Preventing a scandal: Everyday resistance of Spanish communist exiles in state socialist Czechoslovakia
Abstract
The intensification of the Cold War brought with itself also new migration flows, however, not only exclusively from the Eastern bloc to the "capitalist" West. One of the examples of the multidirectionality and multidimensionality of Cold War's border crossings are the activities of the Spanish communist exile in the post-war Czechoslovakia - the Communist Party of Spain (PCE) managed at the beginnings of the 1950s to convert Prague into one of the party's centres.
Although the origins of contacts between Czechoslovak and Spanish communists could be traced back to the Spanish Civil War, the latter did not start to seek refuge in Czechoslovakia sooner than 1946, while being subsequently economically dependent on the aid from the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia. Still, Spanish communist exile in Czechoslovakia was not socially nor politically homogeneous: it included not only the party leaders and loyal members, but also heterodox Spaniards, who got into conflict with the direction of the PCE.
Considering its long-lasting and mundane character, the opposition of these nonconformist Spaniards against the decisions of the PCE and Czechoslovak authorities could be studied as an example of "everyday resistance" (patterns of acts exercised by subaltern(s) in order to undermine existing power relations, while evading detection or the understanding of their actions as a resistance). Moreover, in case of resistance of Spanish exiles, it is possible to apply the theoretical model of "consentful contention", introduced by American sociologist Jeremy Straughn, which defines situations, when subordinate actors are contesting government's decisions while performing the role of dutiful citizens (by emphasizing their revolutionary and communist conviction).
With their petitions to Czechoslovak authorities, these Spaniards threatened them (and the leadership of the PCE) that in case their demands would not be met, they would inform the international organisation about their difficult socio-economic situation in Czechoslovakia or they would simply flee the country westwards - by underlining the ruling ideology of the socialist state, as well as its commitment to provide basic material provision to its inhabitants, these exiles were appealing to regime's own legitimating value system, while using the international institutions as a referential point and western embassies as an intermediary. This contribution is based on unpublished documents from Czech National Archive and the Archive of Security Services, it employs microhistorical as well as transnational approach in the study of (im)possible transfers across the (im)permeable Iron Curtain, which in the case of Spanish communists, fulfilled more of a constructive than restrictive role: not only it streamlined their everyday resistance; furthermore, the East-West division enabled Spanish communists to seek refuge and financial support in a country ruled by a fraternal party, before returning to Spain to fight against Franco's regime.
This paper examines the hypothesis, that exiles living under state socialism were able to successfully menace governmental authorities with complaints to international organisations, thus trying to contest Czechoslovak credibility abroad (causing a scandal in the West). The focus on the everyday resistance of heterodox communist exiles, through the methodological approach of the analysis of the dominant discourse (re)production, might offer a new and innovative perspective within the research of the Cold War.