George Orwell's Spanish Tales - "Truth is stranger than fiction"!
Written: Jul 30 '01
|
Product Rating:
|
|
|
Pros: An informative account of the Spanish Civil War.
Cons: You can get bogged down with the complexity of the situation.
The Bottom Line: This book graphically describes the daily grind of living in the trenches - the hunger, sleepless nights, dirt and lice.
|
|
|
| cr01's Full Review: George Orwell - Homage to Catalonia |
In late 1936, Orwell went to Spain to fight for the Spanish republican government against the forces of the fascist leader, General Franco.
Homage to Catalonia is Orwell's autobiographical account of his time in Spain.
The book concerns itself with two main subject matters:-
- the background to the Spanish Civil War, and
- Orwell's personal experiences while in the POUM forces (Partido Obrero de Unification Marxista).
The background to the Civil War is exceptionally complex, and you may feel to be of little interest some 65 years after the event. If so, Orwell helpfully tucks his observations into specific chapters, and actually suggests that the reader might want to skip the section!
While you can still read the remainder of the book by doing this, it can be difficult to appreciate what Orwell is explaining, without having some knowledge of the complexity of the main players in the war. In addition, his observations of the political manouvers of these main players, no doubt informed the subsequent writing of both Animal Farm and 1984.
In short, in the mid 1930's, the Spanish government was made up of a combination of political parties - the communists, liberals, marxists, and the anarchists (I am curious how the anarchists explained away this "difficult" position of being in government!).
This was a time of Revolution - farm lands had been taken from wealthy farm owners and passed to Anarchist collectives, factorys had been nationalised, and Marxist and Leninist Unions held control.
General Franco was a fascist military general, who with support from the military, the Roman Catholic church, the Italian government, and displaced landowners, decided to seize power in Spain by Civil War.
Each Union set up its own militia to fight Franco, and the Anarchists also set up a fighting force.
In these heady times, society was equal. Commanders received the same pay as privates, and decisions were open to debate! Although, this may not be the traditional way to run an army, Orwell insisted that the willingness of the force to defeat Franco, and continue with the Revolution, meant that it worked!
In Barcelona, barbers and shoe shine boys looked at you as an equal - Orwell experienced a glimpse of a truly socialist/ anarchist society where all appeared to be equal and all worked with a common goal - at this time the government army was staffed with willing volunteers, the fascists with conscripts.
Unfortunatly, for the government, the Communist faction were worried... this brand of socialism that had swept the country in general (and Catalonia in particular), actually gave power and profit to the people. In Marxist terms, they now controlled the means of production. This did not suit the Russian communists.
Only Russia and Mexico were prepared to send arms to the Spanish government to fight Franco. The communists controlled the supply of these weapons (the government republican forces were chronically short of guns and artillary), and starved the other units of supplies. This also ensured, that should the multi party Government win, the communists would be the best equipped out of the government parties.
The communists also argued for the merging of the armies against Franco for "efficiency" sake, and set up a merged, communist controlled "popular" army.
The popular press was dominated by communist newspapers, and stories soon appeared which suggested that the individual militias had failed, while the popular army had made great strides - in some reports Orwell noted that the same platoon were described as a militia, when it had failed, and a popular army regiment when it had suceeded!(these observations were no doubt still echo's when a decade later, Orwell wrote 1984).
Orwell believed that a democratic Spain suited the Russian communists. A lot of trade was conducted between the two nations, and a capitalist Spain which produced efficient cheap goods was most useful to the Russians. A truly socialist society in Spain on the other hand, was not, and the communists thus opposed the collectives and the nationalised industries, that had been formed. They were also concerned that they would not control a revolutionary Spain.
Orwell voluntered for action, and was posted to the goverments trenches facing the fascist troops.
Homage to Catalonia devotes many of its pages to a very descriptive account of his time here. He suggests that the smell of war is of excretment and decaying food (Orwell had a very developed sense of smell and often described smells in his work).
He also describes the wretched lack of equipment - the worn out shoes, torn uniforms, 50 year old and rusty rifles, and potentially lethal poorly made boombs and shells. He describes his first weeks where most injuries were as a result of overkeen fifteen year old volunteers causing accidents from handling these lethal weapons. Perhaps one of Orwell's biggest battles were against the infestations of body lice, that itched for attention during every waking hour!
Orwell describes the countless hours of waiting in the trenches, hunreds of yards from the enemy, and collecting firewood on almost tree stripped hills, to try to banish the cold and dampatmosphere, and of stealing potatos under fascist gunfire on a field close to enemy lines.
Neither side had the weapons or forces to advance, so for three months , Orwell waited... with just the stray bullet and shells to dodge. Propeganda was the most impressive weapon - the government troops would tell the starving young fascist conscripts that buttered toast was available (in fact the government troops had almost as little food), and described the joys of living in a classless society - apparently this combination was quite successful!
Finally, the men got orders to attack - the anarchists were planning to attack a few miles down the line, and the POUM, were needed to keep some fascist soldiers away from the real battleground - Orwell vividly describes the slow crawl through no mans land, imagining the bullet hitting him at any moment, making his skin hypersensitive.
Orwell also describes throwing a bomb at the enemy, and either killing or maiming a man - Orwell writes with a curious frankness and inevitability about this episode - the book was written scant months after the event.
Shortly after this event, Orwell was returned to Barcelona, wwhere the revolutionary fevour he left behind, had been replaced by the begining of a return to the old class society - shops and resturants had all manner of goods and food, if you could afford it, yet the poor starved - having just endured the doubling of basic food costs.
Orwell also witnessed the Barcelona fighting between the police and factions of the government supporters - the POUM and the anarachists. This gave the communists the excuse they needed - all militias were to be incorporated into the popular army, and the POUM was declaired to be a "trotskyist" organisation - no matter what Orwell and his commanders had done previously, they were now described as fascist colabators! In modern words - "hero to zero, in six months"!
This was the end of Orwell's Spanish adventures - he and his wife had to slip out of Spain very quickly!.
Orwell obviously found himself older and wiser after these experiences of war, papers, and politics, and this shaped his later writings.
Many of the later observations in Animal Farm, and 1984 was originally contained within Homage To Catalonia.
While Orwell's descriptions of the political background are at times quite complex with many initials used), he describes the complexity of the Spanish Civil War more clearly than any other book I have read.
When this is coupled with Orwell's detailed eye witness accounts of life in the trenches, and the revolutionary life and fighting in Barcelona, this is one excellent read.
Recommended:
Yes
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
cr01
|
 in Hotels & Travel |
 in Books |
 - Top 500 |
|
Member: Chris
Location: Yorkshire, England
Reviews written: 414
Trusted by: 366 members
About Me:
In Venice until Monday :o)
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.