英国志愿军与西班牙内战

The British Battalion and the Spanish Civil War

本文考察了西班牙内战期间(1936—1939年)国际纵队中的英国志愿军的成军经过、参战经历以及它与英国共产党和共产国际之间的互利关系,以此来说明,英国志愿军之所以积极参战是当时国内外严峻的局势使然:德意法西斯的崛起、英国政府的绥靖政策以及即将爆发的欧洲大战;他们参战的动机是为了打击法西斯,防止它在英国本土传播蔓延;作为同路人,他们在战争期间拥护了苏联和共产国际的政治路线,但这并非像某些持论苛刻的西班牙内战史家所认为的那样,是因为盲目信仰而被操控,事实上,他们参战是纯粹出于自觉自愿,大量的回忆录和访谈显示,绝大多数幸存老兵并不后悔当年的选择,而且终生以之为荣。

Through a critical account of the recruitment and formation of the British Battalion in the Spanish Civil War, its military performance in the war and its relation with the Communist Party of Great Britain and the Communist International,the present paper aims to show that the British volunteers'active involvement in the war was caused by the serious political situation of the time both at home and abroad.The volunteers were motivated chiefly by the desire to fight against international fascism and curb its spread into Britain;and their adherence to Moscow's political line as fellow travelers was not blind or manipulated at all,but out of their own choice of which most of the surviving veterans have been proud ever since,as revealed by numerous memoirs and interviews.