Javier Cercas - Soldiers of Salamis

Twentieth-century Spanish political history is extremely complex and the following is an attempt to give readers a brief outline of some of the background to parts of this novel.

Spain was declared a Republic, for the second time, on 14 April 1931 when King Alfonso XIII abdicated after monarchist parties were defeated in key municipal elections. The country was extremely polarized with vast numbers belonging to ideologically committed trade unions and parties across the political spectrum. National elections were held in November 1933, resulting in a right-wing government which collapsed a little over two years later. The elections of February 1936 were contested by two broad coalitions: the Frente Nacional and the Frente Popular.

The Nacionales, or Nationalists, were supported by the conservative, fascist, Catholic and monarchist parties. Among these was the Falange Española or Spanish Falange, a small fascist-style party, founded in 1933, which merged the following year with the JONS (Juntas de Ofensiva Nacional-Sindicalista / Juntas of the National-Syndicalist Offensive), a more proletarian fascist movement, in existence since 1931.

The Popular Front, an alliance of liberal and left-wing parties, won the elections by a slim margin and formed a government. The coalition included parties ranging from liberal and social democratic Republicans, through advocates of Basque or Catalan autonomy, to socialists, Trotskyists and Soviet-allied Communists. The Popular Front was also actively supported by the socialist General Workers' Union (UGT, Unión General de Trabajadores).

Spanish anarchism was a large-scale trade union-based movement that fought for worker control of industry and agriculture. The National Confederation of Workers (CNT, Confederación Nacional de Trabajo) was particularly strong in Andalucia, Aragón and Catalonia. Opposed to so-called representative politics, they supported none of the parties of the Popular Front but were among the first to organize militias to defend the Republic.

The Civil War broke out on 18 July 1936 when a group of military officers, supported by elements from the Nationalist parties, attempted a coup d'état to overthrow the Popular Front government. They overcame resistance in the south and the west but in the two largest cities — Madrid and Barcelona — the rebellion was defeated by hastily organized militias and loyal members of the armed forces.

Despite the supply of arms and men to Franco's Nationalists by Mussolini and Hitler, Britain and France agreed a policy of non-intervention. The Republican government sent the Spanish gold reserves to Moscow to purchase badly needed weapons and thus provided the Communists with an influence disproportionate to their numbers, leading to bitter and deadly hostilities within the anti-fascist forces.

By early 1937 the Nationalists controlled the entire border with Portugal and much of northern Spain and the Basque country. In 1938 they cut the Republican zone in two and in July the Popular Army launched a huge offensive across the Ebro River. This extremely bloody battle initially caught the Nationalists off guard but in the end left the Republican forces exhausted and in January 1939, Barcelona fell to Franco's army. Half a million refugees crossed into France before the Nationalists sealed the border on 10 February. When Madrid fell on 27 March, tens of thousands more Republican soldiers and civilians fled to the Mediterranean coast at Alicante only to watch approaching rescue ships turn away in fear of being swamped. The last of the Republican front lines disintegrated towards the end of the month. Franco would accept only an unconditional surrender and declared the Civil War over on 1 April 1939.

A.M.

p.4 Rafael Sánchez Ferlosio (1927—): Considered one of the most notable Spanish writers of his generation. Two of his early novels have been translated into English: Adventures of the Ingenious Alfanhui (Ixans. Margaret Jull Costa, 2000) and his very influential 1956 novel, El Jarama as The River (trans. Margaret Jull Costa, 2004).

p.6 Franco, Francisco (1892–1975): General of the Spanish Army. One of the conspirators in the military revolt against the Republican government in July 1936, after an initial hesitation he became the leader of the Nationalist forces during the course of the war. He ruled Spain from the end of the Civil War until his death.

p.6 José Antonio Primo de Rivera (1903–1936): Son of Miguel Primo de Rivera (dictator from 1923–1930), one of the founders of the Spanish Falange (see afterword), and its undisputed leader until his death in November 1936 made him the first martyr of Spanish fascism. He is generally referred to in Spain simply as José Antonio.

p.9 Antonio Machado (1875–1939): One of the greatest Spanish poets of the twentieth century. During the war he was a tireless supporter of the Republic in his writing and became a symbol of resistance to fascism.

p.10 Manuel Machado (1874–1947): Spanish poet and dramatist. Often referred to as 'the bad Machado' in contrast to his famous and revered brother Antonio, both for having failed to support the Republic and for the decline in quality of his literary output. The plays they wrote together influenced Lorca and his poetry was admired by Jorge Luis Borges among others.

p.17 nationalist: Supporter of regional (in this case, Catalan) autonomy or independence. [Translator's note: 'Nationalists' is in this context written with a lower-case 'n' to avoid confusion with Franco-supporting Nationalists (Nacionales).]

p.18 Generalitat: Regional autonomous government of Catalonia.

p.19 checas: Improvised prisons in the Republican zone where justice was imposed by 'popular, revolutionary' tribunals. Checas, as the Russian-derived name suggests, were especially prevalent in areas controlled by socialist or Communist parties or trade unions.

p.19 SIM: Servicio de Información Militar, or Military Information Service, the political police organization created by Indalecio Prieto in August 1937 but almost immediately taken over by the Communists, was a rationalization of the various intelligence services within the Republican forces. Previously the Army, the foreign ministry, the Catalan regional government, the Basque regional government in exile, the Carabineros, the International Brigades, etc., had each run their own 'counter-espionage' networks.

p.19 Líster, Enrique (1907–1994): Moscow-trained colonel of Republican army. He commanded the Fifth Regiment, a legendary Communist unit that defended Madrid from the Nationalist onslaught in the early stages of the war. Later he fought in the Second World War as a general in the Soviet Army and organized guerrilla actions against the Franco regime in the late 1940s.

p.25 old shirts: Original members of the Spanish Falange and later members of FET (see note p.67) loyal to original 'revolutionary' ideals of the Falange as opposed to the ultra-Catholic, arch-conservative values of their imposed allies and the many people who joined the party as the Nationalists gained ground during the course of the war.

p.26 Ridruejo, Dionisio (1912–1975): Spanish poet. Leading member of the Falange before and during the war, later to become a democratic opponent of the Franco regime.

p.67 Falange Española Tradicionalista y de la JONS, usually called the FET, was an amalgamation of the Carlist (ultra-Catholic and monarchist, supporters of a rival claimant line to the throne, their principal party was called Comunidn Tradicionalista) and fascist parties, forcibly united by Franco in April 1937 and thereafter the only legal party in Nationalist Spain.