We Saw Spain Die

by Preston Paul

  Chapter 7: A Man of Influence

  1 Phillip Knightley, The First Casualty. The War Correspondent as Hero, Propagandist, and Myth Maker from the Crimea to Vietnam (London: André Deutsch, 1975), p. 194.

  2 Stephen Koch, Double Lives. Spies and Writers in the Secret Soviet War of Ideas against the West (New York: The Free Press, 1994), pp. 27, 286, 306.

  3 Justo Martínez Amutio, Chantaje a un pueblo (Madrid: G. del Toro, 1974), pp. 367–71. On the long-term origins and consequences of the May Days, see Helen Graham, ‘“Against the State”: A Genealogy of the Barcelona May Days (1937)’, in European History Quarterly, vol. 29, no. 4, 1999, and Helen Graham, The Spanish Republic at War 1936–1939 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002), pp. 254–315.

  4 Stanley G. Payne, The Spanish Civil War, The Soviet Union, and Communism (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2004), p. 349.

  5 SIS Report on Fischer, 22 December 1939, Security and intelligence records releases, National Archives, Kew, Personal [PF Series] files. KV2/1910, 125A; Louis Fischer, Men and Politics. An Autobiography (London: Jonathan Cape, 1941), pp. 230–3.

  6 Lestchenko to Fischer, 12 May 1931, 18 April 1932 (Box 7, Folder 14, Louis Fischer Papers), Seeley G. Mudd Manuscript Library, Princeton University (henceforth Fischer Papers). The story of Tatiana Lestchenko was recounted in Washington Post, 12 June 1949, and in George Fischer to Nancy Bressler, 12 March 1976 (also Box 7, Folder 14).

  7 Fischer, Men and Politics, pp. 60–3.

  8 Kirchwey to Fischer, 7 December 1920, Fischer Papers, Box 6, Folder 12.

  9 Fischer, Men and Politics, pp. 70–1, 89–91, 99–100, 115, 306.

  10 Fischer, Men and Politics, pp. 184–93.

  11 Fischer to Kirchwey, 21 September 1934, Fischer Papers, Box 6, Folder 12.

  12 Malcolm Muggeridge, Chronicles of Wasted Time. An Autobiography (Vancouver: Regent College Publishing, 2006), pp. 242–50.

  13 Fischer to Kirchwey, 1 January 1934, Fischer Papers, Box 6, Folder 12; Sara Alpern, Freda Kirchwey: A Woman of The Nation (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1987), p. 118.

  14 S.J. Taylor, Stalin’s Apologist. Walter Duranty: The New York Times’s Man in Moscow (New York: Oxford University Press, 1990), pp. 227, 235–7; Fischer, Men and Politics, pp. 208–29.

  15 Fischer, Men and Politics, pp. 119–21.

  16 Fischer, Men and Politics, pp. 124–43, 146–8, 204–6.

  17 Fischer, Men and Politics, pp. 149–51, 155–6, 200–1.

  18 Liddell to IPI, 27 September 1934, Security and intelligence records releases, Personal [PF Series] files, KV2/984, 173A.

  19 Fischer, Men and Politics, p. 155; Fischer to Kuh, 21 April 1934, Security and intelligence records releases, Personal [PF Series] files, KV2/984, 165A.

  20 Fischer to Kirchwey, 1, 7 March, 4 April 1934, Fischer Papers, Box 6, Folder 12.

  21 On Largo Caballero and Araquistáin, see Paul Preston, The Coming of the Spanish Civil War: Reform Reaction and Revolution in the Second Spanish Republic 1931–1936, 2nd edn (London: Routledge, 1994), passim; ‘Prólogo’, Leviatán: antología (Madrid: Ediciones Turner, 1976); ‘The Struggle against Fascism in Spain: The Contradictions of the PSOE Left’, in European Studies Review, vol. 9, no. 1, 1979; Marta Bizcarrondo, Araquistain y la crisis socialista en la II República. Leviatán (1934–1936) (Madrid: Siglo XXI, 1975); Leviatán y el socialismo de Luis Araquistain (Glashütten im Taunus: Auvermann, 1974).

  22 Fischer, Men and Politics, pp. 242–5.

  23 Louis Fischer, ‘Class War in Spain’, The Nation, 18 April 1934; Fischer, Men and Politics, pp. 245–7; Spanish diary, manuscript, pp. 58–9, Fischer Papers, Box 25, Folder 2.

