On the Spanish Civil War and Alternate History

[Spock]

I started reading up on the Russian Revolution and got side-tracked to the Spanish Civil War. I haven't read much alternate history, but I keep thinking about a scenario that I have never seen addressed in that genre.

If the other team had won the war and not Franco, I wonder if they might have actively aided Hitler more than Franco did.

Orwell in "Homage to Catalonia" describes the purging of the non-Stalinist elements of the Republican side. You would have likely ended up with a Stalinist puppet government in Spain.

From August, 1939, when the Non-aggression pact was signed until June 22, 1941, the Soviet Union actively aided Hitler. IIRC, the last trains carrying supplies from the Soviet Union to Germany crossed the border early on the morning of June 22, 1941.

Throughout the world, communist parties turned on a dime when the pact was signed and supported Hitler. Is there any reason to believe that a Stalinist puppet government in Spain would have acted any different than Stalin's Russia did?

The best, or worst (or whatever) that you can say about Franco is that he slow-walked aid to Germany until about 1943 when it became clear that Germany was going to lose.

There was that crucial year in the Mediteranean from the Fall of France to Operation Barbarossa when minor changes would have made a big difference. What would have happened with Gibralter?-etc etc.

[earendel]

I started reading up on the Russian Revolution and got side-tracked to the Spanish Civil War. I haven't read much alternate history, but I keep thinking about a scenario that I have never seen addressed in that genre.

If the other team had won the war and not Franco, I wonder if they might have actively aided Hitler more than Franco did.

Orwell in "Homage to Catalonia" describes the purging of the non-Stalinist elements of the Republican side. You would have likely ended up with a Stalinist puppet government in Spain.

From August, 1939, when the Non-aggression pact was signed until June 22, 1941, the Soviet Union actively aided Hitler. IIRC, the last trains carrying supplies from the Soviet Union to Germany crossed the border early on the morning of June 22, 1941.

Throughout the world, communist parties turned on a dime when the pact was signed and supported Hitler. Is there any reason to believe that a Stalinist puppet government in Spain would have acted any different than Stalin's Russia did?

The best, or worst (or whatever) that you can say about Franco is that he slow-walked aid to Germany until about 1943 when it became clear that Germany was going to lose.

There was that crucial year in the Mediteranean from the Fall of France to Operation Barbarossa when minor changes would have made a big difference. What would have happened with Gibralter?-etc etc.

For what it's worth Harry Turtledove has a series, "The War That Came Early" that presumes WWII broke out in 1938 - Chamberlain and Deladier were prepared to give the Sudeten territory to Germany but the assassination of a Czech politician made Hitler angry enough to invade without their acquiescence. Each of the five or six books in the series has a section dealing with what happens in Spain.

[jarnon]

After reading Spock’s post, I looked up the Ribbentrop-Molotov treaty. I thought it was a truce between antagonists, but actually the Soviet Union and Germany cooperated. And Communists around the world suddenly stopped criticizing Hitler. (I see where Orwell got ideas for his books.) So it’s conceivable that Spanish Republicans would help Germany.