International Brigades

International Brigades
Emblem of the International Brigades
Active	18 September 1936 – 23 September 1938 (1936-09-18 – 1938-09-23)
Country	Albania, France, Italy, Germany, Poland, United States, Ireland, Yugoslavia, United Kingdom, Belgium, Canada, Cuba, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Mexico, Argentina, Netherlands, and others...
Allegiance	Communist International Second Spanish Republic
Type	Infantry
Role	Paramilitary
Size	between 40,000 and 59,000
Garrison/HQ	Albacete
Motto(s)	Por vuestra libertad y la nuestra ("For your freedom and ours")
Engagements	Spanish Civil War Battle of Madrid Battle of Lopera Battle of Jarama Battle of Guadalajara Segovia Offensive Huesca Offensive Battle of Brunete Battle of Belchite Battle of Teruel Aragon Offensive Battle of Caspe Battle of the Ebro
Commanders
Notable commanders	André Marty Manfred Stern Hans Kahle Luigi Longo Karol Świerczewski Tom Wintringham Robert Hale Merriman Máté Zalka Wilhelm Zaisser Bill Alexander Veli Dedi
Insignia
Flag

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The International Brigades (Spanish: Brigadas Internacionales) were soldiers recruited and organized by the Communist International to assist the Popular Front government of the Second Spanish Republic during the Spanish Civil War. The International Brigades existed for two years, from 1936 until 1938. It is estimated that during the entire war, there were between 40,000 and 59,000 Brigaders, including some 10,000 who died in combat. Beyond the Spanish Civil War, "International Brigades" is also sometimes used interchangeably with the term foreign legion in reference to military units comprising foreigners who volunteer to fight in the military of another state, often in times of war.^[1]

The headquarters of the brigade was located at the Gran Hotel,^[2] Albacete, Castilla-La Mancha. They participated in the battles of Madrid, Jarama, Guadalajara, Brunete, Belchite, Teruel, Aragon and the Ebro. Most of these ended in defeat. For the last year of its existence, the International Brigades were integrated into the Spanish Republican Army as part of the Spanish Foreign Legion. The organisation was dissolved on 23 September 1938 by Spanish Prime Minister Juan Negrín in a vain attempt to get more support from the liberal democracies on the Non-Intervention Committee.

The International Brigades were strongly supported by the Comintern and represented the Soviet Union's commitment to assisting the Spanish Republic (with arms, logistics, military advisers and the NKVD), just as Portugal, Fascist Italy, and Nazi Germany were assisting the opposing Nationalist insurgency.^[3] The largest number of volunteers came from France (where the French Communist Party had many members) and communist exiles from Italy and Germany. Many Jews were part of the brigades, being particularly numerous within the volunteers coming from the United States, Poland, France, England and Argentina.^[4]

Republican volunteers who were opposed to Stalinism did not join the Brigades but instead enlisted in the separate Popular Front, the POUM (formed from Trotskyist, Bukharinist, and other anti-Stalinist groups, which did not separate Spaniards and foreign volunteers),^[5] or anarcho-syndicalist groups such as the Durruti Column, the IWA, and the CNT.