In December 1936, George Orwell arrived in Catalonia as a volunteer in the struggle to defend the Spanish republic against the violent insurgency led by General Francisco Franco and his nationalist allies. The Spanish Civil War, as with today’s long, harrowing Syrian war, was a theatre of great power rivalry. The nationalists (or Falangists) were backed by Nazi Germany and fascist Italy, and the leftist republican government by Stalin’s Soviet Union.

The conflict became a rallying cause for the anti-fascist left across Europe and idealistic volunteers such as Orwell went to Spain to fight on the front line – principally in the pro-republican International Brigades – against the forces of reactionary nationalism.