Spanish Civil War military history book – “The People’s Army in the Spanish Civil War” (Pen & Sword Books, 2020) – Alex Clifford interview

Check out the book here https://amzn.to/3bxeXn6

Alexander Clifford is a history teacher and has a passion for study of the world wars. He delved into the Spanish Civil War and wrote a book about the Republican Army. We spoke about his new book. Check out the book here https://amzn.to/3bxeXn6

1:09 – Alex discusses how it got into studying and writing on the Spanish Civil War.

3:45 – Alex talks about the levels of hatred and killing during this war.

6:07 – Alex talks about how he breaks the book down. The focus is mainly on military history and the Republican military.

9:02 – Alex talks about the make up of both armies.

19:30 – Alex talks about what the Soviets took from the Republicans and what they gave in return.

23:45 – Alex talks about Soviet goals during the war and how the fighting was going in 1937. He also discusses the French-Soviet alliance.

32:24 – Alex talks about the communist element in the war.

39:38 – Alex talks about urban warfare and where the Republicans did best such as at Madrid.

42:52 – Alex talks about where the International Brigades came from and did.

45:16 – Alex talks about how the Republicans managed the foreign fighters.

47:12 – Alex talks about the make-up of the International Brigades.

51:31 – Alex talks about how black Americans commanded white Americans in this war.

54:13 – Alex talks about the sources for his research starting with the International Brigade literature. He took a more military history angle when looking at them.

1:00:39 – Alex talks about German and Russian documents about the war..

1:03:07 – Alex talks about the honesty of the reports he read.

1:06:14 – Alex talks about Spanish afternoon naps during the war.

1:09:00 – Alex talks about trying to assess the people’s army overall.

1:19:30 – Alex can be found on twitter @historysmost and he has a podcast titled “History’s Most.”

Links of interest

https://amzn.to/3bxeXn6

https://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/The-Peoples-Army-in-the-Spanish-Civil-War-Hardback/p/17104

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/id1482668168

https://twitter.com/HistorysMost

For more “Military History Inside Out” please follow me at www.warscholar.org, on Facebook at warscholar, on twitter at Warscholar, on youtube at warscholar1945 and on Instagram @crisalvarezswarscholar. Or subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts | Stitcher | Spotify

Guest: Alexander Clifford

Host: Cris Alvarez

Tags: military, history, military history, conflict, war, interview, non-fiction book, inter-war period, spanish civil war, world war one, WWII, Guernica, Picasso, facsism, communism, democracy, hitler, hemmingway, orwell, stalin, mussolini, ideological conflict, colonial warfare, russian civil war, international brigades, guerilla warfare, for whom the bell tolls, pan’s labyrinth, moroccan, morroco, spanish foreign legion, condor legion, messerschmit, stuka, blitzkreig, militia, WW1, t-26, poland, monarchy, republican, POUM, trotsky, may day, catalan, madrid, barcelona, artillery, felicia brown, clive of india, african-americans, oliver law, berkley, merriman, el campesino, comintern, soviet union, poland, red army, ww1

Check out the book here https://amzn.to/3bxeXn6

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Military History book unboxing – George Washington, WWII, and Ancient Greece

The video is up on youtube

Franklin & Washington
by Edward J. Larson, published by Harper Collins

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Three Days at the Brink
by Bret Baier, published by William Morrow

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The Life of Alcibiades
by Jacqueline de Romilly, translated by Elizabeth Trapnell Rawlings, published by Cornell University Press

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WWII military history book – “A Satellite Empire” (Cornell University Press, 2019) – Vladimir Solonari interview

Dr. Vladimir Solonari is a history professor at the University of Central Florida. He has written extensively on ethnic cleansing in Romania during WWII and we discussed his latest book on Romanian occupation of Transnistria in Ukraine during WWII. Check out the book here.

0:45 – Vladimir talks about why he is writing about Romanian occupation of Ukraine during WWII.

2:43 – Vladimir talks about the geography of the Ukrainian region the book focuses on.

5:58 – Vladimir talks about German post-WWII plans for this Ukrainian region had Germany won the war. Romania was trying to get Transylvania back.

8:18 – Vladimir talks about how the progress of Operation Barbarossa affected Romanian strategic plans for this region.

12:19 – Vladimir talks about how Romanian troops were deployed around the Eastern Front and used.

14:42 – Vladimir talks about Romanian elite troops known as “mountain shooters”.

15:30 – Vladimir talks about Romanian policing of the Transnistria region. He discusses Soviet created terrorist groups used to harass the Romanians. He also discusses local partisan groups.

22:35- Vladimir talks about how Romania conducted ethnic cleansing of Jews, Roma, Ukrainians, Bulgarians, and Hungarians and moved them to Transnistria. He also discusses how typhus spread through the camps.

27:05 – Vladimir talks about whether the Romanians used specialized troops to massacre ethnic prisoners.

29:55 – Vladimir talks about how some Romanian officers opposed ethnic cleansing. Ethnic German villages were willing to conduct ethnic cleansing in this region.

33:30 – Vladimir talks about how Romania wanted to show its power on the world stage and to Europe.

36:30 – Vladimir talks about German perceptions of Eastern Europe as an empty space that needed order.

38:07 – Vladimir talks about the archives he used for his research.

39:31 – Vladimir relates a story about an aspiring composer in Odessa who was living a double life and pining over a lost love.

46:05 – Vladimir talks about how the Romanian government withdrew their approval for him to use certain photographs in his book.

47:46 – Vladimir talks about visiting a museum and the catacombs of Odessa.

57:14 – Vladimir talks about the complexity of the whole situation.

59:58 – Vladimir tried to determine how much the German and Romanian occupation attitudes depended on racist ideas.

1:07:30 – Vladimir talks about the legalities that the Romanians applied to conducting their ethnic cleansing.

Links of interest

Check out the book here.

https://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/9781501743184/a-satellite-empire/

https://history.cah.ucf.edu/faculty-staff/?id=318

For more “Military History Inside Out” please follow me at www.warscholar.org, on Facebook at warscholar, on twitter at Warscholar, on youtube at warscholar1945 and on Instagram @crisalvarezswarscholar

Guests: Vladimir Solonari

Host: Cris Alvarez

Tags: military, history, military history, conflict, war, interview, non-fiction book, Romania, ukraine, world war ii, wwii, ethnic cleansing, Odessa, Russia, USSR, Germany, fascism, communism, transylvania, transnistria, Moldova, operation barbarossa, crimea, sevastopol, stalingrad, eastern front, Hitler, mountain shooters, spy networks, terrorists, intelligence, partisan, stukas, jewish, hungary, bulgaria, roma, typhus, Antonescu, police, gendarme, colonialism, US Holocaust Museum, Sviatoslav Richter, NKVD, cannibalism, Stalin, cornell