Behind Fascist Lines: A Firsthand Account of Guerrilla Warfare During the Spanish Revolution by Anna Starinov

Behind Fascist Lines: A Firsthand Account of Guerrilla Warfare During the Spanish Revolution by Anna Starinov is the memoirs of a Russian female volunteer who went to Spain as an interpreter. Most of the book is made up of her experiences training and going on missions with the Republican forces. There isn't much here from a tactics or strategy perspective but the conflicts between the Communists and Anarchists are described in great detail.

After being sent home due to medical issues she became a bureaucrat running special schools for Spanish orphans and the disabled. There are passing references to the purges but she does not go into detail whether she was considered suspect.

The text appears to have been written in the early 1980s but it is unclear whether it was published in Russia prior to the fall of communism. Strangely it has an index which is rather rare for memoirs.

Interesting, a female perspective being rather unusual for this conflict.

Recommended
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Is available through Abebooks.