Spanish State Research Articles

Soccer under Fascism: A Comparative Analysis of the Death Match in Nazi-occupied Ukraine (1942) and Real Madrid 11-1 FC Barcelona in Francoist Spain (1943)

Soccer under Fascism: A Comparative Analysis of the Death Match in Nazi-occupied Ukraine (1942) and Real Madrid 11-1 FC Barcelona in Francoist Spain (1943)

The Spanish Conflict of the 20th Century: from Disputes about the Future to Disputes about the Past

The state of conflict, originating in the 19th century, became an integral characteristic of Spanish reality in the 20th century and remains relevant to this day. The semantic center of the Spanish conflict was the Spanish Civil War of 1936—1939, when a dispute about alternative projects for the future and value guidelines turned into the tragedy of the split of the country. The conflict of the Francoist stage is associated with resistance to the regime and the formation of an opposition. Four key phases can be distinguished in it — the post-war state, the period 1945—1956, the expansion of the opposition during the period of the second Francoism and the search for compromises at the stage of late Francoism. The stage of democratic transition, as well as the period from the early 1980s to the end of the 1990s characterized by the “freezing” of the conflict and its reformatting. At this moment, the dispute about the future of Spain was actually resolved and the conflict was transferred from values and alternatives of the future to the presentation of accounts for the past. Disputes about the past, accounts for the crimes of the civil war and the Franco regime became the basis of a new conflict at the turn of the 20th — 21st centuries and continue to remain relevant in Spain to this day. This article is devoted to the analysis of the specifics of the ongoing Spanish conflict, its content and expression, as well as its characteristic semantic transformations.

Испанский социум: стабильная нестабильность

Instability has become a “new normal” for Spain. This relatively young democracy with numerous semiperipheral traits is seeing new challenges overlap the long-standing old ones, which makes instability greater than in more developed European Union countries. The article is the first Russian academic paper to cover the entirety of destabilizing factors in contemporary Spanish society. Among the destabilizers one can identify those that may be traced back to Spain’s historical past. These include polarization of opinions on the legacy of the Civil War and the Franco regime, elements of authoritarian attitudes in mass consciousness and political practices of organizations, as well as conflicts between supporters of monarchy and the republican movement, between avid catholics and secularists. Another contributing factor is fragility of the political system that shows itself in personalist (caudillist) parties, whose mechanisms for intra-party democracy are still immature. There is also a disproportionate electoral legislation, politicized judiciary, and the unfinished nation state that has failed to truly integrate Catalonia and the Basque Country. Another destabilizer is volatile social and economic development. Spain has one of the highest rates of unemployment and precarious employment in the EU, intensive growth of precariat, flawed healthcare and education systems, immigration galvanizing both indigenous nationalism and xenophobia, with the reluctance of many immigrants to adapt to Spanish culture and society. Minimizing risks related to destabilizing factors is an imperative for Spain’s present and future.

Ecology in Transition: Fernando González Bernáldez, Scientific Modernisation and Environmental Advocacy in Late Francoist Spain, 1960–1980

The final years of Franco’s dictatorship and the subsequent transition to a democracy saw the unfolding of parallel processes of economic and scientific modernisation in Spanish society. An unexpected interference between both processes occurred in the fields of ecology and the environmental sciences, when environmentally minded scientists defended threatened ecosystems, rural landscapes and traditional land-use systems. At the time, prevailing discourses and policies considered these ecosystems and landscapes backward remnants of an undeveloped Spain, ready to be transformed by irrigation plans, afforestation schemes and urban development. From the early 1970s onwards, ecologist Fernando González Bernáldez consciously chose to take on a dual role, combining and mutually reinforcing two distinct yet associated personae: a highly respected scientist and an outspoken defender of the environment. This paper examines González Bernáldez’s various strategies to strike the right balance between both identities, and how his aims were challenged by the changing political context at the time.

