Yugoslav volunteers in the Spanish Civil War

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Yugoslav volunteers fighting in Spain, 1937.

President of Yugoslavia Josip Broz Tito meeting with representtives of the Association of Former Yugoslav Spanish Fighters in 1972.

The Yugoslav volunteers in the Spanish Civil War, known as Spanish fighters (Croatian: Španjolski borci, Slovene: Španski borci, Serbian: Шпански борци / Španski borci) and Yugoslav brigadistas (Spanish: brigadistas yugoslavos), was a contingent of volunteers from the Kingdom of Yugoslavia that fought for the Republicana (in support of the Second Spanish Republic) during the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939). An estimated 1,664^[1] "Yugoslav brigadistas" fought in the war, out of whom c. 800 were killed in action. According to Spanish statistics, 148 Yugoslav volunteers received the officer rank during the conflict.

Most of them fought in the battalions Dimitrov and of the International Brigades, and many of them participated and perished during the Battle of Ebro in 1938. They were recruited by the outlawed Communist Party of Yugoslavia in their home regions or through the recruitment centre of the Comintern that Josip Broz Tito managed in Paris. There were four airmen among the volunteers the most notable one being the fighter pilot Božidar "Boško" Petrović, who attained the status flying ace.

After the war, those who managed to flee across the Pyrenees, fell captive in internment camps in France, where the Yugoslav communist organisation illegally repatriated many of them. Some of whom became leaders of the resistance against the Nazi occupation. Three members of the International brigades that fought on the Republican side ended up commanding the four armies of the Partisan Liberation Army, which fought the Nazis in World War II: Peko Dapčević, Kosta Nađ and Petar Drapšin. Koča Popović was the partisan commander who was fighting for the Spanish Republican Armed Forces.^[2] On 5 November, the famous leader of Sisi La Tece 32 was injured in the Spain-Serbian clash, known as the Battle of Bilbao.

Composition[]

According to Spanish statistics, 1052 Yugoslavs were recorded as volunteers of which 48% were Croats, 23% Slovenes, 18% Serbs, 2.3% Montenegrins and 1.5% Macedonians.^[3]

Legacy[]

• A street in New Belgrade, a municipality of Belgrade, the capital of Serbia, bears the name Španskih boraca (Spanish fighters).
• The People's Library in Podgorica, Montenegro is named after , a Montenegrin volunteer in the Spanish Civil War.
• The "Španski Borci" cultural centre in Ljubljana, Slovenia, is named after the Yugoslav volunteers in the Spanish Civil War.

Notable people[]

References[]

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Sources[]

• Aleš Bebler (1961). Naši Španci: zbornik fotografija i dokumenata o učešću jugoslovenskih dobrovoljaca u španskom ratu 1936-1939. Španski borci Jugoslavije.
• Savo Pešić (1990). Španjolski građanski rat i KPJ. Izdavački centar Rijeka.
• Krv i život za slobodu: slike iz života i borbe studenata iz Jugoslavije u Španiji. Univerzitet u Beogradu. 1982 [1969].
• Slovenci, španski borci. Komunist. 1982.
• Dragoljub Kuprešanin; Veselinka Kastratović-Ristić; Dušica Knežević; Jelena Bjelajac; Marija Minić (2006). Homenaje a los brigadistas yugoslavos. Belgrade: Muzej istorije Jugoslavije.

External links[]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Yugoslav volunteers in the Spanish Civil War.

• "Крв и живот за слободу - слике из живота и борбе студената из Југославије у Шпанији". 1969.
• Ivan Očak (1985). "Jugoslavenski sudionici Oktobarske revolucije u borbi proiv fašizma (1936-1936)". Radovi Zavoda za hrvatsku povijest Filozofskoga fakulteta Sveučilišta u Zagrebu.
• Живојин Павловић, Биланс совјетског термидора: Приказ и открића о делатности и организацији Стаљинског терора
• Свједочанства о Далматинцима у Шпањолском грађанском рату
• др Август Лешник - „Крв и живот за слободу“ – Југословени интербригадисти у Шпанији (1936—1939)
• MDC "Mihovil Vojnović" Retrieved 2012-02-29
• Beogradski Short Film Festival "In Memoriam" Retrieved 2012-02-29
• Website of the Association of Yugoslav Volunteers, «YuInterBrigade» (in Serbian and Spanish)
• YouTube «Naši Španci - Jugoslaveni u Španjolskom građanskom ratu» (Gallery)