Czech-language literature
Monographs
MARŠÁLEK, Zdenko – VORÁČEK, Emil a kol. Interbrigadisté, Československo a španělská občanská válka: Neznámé kapitoly z historie československé účasti v občanské válce ve Španělsku 1936–1939. Praha: Historický ústav AV ČR; Ústav pro soudobé dějiny AV ČR, 2017. 330 s. ISBN 978-80-7286-312-9 (HIÚ); ISBN 978-80-7285-206-2 (ÚSD).
The volume focuses on lesser-known or often overlooked aspects of the Spanish Civil War and the International Brigades, with particular emphasis on the life trajectories of Czechoslovak volunteers. It adopts an interdisciplinary approach, bringing together contributions from scholars across a range of social science disciplines.
The book is structured into two main parts. The first situates the conflict within the broader context of contemporary Spanish, international, and Czechoslovak politics, addressing foreign intervention and the attitudes of the great powers toward the war. It also includes a historiographical overview highlighting the diversity of approaches, methods, and interpretations in current scholarship.
The second part turns to the Czechoslovak members of the International Brigades, focusing on their personal experiences before and after their involvement in the Spanish conflict. Particular attention is paid to the challenges of clandestine recruitment in Czechoslovakia, their activities during the Second World War, and their post-war trajectories—both after the liberation of Czechoslovakia and following the communist takeover in 1948.
The cultural resonance of the Spanish Civil War is addressed in a separate thematic section, which includes an overview chapter on Czech (Czechoslovak) translated literature related to the conflict, as well as a collection of reproduced posters from the war held in the collections of the National Archives in Prague.
The collective monograph is further supplemented by facsimiles from Russian archives, presenting aggregate statistical data on International Brigade members compiled in 1940 for the Comintern.
RAJLICH, Jiří a MAJTENYI, David. Jan Ferák a ti druzí: českoslovenští letci, interbrigadisté a letouny v občanské válce ve Španělsku 1936-1939. Cheb: Svět křídel, 2012. ISBN 978-80-87567-07-4.
More than 2,200 Czechoslovak citizens fought in the International Brigades in Spain. Among foreign volunteers, they formed the eighth largest contingent, after the French, Italians, Poles, Americans, Germans, Yugoslavs, and Belgians. Alongside infantrymen, artillerymen, tank crews, and medical personnel, there were also pilots among them.
Names such as Ferák, Bolfík, Král, Vejvoda, John, Gabula, Soušek, and Taláš were once celebrated by communist propaganda. Were they truly committed anti-fascist fighters who, as was claimed, recognized earlier than others where their duty lay? Or were they mercenaries, adventurers, and desperados, as their critics argued?
What, in fact, brought them to Spain, and how did they get there? How did they perform in combat? And what became of them afterward? Did they all really serve as pilots? Did the legendary Jan Ferák truly shoot down seven, or even sixteen, Francoist aircraft over Madrid, as has long been claimed both at home and abroad? What is the truth about his own downing over Mallorca, and his alleged interrogations by the Gestapo in Berlin?
MAJTENYI, David a RAJLICH, Jiří. Říkali jim Španěláci. Cheb: Svět křídel, 2022. ISBN 978-80-7573-099-2.
More than 2,200 Czechoslovak citizens fought in the International Brigades in Spain. Among foreign volunteers, they formed the eighth largest contingent, after the French, Italians, Poles, Americans, Germans, Yugoslavs, and Belgians. They were simply known as “the Spaniards.” The label might suggest that their lives followed a broadly similar path, or at least shared a common pattern.
Although most of them were indeed drawn to the Iberian Peninsula by comparable motives, the reality, especially in the years that followed, was far more varied in the turbulent context of the twentieth century. The vast majority of those who survived Spain, the battlefields of the Second World War, as well as Nazi prisons and concentration camps, returned home in 1945 to a country where a “people’s democracy” was beginning to take shape.
Many were members of the Communist Party, and it is hardly surprising that a number of them soon became part of its emerging praetorian guard. From the many “Spaniard” stories, we have selected four, three Czech and one Slovak, primarily those of committed communists. Their lives were exceptional, yet in many ways also broadly representative of the wider group, unquestionably dramatic and in every case marked by sharp rises and sudden falls.
Bohuslav Laštovička, Ladislav Holdoš, Josef Pavel, and Osvald Závodský, four well-known names. But do we truly know them?
MOTL, Stanislav. Peklo pod španělským nebem: Čechoslováci ve španělské občanské válce 1936-1939. Praha: Rybka Publishers, 2017. ISBN 978-80-87950-47-0.
Decades later, Stanislav Motl set out for Spain to trace the remnants of long-forgotten battles, to search for graves buried by time, and to uncover stories and lives that had faded into obscurity. This book is the result.
