Polacy w Brygadach Międzynarodowych podczas hiszpańskiej wojny domowej (1936-1939). Kilka uwag o stanie badań i postulatach badawczych

This article examines the Poles who served in the International Brigades during the Spanish Civil War of 1936–1939. It presents the various difficulties of researching and analysing this subject. One of such difficulties is to identify who was a Pole, as in this category were included: citizens of the Second Republic of Poland of Polish nationality, its citizens of non-Polish nationality, as well as foreigners of Polish origin. In spite of these distinctions, they were divided into two groups: a communist elite and normal soldiers, controlled by a system of severe discipline. The article also suggests the necessity to create a biographical dictionary of more than 4,500 members of the International Brigades considered Polish. Other topics that need to be analysed in an adequate, scientific manner are: the papers of Polish brigadiers from different fronts of the Iberian war, the recruitment to the Brigades, the illegal transfer of some of them from Poland to Spain, the process of “producing” Polish communists, the statistical count of the Brigades (casualties included), as well as the post-war stories of those who survived. In addition, the article gives an overview of the state of the historiography on this subject.