Spain for us, we for Spain!

The mobilizing power of mottos, slogans or appeals, which briefly declared the motivation, attitudes, and central ideas of individuals or groups is commonly known. They contained both an internally unifying element and an external declaration. Thanks to their brevity and epic sound, they also regularly served as powerful battle cries, and were frequently utilized in the Spanish Civil War. The best-known Republican slogan was ¡No pasarán! (They shall not pass), which was also adopted by members of the International Brigades and remains one of the symbols of the Spanish Civil War to this day. However, in other countries, different slogans play this role in the legacy of the Civil War. Polish members of the IBs appropriated an older Polish appeal with a rich history of its own, Za wolność waszą i naszą (For your freedom and ours), while in Czechoslovakia a completely new motto was created.

The 1937 postcard shown here reads “Spain for us, we for Spain!”, but the slogan that would become iconic was "The fight for Madrid is the fight for Prague", first used by Klement Gottwald, then General Secretary of the Czechoslovak Communist Party. In a masterful media shorthand, it expressed the conviction that the fight against rising fascism was a pan-European issue, and that the war in Spain therefore had a much broader significance, far beyond the borders of the Iberian Peninsula.

Czechoslovak sympathizers of the Spanish Republican government believed that a Francoist victory would, among other things, further strengthen the authoritarian tendencies that were spreading across Central and Eastern Europe, where Czechoslovakia remained virtually the only island of democracy. More directly, Czechoslovakia was increasingly threatened by the Nazi regime in neighbouring Germany. Thus, the slogan expressed the conviction that the victory or defeat of the Spanish Republic would have an immediate impact on the situation of Czechoslovakia itself.

The simplicity, clarity, and profundity of its message fulfilled all the requirements of good propaganda. Nevertheless, the slogan did not become a symbol until after the war, when its power was further enhanced by the German annexation of Czechoslovakia in 1938 and World War II, which proved its prescience. It is no wonder that in the post-war historical narrative of the Spanish Civil War in Czechoslovakia, it surpassed even the central motto ¡No pasarán! in frequency and symbolical significance.

ZM