As a number of researchers have discovered, the online RGASPI archives in Moscow are currently inaccessible. Attempts to contact RGASPI to establish why the archives are down and when they might be up again have, so far, been unsuccessful. Mo [...]| Richard Baxell
I was very honoured to be asked to join PCS General Secretary Fran Heathcote as a speaker at the annual commemoration of the International Brigade Memorial Trust. As always, the ceremony was held in front of the national memorial in Jubilee Gar [...]| Richard Baxell
On 15 June 2024, I joined Professor Sir Paul Preston at the Marx Memorial Library in London for a launch of our latest books, both published by The Clapton Press. Both books are centred on Britain during the Spanish Civil War. Paul Preston's [...]| Richard Baxell
The Activist Voice, from the 1970s to the present day On 24 April 2024 (the 92nd anniversary of the Kinder Trespass), I joined a round-table discussion at The Bishopsgate Institute in London talking about the memorialisation of anti-fascis [...]| Richard Baxell
Image: Special Collections & Archives, UC San Diego Published by Clapton Press on 23 November 2023, Forged in Spain is a collection of ten biographies recounting the lives of a number of extraordinary men and women who left their families [...]| Richard Baxell
‘We English,’ Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin allegedly remarked, following the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War in July 1936, ‘hate fascism, but we loathe bolshevism as much. So, if there is somewhere where fascists and bolsheviks can kill eac [...]| Richard Baxell
On Sunday 26 September 2021, the respected and popular Trade Unionist, political activist and writer, Manus O’Riordan, died suddenly of a heart attack. Among many to pay tribute was the President of Ireland, Michael D. Higgins, who remarked tha [...]| Richard Baxell
Many years ago, when I was a PhD student researching the British volunteers, I was passed a memoir written by a young German who had fought alongside a group of English volunteers defending Madrid in the winter of 1936. The name of the young Ge [...]| Richard Baxell
Few people will look back on 2020 with much fondness, but the year did at least provide some solace for those with an interest in the Spanish Civil War. Giles Tremlett’s comprehensive account of the International Brigades was published in Novem [...]| Richard Baxell
In March 2006 Spanish police raided a number of homes and offices belonging to Jesus Gil, the mayor of Marbella and to Juan Antonio Roca, head of town planning. The police seized cash amounting to some 2.4 billion euros, much of it casually stu [...]| Richard Baxell
