F. Luis Martínez Alcalá

PARALLELISM BETWEEN SPAIN AND RUSSIA

Тhe situation in the ex-URSS sometimes remind me the situation in America after the independence of Spain, countries with a similar culture, civilization and language, separated by the politics.

Today we publish the interview with Luis Martínez Alcalá, who is the Architect of the Treasury Department and teacher in the Polytechnical University of Madrid and in other Institutions on topics of finance, taxes and town planning. He is a modest historian — that is his hobby — especially on the WWII , the Shoah and the history of Russia from the XIXth century to the actuality. Recently had been published an essay of him about the WWII in Russia, in an International Seminar for Internet, on Russia and the countries of the ancient USSR in the Russian publication Ria Novosti, in Spanish. He believes that the point of view of countries as Spain that had developed only some thirty or forty years is more useful for understand the Russian reality that Anglo-Saxon countries that had been developed long ago.

— Mr. Alcalá, today in Russia becomes popular «the Russian world» word combination which maintains some not only social or cultural but political and even civilizational context. How do You think, is it possible to talk about «the Hispanic world» and in what terms if is?

— Really we can speak about a Hispanic World, by example a Filipino can get the Spanish nationality easier that an Russian because they were a Spanish colony till 1898, and many more things. I believe that the language is one of the most important union between the nations, for it a Spaniard feels more next to a Panamanian one or to a Peruvian that to a Swedish in spite of the difference of race.

By the way the situation in the ex-URSS sometimes remind me the situation in America after the independence of Spain, countries with a similar culture , civilization and language , separated by the politics.

— Do You mean all post-Soviet countries or for example Russia, Belarus and Ukraine?

Not many people realize the parallelism that exists between the Spain of 1975-80 and the Russia of 1989-1995. In both cases it was leaving of an authoritarian regime and the Presidents who made the change possible had a small real authority and, at less in the Spanish case, very little sense of the history. The consequence was the rupture of entities that were joined by hundreds of years, in many cases without motive and without nobody asking for it. In the Spanish case historically only there have existed three kingdoms, Castile that comprises almost the whole Spain, Aragon, that comprises the regions of Aragon, Catalonia and Valencia and Navarre, which only comprises the province of the same name. They are united from 1512.

The first Presidente after Franco, Adolfo Suárez, who was our Gorbachev, created 17 autonomies most of them artificials , which had never existed, creating 17 parliaments, 17 administrations with different laws and breaking the administrative unit and of market in Spain. An ancient minister of Franco defined to Adolfo Suárez as an ambitious and very ignorant man.

The local politicians were skillful and rapid in increasing the new regional administrations to commit all kinds of corruptions and to put in his administrations friends and relatives, with what the cost of the administration and of the taxes increased greatly for the normal citizen.

In case of the USSR that I suppose you know better, the situation was similar, but with the difference that the entities that were composing the USSR were very different, from a few Baltic countries that although they had been only independent, from 1918 until 1939, since there had always been a part of Russia or Germany, they were thinking with right to the independence to a few republics of Central Asia that did not ask for the independence, practically were given them, for lack of central power. Nevertheless after the military Pustch and the independence of all the Soviet republics the damage was made. And of a form similar to Spain but to a much major scale, which was the Director of a newspaper turned into ambassador, the governor in President, etc, and, as in Spain the corruption spread throughout, and ancient minorities begun to oppressing to the people who was living with them, Baltic to the Russian speakers, the Catalans to the castilian speakers, etc. Of course the foreign potencies helped to the dismemberment of Russia and in to the case of Spain, France saw with good eyes this rupture of Spain, while it kept on giving asylum Basque terrorists. The economic consequences of a so similar beginning have been different between Spain and Russia.

In case of Russia and most of the Former Republic, the political elite, his relatives and friends prospered while the people went down standard of living to tragic bottoms. In case of Spain goes into the European Union, and it protected her from the disaster, but, as in the ex-USSR, the politicians, his friends and relatives prospered, although the level of the people also improved thank you to the EU, which also cooperated in the state corruption by means of bribes of the German company Siemens selling his high speed trains and of the french company French Alstom who imposed on the Spanish government the buy of the double of the necessary high speed trains, half of them destined for spare parts, with the blackmail of the Basque terrorists. Even an ancient German ambassador was even detected by money for bribes in a briefcase.

All these expenses and corruption during decades this is what has taken to Spain to the current economic crisis, and in contrast to Russia, Spain has no natural resources. In any case the damage done Spain and to Russia for the separatism it is very big and it will last, I am afraid, hundreds of years. Although the future customs union between Russia, Bielorussia and Kazhastan is a hope motive.

Interviewed Marat Kunaev