Yugoslav volunteers in the Spanish Civil War


The Yugoslav volunteers in the Spanish Civil War, known as Spanish fighters and Yugoslav brigadistas, was a contingent of volunteers from the Kingdom of Yugoslavia that fought for the Republicans during the Spanish Civil War.
An estimated 1,664 "Yugoslav brigadistas" fought in the war, including about 800 who 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 Đuro Đaković 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 being fighter pilot Božidar "Boško" Petrović who attained the status of "flying ace."
After the war, those who managed to flee across the Pyrenees fell captive in internment camps in France, with many being repatriated illegally by the Yugoslav communist organisation. Some of them later became leaders of the resistance against the Nazi occupation.
Three former members of the International Brigades ended up commanding armies of the Yugoslav Partisans during World War II: Peko Dapčević, Kosta Nađ and Petar Drapšin. Koča Popović was another prominent Partisan commander who fought for the Spanish Republicans.

Composition

The exact number of Yugoslavs who volunteered in Spain is unknown and is still being researched. The Belgrade-based Association of Spanish Fighters, established in 1946, cites a figure of 1,775 confirmed members. It estimates 595 of these were killed in Spain, and another 116 in Yugoslavia during World War II.
The ethnic composition of Yugoslavs is also unknown. A surviving personnel archive of the 129th International Brigade, compiled in Barcelona in May 1938, lists 1,052 people originating from Yugoslavia. Ethnicity data is missing for 140 of them, and the remaining 912 are listed as 48% Croats, 23% Slovenes, 18% Serbs, 3.2% Montenegrins and 1.5% Macedonians.
The matter is further complicated by the fact that only about a quarter is estimated to have come directly from Yugoslavia. The rest were predominantly working class Yugoslavs who had emigrated elsewhere and then came to Spain from other countries, such as France, Belgium, the Soviet Union, Canada, the United States, and others.
Data about political affiliations of volunteers is also incomplete. Spanish sources say that out of 1,040 Yugoslavs on record some 561 self-described as communists, ten as social-democrats, eight were affiliated with the Croatian Peasant Party and four were anarchists. The remaining 457 had no political affiliation to declare.

Legacy

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