Descripción: |
El artículo aborda el análisis de la presencia de la División Española de Voluntarios o «División Azul» en el frente del Este, encuadrándola dentro del contexto general de la guerra de exterminio planteada por el III Reich en la Unión Soviética. Para ello, y tras exponer cuál ha sido la imagen transmitida por la publicística y memorialística divisionaria desde 1943 hasta hoy, se interroga sobre las particularidades de la División española en lo relativo a su imagen del enemigo soviético, no teñida de racismo biológico como en el caso nazi pero sí de un cierto racismo cultural, y a su comportamiento con la población civil rusa del frente del Wolchow y Leningrado, analizando para ello testimonios autobiográficos españoles, fuentes personales, informes militares españoles y alemanes, y testimonios orales y biográficos rusos y alemanes. Within the general framework of the war of extermination planned by the Third Reich in its war against the Soviet Union, this essay attempts to analyse the role played by the Spanish Volunteer Division (the «Blue Division») that was dispatched to the Eastern Front between 1941 and 1944. After deconstructing the image of the Spanish experience in Russia transmitted from 1943 to the present day in autobiographies and novels written by war veterans, the article addresses the question of how far has the Spanish Division differed in its policy of occupation from troops in the Wehrmacht. Two points are therefore outlined: first, the image of the enemy which was developed by the Spanish volunteers, which was not permeated by biological racism but to a certain extent by a feeling of cultural superiority; and second, the Blue Division´s behaviour towards the Russian civil population. The sources used are autobiographical accounts written by Spanish veterans, war diaries and letters written by German and Spanish soldiers as well as by Russian civilians, along with oral interviews with Russian peasants. |