Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-2brh9 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-24T00:44:33.377Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Neutrality and Internationalism: The Russian Exiles in Spain, 1914–1920

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 March 2022

Arturo Zoffmann Rodriguez Open the ORCID record for Arturo Zoffmann Rodriguez [Opens in a new window]
Arturo Zoffmann Rodriguez*
Affiliation:
Institute of Historical Research, National Autonomous University of Mexico, Coyoacan, Mexico
*
arturo.zoffmann@eui.eu
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

During the First World War, hundreds of exiles and refugees from across Europe arrived in neutral Spain. This article investigates the colony of Russian exiles that settled in the country and their interactions with the Spanish labour movement. It contends that the exiles played a prominent role as conveyors of information on the Russian Revolution, which served as an important source of inspiration during the social upheavals that rocked Spain in 1917–20. The authorities tried to sever the connection between local activists and the Russian exiles through persecution. The article concludes with reflections on the significance of neutral countries as safe havens for internationalists during the war, comparing the Spanish and the Mexican case studies. It contends that neutrality helped preserve transnational radical networks, while contact with exiles rendered the labour movement in these countries more cosmopolitan and knowledgeable of world events and ideological trends.

Type
Article
Information
Contemporary European History , Volume 31 , Issue 3 , August 2022 , pp. 339 - 352
Check for updates
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 Salvadó, Francisco Romero, ‘Between the Catalan Quagmire and the Red Spectre, Spain, November 1918–April 1919’, Historical Journal, 60, 3 (2017), 785–815Google Scholar.

2 Rodriguez, Arturo Zoffmann, ‘Lenin in Barcelona: The Russian Revolution and the Spanish trienio bolchevista, 1917–1920’, Slavic Review, 76, 3 (2017), 629–36CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

3 Buenacasa, Manuel, El movimiento obrero español, 1886–1926: historia y crítica (Madrid: Júcar, 1977), 71Google Scholar.

4 ‘Consecuencias que se desprenden de la huelga de la Canadiense’, no date, L96, N38, Fondo Conde de Romanones, Real Academia de la Historia, Madrid.

5 Farré, Juan Avilés, La fe que vino de Rusia: la revolución bolchevique y los españoles, 1917–1931 (Madrid: UNED, 1999), 116, 217Google Scholar; Salvadó, Francisco Romero, ‘The Comintern Fiasco in Spain: The Borodin Mission and the Birth of the Spanish Communist Party’, Revolutionary Russia, 21, 2 (2008), 159CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Puigsech, Josep, La revolució russa i Catalunya, 1917–1939 (Vic: Eumo, 2017), 49Google Scholar; Vadillo, Julián, Historia de la CNT: Utopía, pragmatismo y revolución (Madrid: Catarata, 2019), 153–6Google Scholar; Garner, Jason, Goals and Means: Anarchism, Syndicalism and Internationalism in the Origins of the Federación Anarquista Ibérica (Chico: AK Press, 2016)Google Scholar.

6 Rodriguez, Arturo Zoffmann, ‘Anarcho-Syndicalism and the Russian Revolution: Towards a Political Explanation of a Fleeting Romance, 1917–22’, Revolutionary Russia, 31, 2 (Autumn 2018), 226–46CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

7 James Matthews, ‘Battling Bolshevik Bogeymen: Spain's Cordon Sanitaire against Revolution from a European Perspective, 1917–1923’, The Journal of Military History, 80 (2016), 725–32; Mikel Aizpuru, ‘La expulsión de los refugiados extranjeros desde España en 1919: exiliados rusos y de otros países’, Migraciones y Exilios, 11 (2010), 113.

8 Kellogg, Michael, The Russian Roots of Nazism: White Émigrés and the Making of National Socialism, 1917–1945 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Tromly, Benjamin, Cold War Exiles and the CIA: Plotting to Free Russia (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2019)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

9 Russian Consul to Barcelona Civil Governor, 14 Nov. 1918, Ex. 16, L.3024, Exteriores (Histórico), Archivo Histórico Nacional (AHN), Madrid.

10 By way of comparison, in 1931 migrants comprised 6.6 per cent of the population of France. Aizpuru, ‘La expulsión,’ 109.

11 Consul to Governor, 14 Nov. 1918, Ex. 16, L. 3024, Exteriores (Histórico), AHN.

12 Ibid.

13 Letter by War Minister to Albert Thomas, 9 Oct. 1920, 24, Albert Thomas Papers OIT, AAVV-CI, Fundación Pablo Iglesias (FPI), Alcalá de Henares.

