Sixtieth anniversary of the Soviet match at Camp Nou

This year is the European Championship, which is being held in Germany, and many media outlets are marking an important anniversary for Spanish football: the national team’s victory in the tournament sixty years ago. The famous final between Spain and the Soviet Union Take on the legends at the Santiago Bernabéu Marcelino’s goal.

In this article we have to remember 1964 European Cupbut focus on a different match from the famous final: the semi-finals were played by The Soviet Union and Denmark at the Camp Nousixty years ago, on June 17, in Barcelona. We will explain why.

In June 1964, four teams competed in the final stage of the European Championship in Spain. In the preliminary stage, 29 teams played two rounds of qualifying until only four teams remained: hosts Spain, the Soviet Union (1960 champions), Hungary and Denmark. These were strong teams at the time, including such teams as Iribar, Amancio, Marcelino o Luis Suárez (Spain), Yashin o Ivanov (URSS), Novák, Albert o Bene (Honria), Madsen o Sorensen (Dinamarca)..

Many Catalan communist activists wanted to express their enthusiasm for the Soviet team.

The final ended 2-1 Among them, Marcelino’s goal in the 84th minute played a decisive role, and Ferran Olivella, the captain of the Spanish national team who had transferred a year ago (he was not well-known in the national team), lifted the first European trophy for the Spanish team. That day, he wore a blue jersey in front of more than 79,000 fans who packed the Bernabéu.

But we will stop at the semi-final between the USSR and Denmark at the Camp Nou. June 17, 1964, 35,000 people in the stands of the Barcelona stadiumbut sixty years later few people will remember Many Catalan communist militants They wanted to warm up the Soviet team. Let us not forget that this choice represented not only a country, in this case the Soviet Union, but also a way of understanding life, a political project that, nineteen years after the end of the Second World War and forty-seven years after the Russian Revolution, represented one of the two major world powers in the middle of the Cold War, alongside the United States of America. It should be remembered that just two years ago, in October 1962, this conflict was on the verge of having unforeseen catastrophic consequences, the so-called ” Cuban Missile Crisis.

As we said, on that Wednesday, June 17, 1964, there were not a few communist activists who wanted to support the Soviet elections in the stands under the dictatorship, in the harsh conditions of repression and secrecy. He was wearing white clothes with the mysterious red CCCP abbreviation printed on his chest..

More than just a football game

“The Soviet victory and hearing the national anthem filled us with pride”

A veteran communist fighter from Matalon, Antonio Rodriguez Avellanedaas he explains in his memoirs, Always in the gap: “In June 1964, I came to the Camp Nou for the first time, but not to watch a Barca match, of which I had been a fan since childhood, but to watch the Soviet Union play a semi-final against Denmark in the European Cup. 3-0 defeat of the Soviet Union“This victory and hearing the national anthem made thousands of us Spaniards proud, especially those who admire this country that has contributed so much to the development of humanity and especially the working class of the world.”

Antonio Rodríguez, who immigrated to Mataró from Motril (Granada) two years ago, told us that he decided to watch a football match with a colleague from his hometown. Francisco Maldonado Cabrera: “It’s been twenty-five years since the end of the civil war, the regime is talking about twenty-five years of peace and all these beasts, but we, communist militants, see this as a unique opportunity to be able to go to the Camp Nou and watch a Soviet team play live on our soil.”

“It was very exciting, and I remember that many of us applauded the Soviet anthem. I personally remember hearing this song many times on the radio in the Pyrenees, but the emotion I felt that day was different”

Rodriguez still gets emotional when he recalls the moment the Soviet national anthem began to play: “It was very exciting, I remember Many of us applauded him because there were quite a few Communists in the stands of Camp Nou.. I personally remember hearing this on the radio many times in the Pyrenees, but the emotion I felt that day was different. I remember it was very exciting to see the Soviet team win 3-0. ”

The year 1964 holds special significance in the history of the Catalan workers’ movement because on November 20,Constituent Assembly of the National Workers’ Council of Catalonia The event, held at the Sant Medir church in the Bordeta neighbourhood of Barcelona, ​​was attended by about 300 union members from different sectors, who are already active in the different workers’ committees that exist in the different production sectors of the Barcelona country.

