021|access-date=15 December 2022|archive-date=15 December 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221215050333/https://theclaptonpress.com/jan-kurzke-the-good-comrade-memoirs-of-an-international-brigader/|url-status=live |isbn=978-1-913693-06-0}}</ref>

On 30 May 1937, the Spanish liner ''[[MV Ciudad de Barcelona|Ciudad de Barcelona]]'', carrying 200–250 volunteers from [[Marseille]] to Spain, was torpedoed by a Nationalist submarine off the coast of [[Malgrat de Mar]]. The ship sank and up to 65 volunteers are estimated to have drowned.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://ciudaddebarcelona1937.wordpress.com/|title=The Sinking of the "Ciudad de Barcelona", 30th May 1937|work=Ciudad de Barcelona|access-date=20 March 2017|archive-date=3 July 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170703232225/https://ciudaddebarcelona1937.wordpress.com/|url-status=live}}</ref>

Albacete soon became the International Brigades headquarters and its main depot. It was run by a ''troika'' of [[Comintern]] heavyweights: [[André Marty]] was commander; [[Luigi Longo]] (''Gallo'') was Inspector-General; and [[Giuseppe Di Vittorio]] (''Nicoletti'') was chief political commissar.<ref>{{harvnb|Thomas|2003|p=443}}</ref>

There were many Jewish volunteers amongst the brigadiers – about a quarter of the total. A Jewish company was formed within the Polish battalion that was named after [[Naftali Botwin]], a young Jewish communist killed in Poland in 1925.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Graham|first=Helen|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/57243230|title=The Spanish Civil War: a very short introduction|date=2005|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=0-19-280377-8|location=Oxford|pages=44|oclc=57243230|access-date=7 May 2021|archive-date=25 May 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220525113029/http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/57243230|url-status=live}}</ref>

The [[French Communist Party]] provided uniforms for the Brigades. They were organized into [[mixed brigade]]s, the basic military unit of the [[Spanish Republican Army|Republican People's Army]].<ref>{{cite book|title=Orden, circular, creando un Comisariado general de Guerra con la misión que se indica.|publisher=Gaceta de Madrid: diario oficial de la República|date=16 October 1936|volume=Año CCLXXV Tomo IV, Núm. 290|page=355|url=http://www.boe.es/datos/pdfs/BOE/1936/290/B00355-00355.pdf|access-date=30 July 2012|archive-date=19 November 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181119132649/https://www.boe.es/datos/pdfs/BOE/1936/290/B00355-00355.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref> Discipline was severe. For several weeks, the Brigades were locked in their base while their strict military training was underway.