  24 Fischer (Moscow) to Kirchwey, 30 September, 7 November; Kirchwey to Fischer, 22 October 1935, Box 10, Folder 169, Freda Kirchwey Papers, Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, Harvard University (henceforth Kirchwey Papers); Fischer (Geneva) to Kirchwey, 24 October, from Paris, 26 November 1934, Fischer Papers, Box 6, Folder 12.

  25 Fischer, Men and Politics, pp. 249–83, 294–5.

  26 Fischer to Kirchwey, 31 August 1935, Fischer Papers, Box 6, Folder 12; Kirchwey to Fischer, 9, 24 December 1935, 23 January, 26 February, 7 May 1936; Fischer to Kirchwey, from Vienna, 16 December 1935, from Moscow, 29 January, from Madrid, 10 April 1936 (all Kirchwey Papers, Box 10, Folder 169).

  27 Fischer to Kirchwey, 4 April 1936, Fischer Papers, Box 6, Folder 12; Kirchwey to Fischer, 7 May 1936 (Kirchwey Papers, Box 10, Folder 169).

  28 Fischer (Madrid) to Kirchwey, 10 April 1936, Kirchwey Papers, Box 10, Folder 169; Jay Allen, ‘Fragment of Memoirs’, papers of Dean Michael Allen; Louis Fischer in Richard Crossman (ed.), The God That Failed. Six Studies in Communism (London: Hamish Hamilton, 1950), p. 219; Fischer, Men and Politics, p. 309.

  29 Fischer to Kirchwey, 4 April 1936, Fischer Papers, Box 6, Folder 12 (from Genoa), 17 April 1936; Kirchwey to Fischer, 7 May 1936, Kirchwey Papers, Box 10, Folder 169.

  30 Fischer, The God, p. 219.

  31 Fischer, Spanish Diary, p. 12.

  32 Fischer, Spanish Diary, pp. 20–30.

  33 Fischer, Spanish Diary, pp. 32, 36–7.

  34 Lester Ziffren, diary entry for 21 September 1936, ‘Diary of a Civil War Correspondent’, Ziffren Papers; Fischer, Spanish Diary, pp. 42–5, 50; Men and Politics, p. 341.

  35 Fischer, Spanish Diary, pp. 45–6; Men and Politics, pp. 342–3.

  36 Fischer, Spanish Diary, pp. 53–8.

  37 Fischer, Spanish Diary, pp. 69–74.

  38 Gerda Grepp correspondence with Fischer, Fischer papers, Box 4, Folder 29; Fischer, Men and Politics, pp. 363, 365.

  39 Markoosha to Fischer, 18 October 1938, Fischer Papers, Box 41, Folder 2.

  40 Fischer, Spanish Diary, pp. 79–83; Jay Allen, ‘U.S. Boy Bomber, Wet-eyed, Tells a Story of War’, Chicago Daily Tribune, 30 September 1936.

  41 Chicago Daily Tribune, 1, 11 October 1936; Hull to Wendelin, 12 October, Wendelin to Hull, 13 October, 6 November 1936, Foreign Relations of the United States 1936, vol. II (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1954), pp. 735–7, 752–3; H. Edward Knoblaugh, Correspondent in Spain (London and New York: Sheed &Ward, 1937), pp. 114–15; Judith Keene, Fighting for Franco. International Volunteers in Nationalist Spain during the Spanish Civil War, 1936–1939 (London: Leicester University Press, 2001), pp. 95–9.

  42 Fischer, Spanish Diary, pp. 84–7; Louis Fischer, ‘On Madrid’s Front Line’, The Nation, 24 October 1936. See Chapter 1.

  43 Fischer, Spanish Diary, pp. 90, 94.

  44 Fischer, Men and Politics, p. 309.

  45 Fischer, Men and Politics, p. 352.

  46 Fischer, Spanish Diary, pp. 95–101.

  47 Fischer, Spanish Diary, pp. 102–4; Fischer, Men and Politics, pp. 352–7. On Asensio, see Antonio Cordón, Trayectoria (Recuerdos de un artillero) (Paris: Colección Ebro, 1971), pp. 261–2.

  48 ‘Examination of Louis Fischer by Laurence G. Parr, Investigator’, pp. 3, 11, in Fischer Papers, Series 2, Subject Correspondence, Box 16, Folder 1, ‘International Journeys and Correspondence: Spain (1936–1939, 1949)’.

