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Blue Division: Spanish Blood in Russia, 1941-1945
This book, translated from the original Spanish, is the primary academic and historical study of the Blue Division -- a Falangist initiative involving the dispatch of some forty-thousand Spanish combatants (over a half of whom paid with their lives, health, or liberty) to the Russian Front during the Second World War. Xavier Moreno Julia does not limit himself to relating their deeds under arms, but also analyses -- for the first time -- the political background in detail: the complex relations between the Spanish government and Hitler's Germany; the internal conflicts between the Falangists and the Army; the rise and fall of Franco's brother-in-law, Minister Ramon Serrano Suner, who inspired the Blue Division and became the second most powerful person in Spain; and the attitude of General Agustin Munoz Grandes, commander of the Blue Division, who was encouraged by Berlin to seriously consider the possibility of taking over the reins of Spanish power. In the end, there were 45,500 reasons that led to joining the Blue Division -- one for each young man who decided to enlist. To understand all of the complex reasons behind their military service under German command is impossible at this juncture. It is an irrecoverable past that lies in Spanish cemeteries and on the Russian steppes. This book, based on massive documentation in German, British and Spanish archives, is an essential source of information to understand Spain in the 1940s -- an epoch when the Caudillo's power and the regime's good fortune were less secure than is often believed. Published in association with the Canada Blanch Centre for Contemporary Spanish Studies, LSE.
Book Details
- Publisher: Liverpool University Press
- Publish Date: Aug 1st, 2015
- Pages: 446
- Language: English
- Edition: None - undefined
- Dimensions: 9.20in - 6.30in - 1.40in - 2.15lb
- EAN: 9781845197377
- Categories: • Wars & Conflicts - World War II - General• Europe - Spain
About the Author
Julia, Xavier Moreno: - Xavier Moreno Julia is professor of Contemporary History in Rovira i Virgili University (Tarragona, Catalonia, Spain). This book is the first volume of his trilogy about Spain and the Second World War.
Praise for this book
"Dr. Moreno has written what undoubtedly will remain the definitive treatment of a difficult and multi-layered subject for the foreseeable future. Both as a unit history and as an analysis of a small, but critically important, segment of Francoist Spain's wartime foreign policy it has no peer." --Dr. Klaus Schmider, the Journal of Military History
"The great merit of this work by Moreno Juliá is that it is first to be free from much of the rhetoric of the trenches, and to address the phenomenon of the Blue Division in a spirit of objectivity and completeness. The first-hand research in national and foreign archives is a first, and a delightful novelty." --Dr. Eduardo González Calleja, Mélanges de la Casa de Velázquez,
"Spanish history writing congratulates the appearance of this study with its unmistakeable title which reveals in depth what happened to the 40,000 Spaniards sent to fight with the Germans on the Russian front . . . The book has been written by the doctor in contemporary history, Xavier Moreno Juliá, who has searched through and poked his nose into Spanish and German archives, and has obtained live testimony from old combatants." --Mercurio
"Such an exhaustive history - subtle, profound, and free from bitterness -emerges only occasionally in some books. Xavier Moreno Juliá's study of the Blue Division is, without doubt, one of those books." --Dr. Ricardo García Cárcel, ABC
"In line with the great works by English-speaking historians on a similar theme, here is a total history of the events, without leaving anything out, no matter how insignificant." --Rafael Núñez Florencio, El Mundo
"Far from the hundreds of hagiographies and memoirs on the Spaniards who fought for Hitler against the USSR, The Blue Division by Xavier Moreno is the result of an investigation of Spanish, British and German archives . . . and from the oral testimonies of, among others, the minister and brother-in-law of Franco, Ramón Serrano Suñer." --Dr. Andreu Mayayo Artal, El Periódico
"Xavier Moreno is a solid investigator and a good writer who has based his book on unpublished Spanish and German documents . . . The book is entertaining, and its quality sources and solid investigation combine to make it a fascinating and definitive work." --Dr. Gabriel Cardona Escanero, Clío History Review
"Xavier Moreno Juliá has gone into the history of the Blue Division as never before: with rigorous and detailed investigation, avoiding ideological obsessions . . . Like a jigsaw puzzle, where one piece leads to another and yet another, Moreno Juliá has brought together eleven years of study." --La Razón
"Moreno Juliá knows it like nobody else and, in a study praised by his fellow historians, explains it with rigor and without prejudices in The Blue Division. Subtitled Spanish Blood in Russia, 1941-1945, it is a lesson in history." --La Vanguardia
"Doctor of contemporary history Xavier Moreno has proved with his book on the Blue Division that the study of detail illuminates much more. In this case he reveals the politics of this early step in Francoism." --El Faro de Vigo