Without a Polish agreement, there was really little Russia could do to aid France or Czechoslovakia—and vice versa. And the British frowned at these efforts to create a diplomatic “popular front” against Germany, which in part explains Stalin’s caution during the Spanish Civil War; a trium¬phant socialist republic in Spain, Moscow feared, might drive Britain and France to the right, as well as embroil Russia in open conflict with Franco’s supporters, Italy and Germany.