14 Aizpuru, ‘La expulsión’, 109–10.

15 Consul to Governor, 14 Nov. 1918, Ex. 16, L. 3024, Exteriores (Histórico), AHN.

16 Deutscher, Isaac, The Prophet Armed: Trotsky, 1879–1921 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1970), 241Google Scholar.

17 Barcelona Civil Governor to Interior Minister, 26 Nov. 1918, Ex. 16, L3024, Exteriores (Histórico), AHN.

18 Consul to Governor, 14 Nov. 1918, Ex. 16, L. 3024, Exteriores (Histórico), AHN.

19 Ambassador in Paris to Interior Minister, 21 Nov. 1918, Ex. 16, L. 3024, Exteriores (Histórico), AHN.

20 ‘A. Markoff – Confidentiel’ (no date), Ex. 34, L. 96, Fondo Conde de Romanones, RAH, Madrid.

21 Ambassador in Paris to Interior Minister, 21 Nov. 1918, Ex. 16, L. 3024, Exteriores (Histórico), AHN.

22 Guipuzkoa Police Chief to Interior Minister, 15 June 1919, L. 34, Gobernación A, AHN.

23 Interior Minister to Foreign Minister, 3 Dec. 1918, Ex. 6, L. 3024, Exteriores (Histórico), AHN.

24 Consul to Governor, 14 Nov. 1918, Ex. 16, L. 3024, Exteriores (Histórico), AHN.

25 Ibid.; Dementyev, A. A., ‘Padenie samoderzhavia i russkie emigranty v Argentine’, Vestnik Sankt-Petersburgskogo universiteta. Istoria, 63, 4 (2018), 1204–5Google Scholar.

26 Manuel de Burgos y Mazo, El verano de 1919 en Gobernación (Cuenca: Pinós, 1921), 58Google Scholar.

27 See the comments in: Mikhail Borodin, ‘First Conversation’, 23 Dec. 1919, 1–2, Internacional Comunista (IC), AAVV-CV-16, FPI.

28 Smith, Angel, Anarchism, Revolution and Reaction: Catalan Labour and the Crisis of the Spanish State, 1898–1923 (New York: Berghahn, 2007), 11–103Google Scholar.

29 Consul to Governor, 14 Nov. 1918, Ex. 16, L. 3024, Exteriores (Histórico), AHN.

30 ‘A. Markoff – Confidentiel’.

31 Ibid.

32 Foreign Minister to Ambassador in London, 10 Nov. 1918, Ex. 16, L. 3024, Exteriores (Histórico), AHN.

33 ‘Des Organisations communistes bolchévistes existant dans le Secteur de Catalogne’, Oct. 1920, 12–13, F/7/13506, Police Générale, Ministère de l'Intérieur, Archives Nationales de France (ANF), Paris.

34 Foreign Minister to League of Nations Representative, 6 Apr. 1921, Ex. 1, C. 3, 82/5463, Archivo General de la Administración (AGA), Alcalá de Henares.

35 Arturo Zoffmann Rodriguez, ‘An Uncanny Honeymoon: Spanish Anarchism and the Bolshevik Dictatorship of the Proletariat, 1917–22’, International Labor and Working Class History, 94 (2018), 5–26.

36 Puigsech, La revolució, 90–8.

37 Javier Maestro Bäcksbacka, ‘La revolución rusa en la prensa española de 1917’, in Pelai Pagès and Pepe Gutiérrez, eds., La revolución pasó por aquí (Barcelona: Laertes, 2017), 42–60.

38 Mikhail Borodin, ‘First Conversation’, 23 Dec. 1919, 1–2, IC, AAVV-CV-16, FPI.

39 ‘A. Markoff - Confidentiel’.

40 ‘El miedo’, Solidaridad Obrera, 947, 17 Nov. 1918; See also: ‘La detención del compañero Masianoff’, Solidaridad Obrera, 951, 21 Nov. 1918; ‘Los rusos en España’, Solidaridad Obrera, 990, 30 Dec. 1918.

41 M. Buenacasa, ‘Siluetas pacifistas: ¡Lenin!’, Solidaridad Obrera, 667, 26 Nov. 1917.

42 Ángel Samblancat, ‘El bolcheviki errante’, Solidaridad Obrera, 991, 31 Dec. 1918.

43 José Viadiu, Salvador Seguí (‘Noy del Sucre’): El hombre y sus ideas (Valencia: Cuadernos, 1930), 11.

44 For a first-hand account on desertion and exile in Barcelona: Gaston Leval, ‘Mémoires’, Gaston Leval Papers, International Institute of Social History (IISH), Amsterdam.

