USSR assistance in Spanish Civil War

The Red Army played a crucial role in the Spanish Civil War, supplying over 1,000 aircraft, 900 tanks, 1,500 artillery pieces, 300 armored cars, hundreds of thousands of small arms and 30,000 tons of ammunition to the Republican cause.

Soviet participation in the Spanish Civil War was greatly influenced by the growing tension between Stalin and Adolf Hitler, the leader of Nazi Germany and an avid supporter of the fascist forces of Francisco Franco. Nazi-Soviet relations were tempered by Hitler's personal hatred of the people of East Europe and by the longstanding ideological feud between fascism and communism.

On this day 80 years ago - 26 September 1936 - began the first truly large-scale supply of Soviet arms abroad - in the form of military assistance to the Spanish Republican government.

From memos USSR People's Commissar of Defense KE Voroshilov:

.. "" 26 / IX 1936 15 h 45 m Called t C. [talin] C. with [eyes] and offered to discuss.:

1) Sale 80-100 "Vickers" system of tanks with sending the required number of staff. On tanks should be no signs of owls. [Etskih] plants.

2) Sell through Mexico 50-60 "SB" by arming their foreign guns.

Questions to discuss urgently. HF "

The next day, September 27, 1936 KE Voroshilov reported IV Stalin:

"Prepared to send 100 tanks, 387 professionals; send 30 aircraft without guns, 15 planes full crews, bombs steamer goes to Mexico and goes to Cartagena Tanks send 50 units...."

In fact, as already September 26, 1936 from Feodosia in Cartagena came the first vessel, which would then be specified by the transport Y-1 - Spanish tanker the Campeche, on board, in addition to oil in the cargo tanks, and was the first batch of weapons transferred by the Soviet side: six English 114 -mm howitzer Mk I and 6000 shells for them, 240 German 16-linear-propelled grenades and 100 thousand grenades to them, 350 heavy machine guns St. Etienne, Colt and Vickers, 200 light machine guns MG 08/15 and Hotchkiss, 21347 rifles (2000 German 7.92 mm Mauser, 6000 Austrian 8mm Manlicher, 13347 singly Italian 11-mm Vetterli), 16,5 million different rifle cartridges. The vessel arrived in Cartagena on October 4.

Loading tanker Campeche According to the military cargo was determined to send another 6 September 1936 IV Stalin a telegram from Sochi to Moscow LM Kaganovich:

"It would be good to sell 50 pieces of SB Mexico to Mexico immediately resold them to Spain. You could also pick up 20 people of our good pilots, so they performed in Spain fighting functions, and at the same time taught flights on the SAT Spanish pilots. Consider the case quickly. It would be the same way to sell 20 thousand rifles, machine guns and a thousand million 20 cartridge. It is only necessary to know the gauges.

Stalin. Number 34. 6 / 1H.36 city "

Transport Y-2 - Soviet ship "Komsomol" - with 50 T-26 tanks on board came from Theodosia October 4, 1936 and arrived in Cartagena 12 October.
September 29, 1936 at a meeting of the Politburo of the CPSU (b) adopted a formal decision to have surgery «X»:

"NGOs Question

a) approve the plan of operations for the delivery of personnel and special machines in the "X", the full implementation of entrusting operations to Comrades Uritskogo [Chief Intelligence Directorate of the NKO] and Sudyin [acting People's Commissar of Foreign Trade];

b) To conduct a special operation to release the Intelligence 1,910,000 Soviet rubles and 190 thousand dollars. "

http://bmpd.livejournal.com/2147365.html

Do you think larger Soviet involvement might have tipped the war in Republicans' favor? Soviet presence wasnt really large - less than 1000 military personel at any givn time.