Portuguese-Soviet relations

Portuguese-Soviet relations

Portugal	Soviet Union

The Portuguese-Soviet relations describe the interstate relationship between Portugal and the Soviet Union . From 1974 until the end of the USSR in 1991, the countries had direct diplomatic relations.

The relationship between Portugal, which has been increasingly anti-communist since 1926, and the Soviet Union, founded in 1922, was mostly tense. It was only with the Carnation Revolution in Portugal in 1974 and the subsequent end of the right-wing Estado Novo dictatorship that relations were given a new, friendly basis.

history

Until 1974

Russian units on the advance in Finland: in the winter war of 1939/40 Portugal sided with Finland against the Soviet Union

The traditionally friendly Portuguese-Russian relations that had existed since 1779 experienced a U-turn with the Russian October Revolution in 1917 and finally broke off completely in 1918, before the establishment of the Soviet Union in 1922.

After the semi- fascist Salazar dictatorship was finally established in Portugal in 1932, relations continued to deteriorate. The profound ideological differences prompted Salazar to play a key role in driving the exclusion of the Soviet Union from the League of Nations in 1939, and in the Finnish-Russian winter war of 1939/40 Portugal openly sided with Finland, even if not militarily.

During the Second World War , Nazi Germany was supplied by the Portuguese Salazar regime with tungsten for weapons production, including for heavy equipment on the Eastern Front . In addition, around 150 Portuguese volunteers within the Spanish Blue Division on the side of Nazi Germany went to war in 1941 , mainly former members of the Viriato Legion . Most of them fought on the Eastern Front against the Soviet Union, in accordance with their anti-communist ideology.

After the end of the Second World War in 1945, relations hardly improved. The intellectual exchange at the non-state level, however, was maintained thanks to private initiatives.

At the state level, tensions increased steadily with the Soviet support for the independence movements in the Portuguese colonies , especially in the Portuguese colonial war in Angola , but also in Mozambique and Guinea-Bissau . As early as 1951, the Soviet Union had been the most adamant opponent of the controversial Portuguese overseas policy in UN assemblies , where Portugal was now increasingly isolated.

The most important actor in the resistance against the Salazar dictatorship was the Communist Party of Portugal (PCP). Its chairman Álvaro Cunhal went into exile in Moscow after his spectacular escape from the political prison in Peniche in 1960 and has kept the party ideologically in line with the USSR ever since.

In the 1960s and 1970s, several dozen Portuguese children came to Iwanowo to the Interdom , a home of the International Red Aid for children from war and civil war zones. Her parents had sent her there, usually imprisoned or monitored communist opposition members of the regime in Portugal.

Since 1974

With the Portuguese Carnation Revolution on April 25, 1974 and the end of the Portuguese dictatorship, relations between the two countries changed fundamentally. On June 9, 1974, Portugal and the Soviet Union established diplomatic relations, and Mário Viçoso Neves took up his post as the first Portuguese ambassador to Moscow on June 24, 1974.

Soviet Foreign Minister Gromyko (1975)

In January 1975, Portugal's Foreign Minister, Mário Soares, visited Moscow, where he met his counterpart Gromyko . Soares showed Gromyko the influence of the Catholic Church and the Portuguese capitalists as an obstacle to a faster revolution in Portugal, which his government could not ignore for the sake of internal peace. Gromyko expressed understanding for the special social situation in Portugal and assured that his government would therefore continue to stay out of the revolutionary process in Portugal.

In October 1975 President Costa Gomes made a state visit to the USSR. He met with party leader Brezhnev in a lengthy, confidential one-on-one conversation . In his later published memoir, Costa Gomes revealed parts of the content of the conversation. He asked Brezhnev about possible plans of the USSR to exert influence in Portugal, whereupon the latter assured him that they were aware that Portugal was a predominantly Catholic country and that a type of society based on the model of the Soviet Union, with its religion being strongly pushed back, would not be accepted. In fact, the USSR had a moderating effect on the PCP, which for a time wanted to move from the “bourgeois-democratic revolution” to the “socialist revolution” along the lines of Lenin and thus possibly would have caused bloodshed in the Portuguese revolution after all.

Overall, the Soviet Union stayed out of the revolution in Portugal in order not to endanger the geopolitical balance. The Yalta agreements were kept , according to which Portugal belonged to the western sphere. In his memoirs, Anatoly Tschernjajew , then a member of the international department of the Central Committee of the CPSU , writes that the USSR had simply accepted a Western social democracy in Portugal instead of a socialist overthrow, just as the West had accepted Czechoslovakia to remain in the Warsaw Pact despite the Prague Spring in 1968 , "Czechoslovakia is ours, Portugal is yours." [The North Americans]

A further rapprochement between the two countries lost further momentum when, at the end of 1975, the bourgeois forces prevailed in the Portuguese revolution and the NATO founding member Portugal then clearly turned towards the West again .