“I was also inspired to write this book by a fairly well-known figure in the Czech Republic who once claimed that those who fought and died in the International Brigades during the Spanish Civil War of 1936 to 1939 were ‘nothing more than Stalin’s henchmen and mercenaries of the Comintern.’ At that moment, I began recalling, one by one, the former interbrigadists and sometimes even their family members whom I had met over the decades.
I found myself revisiting their memories of the bloody battles they had endured in Spain. I could almost hear again their recollections of what came after the war, including accounts of the prisons into which some of them were thrown after 1948. It was then that my decision began to take shape. Just a few weeks later, I was on my way to Spain to investigate, to discover, to film, and to write. I wanted to try, directly on the ground where it all happened, to better understand what had really taken place. More journeys followed.”
Studies
Jiří RAJLICH – David MAJTENYI: Legenda o republikánském leteckém esu Janu Ferákovi 1. část, Historie a vojenství, č. 1/2008, s. 4–34.
Jiří RAJLICH – David MAJTENYI: Legenda o republikánském leteckém esu Janu Ferákovi 2. část, Historie a vojenství, č. 2/2008, s. 4–31.
Jiří RAJLICH – David MAJTENYI: Export a využití československé letecké výzbroje v občanské válce ve Španělsku 1936–1939 1. část, Historie a vojenství č. 1/2012, s. 4–35.
Jiří RAJLICH – David MAJTENYI: Export a využití československé letecké výzbroje v občanské válce ve Španělsku 1936–1939 2. část, Historie a vojenství č. 2/2012, s. 4–29.
Jiří RAJLICH – David MAJTENYI: Vojenský a zalétávací pilot, interbrigadista Andrej Beleš (1899–1952), Než podmaníme vzduch… Zalétávací a zkušební piloti a výzkumné ústavy, Národní technické muzeum, Praha 2012, s. 109–124.
Jiří RAJLICH – David MAJTENYI: Leutnant Hans Sobotka aneb český letec sestřelen nad Bilbaem?, Historie a vojenství č. 1/2013, s. 86–97.
Jiří RAJLICH – David MAJTENYI: Jan Ferak: As de la aviación republicana. Mitos y realidades, Revista Espaňola de Historia Militar N°135 (2013), s. 61–73.
Jiří RAJLICH – David MAJTENYI: Říkalo se jim „španěláci“ – Českoslovenští interbrigadisté ve Španělsku 1936–1939, Válka REVUE č. 6/2014, s. 38–43.
Jiří RAJLICH – David MAJTENYI: Dělostřelci, tankisté, letci – Českoslovenští interbrigadisté ve Španělsku 1936–1939, Válka REVUE č. 7-8/2014, s. 26–30.
Jiří RAJLICH – David MAJTENYI: Vzestup a pád „španěláků“ – Českoslovenští interbrigadisté ve Španělsku 1936–1939, Válka REVUE č. 9/2014, s. 36–38.
Jiří RAJLICH – David MAJTENYI: Španělská stopa generála Josefa Pavla, Historie a vojenství č. 3/2016, s. 39–72.
David MAJTENYI: Osobnost Osvalda Závodského (1910–1954) s důrazem na jeho účast v občanské válce ve Španělsku, Moderní dějiny 24 č. 2/2016, s. 183–220.
David MAJTENYI: Španělská občanská válka (1936–1939) v dokumentech Archivu Národního muzea, Časopis Národního muzea. Řada historická 185 (3–4), s. 3–18.
David MAJTENYI: Od interbrigadisty k palubnímu střelci 311. peruti RAF – rotný Rudolf Bolfík (1913–1941), Moderní dějiny 25 č. 2/2017, s. 105–122.
David MAJTENYI: Z letových zápisníků rotmistra letectva Eduarda Šimka (1903–1957), Časopis Národního muzea. Řada historická 186 (1–2), s. 67–88.
David MAJTENYI: Ladislav Holdoš: interbrigadista ze Španělska jako „buržoazní nacionalista“ v procesu s Gustávem Husákem, Moderní dějiny 26 č. 2/2018, s. 161–203.
David MAJTENYI: „La senda espinosa de la vida del interbrigadista Rudolf Bolfík (1913–1941)“, Ibero-Americana Pragensia. AÑO XLVI – NÚMERO 2 – 2019 – PP. 19–39.
Jiří RAJLICH – David MAJTENYI: Bývalý dělostřelec ve službách strany, státu a parlamentu – Generál Bohuslav Laštovička (1905–1981) 1. část. Historie a vojenství č. 2/2019, s. 66–95.
Jiří RAJLICH – David MAJTENYI: Bývalý dělostřelec ve službách strany, státu a parlamentu – Generál Bohuslav Laštovička (1905–1981) 2. část. Historie a vojenství č. 3/2019, s. 60–93.
David MAJTENYI: Na československém nebi i ve španělských zákopech – Rudolf John (1912–2000). Marginalia Historica 2/2023, s. 9–57.