When the militaries tried to put an end to the governance of the Left, they immediately received a counterstroke from the trade unions and socialist parties. They secured a full mobilization and achieved distribution of arms to the people. The republican army began to form as a militia army. It assured the initial success of republicans over the greater part of the country.
Both the rebellion and fighting against it were accompanied by terror. Antirepublican terror was more regular, whereas one from the republic anarchists more spontaneous.
The assistance provided by «Axis» countries helped rebels to recover from the first attack in July. It became clear that the republican militia, which surpassed the army in the city conditions, was unable to pursue an offensive war. CNT militia failed to attack Saragossa. There the front consolidated. In the other regions where the militia system was not supported by the strong syndicalism structure in the rear, the militia could not maintain any sufficient resistance to the direct attack of the army.
The European diplomacy was caught off guard by the internationalization of the conflict in Spain. At first, it seemed like the situation would be quickly resolved either by a victory or defeat of revolution. Instead of which a prolonged war began; moreover, in many respects it began due to external intervention. Intense diplomatic activity around the Spanish tragedy made some authors to believe that the destiny of Spain was not solved in Madrid. That corresponded to the opinion of the rulers of destinies of the World in London, Paris, Berlin and Rome. But the Spaniards fighting spoilt a game to the European diplomacy. If the republicans had not defended Madrid, not continued struggling up to 1939, «the Spanish item» would have been quickly removed from the agenda. The destiny of Spain was shaped not only in Madrid, but in Madrid as well. Contrary to the opinion of some politicians of the Republic (including President Azaña) and some modern historians, the war had not been initially lost by republicans, all the more so as they had received the timely aid from the USSR which alongside with inter-brigades counterbalanced the factor of fascist intervention up to 1938.
Showing resistance to the fascism, Spain changed a situation in the Europe. It built up strained relations between the conservative government of the Great Britain and People’s Front of France which was «ideologically aligned» with the Republic. However, the leaders of French People’s Front in fact betrayed the Spanish Republic being afraid of both the revolution and fascism. The war in Spain enabled rapprochement between Germany and Italy, and in order to return Italy to «Antanta» the Great Britain and France were ready to sacrifice the Spanish Republic. The policy of appeasement which reached a «Munich moment» had first been «approbated» in Spain in the form of hands off approach. The USSR participated in it for tactical reasons. After having checked that the fascists didn’t stop helping the rebellion, the Soviet management also began to assist the Republic. It was of the essential importance for the USSR both for ideological and foreign policy reasons that the Republic didn’t crash. The war in Spain was not only the first large-scale fight against fascism. It distracted attention of the West including Nazism from the borders of the USSR in an opposite direction.