Diplomatic and, in particular, cultural relations continued to exist, thanks in particular to the efforts of the PCP, which presented the USSR and its achievements in its interests in exhibitions and cultural events. With his popularity and media presence in Portugal, PCP chairman Cunhal was an important ambassador of the Soviet Union in Portugal. At the state level, however, the distance slowly increased again.

It was only after the end of the Soviet Union in 1991 that official relations between the two countries intensified again, in particular as a result of the opening of the USSR's successor, the CIS , to a market economy .

The Portuguese Embassy on Grokholsky Street in Moscow

diplomacy

From 1974 Portugal maintained an embassy on Moscow's Grokholsky Street, near the Avenue of Peace.

See also : List of Portuguese Ambassadors to the Soviet Union

The Russian representation in Portugal resides to this day at Rua Visconde de Santarém number 59 in the Lisbon municipality of São Jorge de Arroios near the Instituto Superior Técnico .

Culture

Amália Rodrigues 1969

Despite the strained relations during the Estado Novo regime, mutual cultural interest remained lively at all times, for example in the literature of both countries. People interested in culture such as Marquesa Olga de Cadaval also succeeded in wresting further concessions in areas such as culture and sport from the deeply Catholic and anti-communist Salazar regime. Russian artists such as David Oistrakh , Oleg Kogan and Vladimir Krainev have performed in Portugal, and Portuguese artists have made guest appearances in the Soviet republics, such as Carlos do Carmo or Amália Rodrigues , who went on an extensive tour of the Soviet Union in 1969, where it was enthusiastically received and then published recordings there.

At the annual festival Festa do Avante! , which is still considered the largest cultural event in Portugal, the achievements of the USSR and the Eastern Bloc it led were often demonstrated in exhibitions , and Soviet artists were frequent guests in the Festa's cultural program in the 1970s and 1980s.

The Portuguese documentary “ Os Filhos de Ivanovo ” from 2003 portrays another episode of Portuguese-Soviet friendship. From the 1960s to 1970s, Portuguese children lived in Iwanowo's international school home , the Interdom . They had been sent there by their parents, who as imprisoned or monitored opposition members of the regime in Portugal could not move freely. The Portuguese children learned and lived there with children from many other parts of the world. In the film, they portray their childhood in the Interdom as enriching and fulfilling and report that all Interdom students have felt a bond that is still felt today.

Striker star Eusébio contributed with a goal to the 2-1 victory in the game for the 3rd place at the WM'66

Sports

See also : International match records (USSR)

The Portuguese national team faced the USSR national team three times , with two Soviet and one Portuguese victories. They first met in the game for third place at the 1966 World Cup in England. The Portuguese team around world footballer Eusébio won 2: 1 and thus achieved the best placement in Portugal at a World Cup to date (as of 2017).

See also

• Portuguese-Russian relations

Web links

Commons : Relations between Portugal and the Soviet Union  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Overview of diplomatic relations with Russia at the diplomatic institute in the Portuguese Ministry of Foreign Affairs , accessed on May 4, 2019.
2. ↑ Os portugueses que combateram no exército de Hitler - "The Portuguese who fought in Hitler's armies" , article from February 12, 2013 in the Portuguese news magazine Visão , accessed on July 18, 2018
3. ↑ Portuguese blog article with images of Spanish and Portuguese newspaper articles , accessed July 18, 2018
4. ↑ ^{a b c} O dia em que Gromyko pediu calma a Portugal - "The day when Gromyko asked Portugal for patience" , article of April 29, 2004 in the Portuguese newspaper Diário de Notícias , accessed on December 17, 2017.
5. ↑ Como a moscóvia “descobriu” Portugal - “How the Grand Duchy of Moscow discovered Portugal” , article from March 4, 2012 on the website of the Russian Embassy in Portugal, accessed on December 19, 2017
6. ↑ quoted from: Willi Baer, ​​Karl-Heinz Dellwo (Ed.): April 25, 1974 The Carnation Revolution. Library of Resistance, vol. 15th 1st edition, Laika-Verlag , Hamburg 2012, p. 160
7. ↑ Cristina Faria: Fotobiografias Século XX - Amália Rodrigues. Temas & Debates, Mem Martins 2008, ISBN 978-989-644-032-9 , p. 195.
8. ↑ Os Filhos de Ivanovo , download of the film on YouTube , accessed on December 19, 2017