45 Foreign Minister to Spanish Ambassador in London, 10 Nov. 1918, Ex. 16, L. 3024, Exteriores (Histórico), AHN.

46 Victor Serge, ‘Un Zar cae’, Tierra y Libertad, 346, 4 Apr. 1917.

47 ‘Conferencia’, Solidaridad Obrera, 582, 6 June 1917.

48 Serge, ‘Un zar’.

49 Victor Serge, Memoirs of a Revolutionary (New York: New York Review of Books, 2012), 64.

50 ‘El volcán social: el pueblo el ejército y el rey’, Solidaridad Obrera, 588, 12 June 1917.

51 León Trotsky, El triunfo del bolchevismo: con una semblanza del autor, sus impresiones de España y su actitud respecto a la Internacional (Madrid: Biblioteca Nueva, 1918), 9–26.

52 Ramírez, ‘Conference’, 16 Mar. 1920, 75, IC, AAVV-CV-16, FPI.

53 N. Tasin, La Dictadura del proletariado (Madrid: Biblioteca Nueva, 1919), passim.

54 Ramírez, ‘Conference’.

55 N. Tasin, ‘Desaparición de Nicolás II. Reaparición de Kerensky’, 208, El Sol, 29 June 1918.

56 See for instance: Nikolái Bujarin, El programa de los bolcheviques (Madrid: América, 1920).

A. Kerenski, El bolchevismo y su obra (Madrid: no date, no publisher).

57 See the comments by Juan Gallego Crespo, ‘Por los caminos trillados’, La Revista Blanca, 15 June 1925.

58 Andrade, Juan, Recuerdos personales (Barcelona: Serbal, 1983), 154Google Scholar.

59 Chief of Police to Interior Minister, 20 Aug. 1921, Ex. 6, L. 34, Gobernación A, AHN.

60 ‘Nicolás Gógol.’ La Época, 26987, 20 Mar. 1926.

61 Trotsky, León, Mis peripecias en España (Salamanca: no publisher, 1997), 32Google Scholar.

62 Ibid., 32.

63 Trotsky, El triunfo, 30–31.

64 Borodin, ‘First Conversation’.

65 Trotsky, El triunfo, 28–37.

66 Trotsky, Mis peripecias, 110.

67 Deutscher, The Prophet Armed, 241.

68 Tomás Elorrieta y Artaza, El movimiento bolchevista (Madrid: Jaime Ratés, 1919), 33.

69 ‘A. Markoff – Confidentiel’.

70 Belarussian Jew Mikhail Borodin was key to the creation of the Spanish Communist Party in April 1920, yet he was not an exile, but a Bolshevik agent sent to Spain for that purpose. He only spent a few weeks in Madrid. See: Romero Salvado, ‘The Comintern Fiasco’.

71 Juan Andrade to Luis Portela, 15 July 1965, Pelai Pagès i Blanch Personal Archive.

72 Chief of Spanish Police to Interior Minister, 24 Nov. 1918, Ex. 12, L. 34, Gobernación A, AHN.

73 ‘A la opinión en general y en particular a los anarquistas y sindicalistas’, Solidaridad Obrera, 937, 7 Nov. 1918.

74 ‘A nuestros lectores’, El Maximalista, 1, 2 Nov. 1918.

75 ‘Contra “El Maximalista”', El Sol, 342, 9 Nov. 1918.

76 ‘Una visita - ¿quiénes somos?’, El Maximalista, 2, 9 Nov. 1918.

77 French Ambassador to Prime Minister and Interior Minister, 26 Nov. 1918, Ex. 16, L. 3024, Exteriores (Histórico), AHN.

78 Ibid.

79 ‘La detención del compañero’.

80 Chief of Spanish Police to Interior Minister, 25 Nov. 1918, Ex. 1, L. 34, Gobernación A, AHN.

81 Chief of Spanish Police to Interior Minister, 8 Jan. 1919, Ex. 1, L. 34, Gobernación A, AHN.

82 Ángel Samblancat, ‘El bolcheviki errante,’ 991, Solidaridad Obrera, 31 Dec. 1918.

83 Aizpuru, ‘La expulsión’, 117–18.

84 Mariano de Cavia, ‘El fruto engañoso’, El Sol, 786, 20 Jan. 1920.

85 Minutes of Conference between Interior Minister and Prime Minister and Barcelona Civil Governor, 6 Mar. 1919, Ex.1, L.57, Gobernación A, AHN.

