Pío Moa

Luis Pío Moa Rodríguez (Vigo, Galicia, 1948) better known as simply Pío Moa, is a Spanish writer and journalist. His specialised subject field is the history and origins of the Spanish Civil War, the Second Republic in Spain, Francoism and the various political movements of that era, all of which he approaches from a sympathetic perspective.

During his youth, Moa was a radical anti-Francoist agitator. He was a militant of the Communist Party of Spain (and its reconstituted version), as well as the clandestine Maoist, designated-terrorist organisation GRAPO. Following the transition of Spain to democracy, Moa dedicated himself to the study of contemporary Spanish history, evolving over time to a Francoist position.

Following the death of Franco and the reinstatement of a democratic regime in Spain, a slow process of opening of archives and publicizing of Civil War related documents began. In the face of this process Moa started rescuing the theses that the parties which formed the Popular Front - PSOE, Esquerra Unida, PNV, the anarchists, PCE - were ultimately responsible for the Spanish Civil War and the rise of autocracy in Spain as it appears in the diaries of Manuel Azaña who was president of the Spanish Second Republic. Moa maintains that they have left a legacy of "moral and political, intellectual devastation", accusing the left of hypocrisy in regards to democracy and totalitarianism, as well as claims that the material aid provided by Stalin and the USSR to the Spanish Republic in the Civil War not only prolonged the war causing innumerable deaths but was also equivalent to the help provided by Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy to General Franco.