  49 Louis Fischer, ‘On Madrid’s Front Line’, The Nation, 24 October 1936.

  50 Louis Fischer, ‘Madrid’s Foreign Defenders’, The Nation, 4 September 1937.

  51 ‘Examination of Louis Fischer’, p. 3.

  52 Martínez Amutio, Chantaje, pp. 368–9; ‘Examination of Louis Fischer’, pp. 3–4; Fischer, Men and Politics, pp. 366–80.

  53 Babette Gross, Willi Münzenberg. A Political Biography (East Lansing, MI: Michigan State University Press, 1974), p. 306.

  54 Katz’s secretary to Isabel Brown, 1 March 1937, Security and intelligence records releases, Personal [PF Series] files. KV2/1910, 88A.

  55 Louis Fischer, ‘Madrid Keeps Its Nerve’, The Nation, 7 November 1936.

  56 Louis Fischer, ‘Under Fire in Madrid’, The Nation, 12 December 1936.

  57 Fischer to Kirchwey, 16 December 1936, Fischer Papers, B
ox 6, Folder 12.

  58 Louis Fischer, ‘The Loyalists Push Ahead’, The Nation, 1 January 1938.

  59 Louis Fischer, ‘Can Madrid Hold On?’, The Nation, 16 January 1937.

  60 Louis Fischer, ‘Keeping America Out of War’, The Nation, 27 March 1937.

  61 Uritsky Report to Voroshilov on visit by Fischer, reprinted in Ronald Radosh, Mary R. Habeck and Grigory Sevostianov (eds), Spain Betrayed. The Soviet Union in the Spanish Civil War (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2001), pp. 108–20; Fischer, Men and Politics, pp. 381–6, 391.

  62 Louis Fischer, ‘Can Madrid Hold On?’, ‘The Road to Peace’, The Nation, 16 January 1937, 26 February 1938; Men and Politics, pp. 390–1.

  63 Louis Fischer, Why Spain Fights On (London: Union of Democratic Control, 1938).

  64 Campbell to Fischer, undated, Fischer Papers.

  65 There is a voluminous correspondence with Eleanor Roosevelt in the Fischer Papers, Series 1 General Correspondence, Box 10, Folder 19; Fischer to Director of United Press, 16 April 1937; Fischer to Director of Le Temps, 23 August 1938; Fischer to Editor of New Republic, 2 September 1938; Bowers to Fischer, 18 February 1939, Fischer Papers, Series 2, Subject Correspondence, Box 16, Folder 1; Fischer, Men and Politics, pp. 392, 453–65.

  66 Fischer, Men and Politics, p. 371.

  67 Fischer, Men and Politics, p. 336.

  68 Louis Fischer, ‘Loyalist Spain Gathers Its Strength’, The Nation, 3 July 1937.

  69 Jan Kurzke and Kate Mangan, ‘The Good Comrade’, pp. 104–6 (unpublished ms, Jan Kurzke Papers, Archives of the International Institute for Social History, Amsterdam), p. 416.

  70 Bowler to Wintringham, 22, 28 June 1937, Russian Centre for the Preservation and Study of Recent Historical Documents, Moscow, Fond. 545, Opus 6, 216 (copy held by International Brigades Memorial Trust, London) (henceforth RCPSRHD/IBMT).

  71 Fischer to Kirchwey, 6, 20 July 1937, Fischer Papers, Box 6, Folder 12. He refrained from referring to their conversation until he published ‘Internal Politics in Spain’, The Nation, 30 October 1937, and mentioned both it and the interview with Azaña in Fischer, Men and Politics, pp. 393–403.

  72 The two articles were published as ‘Loyalist Spain Gathers Its Strength’ and ‘Loyalist Spain Takes the Offensive’, The Nation, 3, 17 July 1937.

  73 Louis Fischer, ‘Franco Cannot Win’, The Nation, 7 August 1937.

  74 Freda’s comments in Kirchwey to Fischer, 14, 28 July, 17 August; Fischer’s reply, Fischer (Moscow) to Kirchwey, 5 August 1937, Kirchwey Papers, Box 10, Folder 171.

  75 Fischer, Men and Politics, pp. 409–19.

  76 Katz’s secretary to Isabel Brown, 1 March 1937, Security and intelligence records releases, Personal [PF Series] files. KV2/1910, 88A.

