<P> Italy under the Fascist leadership of Benito Mussolini supported the overthrow of the republic and the establishment of a regime that would serve as a client state to Italy . Italy distrusted the Spanish Republic due to its pro-French leanings and prior to the war had made contact with Spanish right - wing groups . Italy justified its intervention as an action intended to prevent the rise of Bolshevism in Spain . Italy 's Fascist regime considered the threat of Bolshevism a real risk with the arrival of volunteers from the Soviet Union who were fighting for the Republicans . Mussolini provided financial support as well as training to the Alfonsists , Carlists , and Falange . Mussolini met Falangist leader José Antonio Primo de Rivera in 1933 but did not have much enthusiasm in the establishment of fascism in Spain at that time . </P>
who fought on the side of the republicans in the spanish civil war brainly
Soviet Union