КІНЕМАТОГРАФІЧНА ТРАНСПОЗИЦІЯ КОДУ СЕРВАНТЕСА У ФІЛЬМІ "ДОН КІХОТ" ОРСОНА ВЕЛЛСА

The article is dedicated to the problem of transposition of the Cervantes’s Code in the cinematographic adaptation of the novel Don Quixote by Orson Welles (1957-1992). The study focuses on identifying and revealing the aesthetic and ideological kinship of the film adaptation of the American director with the work of the Spanish writer, as well as on the analysis of methods and mechanisms of actualization of the main thematic, problematic, structural and narrative aspects of the novel of Cervantes at various levels of the Welles’s cinematic poetics. Welles retains the "intellectual" skepticism of Cervantes, but demostrates a greater affinity with the romantic tradition of reading this text, which at his time dominated the cinematic and scientific-critical discourse. The actualization of the anachronism of Don Quixote as one of the key thematic codes of Cervantes's novel is carried out by transferring the action of the novel to the Francoist Spain. The structure of the film reproduces the plot mostly on the basis of the first volume. Working in the "manner of Cervantes", the author of the cinematic adaptation uses a wide range of ludic, metatextual and metanarrative techniques that reveal the "auto-reflexivity" of his text. In addition, Welles' adaptation of Don Quixote transposes the linguistic and stylistic codes of the Spanish author's novel by using the cinematic montage techniques, oblique angle shots, and stylized mise-en-scène (in-depth). Those features, in turn, demonstrate the inherent kinship with the baroque style of the second volume. Welles stresses the ambivalence inherent in Cervantes's text: he criticizes modernity, but uses its achievements (especially the cinema) to implement his own utopian cultural program of the new knight of cinema. Welles's film chosen as the object of our study essentially and aesthetically remains "faithful" to the original and at the same time contributes to a deeper understanding of the Cervantes’s code in the modern media space and culture in particular. The film reveals the ability of Cervantes's code to adapt to modern communication technologies and changes in life (cinema, advertising, tourism) that not only present Don Quixote and Sancho Panza as anachronisms, but also ensure their immortality, proving the validity of Welles's idea who states that they are heroes for all ages.

Sol y Luna: An Intellectual Publication of Argentine Catholic Nationalists in 1938—1943

The article is devoted to the history of Sol y Luna, an intellectual journal, which was published in Buenos Aires in the period from 1938 to 1943. The publication was an organ of Argentine Catholic nationalists, covering and analyzing issues of culture, philosophy and art, various aspects of intellectual and spiritual life in Argentina and Iberian America as a whole. The author of this article has studied the composition of the editorial and writing teams of the journal, as well as the peculiarities of its functioning, the structure and content of its issues. Much attention was paid to the clarification of the ideological orientation of Sol y Luna. It is shown that the ideology of the publication was based on the concept of “Hispanidad”, anti-modernism and the vision of a special, messianic role of the Francoist regime in the history of Spain and Latin America of the 20th century.

El acento canario en el cine y el teatro españoles: un primer acercamiento

The absence of the Canarian accent in the Spanish Cinema and TV Series is perceived by the inhabitants of the Archipelago as an element of marginality compared to other accents of the Spanish state. However, it is more widespread than we might think as there is a tradition of a type of diction, intonation and melody called «neutral», heir to classical theatre, radio and film dubbing; that was imposed in all film productions in Spanish since the beginning of the last century. The latest Canarian productions generate hope by opening the ear beyond the neutral accent and educating from the richness of one of the outermost European accents. Perhaps in the future our Canarian accent, heir, mestizo and open, but warm and closer to the speech of millions of Spanish-speakers can serve as a substitute for the neutral Castilian accent in audiovisual productions in our language. In this paper we try to analyze more in detail.

Spanish economy through the prism of complex systems theory. Experience of conceptual modeling

The crisis shocks of recent decades (first of all, the global financial crisis of 2008-2009 and the coronacrisis of 2020) created a spiral of restraining Spain's economic growth, exacerbated internal socio-political contradictions and weakened Madrid's international position. It was the "ragged" rhythm of economic development that emphasized the relevance of the task of "rebooting" the economic policy of the Spanish state, adopting a new growth model. The formation of such a model, which responds to modern geo-economic challenges, has taken a dominant place in the agenda of the current Spanish government, focused on reforming the economy in order to modernize it and adapt it to rapidly changing national, European and global realities. The main problem is that it is necessary to reform a complex and contradictory system, which is the modern Spanish economy. In practice, this means simultaneously solving a wide variety of problems and requires taking into account a wide range of heterogeneous factors interacting with each other and with the external environment. The task is complicated by the fact that the reform process is taking place in an atmosphere of acute internal political struggle, intensifying in connection with the general elections scheduled for 2023.