  77 Kirchwey to Fischer, 28 July; Fischer (Paris) to Kirchwey, 17 August 1937, Kirchwey Papers, Box 10, Folder 171.

  78 Fischer, Men and Politics, pp. 425–8; Fischer (Geneva) to Kirchwey, 15 September 1937, Kirchwey Papers, Box 10, Folder 171.

  79 Negrín to Bowers, 20 September 1937, Papers of Claude Bowers, Lilly Library, Indiana University (henceforth Bowers Papers); Fischer, Men and Politics, p. 430.

  80 Louis Fischer, ‘Internal Politics in Spain’, The Nation, 30 October 1937.

  81 Fischer notes on ‘October 1937 Benicasim visit with Negrín’; Fischer to Negrín, 7 October 1937, Fischer Papers, Series 1 General Correspondence, Box 8, Folder 29.

  82 Louis Fischer, ‘Paris in the Crisis’, The New Statesman and Nation, 26 March 1938.

  83 Fischer to Katz, 24 November 1937, intercepted by the Secret Intelligence Service, DGW to Major Vivian, 27 November 1937, Security and intelligence records releases, Personal [PF Series] files. KV2/1910, 95A, KV2/1383, 228A; Fischer, Men and Politics, pp. 439–42.

  84 Katz to Isabel Brown, 27 January 1938, Security and intelligence records releases, Personal [PF Series] files. KV2/1910, 99A; Fischer, Men and Politics, pp. 446–9.

  85 Herbert L. Matthews, The Education of a Correspondent (New York: Harcourt Brace, 1946), pp. 123–8; Fischer, Men and Politics, pp. 449–51.

  86 Louis Fischer, ‘Barcelona Holds Out’, The Nation, 2 April 1938.

  87 Louis Fischer, ‘A Cable from the Front’, The Nation, 23 April; ‘Catalonia Fights On’, The New Statesman and Nation, 30 April 1938.

  88 Louis Fischer, ‘Spain Won’t Surrender’, The Nation, 30 April 1938.

  89 Fischer, The God, pp. 221–2; Fischer, Men and Politics, pp. 466–73, 500, 551–4.

  90 Louis Fischer, ‘Spain’s Tragic Anniversary’, 30 July 1938; Men and Politics, pp. 502–9.

  91 Fischer to Kirchwey, 16 August 1938, Fischer Papers, Box 6, Folder 12; Louis Fischer, ‘The War in Spain’, The New Statesman and Nation, 20 August; ‘The Drive Along the Ebro’, The Nation, 3 September 1938; Men and Politics, p. 511.

  92 Louis Fischer, ‘Peace on Earth, Good Will to Men’, The New Statesman and Nation, 10 December; ‘Peace on Earth’, The Nation, 24 December 1938.

  93 Fischer, Men and Politics, pp. 548–9.

  94 ‘Examination of Louis Fischer’, pp. 4–9; Bowers to Hull, 1 April, Bullitt to Hull, 26 May, 10 June, 27 June, Murphy to Hull, 8 August 1938, Foreign Relations of the United States 1938, vol. 1 (Washington, DC: United States Government Printing Office, 1955), pp. 279, 287, 294, 304–7, 317.

  95 Selligman to Fischer, 15 February, 17 March 1937, Fischer Papers. There are several receipts for sums ranging from $15,000 to one million French francs in his papers, dated from 30 July 1938 to 25 April 1939, signed by David Amariglio and Peter C. Rhodes (representatives of the Friends of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade, see New York Times, 9 October 1938); Fischer to White, 25 October 1938; Friends of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade pamphlet $125 will bring one wounded boy home! (Fischer Papers, Series 2, Subject Correspondence, Box 16, Folder 1). Peter N. Carroll, The Odyssey of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade: Americans in the Spanish Civil War (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1994), p. 219.

  96 Francisco Franco Bahamonde, Palabras del Caudillo 19 abril 1937–7 diciembre 1942 (Madrid: Ediciones de la Vicesecretaría de Educación Popular, 1943), p. 476.

  97 Louis Fischer, ‘Thirty Months of War in Spain’, The Nation, 7 January 1939.

  98 Louis Fischer, ‘Spain’s Final Tragedy’, 18 March 1939.

  99 Eleanor Roosevelt to Jay Allen, 7 March, 10, 22 July, 17 August 1940 (Rayner Special Collections Library, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire).

