The spanish historiography of communism. Light and shade following the fall of the wall (1989-2008)

Abstract

[eng] Owing to the effects of the Franco dictatorship, research on the communist phenomenon started in Spain considerably later than in the rest of Western Europe and was characterised by strong ideologisation until the 1980s. Although the opening of the Soviet archives had a limited effect in Spain, the incorporation of new generations of historians favoured treatment based on scientific criteria from the 1990s onwards. The normalisation of the study of communism was consolidated at the beginning of the twenty-first century, with the creation of teams and the basic infrastructure and the widening of the areas of study. Even so, twenty years on from the crisis of the Soviet model, Spanish historiography on communism has countless challenges pending with respect to method and approach.