Anson, Beatriz
(2003)
The limits of destalinization: The Spanish Communist party, 1956-1965.
PhD thesis, London School of Economics and Political Science.
Abstract
This thesis seeks to demonstrate that the process of liberalization started by the PCE in 1956 was of a very limited nature and never managed to change the party's Stalinist internal structure. This in turn obstructed the success of the party's policies, its programmes and campaigns inside the country, as the leadership in exile, far removed from the Spanish reality, imposed from above its views on underground activists, thus limiting their influence and impact. I demonstrate this by looking mainly at the relationship that flourished in 1956 between the leadership in exile and the intellectual and student organizations inside Spain. Just as it had happened in the 1940s with other underground Communist organizations, this relationship soon started to deteriorate and eventually led to one of the most important purges ever to take place inside the PCE. My thesis thus concludes that the party's lack of internal democracy, which became evident during this period, in the long term discredited the transformation attempted through Eurocommunism and hence, sheds new light into one of the reasons behind the party's failure during the transition to democracy in Spain.
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