Between Orthodoxy and the Reason of State: An Approach to the Ups and Downs in the Relations between the Communist Parties of Eastern Europe and Spanish Communism (1968-1989)

Throughout history, the communist movement has been traversed by a dialectic between the national and the transnational. The Spanish communists are a clear example of the complexity of this dialectic. In 1968 they experienced a double rupture. On the one hand, the Communist Party of Spain denounced the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia and began to distance itself from real socialism. On the other hand, several orthodox dissidences appeared within the PCE as a result of these changes. The relationship of the various sectors of Spanish communism with the different ruling parties in the Warsaw Pact countries evolved unevenly under the influence of ideological disputes, practical criteria, raison d'& eacute;tat and particular and overall interests. This article, for the first time, attempts an overall reconstruction from 1968 to 1989.