Republican faction (Spanish Civil War)

The Republican faction (Spanish: Bando republicano), also known as the Loyalist faction, was the side in the Spanish Civil War of 1936 to 1939 that supported the established government of the Second Spanish Republic against the Nationalist or rebel faction of the military rebellion. The name Republicans (republicanos), was mainly used by its members and supporters, while its opponents used the term Rojos (reds) to refer to this faction.

Not to be confused with one of the names adopted by the rebel faction.

In October 1936 the republican government in Vitoria began a reorganization process of the fragmented army. The self-denominated People's Republican Army (Spanish: Ejército Popular de la República, EPR) consisted of those Spanish Republican Army units that had remained loyal to the Republic and militia members who were integrated into the new structure.

At least 40,000 individual volunteers from 52 nations, usually socialists, communists or anarchists, fought for the Republican side.

The vast majority of these, an estimated 32,000 men and women, served in the International Brigades, organized in close conjunction with the Comintern.

About another 3,000 foreign volunteers fought as members of militias belonging to the anarcho-syndicalist labor/trade union CNT and the anti-Stalinist Marxist POUM. Those fighting with POUM included one of the most famous veterans of the war, George Orwell.

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