Prioridades de políticas de salud. Encuentro SESPAS en la XXXIII Escuela de Salud Pública de Menorca

ObjectiveIn September 2022, the Sociedad Española de Salud Pública y Administración Sanitaria (SESPAS) brought together a panel of experts with the aim of defining and prioritizing health policy proposals, from the perspective of the Spanish State as a whole, to adapt the National Health System (NHS) to current risks and to contemporary/present-day society. MethodExpert meeting structured using a mix of procedures adapted from brainstorming, nominal group and Rand consensus method techniques. Relevance and feasibility of proposals identified were assessed individually by each panelist. Proposals were then ordered thematically and ranked according to the median and quartile deviation of relevance scores. ResultsPanelists identified and prioritized several proposals in different areas: governance and funding of the NHS, reform of the portfolio of services and benefits and of the NHS human resources, public health and health policy, actions against inequality and poverty, and healthcare delivery reform, including socio-sanitary, primary and end-of-life care. ConclusionsThe results of the meeting show the urgent need to address in-depth changes in many state-wide health policies, including a major reconfiguration of governance, public health, and health care structures. They also point out potential areas of improvement, constituting a tentative guide of prioritized issues to be addressed.

Die Rolle der Schulsprachenpolitik bei der Normalisierung der llengua pròpia in Katalonien und der Region Valencia seit Beginn der Transición

Catalonia and the Valencian Country are characterized by a very special sociolinguistic situation, which consists in the coexistence of the Castilian language as the official language of the Spanish state and the regional languages as co-official languages in the respective Autonomous communities. This constellation holds the potential for political tension, since in the past ‒ but still today ‒ it lead/leads to linguistic conflicts, whose origins lie in the political history of Spain, during which the regional languages time and time again were subject to repressions and prohibitions, that came to a head during the dictatorship of Francisco Franco. Since the beginning of the Spanish transition to democracy it was possible to work towards a resolution of the linguistic conflicts by means of legal norms and a corresponding language legislation. Especially the language teaching policy is an important area of language policy, since it has a long-lasting influence on the language skills of the citizens. The present article gives a detailed description of the measures taken in Catalonia and the Valencian Country concerning the language teaching policies since the beginning of the Spanish transition to democracy. Furthermore, it analyzes, in what way the language skills of the citizens of the Autonomous communities of Catalonia and Valencia have been improved through the applied language teaching policies and finally offers a comparison between the two Regions in this respect. The analysis is based on statistical surveys realized by the Institut d’Estadística de Catalunya (IDESCAT) and the Generalitat Valenciana.

SocialHaterBERT: A dichotomous approach for automatically detecting hate speech on Twitter through textual analysis and user profiles

Social media platforms have evolved into an online representation of our social interactions. We may use the resources they provide to analyze phenomena that occur within them, such as the development and viralization of offensive and hostile content. In today’s polarized world, the escalating nature of this behavior is cause for concern in modern society. This research includes an in-depth examination of previous efforts and strategies for detecting and preventing hateful content on the social network Twitter, as well as a novel classification approach based on users’ profiles, related social environment and generated tweets. This paper’s contribution is threefold: (i) an improvement in the performance of the HaterNet algorithm, an expert system developed in collaboration with the Spanish National Office Against Hate Crimes of the Spanish State Secretariat for Security (Ministry of the Interior) that is capable of identifying and monitoring the evolution of hate speech on Twitter using an LTSM + MLP neural network architecture. To that end, a model based on BERT, HaterBERT, has been created and tested using HaterNet’s public dataset, providing results that show a significant improvement; (ii) A methodology to create a user database in the form of a relational network to infer textual and centrality features. This contribution, SocialGraph, has been independently tested with various traditional Machine Learning and Deep Learning algorithms, demonstrating its usefulness in spotting haters; (iii) a final model, SocialHaterBERT, that integrates the previous two approaches by analyzing features other than those inherent in the text. Experiment results reveal that this last contribution greatly improves outcomes, establishing a new field of study that transcends textual boundaries, paving the way for future research in coupled models from a diachronic and dynamic perspective.

