Football as a tool of propaganda during the Spanish Civil War

Abstract

        Sport, and in particular football, often became a tool of political struggle. The creation of the Basque football team and its propaganda tour in Europe, the USSR and Latin America is one of the interesting pages of the history of  Spanish Civil War. In March 1937, Franco's forces shifted the brunt of the war to the north, their first target was the Basque Country. The heads of the Spanish Republic attached less importance to the northern front, therefore there was a catastrophic shortage of weapons, ammunition and food. The head of the Basque government, former football player José Antonio Aguirre, actively used this sport abroad for propaganda and to raise funds

          The tour started from neighboring France. The Basque victory was significant in sporting terms, but in political terms it was overshadowed by the bombing of Guernica. The speech given at the banquet by the head of the delegation, Manuel de la Sota, is interesting, For some researchers it was a public acknowledgment of Basque nationalism.  The propaganda task of the team was clearly revealed in Marseille.

    The first opponent of the Basques in Moscow was Lokomotiv, then Moscow Dinamo, the game with them ended with the victory of the Basques. After two wins in Moscow, the Soviet leadership could not hide its concern. The leadership wanted to take revenge. But, the second game against Dinamo ended 7:4. This hurt Stalin's self-respect, considering that Dinamo Moscow was a team of NKVD.

         In Georgia, the Basques were received with special warmth, the reason for this was not only Georgian hospitality, Nikolai Marr's popular theory about the kinship of the Basques and Georgians played a big role. Both games held in Tbilisi, the first against "Dinamo" and the second against the Georgian national team, ended with the victory of Basques.

          From a propaganda point of view, this tour of the Basques was important; it had, first of all, a political-agitational and then a sports load, and was also sufficiently accompanied by a nationalist coloration.