Relations Between Spain and the Russian Federation

Relations between two years after the publication of España invertebrada), added to which were the rise of the workers’ move- Spain and the Russian ments and peripheral nationalist agitation. In Russia, the October Revolution had followed in the wake of Federation defeat in the First World War, along with the very harsh process of transformation into a communist society at the hands of the Bolsheviks. There can be no doubt that the physical and historic distance between the Russian Federation and Spain is very great. Yet over the centuries these two peoples have had quite a lot of notable points in common. Each of the two countries has constituted a bridge Manuel de la Cámara, between two continents and different civilisations. Diplomat The two great empires, the Russian and the Spanish, were built up at about the same time. At one point, they even ended up being neighbours in the southern part of Alaska. “Russia and Spain, the two extremes of Europe’s great dia- The Spanish nation was forged with the thrust gonal (…) coincide in being the lands of two peoples that of Castile, which united with Aragon. As Ortega suffer from an evident and enduring scarcity of eminent describes, both kingdoms merged their different inter- individuals. In the Slavic nation (…) there has always national policies which were respectively oriented to been an exquisite minority that has acted on Russian life Europe and Africa and to the Mediterranean. The but it is of such meagre dimensions in comparison with consummation of the campaign against the Muslims the vastness of the race that it has never been able to per- and unification under the Catholic faith were fol- meate the colossal plasma of the masses with its organising lowed by the conquest and colonisation of America influence. As for Spain, the most characteristic feature (which, for Ortega was “the greatest thing that Spain (…) is the disproportion between the value of our masses has done in History”, although this was not the work and that of our select minorities (…). Here, the “people” of the elites but of the people). have done it all and what the “people” have been unable In Russia’s case, the driving force of agglutination to do has been left undone. However, the people cannot came from Moscow once it had recovered from its do science, or high-quality art, or create a civilisation dynastic crises. The reign of Muscovy set about a endowed with complex techniques or organise a State of massive project of territorial expansion taking in the enduring consistency” empire from the Baltic Sea and the Black Sea to the vast lands of Central Asia and the Pacific Ocean. After José Ortega y Gasset, España Invertebrada, 1921 the fall of Constantinople, Moscow, bastion of the (Invertebrate Spain) orthodox faith, took over from Byzantium, present- ing itself as the “Third Rome”. In Spain and Russia alike, the tremendous territorial expansion required a huge effort from the people, who had to face constant threats.1 Like Spain, Muscovy absorbed the Christian faith and, in great part, each country defined its Christian identity in the endeavour of expelling the Muslim invaders (the Tartars in the case of Russia and the In pronouncing his diagnosis, Ortega considered that, Arabs in that of Spain). In both countries, the strain in comparison with the most advanced countries of on the military was transformed into a religious cause, Europe, Russia (now officially the Russian Federation) and vice versa. The political and religious authorities and Spain had in common a lack of elites that were were intimately linked and, when the time was ripe, capable of bringing their respective peoples out of both lands were to become the standard bearers of their centuries-old backwardness. their respective versions of the Christian faith. Our distinguished philosopher came up with an The expulsion of the Jews ordered by the Catholic extremely negative verdict on being Russian or monarchs Ferdinand and Isabella was followed with Spanish at a difficult moment in the history of both interest in Russia. J. H. Billington considers that there Spain and Russia. The former was still on edge with is similarity in the role played by the respective Jewish the feeling of defeat resulting from the “disaster communities in the development of the Russian and of ’98” and the difficulties of the Spanish army in Spanish cultures and, again, in the attacks on the Jews Morocco (the Primo de Rivera coup d’état and the in Spain and Russia. In the latter case, anti-Semitic suspension of the 1876 Constitution happened just reaction began shortly after the Alhambra Decree, or 179 Edict of Expulsion, which transferred the centre of that have enjoyed greatest popularity in Russia are gravity of Jewish influence from the