The Spanish Civil War: Why did hundreds of Scots volunteer to fight Fascism in Spain?

2019 marks 100 years of the Spanish degree at the University of Edinburgh. An exhibition and series of events are taking place to mark the occasion, under the ‘Conectando’ banner. This year also marks the 80th anniversary of the end of the Spanish Civil War, a conflict that saw the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people and led to Spain being ruled by a Fascist dictatorship until 1975. In this edition of the Big Idea podcast, Ranald Leask is joined by two experts on the conflict, from the University’s School of History, Classics, and Archaeology. Dr Julius Ruiz and Dr Fraser Raeburn have written extensively on the conflict, a period in Spain’s history that continues to divide opinion in the country to this day. This podcast looks, in particular, at the contribution of the International Brigades, those foreign volunteers who travelled to Spain to defend the elected Republican government against General Franco’s forces, which sought to topple it. Scotland produced a disproportionately high number of volunteers for the Brigades, many of whom were killed. In this podcast we hear from those volunteers who left Scotland for Spain, and ask what their legacy is.