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Spain in the 1930s was a fractious country, with groups from left and
right committing political violence on a massive scale, and when, in 1936,
fascist army officers staged a coup against the democratically elected
government, outright civil war erupted.
While Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany supplied aid to the Rebels, the
democracies of Europe refused to help the government of Spain, and it
was left to Communist Russia and the foreign volunteers to support the
Republic.
The foreign volunteers in Spain were organised
as the International Brigades and saw much heavy fighting throughout the three
years of the war. Of the 2,000 or so Britons who fought in Spain, around a quarter
were Scots. One hundred and thirty four of the Scottish Brigaders lost their lives
in Spain, sixty-five of those hailing from the city of Glasgow.  | | La Pasionaria Memorial |
The
memorial was sculpted by the Communist artist Arthur Dooley in the mid-1970s and
was unveiled in 1977. The figure represented in the statue is Dolores Ibarruri,
better known as La Pasionaria, a fiery female politician from northern Spain,
who was a popular figure within the Republic and well-known abroad for her rousing
speeches in support of the Republic. A quotation from La Pasionaria is
written on the base of the statue: "Better to die on your feet than live
forever on your knees." The surviving members of the International
Brigades left Spain in early 1939 as it became obvious that a Fascist victory
was inevitable. La Pasionaria spoke these words at their farewell: "Comrades
of the International Brigades! Political reasons, reasons of state, the good of
that same cause for which you offered your blood with limitless generosity, send
some of you back to your countries and some to forced exile. You can go with pride.
You are history. You are legend. You are the heroic example of the solidarity
and the universality of democracy聟 We will not forget you; and, when the
olive tree of peace puts forth its leaves, entwined with the laurels of the Spanish
Republic's victory, come back!"
Directions: It's now a straight path all the way along to the Suspension
Bridge at the end of the walk.
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Introduction