When the Spanish Civil War began, General Francisco Franco (Francisco Paulino Ermenechildo Teodulo Franco Baamonde - his full name) celebrated his forty-fourth birthday, but already looked tired of life and much older than his years. Fatigue was added to the unpresentable appearance, although there are suspicions that she was mostly sham.
The short-legged, short (157 centimeters), plump, with a piercing thin voice, awkward gestures of the general, his German blond beast friends looked with bewilderment: did he have Jewish roots. Reasons for bewilderment were great enough: the Iberian Peninsula sheltered in Cordovia about one-eighth of the Semites of the population. In addition, the Arabs ruled there for many centuries in a row, and Franco himself was not a Castilian, he was born in Galicia populated by the Portuguese.
July 18
As we know, this day in 1936 began with a morning weather forecast, which served assignal to start the uprising: "Over Spain, the sky is cloudless." The revolt against the republic was provoked most of all by the republicans themselves. Leftists of all shades flooded the government: social democrats, and socialists, and Trotskyists, and anarchists - and this leftist deviation grew steeper day by day.
Partisanism, anarchy, economic confusion pushed the country into collapse and chaos. Political repressions were rampant, only slogans were offered to the people instead of work, the Spanish peasant could no longer feed this bunch of leaders, talkative agitators for nothing, and free trade was banned by the Republicans. In this situation, the political pendulum could not find the golden mean, it rushed from the extreme left to the extreme right.
The center of forces and the point of coordination of interests was not found. In Spain, the Catholic Church had the most authority as an institution of propaganda. To this day, Spain is a country of deeply religious people. Although the republic did not dare to carry out de-Christianization, there were still repressions, therefore, in the face of the church, they received a blood enemy, and in a huge mass of believers - enemies, hidden until the time.
Francisco Franco supporters
Right-wing merits also did not shine: political retrograde and dense obscurantism dominated there. Aristocratic landowners and rather mossy nobles puffed out their cheeks and puffed out their chests for no reason, because they could not properly finance the uprising. That is why the Spanish Nazis asked for help from Italy andGermany, and the army was recruited from mobilized peasants and hired Arab-Berber shooters from Morocco.
The Republicans did not spare any kind of bourgeois on their territory, but the Nazis were in no way inferior to them in cruelty. Rather, they plugged it into a belt. The rebels took on ramen slogans that were in no way similar to the fascist-German or fascist-Italian ones, the Spaniards wanted "the people, the monarchy and the faith."
I must say, Mussolini despised the monarchy, and the church was indifferent to him. Hitler hated Christianity and the Semites. Francisco Franco was an internationalist: for him all the citizens of the country were Spaniards, without distinction of race or tribe. His ideology was Catholicism, and he was going to restore the monarchy.
Tacking under fire
After standing at the head of the country, Francisco Franco Baamonde did not feel confident. Because he was in a very difficult position. How to pull Spain out of this quagmire and at the same time retain power, he did not know. I saw only that only desperate maneuvering can achieve the solution of these two issues.
Francisco Franco understood that Mussolini and Hitler would definitely drag him into a world war. And then if they win, Spain will gain absolutely nothing, and if they lose, Spain will cease to exist.
And Francisco Franco, whose biography captured all this unthinkable maneuvering, declared neutrality. There were friendly gestures, of course, towards Hitler, but such that this friend kept at a decent distance.
Paradoxical acts
For example, Franco allowed German submarines and ships to be based in Spanish ports, gave them tobacco, oranges and fresh water. He also accepted ships from Argentina with meat and grain for Germany, allowed to transport all this through the territory of Spain. But when the war with Russia began, he did not subdue the Wehrmacht division, which he sent there. German troops were not allowed into the territory of Spain.
Francisco Franco, whose quotes and even simple statements have come down to us in not so large numbers, told the German ambassador the following: "A cautious policy is not only in the interests of Spain. Germany also needs it. Since Spain, which gives Germany tungsten and other rare products, now Germany is even more needed than Spain, involved in the war."
Franco allowed himself to speak respectfully of Churchill, retained diplomatic relations with England. He spoke about Stalin without much emotion. There was no genocide of Jews under the dictator, even restrictive measures were not taken against them. That is why, after the end of the war, soldiers of the anti-Hitler coalition did not enter Spain: there were no formal reasons.
German military and high officials who tried to hide in Spain, the dictator escorted to Latin America. Such a high degree of tacking is worthy of study. Therefore, further - from the very beginning about caudillo Francisco Franco.
Hereditary military
Caudillo is head of state for life. This Spanish commander achieved such a high rank despite the fact that he was born in 1892year in the seaside town of El Ferrol, in Galicia, in a large family of a simple officer from the nearest naval base. Who, moreover, abandoned his family, leaving among the other children little Francisco Franco, whose nickname was already Paquito ("duckling"). Naturally, the boy became even more focused and secretive.
