October 1944.

The British and Americans have practically freed France from the Nazi occupation.

And thousands, if not tens of thousands of republicans fled to France after the defeat in the Spanish civil war in 1938.

And not all of them sat idly by.

After the defeat of France in the war in 1940, many joined the ranks of the French Resistance to Nazism.

And in October 1944, some of them decided that their hour had come, it was time to free their fatherland, Spain, from the help of the fascists, from the ally of Hitler, from the ally of those with whom they had fought in guerrilla warfare during the long years of occupation of France - from the dictatorship of Francisco Franco .

Fascism had already suffered a pan-European defeat: France was practically cleansed of the Nazis, Mussolini was removed from power over all of Italy and huddled in the German-controlled Republic of Salo, Franco, under pressure from the Americans, withdrew the Blue Division from the war with the USSR.

Fascism was playing and one could hope that it would collapse in Spain as well under the blow of determined and experienced soldiers.

And in October 1944, 8 thousand (!) Spaniards - veterans of the French Resistance and the Spanish Civil War - marched from France across the Pyrenees with weapons in their hands to liberate their homeland from the dictatorship.

Most of them had leftist views, some were communists.

There were rumors (wrong) that their raid was blessed by

Stalin

.

The plan was clear - to occupy at least some territory in the east of Spain, declare a government, and then... well, it's clear what's next.

International recognition by the states that were then waging war against fascism, an uprising throughout Spain, a triumphant entry into Madrid.

No one supports Franco

, except for his thugs, so to speak, "Francisco 3%".

The Liberation Corps even managed to occupy several settlements.

But in the Aran Valley, he was defeated by Franco's government troops.

Those who were not killed or captured retreated back to France.

You can read about the details of the raid here.

Such a finale of this liberation campaign had, among other things, geopolitical prerequisites.

Neither Washington nor London was at all eager to support the overthrow of Franco.

Firstly, because there was a more important task - the defeat of Germany, and secondly, they imagined that the overthrow of the dictatorship could lead to the victory of the "reds", to Stalin's victory on the Apennine Peninsula.

The leader of the French Resistance, the hero of the struggle against Nazism, General Charles de Gaulle

, was guided by the same ideas

.

He did not stop the Spanish from the French Resistance from fighting with Franco, but he also helped them.

In France, he also had problems consolidating his power and getting rid of the influence of the communists, who made up a good part, if not most, of the Resistance.

Finally, Stalin.

He had highly qualified masters of partisan resistance.

By the way, Stalin's "Spaniards" distinguished themselves in Belarus as well -

Stanislav Vaupshasau

and

Naum Eitingon

performed delicate missions in Spain during the civil war, and later, during the Second World War, they were significant figures in the leadership of the partisan movement in Belarus.

But these and other guerrilla masters were not magicians.

And Franko had his own skills, but in a different genre.

And Stalin calculated well that the heroic raid of the Spanish Republicans in October 1944 would end as it did.

Moreover, the outcome of the battle in the Aran Valley had unequivocally negative consequences for Moscow.

The fact is that during the years of the Second World War, some kind of anti-Franco underground was created in Spain.

Part of which was organized and controlled by Moscow.

But it is clear that after the raid of the Spanish Resistance veterans and their defeat in the Aran Valley, Franco's special services launched a terrible campaign of terror inside the country.

And the Spanish executioners of that time - the Francoist

Karpiankovs

and

Bedunkevichs

- burned to the ground the entire underground network that had been created for years.

Comrade Stalin was very upset as a result.

Although ideologically he was the antipode of Frank, he had no doubts about the latter's ability to commit effective atrocities.

No one came to help the liberators of Spain, to support them then.

But also hinder.

It could turn out, in principle.

The hypothetical success of that raid by and large did not harm anyone, except Frank, of course.

So they did not interfere.

What am I for?

And for nothing.

And Kalinovsky's regiment does not have, as far as is known, 8 thousand fighters and not even close, and

Biden

- neither

Roosevelt

nor Stalin, and

Zelensky

- not de Gaulle, and

Lukashenka

- not Franco, and even

Putin

- not

Hitler,

at least not Hitler now sample of October 1944.

It's just useful to know history, it's worth remembering how interesting the rather cynical calculations of the world's powers are sometimes.

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