Polish Physicians Held in the Miranda de Ebro “Campo de Concentración”

Abstract Spain played an ambiguous and pragmatic role during the Second World War and its policy evolved as the war progressed. While Francoist Spain was friendly towards Nazi Germany, it never declared war on the Allies, even if it contributed Division Azul to the Reich’s invasion of the Soviet Union. Spanish neutrality allowed its territory to become a temporary safe haven for refugees fleeing the Nazi terror in Europe. Miranda de Ebro concentration camp (1937–1947) saw the internment of soldiers from the International Brigades who had fought on the Republic’s side in the Spanish Civil War, and of European refugees escaping from the Nazis. After the French, Poles represented the second biggest national group at Miranda and it is the Polish doctors on whom I focus in this paper because of Poland’s situation during and after the war. Most of the Polish doctors held in Miranda were Jews who had come to France before the war, where they had studied while keeping Polish citizenship. After release from Miranda, many joined the Allied forces fighting against the German Reich. But when the war ended, Poland – though formally independent – became a satellite country of the Soviet Union. Only one of the physicians ever returned to Poland. The rest continued their careers in Great Britain or the USA despite all the difficulties this entailed.

Cold War Frequencies: CIA Clandestine Radio Broadcasting to the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe by Richard H. Cummings

<i>Cold War Frequencies: CIA Clandestine Radio Broadcasting to the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe</i> by Richard H. Cummings

The Nobel Prize in Literature in the Catalan Culture Half a Century of Debates About the Possibility of a Catalan Winner (1971-2021)

This article proposes an analysis of some of the discourses that have taken place in Catalan literature on the Nobel Prize from the end of the Franco regime to the present day. These are discourses that function as a mirror of the situation of Catalan culture during the last fifty years. They reflect two major attitudes: the desire to build a ‘normal’ Catalan culture and the humorous distancing from this ideology of normalisation.

Spanish Humanitarian Policy in Latin America: Peculiarities and Priorities

The article deals with the establishment and formation of the humanitarian policy of Spain, the evolution of the concept of “Hispanidad” in relation to Latin America, when Spain, along with the expansion of investment and economic cooperation, was building up educational, scientific, cultural interaction based on a common historical past, and intended positioning itself as a “bridge” between the EU and this region. The authors apply the theory of constructivism, based on the position that “historical and cultural paradigms,” norms and beliefs, and not only economic power influences the rapprochement of states. The chronological order makes possible to trace the evolution of the features and priorities of the country’s humanitarian policy, starting from the second half of the 2010s, when it was reduced to the dominance of the educational and scientific factor in Spanish public diplomacy towards Latin America. The Spanish state has achieved significant results in improving the system of higher education, making it attractive to foreign students. The activities of public and private structures (Ministry of Foreign Affairs, AECID, Carolina Foundation, Casa America) are focused not only at creating a positive image of Spain (the Program “Spain Global”), but also at forming a common Ibero-American scientific and educational space. In the Ibero-American Community of Nations (ICN), which unites countries on the basis of language and culture, an important place is given to youth problems related to the availability of quality education and employment, as well as issues of digitalization, economic modernization, renewable energy. Within the framework of the ICN, the Tordesillas Group, the Association of Ibero-American Universities, the La Rabida Group, etc., are intended to implement the 2021 Goals in the field of education. The use of professional research networks, the introduction of new skills and competencies for students and teachers, the creation of the Ibero-American Institute for Education and Productivity (IIEYP), focusing on the relationship between education and economic growth, became a real basis for strengthening a common Ibero-American educational and scientific space as a main priority in the actual humanitarian policy of Spain.

