No 1 (2011)

The author analyses the international aspect of the Spanish Civil War and the interpretation of the War as an ideological struggle, and studies the propaganda contained in radical right-wing French, Italian, British press, using new documents from the Archives of the Foreign Policy of the Russian MFA. The European press used the Spanish Civil War topic to aggravate the situation in Spain, to widen the division in the Popular Front in France and split France and Britain from the Soviet Union.

The article deals with the comparative analysis of Zapatero's first (2004-2008) and beginning of the second (2008-2012) terms of office. The first four-year period was relatively successful for the socialists, despite strong opposition to all governmental initiatives by M. Rajoi's People's party. After their victory in the general election of May 9, 2008 the socialists had to face challenges arising from the world economic crisis.

The article deals with a little-known episode of the Russian-Spanish relations at the beginning of XXth century. It concerns the Spanish Monarch Alfonso XIII diplomatic initiatives that aimed for the rescue of the Russian Emperor Nicholas II and his family after the Russian Revolutions of 1917. The previous investigations of this question of J. Cortés-Cavanillas, C. Seco Serrano and A. Olano-Ereña are considered. A detailed reconstruction of this «rescue mission» became possible due to documents from the General Archive of Palace (Madrid), the General Archive of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation of Spain (Madrid), Eduardo Dato's Archive (Royal Academy of History, Madrid) and the Archive of the Russian Empire Foreign Policy (Moscow).

The article deals with the development of Spanish-Russian relations in the 1980ies. The «Program of Soviet-Spanish cultural and scientific cooperation for 1980-1981», offered for publication, was the first significant document signed by the Soviet and Spanish governments in the cultural and scientific field after the restoration of diplomatic relations between the Soviet Union and Spain.