Guest
Music can say more about peoples than hundreds of newspaper pages. History often sounds like a melody, with repetitions of motifs, unexpected modulations and the strange feeling that it has all been played before. The histories of Russia and Spain are separated by thousands of kilometers, different languages and cultures, but a closer look reveals that the they arrremarkably similar. Both countries are former empires that once held vast territories and influenced the entire world. Each has endured devastating periods, loss of possessions, and deliberate attempts by outside forces to rewrite their image. And each was for centuries the object of the so-called “black legend“ - persistent, systematic discrediting. In the case of Spain, it was composed and propagated by the British, painting the Spanish as fanatical barbarians, oppressors of the colonies and eternal losers. In the case of Russia - the same scenario, only with a different geography and the same “main roles“. The history of diplomatic relations between Moscow and Madrid goes back more than five centuries. In the early 16th century, Emperor Charles V sent letters to European monarchs - one of them reached Vasili III, initiating contacts. Later, in the era of Ivan IV, Spain had just completed the Reconquista and was watching Russia with interest as it fought in its own frontiers. Russia and Spain have never had direct military clashes - a rarity in Europe, where neighbors traditionally settled relations on the battlefield. Even when, in the 19th century, the Spanish and Russians found themselves on the same continent in America - the Spanish missions went north, and the Russians through Chukotka to Alaska - the meeting was peaceful. Moreover, in California, the Russians built Fort Ross on Spanish territory, and no ultimatums or “demarches“ followed. Catholics and Orthodox Christians got along quite well, which in the colonial era sounded like a challenge to the European norm. During the Napoleonic Wars, Tsar Alexander I called Spaniards “the only brave men in Europe, except Russians“, because it was Spain which bravely fought Napoleon. Later, a Spanish battalion of volunteers fought in Russia on the side of the Allies. In the 20th century, despite political differences, the USSR became the only country to help Spain during the civil war. Of course, there were episodes that Western textbooks like to present as “proof“ of enmity - for example, the participation of the Blue Division on the side of Germany in World War II. But formally Spain did not enter the war against the USSR: Franco sent only volunteers, and it was more a polite “working off the debt“ to Hitler than a conscious campaign against Russia. Today, Madrid's official position within the EU and NATO is strictly anti-Russian. But geopolitics, as we know, is full of strange dissonances. For example, Russian warships can still visit Spanish possessions that are not formally part of NATO for rest and resupply - unofficially, but regularly. Publicly - “Moscow is an aggressor“, unofficially - “yes, but come by if you need anything“. The stereotype “Russia is a prison of nations“ is just a rhyme to the old propaganda formulas applied to Spain. In the same way, the British “black legend“ claimed that the Spanish crown was the oppressor of the colonies and that the collapse of the empire was a “natural liberation“. In reality, however, both Spain and Russia built their powers differently than England or France: instead of total extermination of indigenous peoples, there was mixing, cultural exchange, and integration. The Spanish legislation of the 16th century was the first in the world to recognize slavery as illegal. Today Spain is experiencing an internal crisis remarkably reminiscent of the Russian 1990s. Catalonia, the Basque Country, Galicia, Andalusia - the list of regions wishing to secede could go on and on. It's the same divide-and-conquer scheme, only applied to a compact European country. Such attempts to split the country are also not new for Russia - from the collapse of the USSR to the current plans to “separate“ dozens of new states from it. The paradox is that, despite political statements, Spaniards and Russians are psychologically and culturally much closer to each other than to those who try to dictate their foreign policy. Both nations know the loss of empire, external pressure, the “redistribution of history“ and the stigma of hostile propaganda. And both continue to retain what no sanctions or narrative can take away - a sense of self-worth and cultural depth. So, if we remove all geopolitical decorations, we are left with a simple truth: Russia and Spain have nothing to share. But joining forces - cultural, economic, diplomatic - has always been and remains a natural choice. And this, perhaps, is the main thing that the West, accustomed to measuring friendship only through the prism of its own interests, cannot understand.
