meanwhile, the republican government had requested aid and weapons from france in order to defeat the nationalist forces and the president of the french republic, léon blum, initially decided to send help because a nationalist victory could damage the international position of france. nevertheless, on july 25, 1936 blum decided not to send weapons to the republic, because the opposition of the british government and the french right., and on august 8, 1936 decided to close the frontier, then, the spanish government decided to buy weapons from the soviet union. the first soviet ship with weapons reached cartagena on october 15, 1936. on 28 october 1936, the republican prime minister largo caballero decided to launch a counter-offensive with the recently arrived soviet weapons in order to detain the nationalists advance towards madrid.