Studia Historica: Historia Contemporánea (Mar 2015)
Splendour and misery of «Spanish» historiography in former Czechoslovaquia
Abstract
The break-up of Czechoslovakia in 1992 highlighted the basic developmental trends that had existed within Czech and Slovak research of Spanish and Latin American history. The key difference, before the division of the unified State, was that centres of Iberoamerican studies had been established in the Academy of Sciences and in Czech and Moravian universities, where historians were trained. In Slovakia, there existed instead departments of Romanic languages, which focused essentially on philology. Most works dedicated to the Spanish Civil War originated from what is now the Czech Republic. This situation evidences differing attitudes on the part of the relevant institutions of both States (historical institutes, universities and even publishing houses), with regard to the need to embark upon serious research on national history within the geographically or geopolitically closer foreign context. In spite of this, books have been written in both former Czechoslovakian states which have increased levels of knowledge of the Spanish Civil War, not only in the sense of its own national historiography but also in its international outreach. This can be observed in relation to topics such as the Czechoslovak policy of selling weapons to Spain, the activities of the International Brigades and Czechoslovak asylum policy.