86 Ibid.

87 Aizpuru, ‘La expulsión’, 120–21.

88 Barcelona Civil Governor to Interior Minister, 14 Aug. 1920, Ex. 2, L. 34, Gobernación A, AHN.

89 Barcelona Civil Governor to Interior Minister, 4 Oct. 1920, Ex. 2, L. 34, Gobernación A, AHN.

90 This telegram was sent to the governor in Seville, but similar instructions were sent across Spain: Interior Minister to Seville Governor, 15 Aug. 1919, Ex.2, L.57, Gobernación A, AHN

91 I refrain from covering the Borodin mission in this article as it was unconnected to the wartime Russian exile community in Spain. See: Francisco Romero Salvadó, ‘The Comintern Fiasco in Spain: The Borodin Mission and the Birth of the Spanish Communist Party’, Revolutionary Russia, 21, 2, 153–73.

92 Ealham, Chris, Anarchism and the City: Revolution and Counter-Revolution in Barcelona, 1898–1937 (Oakland: AK Press, 2010), 10–15Google Scholar.

93 Gasset, Rafael, La humanidad insumisa: La revolución rusa. El problema social en España (Madrid: no publisher, 1920), 124–5Google Scholar.

94 ‘Los rusos que recibía Luis Morote’, El Sol, 475, 23 Mar., 1919.

95 Interior Minister to Seville Civil Governor, 13 Aug. 1919, Ex. 1, L. 17, Gobernación A, AHN.

96 Interior Minister to Seville and Badajoz Civil Governors, Ex. 1, L. 17, Gobernación A, AHN.

97 Chief of Police to Interior Minister, 14 Jan. 1919 and 20 Aug. 1921, Ex. 6, L. 34, Gobernación A, AHN.

98 Barcelona Civil Governor to Interior Minister, 14 Dec. 1919, Ex. 2, L. 34, Gobernación A, AHN. Foreign Minister to Interior Minister, 11 Jan. 1920, Ex. 2, L. 34, Gobernación A, AHN.

99 For a first-hand description of discrimination against politically suspect foreigners, see: Beals, Carleton, Glass Houses: Twenty Years of Free-Lancing (London: Lippincott Co., 1938), 91–5Google Scholar.

100 Interior Minister to the Governors of Border Provinces, 27 Feb. 1920, Ex. 1, L. 17, Gobernación (Histórico), AHN.

101 On anarchism for example, see: Anderson, Benedict, Under Three Flags: Anarchism and the Anti-Colonial Imagination (London: Verso, 2005)Google Scholar, Bantman, Constance, The French Anarchists in London, 1880–1914: Exile and Transnationalism in the First Globalisation (Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2013)Google Scholar, Turcato, Davide, Making Sense of Anarchism: Errico Malatesta’s Experiments with Revolution, 1889–1900 (Basingstoke: AK Press, 2012)CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Paola, Pietro di, The Knights Errant of Anarchy: London and the Italian Anarchist Diaspora (1880–1917) (Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2013)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

102 Thorpe, Wayne, The Workers Themselves: Revolutionary Syndicalism and International Labour, 1913–1923 (Boston: Kluwer, 1989), 87–90Google Scholar.

103 Struder, Brigitte, The Transnational World of the Cominternians (Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2015), 1–21CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

104 Stefan Zweig left a vivid impression of life as an exile in Switzerland: The World of Yesterday: Memoirs of a European (London: Pushkin Press, 2011), 296–8.

105 Francisco Cervantes López, ‘Socialismo’, Gale's Magazine, 19 Apr. 1919.

106 Lomnitz, Claudio, The Return of Comrade Ricardo Flores Magon (New York: Zone Books, 2014)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Kevan Antonio Aguilar, ‘The IWW in Tampico’, in Peter Cole, David Struthers and Kenyon Zimmer, eds., Wobblies of the World: A Global History of the IWW (London: Pluto Press, 2017), 124–39.

107 Carr, Barry, El movimiento obrero y la política en México (Mexico City: Era, 1987), 41–3Google Scholar.

108 Paco Ignacio Taibo II, Bolchevikis: Historia narrativa de los orígenes del comunismo en México (1919–1925) (Tabasco: Planeta, 1986), 29–35; Friedrich Katz, The Secret War in Mexico: Europe, the United States, and the Mexican Revolution (Chicago: Chicago University Press, 1984).

109 Borodin, Roy and, above all, Phillips, played an important role in the establishment of the Spanish Communist Party during their stopover in Spain in early 1920.

110 Daniel Kent Carrasco, ‘M.N. Roy en México: cosmopolitismo intelectual y contingencia política en la creación del PCM’, in Carlos Illades, ed., Camaradas. Una nueva historia del comunismo en México (Mexico City: FCE, 2017); Botz, Dan La, ‘American “Slackers” in the Mexican Revolution: International Proletarian Politics in the Midst of a National Revolution’, The Americas, 62, 4 (2006), 563–90CrossRefGoogle Scholar.