Local volunteers to the Spanish Civil War

From the book “Finnish-Americans in War and Peace” Pages 52-54.© Rainer Langstedt St. Magnus Press 2015.

The Spanish Civil War

From 1936 to 1939, a civil war raged in Spain. Following the 1936 Spanish election, a coalition government of left-wing groups was formed. A military insurgency was committed to overthrow the new government. Active foreign participants in the war included the Soviet Union, which supported the left-wing “Republicanos,” and Germany, who supported the insurgents, or Nationalists, as they were called. Moscow ordered the American Communist Party to arrange recruitment efforts in the United States to assist the Republicanos. A total of 2,800 Americans signed up, 90 of whom were Finnish Americans. Of the Finnish-Americans, three came from Spencer–Van Etten.

The American volunteers were assigned to the Abraham Lincoln Brigade. The number of Finnish-American participants is unclear due to enlistment under assumed names and the possibility that they have joined units other than the Lincoln Brigade.

Spencer–Van Etten Volunteers for the Spanish Civil War

To illustrate, Einar Anderson from Spencer does not show up in the list of American volunteers though he fought in Spain and returned.

Van Etten resident Eino Matteus Petaja* was born August 5, 1912, and volunteered to fight for the Republicanos. A member of the communist party, Petaja arrived in Spain on the “Aquatania” and was assigned to the Abraham Lincoln Brigade in the Quartermaster Section. Petaja would not return to Van Etten, falling in action in July 10, 1937, in Escorial.

Einar Anderson** of Halsey Valley volunteered for the Republicanos, and was taken as a prisoner of war (POW). Anderson survived the war and returned to the United States. His time in Spain was not without incident as he returned physically and mentally scarred from his imprisonment.

Spencer resident Vaino Armas Ihalainen was born in Finland in 1910. Before settling in Spencer, Ihalainen had been a seaman, and while a volunteer for the Republicanos, he served in the Washington Battalion of the Lincoln Brigade. Surviving the war, Ihalainen would go on to fight for the US Army during the World War Two.

Of the 2,800 American volunteers, 750 were killed in action. Of the 90 Finnish Americans, 23 were killed in action, and one executed for desertion, the casualty rate for both groups being 27%.¹¹⁸

*(Original spelling Petäjä, the family later anglicized its name to Pine, the English translation of Petäjä)

**Einar was the brother of the artist Sulo Anderson. ¹¹⁹

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