Spain. The Spanish Civil War ends with the victory of Generalissimo Franco and his protectors, Mussolini and Hitler. The Spanish government is forced to surrender after Stalin withdraws military support and disbands the International Brigades. Stalin’s sudden about-face can be seen as a calculated change of course given the new international outlook. At the beginning of the war, he was fighting against Nazi-fascism, but then, after eliminating the anarchists and Trotskyists in Spain, and seeing the weakness of England and France, Stalin foresees a war that will be won by the Nazis, and therefore seeks to take the right side. A few months later, in August of the same year, the Ribbentrop-Molotov Pacts are signed, in which the Soviet Union and Germany enter into a non-aggression pact.
