But Spain was also the first field of activity of the GPU outside the Soviet Union on a large scale. The Spanish war was, in fact, the preface to the Second World War, the first year of which was marked by Trotsky’s murder.
Spain in 1936 was the last battlefield on which, during Trotsky’s lifetime, armed workers and peasants confronted the class enemy in a revolutionary struggle. For I think that the Russian revolutionary, outlawed by Stalin, posed, in terms which remain valid today, whatever his detractors and some of those who praise him may say, the problem of the crisis of humanity as that of revolutionary leadership. We deal here simply with a sketch of Trotsky’s positions in this Spanish drama, the last proletarian revolution between the two wars and the prologue to the Second World War – a drama which concerns us all, whether we think it or not. I can simply refer those of my readers who wish to complete their knowledge of this or that particular point to the work which I devoted, together with my friend Emile Témime, to La Révolution et la Guerre d’Espagne. This essay, specially written for this collection at the request of Jorge Alvarez, was not intended to retrace, even in outline, the stages of the Spanish revolution which covered the peninsula with blood from 1936 to 1939.
Broué outlines the main lessons that Trotsky drew from the experience of the Spanish revolution, lessons that need to be taken on board today. This English translation was published in 1967. This article was written as an introduction to a Spanish language edition of Trotsky’s writings on the Spanish Revolution.
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