Blue Victors & Red Loser. Returned Spaniards from the Soviet Union

Abstract

The topic of Spanish Civil War refugees in the Soviet Union has been dealt with at length in scholarly literature. Previously published studies include eye-witness memoirs, oral testimonies, and essays, but to date nothing has been published on the media approach to those refugees. In the framework of a crucial historical moment that marked the end of the country’s isolation under Franco, news treatment of those refugees’ repatriation played a key role in the shaping of public opinion, their narrative abiding by the socia l platitudes and stereotypes of those years. Based on Spanish and international press reporting on this historical episode, this article constitutes the first piece of research analysing the language and the visuals in various newspapers of the 1950s, both quantitatively and qualitatively. Using the length of the news coverage as an objective indicator, we have measured the degree of relevance the event was given. Through this analysis we have confirmed that the informative treatment was not adequate; the return of the anti- Communist ex-combatants in the Division Azul was exalted, while other returning expeditions of refugees were clearly discriminated.