Alexander Bondar - Spanish Anarchist Improvised Armoured Car

[CharlieC]

New model from Alexander Bondar - an improvised armoured car from the Spanish Civil War.

The Spanish Civil War was marked by the participation of many armed groups with varied political allegiances. One of these groups was the "Columna Durruti", an anarchist group named after its commander. This group had a number of improvised armoured cars and participated in the defence of Madrid in Nov 1936.

Usual download location: Landships II

Regards,

Charlie

[Don Boose]

Another rare and historic model by Alexander. Thanks for making his models available, Charlie.

Don

[chicharrero]

Big thanks, Alexander and Charlie.
Really a unusual vehicle.

[Tom Lapinski]

Thanks all.

[PacificWind]

On what kind of truck it was built?
Interesting model.

[Don Boose]

I did a Google Translate of the Russian text of Alexander's model and could find nothing there that identifies the chassis upon which this particular tiznao was built.

A discussion in the Interwar discussion blog says that the term tiznao meant something like "dirty" [tizne = soot; tiznar = to begrime or smudge] and was used to distinguish commercial vehicles modified with armored plate from the factory-produced armored vehicles, which were called blindados. [TMP] ""Tiznao"?" Topic

A number of such vehicles were produced for the Nationalists at Ferrol and were made from Hispano-Suiza 30/40 busses. Ferrol Armoured Car

The Anarchists may have used the same busses as chassis, but it appears that any sturdy vehicle chassis could form the basis of tiznao, which varied widely.
tiznao

I trust that someone with more knowledge of this topic than I (Thumb Dog? Charlie? Alexander?) will be able to provide more authoritative info.

Don

[CharlieC]

I think it's unlikely anyone will know. The Nationalists under Franco appeared to hate the Anarchists even more than the Communists - most of the Anarchists captured were summarily executed and the Anarchist movement was suppressed violently until Franco's death in the 1970s.

The recent events in Catalonia have a resonance with anyone with a superficial knowledge of history - Barcelona was the last city to fall to Franco in 1939 and was under anarchist control for much of the Civil War. A really good book on the Spanish Civil War is George Orwell's "Homage to Catalonia". Orwell fought in the Civil War and was seriously wounded.

I should make the point that Anarchism in Europe was not the modern "skinhead on a drug-fueled rampage" characterisation. On the contrary Anarchism was a political philosophy that arose in the 19th century as a way for societies to progress beyond hierarchies and capitalist exploitation.

Regards,

Charlie