Welcome to another essay. Today we're talking about the Spanish Civil War with an essay written in 1943.

He trained in Barcelona in a cavalry barracks that still smelled of horses. During the war, there were smelly squat latrines and other discomforts he never forgot. The sights and smells are the same no matter which war or which side you're on. The left wing was romanticizing the Spanish War at the time and believed that their side didn't face discomfort of any kind.

They argued over who committed the most atrocities. He compares how the Left and antiwar crowd talked about WWI and WWII. It's no surprise that atrocities happen.

Orwell and a fellow soldier were out on the trench line in a ditch. There was no cover to run back to their line at dawn. A plane flew overhead, and a Fascist ran with a message. He was holding his pants up, and Orwell couldn't shoot his fellow man like that.

A poor wild boy from Barcelona joined up and was suspected of stealing cheap cigars and money because he was poor and darker skinned. He was searched and was innocent. Orwell felt bad that he believed the boy was guilty at first. He took him to a movie and gave him brandy and chocolate to make up for it.

Orwell was a Cabo (Corporal) in charge of twelve men. A man wouldn't follow his orders, the rest argued, and the boy from Barcelona defended Orwell. There was more solidarity then.

The Nazis and Italians aided the Fascists. Russia didn't want a revolution in Spain. The English press reported about battles according to their own agendas. The right wing press hyped up the amount of Russian troops. There weren't that many in real life. Franco's government would write the lie into their history books. History and facts can't be agreed upon. The Nazis control the past, too. If fascism took over the world, evil wouldn't just destroy itself naturally. It would take a war to stop them (a la WWII). There is slave labor in Europe because of them. Slaves in ancient Roman times wrote no memoirs or histories.

The working class was against Franco. It was essentially a class war. He says all wars are class wars in one way or another with a progressive side and a reactionary side. The world thought a world war would break out in 1938. The Fascists won becasue they had better weapons. Britain could have aided the Republicans and helped them win, but Orwell theorizes the British upper classes were pro-fascist. (Many of them were, e.g. Oswald Moseley and the Duke of York.) The Spanish war lasted 2.5 years.

Orwell recalls when he first enlisted and shook an Italian militiaman's hand. He was probably killed by the secret police or in a labor camp now. He lists famous writers, poets, politicians, aristocrats, etc who support fascism. They have something to lose like wealth or their high place in society if working class people had more money and rights.

Orwell wrote a poem in memory the Italian militiaman.

Extras

All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque. I highly recommend it.

Falangist: Franco-supporting party

The Daily Mail was left leaning before Rupert Murdoch bought it in 1976.

White and red Russians, Trotskyism, Comintern: Communist International, GPU: Societ secret police.

Arthur Koestler. He was against totalitarianism, too. His book Darkness at Noon is on my TBR list.

Francisco Franco

Spartacus,Epictetus, Felix fecit bottle.

Negrin was the Prime Minister during the war.

"Una resolicion, Luchar hast'al fin!" : A resolution, struggle until the end!

I'm currently reading his memoir Homage to Catalonia which tells of his time in Spain. I recommend it.

There are links to all the names he listed in Part 7.

Questions are in the comments.

Come back on September 24 where u/infininme leads us in discussing "Inside the Whale."