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Inter arma silent musae: роль публичной дипломатии в отношениях России и Испании
The article deals with the role of public diplomacy in Russian-Spanish relations; putsforward a hypothesis, that public diplomacy plays an independent role, sometimes evenreplacing traditional diplomacy, in the “political vacuum”, when political ties betweenthe two countries were frozen or even broken off. The author points out that someexamples of public diplomacy can be traced in Russian-Spanish relations in the 18—19th centuries, but they transferred into state policy only in the 20th century. It was atthat time that the Soviet government started to maintain a purposeful public policyaimed at “creating a positive image of the country” through the development of culturaland scientific contacts. This is demonstrated in the article on a number of examples: TheOctober Revolution, which divided the world into two opposing blocs, in which therewas no place for political relations; the period of Francoism, when both states publiclydeclared their irreconcilable ideological confrontation, but in fact were pragmaticallybuilding economic relations and strengthened scientific and cultural contacts. In thoseyears, the personal support of prominent scientists and public figures played a huge rolein building official diplomatic relations after the death of Franco. The author paysspecial attention to the role of the diplomacy of science and education, the importance ofwhich. increased noticeably in the 21st century. From this point of view, the evolution ofrelations between Russia and Spain in the first quarter of this century is considered,especially during the period of cooling of relations as a result of the Ukrainian crisis.