The scars of violence and repression on founding elections: Evidence from Spain

Do violence during a civil war and its aftermath leave a mark on political behaviour? In this article I study how violence perpetrated by the left and repression by the right during and after the Spanish Civil War shaped vote choice and turnout in 1977, in the first legislative election after a 40 year dictatorship. I argue that the effect of repression travels over time when actions are perpetrated by clearly identifiable antagonistic actors. By using a dataset that captures the intensity and the type of violence, results indicate that repression perpetrated by the Francoist dictatorship during and after the conflict had a positive and significant effect on left-wing support in 1977. Results are consistent across different indicators, such as religious violence, distance to mass graves or sanctions to teachers, confirming that violence triggered greater support for the political left. In contrast, results show no relationship between repression and turnout.

Memory and History in Shaping National Identity in Spain

The main aim of this study is to highlight the decisive role that the management of history and memory, as well as forgetting, can play in the creation of a nation-state's national identity. From the time the nation-state emerged, the importance and definition of memory has been of utmost importance since it determined the very existence of the nation-state. In this study, the case of Spain is analyzed since it is a typical example of a country that based its existence as a unitary state on the development of a historiography that took the past of the entire Iberian Peninsula as a unified one. After presenting and analyzing the process of the creation of the Spanish collective identity from the 19th century, which was absolutely decisive for the creation of the Spanish national identity, the analysis continues in the more recent period. The way in which the Spanish regime managed historical memory is analyzed according to the objectives it pursued in each period of time, both after the victory of Franco and the implementation of his repressive regime, and after the end of the dictatorship and the advent of democracy in the country. It shows the different phases that Spanish society itself went through in difficult times, and how, through various sociopolitical upheavals, it managed to function smoothly in a climate of harmony, peace and democracy. Through this study, it also attempts to highlight the role of the historian, various other actors and ultimately the citizens of a nation state themselves in the formation of national identity. Furthermore, the aim of this study is to highlight Spain's attempt to balance between multiple and competing memories. Of particular interest is the fact that despite the organized effort made in Spain to silence the past, in recent years there has been an ongoing effort to recognize human rights violations and crimes committed during the Franco dictatorship. However, action to revive historical memory in Spain, despite coming from civil society, remains politically controversial. In this context, an analysis is presented on the management of memory and history in the case of Spain from the time of its emergence as a nation-state to the present day.

Narodowy Plan Stabilizacyjny z 1959 roku jako próba przezwyciężenia kryzysu gospodarczego w Hiszpanii

The aim of the article is to indicate the causes, conditions and effects of undertaking a deep economic reform in Spain at the end of the 1950s, resulting from the National Stabilization Plan, and its economic, social and political assumptions. The entry into force of the Stabilisation Plan, forced by the country's precarious economic situation and prepared under pressure from the United States and international financial institutions, meant the rejection of the policy of economic autarky and protectionism pursued thus far by the Franco regime, while at the same time opening Spain to the outside world, the inflow of foreign capital, the development of the tourism services sector and mass economic emigration of its citizens. The implementation of the Plan was an economic success. As a result, Spain embarked on a path of rapid economic development, real wages increased and unemployment flattened at a minimum level. The economic success of the Plan was also exploited politically by the Franco regime. The so-called ideology of development promoted by the government was intended to divert attention from the enduring undemocratic system of government, allowing the regime to continue in conditions of favourable prosperity and a developing economy.

Jean Francois Lejeune: Rural Utopia and Water Urbanism.The modern Village in Franco's Spain

Jean Francois Lejeune: Rural Utopia and Water Urbanism.The modern Village in Franco's Spain

L'écriture et le parti

Abstract Do militants expelled from the Communist Party ever leave it behind? Jorge Semprún was a Communist resister captured and sent to Buchenwald, where he worked in the sui generis Communist organization there. He spent almost two decades in the party, half of those years organizing the Communist underground in Franco's Spain. Expelled in 1964, he became an anti-Communist who held on to what he valued as a Communist at Buchenwald and in the underground. In the decades after the fall of the Berlin Wall, Semprún came to see in what he had learned at Buchenwald a harbinger of the European project he was making his own.