This is how the Communist Party attacked the Spanish exiles who wanted to fight against Hitler

Today, many communists boast of being "anti-fascists", forgetting the pact between Hitler and Stalin in August 1939 and the effects it had in many countries.

This is how the Communist Party of Spain justified the Nazi-Soviet invasion of Poland
The impressive numbers of German communists who joined the Nazi Party

When Hitler and Stalin were allies

A few days ago we saw here the coordination between the Germans and the Soviets for the invasion of Poland after the signing of that pact. In 2017 I also addressed here the justification of that invasion by the Communist Party of Spain (PCE) from its official newspaper "España Popular", published in Mexico. In 2015 I also reviewed the French Communist Party’s sabotage of its country’s war effort against the German invasion in May 1940, a betrayal carried out following orders from Moscow given by Stalin, who treated Hitler as an ally until Germany invaded the USSR in June 1941, and the tables were turned.

The PCE in 1940: harsh criticism of the Allies and mild criticism of Hitler

I have been reading in detail several issues of the aforementioned Spanish communist newspaper (it can be downloaded here). In the issues of this newspaper that can be consulted in the Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, published between February 18 and April 25, 1940, there is a common characteristic: during those dates, in this PCE newspaper there was hardly any criticism of Hitler's Germany, but there was fierce and constant criticism of the French and British governments. Following Stalin's slogans, the PCE tried to convince its followers that it was necessary to oppose the war declared by France and the United Kingdom against Germany for the invasion of Poland, stating that the real purpose of the British and French was to attack the USSR.

The slogan was pure nonsense. In fact, one of the things that can be reproached to the governments of France and the United Kingdom was that they did not declare war on the USSR after invading the eastern part of Poland, just as they declared war on Germany for invading the western part of that country.

A false pacifism imposed from Moscow

Ignoring that fact, the PCE newspaper abounded in lies and paranoia to try to justify something repugnant: the communists were opposed to the war because Stalin had ordered them to be so, since both they and the Nazis had a common enemy: Western democracies, as we saw recently in the diplomatic correspondence of the time. Let us also remember that at the joint parade that both armies held in Poland to celebrate their victory, Soviet General Semyon Krivoshein invited German General Heinz Guderian to Moscow after wishing them a quick victory over capitalist England.

Trying to demobilize the Spanish Republicans against Hitler

In issue 1 of "España Popular" there is a very interesting article. It is on page five, which was headed by a huge headline on the entire page trying to convince the Spanish Republicans exiled in France not to fight against Germany: "Not a drop of Spanish blood for the imperialist war!", exclaimed the PCE newspaper

On the right-hand side of the page there was a two-column article entitled “Spain and the European War,” which harshly attacked the rest of the Spanish left: “The Republican leaders and the Socialist leaders, who for the most part supported the theory that the war had to be ended by any means” (referring to the Spanish Civil War), “have gone over, with arms and baggage, to the camp of the Franco-British bourgeoisie, thus seeking the path to reconciliation with Franco; that is, submission to Franco, if we are to use the true expression.” The PCE was trying to convince the Spanish leftists that the French and British were Francoists, in order to prevent them from taking up arms against Germany. It was a maneuver of atrocious Machiavellianism.

After saying that the French and British governments "are not democrats" and calling them "vile exploiters of humanity," the article went on to say: "They are the ones who are going to this war to defend their imperialist interests against the incompetence of Germany. And alongside these attack dogs of international capitalism are the Spanish republican and socialist leaders!" The PCE then attacked the leaders of the Republican Left because "they have sent a letter to Daladier," the French prime minister, "calling the Polish government - a reactionary lair - democratic. In this letter, our brave republicans offer Daladier their enthusiastic collaboration and that of the thousands of coreligionists who are on French soil."

The PCE also criticised the fact that "the Republicans state in their letter their condemnation of the German-Soviet pact." The communist newspaper accused the Republicans of offering "their coreligionists as cannon fodder", and added: "The Franco-English bourgeoisie is taking part in the imperialist division of Spain, playing along with Mussolini, with the healthy decision to displace the fourth in dispute: Hitler."

Hitler's whitewashing in the PCE newspaper

The references to the German dictator in "España Popular" became very striking, since the communist newspaper came to present Hitler as a reasonable man in front of the British and French governments. On March 4, 1940, issue 3 of the PCE newspaper (can be downloaded here) stated: "Hitler understood that the road to Moscow, which Chamberlain and Daladier had offered him, although for this they had to make unimaginable concessions at the expense of weak countries, was too long and thorny. For this reason, he preferred the routes of the West to launch his motorized columns on. The struggle was going to break out, if not with open war - not yet -yes, with diplomatic pressure, propaganda and blockades, with the aim of dismantling the elusive Führer and putting in his place another and others more willing to please the Citty."

The PCE continued with its slogans to present Hitler as someone evasive to the wishes of the British and French, who were presented as Machiavellian. On March 28, 1940, on the back page of issue 7 of "España Popular" (can be downloaded here), the communist newspaper again harshly attacked France and the United Kingdom: "The English reaction fully coincides with its ally France in the need to increase the war. After the hesitations it has shown since September - originating in the hope of turning Hitler against the U.S.S.R. or replacing him with a more docile government in foreign policy that would yield to the British, the British reaction is in full agreement with its ally France in the need to increase the war. After the hesitations it has shown since September - originating in the hope of turning Hitler against the U.S.S.R. or replacing him with a more docile government in foreign policy - the City has despaired of achieving the transformation of the contest in the desired way."

In issue 8 of "España Popular", published on April 4, 1940 (can be downloaded here), the PCE again came to Hitler's aid and attacked France and the United Kingdom. In the second column on page 4, we read the following: "The war of Daladier and Chamberlain against Hitler is a quarrel of imperialist bandits, eager for new riches; it is a war that aims only at plundering the defeated and dominating the world, carrying within itself the germ of new wars, if the peoples do not put an end to the regime that engenders them, the capitalist regime. This war is an unjust, reactionary, anti-worker, anti-popular war, which they want to transform into an anti-Soviet crusade."

The reason for this whitewashing of Hitler in a communist newspaper is obvious: the PCE could not convey the idea that its idolized Stalin was in league with a criminal madman, so the bad guys had to be British and French.

Would France have been saved if the communists had not sabotaged its defense?

One wonders what would have happened if the communists had not made so many efforts to demobilize the left in the face of the German invasion of France. The Third Reich managed to take over the neighboring country in just a month and a half, largely due to the low combat morale of a large part of the French Army. Following Stalin's orders, the communists not only betrayed France in the face of an invading power, but also in the face of a brutal totalitarian dictatorship such as Nazism. The communists only changed their discourse after the German invasion of the USSR. Until then, they cared little that Hitler's Germany invaded a large part of Europe. Before June 1941, communist resistance movements in the occupied countries were meager. But today, without any shame, they boast as if they were the champions of anti-fascism.

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Main photo: French soldiers in January 1940.