Hi and welcome to part two of our double episode on an introduction to the Spanish Civil War and Revolution.

If you haven't listened to part one yet, I'd go back and listen to that first. About a weekada, To the United States of the Spanish Civil War, around two thirds of the Spanish Civil War, around two-thirds of the Spain

was in the hands of the Republican government or the revolutionary working class and peasantry,

with the other third in the hands of the rebel nationalist military.

But its ramifications spread far beyond Spain's borders.

The international dimension of the Civil War and Revolution

was very complex. We are going to have more episodes in future looking at different aspects of

this, but for now we asked Nick Lloyd, author of Forgotten Places, Barcelona and the Spanish Civil War

to give a brief overview. As a content note, this episode contains mention of sexual violence.

As the war develops very quickly, the Republic needs weapons, and it first turns to the Western

democracies, you say no. And because of that, the Republic is desperate.

You know, you can get arms, a few machine guns and stuff on the, illegally on the market,

Czechoslovakia, whatever.

But it really does need big weapons.

And the Western democracies have said no, so where else can they turn?

And they turn to the Soviet Union, the second option?

And they ship in the autumn of 36, the Republic, not the Communist Party, who sometimes

reported it, 70% of the gold reserves to the Soviet Union, which was actually the fourth

largest gold reserve in the world at the time.

And as I say, Stalin did send them some very good stuff, very good planes, the best the Soviets

had, not as good as the Germans, but it was the best they had.

And what was possibly the best tank in the world at the time, the T-26, which started to arrive

...