  100 Katz to Brown, 28 August 1938, letter intercepted by SIS, Security and intelligence records releases, Personal [PF Series] files, KV2/1384, 264A.

  101 Fischer to Allen, 24 November 1938; Fischer to Otto Simon (pseudonym of Katz), 19 January 1939, Fischer Papers, Series 2, Subject Correspondence, Box 16, Folder 1.

  102 Fischer, Men and Politics, pp. 565, 568–9; Alpern, Freda Kirchwey, p. 134.

  103 Foreign Office Minutes (Mr Kirkpatrick), 10 October 1939, FO 371/23074/C16202/3356/18; Fischer, Men and Politics, pp. 582–90.

  104 SIS Reports on Fischer, 25 September, 9 December, 22 December 1939, Security and intelligence records releases, Personal [PF Series] files. KV2/1910, 115A, 124A, 125A.

  105 SIS Report on Fischer, 20 November 1939, Security and intelligence records releases, Personal [PF Series] files. KV2/1910, 123A.

  106 Report on Fischer, 2 October 1939, Security and intelligence records releases, Personal [PF Series] files. KV2/1910, 118A.

  107 The Times, 23 July 1941.

  108 Extracts from telephone check, Kuh to Fischer, 18 September 1941. Security and intelligence records releases, Personal [PF Series] files. KV2/985, 333A.

  109 Fischer to Azcárate, 9 August 1941, Security and intelligence records releases, Personal [PF Series] files. KV2/1910, 132C.

  110 Memorandum ‘Building up a Prime Minister’, 5 August 1941, Security and intelligence records releases, Personal [PF Series] files. KV2/1910, 132X.

  111 SIS Report on Fischer, 21 September 1941, Security and intelligence records releases, Pers
onal [PF Series] files. KV2/1910, 138A.

  112 SIS Report on Fischer, 30 September 1941, Security and intelligence records releases, Personal [PF Series] files. KV2/1910, 142A.

  113 Alpern, Freda Kirchwey, p. 137.

  114 Louis Fischer, ‘Still the Enigma’, Saturday Review of Literature, 6 December 1941; Taylor, Stalin’s Apologist, p. 298.

  115 Markoosha to Fischer, 23 September 1940, undated letter, Fischer Papers, Box 41, Folder 4.

  116 Mollie Oliver to Fischer, 13 December 1942, undated Spring, 6, 12 May 1943, Box 9, Folder 2, Fischer Papers.

  117 Diana Sheean to Fischer, 11 May 1951, Fischer Papers, Box 11, Folder 19.

  118 Alpern, Freda Kirchwey, pp. 145–7; Louis Fischer, A Week with Gandhi (London: Allen & Unwin, 1943); Gandhi and Stalin: Two Signs at the World’s Crossroads (New York: Harper, 1947); The Life of Mahatma Gandhi (New York: Harper, 1950).

  119 Alpern, Freda Kirchwey, pp. 162–4.

  120 Fischer to Luisi del Vayo, 5 June 1952, Fischer Papers, Box 12, Folder 43.

  121 Edward P. Gazur, Secret Assignment. The FBI’s KGB General (London: St Ermin’s Press, 2001), pp. 315–16.

  122 John Costello and Oleg Tsarev, Deadly Illusions (New York: Crown Publishers, 1993), pp. 340–53, 478–80.

  123 Obituary in The Times, 23 January 1970.

  124 The Times, 1 February 1985.

  125 ‘Dede’ (Deirdre Randall) to Fischer, undated (1957), Box 10, Folder 1, Fischer Papers.

  126 Svetlana Alliluyeva to Fischer, 5 April, 14 June 1968, Box 1, Folder 7, Fischer Papers.

  127 Alliluyeva to Fischer, 17 September 1968, Box 1, Folder 7; Randall to Fischer, 22 October (1968), Box 10, Folder 4, Fischer Papers.

  128 Patricia Blake, ‘The Saga of Stalin’s “Little Sparrow”. Svetlana’s Tormented Journey from East to West and Back Again’, Time Magazine, 28 January 1985. A slightly different version of the same article, ‘Svetlana – Embraced by Stalin’s Ghost’, was published in The Times, 1 February 1985.

  129 Deirdre Randall to Fischer, undated, Box 10, Folder 1, Fischer Papers.