southwest to the The Force of Destiny,7 Carmen, and Don Carlos, all of northeast of Europe.2 which are set in Spain. With the coronation of Ivan IV in 1547, the monarch Not to be overlooked, in the case of architecture, is of Russia became the “tsar” a term that is equivalent the figure of the Canarian, Agustín de Betancourt, to emperor (“Gosudar vseia Rusi”, “sovereign of all the founder of the higher engineering school known as the Russias”). Historians have frequently drawn attention St Petersburg Institute of Corps of Engineers of Routes to the parallels between Ivan IV (1537 – 1584) and of Communication. As Tatiana Pigariova8 writes, he Philip II, King of Spain (1527 – 1598), and both mon- became friendly with Tsar Alexander I, came to be archs have given rise to their own “black legends”. Chief Director of Routes of Communication in Russia Another classic similarity is that of the resistance of and was awarded the Cross of Knight of the Order Russia and Spain to the Napoleonic invasions (the upris- of Alexander Nievsky. He designed one of Moscow’s ing of the people of Madrid in 1808 and the burning of most emblematic buildings, the Manege or Riding Moscow by its inhabitants in 1812). The enlightened Academy, which was constructed in 1817 for the occa- scholars who drew up the Constitution of Cadiz sion of a visit by the Tsar to attend a military parade (1812) and the liberals who succumbed to the authori- commemorating the victory against Napoleon. tarian repression of Ferdinand VII after the Liberal Although this has no pretensions to being an exhaus- Russian Federation, Country Profile Country Russian Federation, Triennial (1820-23) have been compared with the “chil- tive account, one should not forget, either, the inter- dren of 1812” or the “Decembrists” like Prince Sergei vention of the Soviet Union in the Spanish Civil War Volkonsky who, on their return to Russia in 1815, were (1936-39). In the face of the inaction of France and betrayed by Tsar Alexander I, in whom they had vested Great Britain and the support given by Nazi Germany their hopes for reform.3 As in Spain, it was the Russian and Fascist Italy to the insurgents, Stalin aided the people who heroically struggled to expel the invader Republic with arms shipments – which, of course, were and the same thing occurred, although on a much duly paid for with gold from the Banco de España "Spain greater scale, in the Second World War with (Bank of Spain) – but did not send troops, although he is on the the Nazi invasion. To paraphrase Orlando did authorise the presence of numerous Russian volun- Figes, who evokes the tremendous epic teers in the International Brigades, many of whom were same footing as of the Russian people – known in subsequently “purged” in the campaigns of repression the other European the Russian Federation as the and persecution of the years between 1937 and 1940. countries with “Great Patriotic War” – Moreover, the Soviet regime gave priority to preventing this disposition for personal a coalition of Trotskyites and (POUM) anarchists from which the Russian sacrifice was the Soviet Union’s taking power in Catalonia. Orwell complained that “it Federation has best weapon. The deeds of millions was the Communists above all others who prevented privileged of soldiers and civilians, many of whom revolution in Spain”. laid down their lives, compensated for the Of course, the “children of war” who were sent to relations" shortcomings of the military commanders and the Soviet Union between 1937 and 1939 should not the paralysis of almost all the powers-that-be.4 be disregarded at this point. Of the 3,000 who arrived The reciprocal interest between Russia and Spain in the USSR, little more than 200 remain, some 160 is also reflected in literature. The Duke of Muscovy living in the Russian Federation and the remainder in appears in La vida es sueño (Life Is a Dream) by Pedro other countries of the Commonwealth of Independent Calderón de la Barca, while Lope de Vega tells the States (CIS). The others have died or they returned story of the false Dmitry in El Gran Duque de Moscovia to Spain after 1956 (although some went back to the y emperador perseguido (The Grand Duke of Muscovy Soviet Union when they could not adapt to the Spain and Persecuted Emperor). Not to be overlooked either of those years). These people (who receive special is Cartas de Rusia (Letters from Russia) by the diplo- support from the Spanish State in the form of a com- mat and writer Juan Valera.5 plementary welfare pension, medical insurance and Naturally, the great Russian authors like Tolstoy, who have the use of a rented venue in Moscow so that Turgenev, Chekhov, Dostoyevsky and Gogol were they can meet) constitute a paramount historic legacy, known and appreciated in nineteenth-century Spain.

Load more