In the military academy of the city of Toledo, the medieval capital of the country, the future dictator spent his not too joyful youth. Thin, undersized, torn from his mother and abandoned by his father, he plunges headlong into his studies and makes progress in this field. Later, already in the service, Francisco's priorities did not change, and at the age of thirty-three he became a general - there was no younger general at that time either in Spain or in Europe.
Morocco
Until 1926 - service in the colony, Morocco, where the Spanish Legion was formed, which brought together many outcasts of society. He will become the main strike force when Francisco Franco and his time require immediate intervention.
By this time, the future dictator had already married Carmen Polo, a well-born noblewoman, whom he had been seeking for six whole years. King Alphonse XIII personally honored their wedding and was even the imprisoned father of the future general's wife. In this marriage, a daughter was born - Maria del Carmen - after returning to Spain.
Certificate Record
The dictator of that time who ruled the country - Primo de Rivera - merged four military academies into one. So the city of Zaragoza became the new home of Francisco Franco, whose nicknameno one remembered. The head of the General Military Academy cannot be like a duckling. This institution was abolished in 1931.
Further, the track record of Francisco Franco is very large and interesting. He served under monarchs, republicans and conservatives. And marching through Galicia, and suppressing the uprising in Asturias, and being almost exiled to the Balearic and then to the Canary Islands, he still constantly moved up the ranks. It was from the Canary Islands that he flew in by telegram sent on July 17, 1936. But he flew first to Morocco.
Fratricide
And a massacre has begun in Spain. Francisco Franco was at the very top of the anti-republican rebellion, since both the fascists and the monarchists, despite mutual hostility, saw him as a compromise figure capable of finding a common denominator for an agreement between the opposing groups.
It was Franco who agreed with Hitler and Mussolini on military assistance, thus defeating the Republicans. And he became a generalissimo. And the country for three bloody years lost seven hundred thousand of its citizens in battles, fifteen thousand under bombing and thirty thousand executed.
Post-war
All the amazing paradoxes of governance only contributed to the strength of the dictator's power and the growth of his authority. They did not enter the world war: the civil war was enough. Relations with the countries of the anti-Hitler coalition were not spoiled. Even outwardly, he changed with age, became majestic and eloquent. Photos of Francisco Franco of those years clearly demonstratea self-confident person with a strong-willed and piercing look.
True, the country's economy was so undermined by the civil war that it was not possible to get it out of a coma. An adherent of autarky and the regulation of the economy by the state, Franco could not keep the reforms. The country became economically liberal, the import of capital from other countries flowed into Spain.
Road to Monarchy
The UN denounced Franco's regime as dictatorial, but almost all Western countries supported this man for implacable anti-communism. In 1969, the much aged dictator proclaimed as his successor Juan Carlos, the prince, the grandson of Alfonso, the planted father at Franco's wedding. So gradually Spain returned to democracy and constitutional monarchy. But until 1975, when this happens, it is still very far away.
The post-war situation was very difficult. Spain was denied financial assistance, they were not admitted to the UN until 1955, they were not accepted to NATO. Since 1947, the caudillo was personally involved in the upbringing of the young prince, preparing him for the royal fate. I visited the temple with him, talked, read to him, realizing that the unprepared king would become a toy in the hands of adventurers or intriguers, would destroy the country, unable to cope with such a ossified legacy.
The conservative-patriotic regime in the country ruled by the military-oligarchic method. Press - censorship, political opposition - repression, parties and trade unions - a complete ban, underground activities - the death pen alty. First of all, discipline. Even the church was ordered not toincrease the number of monks, participate more in worldly activities.
Economic stabilization
In 1955, Spain was finally admitted to the UN, and gradual modernization began. Technocrats, opponents of the isolation of the country from the economic influence of foreign capital (autarky), gained control over the economy. Loans were received under the economic stabilization plan from international organizations, the administration's control over the economy was weakened.
Foreign capital poured into Spain like a wide river, the peseta became freely convertible. But Franco kept a close watch that democracy did not penetrate the social and political life of society. Only the economic sphere was open to her. So, until the death of the dictator in November 1975, Spain was an authoritarian state.
Books worth reading
"The Secret Diplomacy of Madrid", "Francisco Franco and His Time" and some other books thoroughly reveal the course of events in Spain for almost a whole century. This is very educational work. Written by Svetlana Pozharskaya. Francisco Franco, dictator and reformer, stands before the reader in all his small stature and presents him with all his gigantic character. Pozharskaya completed the first monograph about Franco in our country, covering the entire life of the caudillo and a vast historical background. Here there is a detailed analysis of the crisis of society and the causes of Francoism. S. P. Pozharskaya's contribution to Russian Spanish studies was highly appreciated in Spain.
The search for one meticulous journalist led to a surprising discovery:the author of the book "Masonry" acquired by him in Spain is Francisco Franco, who used a pseudonym for conspiracy. This work is a huge work on philosophy and conspiracy theories, it reveals many mechanisms for influencing high-ranking people, introducing representatives of Freemasonry into power.
