Shapayev v Marshal Tito
This is a lovely little mystery surrounding the International Brigade. In simple terms there are those that strongly maintain that Shapayev (a commander of Dimitrov battalion – See Campaign Orders) later became Marshal Tito of Yugoslavia – a larger than life figure in the fight against the Nazi’s and the only individual ever capable of holding the Balkan states together. On the other hand the official Tito history says he never went anywhere near Spain.
What does everybody seem to agree on? Josep Broz Tito was involved in the Spanish Civil War in as much as he organised volunteers (mostly Serbian & Balkan) to be sent to Spain – he was working for Comintern (Communist International action group). He stayed in Paris several times in the late 1930’s (his Comintern base) and used false identities (Swedish, Canadian & others) to move around Europe.
- Official Tito history – never fought in Spain, never went further south than Paris or Brest. Wikipedia doesn’t mention anything about Spain nor do his biographers.
- Those that maintain Shapayev was Tito – Fred Copeman (ex International Brigade commander) in his book ‘Reason in Revolt’ published in 1948 very clearly makes the connection. He says ‘I am at a loss to understand why under the name Tito he now denies having served in Spain, maybe it is the party line.’ Bear in mind Copeman claims he met Tito in Paris in 1936 when volunteering and so would have recognised him in Spain. Robert Gordon in his book ‘The Civil War in Spain’ says the ‘International Brigade was lead by renowned generals... Marshal Tito of Yugoslavia.’ Spartacus says ‘he was a senior commander of the Dimitrov Battalion.’
In the photograph above, taken from ‘Reason in Revolt’ Copeman (third from left) says Shapayev (fifth from left) went on to become Marshal Tito.
- There are those who take a third position. Who Was Tito? - In Howard Fast's 1990 biography Being Red, (from 1944 to 1957, Howard Fast was a member of the Communist Party) Fast notes that some of his writings regarding Tito's involvement in the Spanish Civil War were highly problematic and likely inaccurate. This came to the forefront during his testimony before HUAC in 1946:
...I go by my own notes, since I no longer have the record, I did my best, explaining slowly and carefully, to make them understand that the Josip Broz in our records was not Tito, and that Tito had never been either to Spain or to France...To put together any kind of a reasonable story about Tito in 1943, with the scraps and fragments of information available to me, was nigh unto impossible.
Conclusion – There isn’t one! The controversy continues...