Volodymyr Zelenskiy, the president of Ukraine, was invited to speak in the Spanish Chamber of Deputies via video on April 5, and members of the Senate were also invited to listen.

At the beginning of his official speech, Zelenski said, referring to the bombing of Guernica during the Spanish Civil War, "It is clearly April 2022, but it seems like April 1937, when the whole world was shocked by the attack on your city".

The Guernica bombing, which he referred to as the first carpet bombing in human history, took place on April 26, 1937, when General Franco sought the help of Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy to launch indiscriminate air attacks on civilians in the Basque city of Guernica in northern Spain. The great artist Pablo Picasso was commissioned by the Second Republic of Spain to create the world-famous painting "Guernica" based on this tragedy, an indictment of the cruelty of war. As a student of design, I have seen many of Picasso's famous paintings, but this is the only one that has impressed me since I was a student. Today, we will understand how Zelensky's bombardment of Guernica in Spain really happened?

Founded on April 28th, 1366 by the Count of Telo, Guernica is the seat of the Basque Provincial Council of Spain, and has always been considered the spiritual capital of the Basque people, and is also known as the "Home of Basque Freedom", which shows the importance of this region.

So what is the background of this tragedy? Unlike today, Spain at the beginning of the 20th century was an economically poor and politically backward semi-feudal agrarian country, where large landowners controlled most of the land and resources and the lower classes lived in misery. Alfonso XIII went into exile and established the Second Republic of Spain, but the ensuing turmoil led to the establishment of at least 28 governments.

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)

The history behind Picasso's famous painting "Guernica"