@morrel:
russia didn’t border Czechoslovakia so direct support would have been through air power or invasion of someone else most likely This was prior to the winter war with finland I wonder how effective russian help would have been?
Russia didn’t border Spain either, but that didn’t stop them from sending a lot of tanks and planes to support the Republicans. But as in Finland, the russian help was not very effective. The russian “political officers” spent more time in purging western commies that had joined the International Brigade, than to fight the fascists. And unlike the Germans, the russian officers never learned any lesson in Spain.