Between Prague and Madrid. Czechoslovak-Spanish Contacts (1948–1977)

The main focus of this monograph is the investigation of Spanish communist exile in postwar Czechoslovakia and Slovak and Czech(oslovak) anti-communist exile in Francoist Spain, using new methodological approaches and concepts: everyday resistance and (im)mobility. Through case studies that focus on the problems of everyday life of “heterodox” Spanish exiles, the monograph addresses the issue of the dichotomy between Spanish collectives in Ústí nad Labem and Prague. The research also focuses on the question of the development of economic contacts between Czechoslovakia and Spain, as well as the subsequent process of reestablishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries, in order to contextualize Czechoslovak-Spanish links within the reality of the Cold War. Lastly, the work analyzes the relations between individual emigrants (leaders of the exile and rank-and-file members) as well as between the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (Komunistická strana Československa) and the Communist Party of Spain. Based on archival sources that have not been analyzed until now, this book attempts to fill the “gaps” in research on Czechoslovak-Spanish relations during the Cold War.