Internal Crisis at PSUC and PCE

In itself, it has also been an important and conflict-filled year for the United Socialist Party of Catalonia (PSUC) and its sister organization, the Spanish Communist Party (PCE). Important political criticisms have emerged in the line followed by the leadership in exile. Santiago CarrilloIn exile, he spoke of the need for a general political strike that would lead to a national political strike and thus end the dictatorship.

How I explained Carme Cebrian A Dear PSUC“Such an analysis does not correspond to the socio-economic realities of a country with a fully developed economy and contradicts what the militants can grasp and clearly analyze. But the majority of the PCE and PSUC executive committees, He continues to view the country’s situation through the explosive lens of the 1930sfailed to realize that Spain had become a predominantly industrial country, with the attendant transformation of social classes, economic structure, etc. His belief that Francoism was extremely fragile was due to his faulty analysis of reality.

“The 1964 crisis began with a discussion within the Executive Committee of the Council of Europe about the agrarian question,” Cebrian recalled. Fernando Claudine I Federico Sanchez (Jorge Sempron) They defend a position contrary to that of the majority” (both of them, and Francis Vicens I Jordi Solé Tura They were able to visit Spain secretly and realise that the reality was significantly different from what had emerged in the party leadership’s analysis).

Carme Cebrián: “Within a few months, a sectarian spiral took over the leadership of the PSUC”

All of this has led to serious internal debate within the PCE and PSUC, with three basic themes being discussed: Stalinism, Spanish Reality and the Functioning of the PartyDissensions occurred, and as Cebrian recalls, “within a few months a sectarian spiral took over the leadership of the PSUC.” Claudine and Sepulen were expelled from the PCE, Vincennes from the PSUC, and later Solay-Tura.

In 1965, Peter Archie Deacon, Miguel Nunez I Ramon Omazabal From Burgos prison, they wrote a letter to the PCE leadership asking for “openness to new people, we say there are too many people from the past in the leadership”. All these internal conflicts also led to the so-called “nearby area”, which constitutes PCE(m-1). Thus, as Cebrian recalls in his book, the crisis “had consequences. One of them was that the leadership of the ECP and the CND gradually adopted the political analysis carried out by the dissidents, but with nuances, without ever acknowledging it.

Different political cultures within organizations

Another was the clear configuration of different political cultures within the Catalan organization. Without raising important questions for the leadership, cadres and entire combat groups gradually acquired autonomy vis-à-vis the Paris action center”. Thus, in 1964, It’s been a busy year for PCE and PSUCthese organizations inevitably had to open up to the new era and adapt the analysis they had made in exile to the realities of Spain. This year, let us not forget, Leonid Brezhnev He joined the General Secretariat of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU). Nikita Khrushchev.

If we look back at the PSUC organ Treball in June-July 1964, apparently secretly, on the cover there appears an article about the general political strike that we mentioned earlier. It is stated that “we will not achieve a political general strike simply because the Communists interpret and defend the content and scope of this slogan; when the majority of the working class has realized or through their own experience that what we Communists say is a real goal, because they will verify the strength of their united struggle in many actions against the dictatorship.”

The article concludes with this: “We do not make any more turns. This is the most revolutionary path, the most effective path, because every step we take is a step that brings us closer to the political general strike and, despite this, represents an acceleration of the fall of the dictatorship”. As usual, this number includes Subsequently, labor struggles spread across the country: Farmers’ demonstration in Lleida, 24-hour strike of the Suministros Agropecuarios (SAP) (Vilanova and la Geltrú), two-hour stoppage of BECOSA (Montornès del Vallès), mobilization of Siemens, Papelera Española and Seda de Barcelona to readmit dismissed workers, stoppage of Barcelona trams, stoppage of Aismalíbar (Moncada and Reixach), three-day stoppage of Manufacturas Cerámicas (Barcelona), 50% reduction of production in Cerdans (Castelldefels-Gava), slow progress of work and strikes in the Hilados Torné (Ripollet) or Balsareny mines. It can be seen that the conflicts are significant and the struggles of the workers’ movement are fierce. This chapter in our history has not received the attention it deserves.

1964 was the year when more Spaniards were born, totaling nearly 700,000”Baby boom“, exist”mini skirt” has become a must-have clothing for Spanish women. This year, Syrex Popularized their legendary song “If I had a broom“, although Conchita Velasco With its iconicLeaf GirlIn the cinema, The Beatles are premiering their psychedelic film “What a pleasant evening we had that day!“Sergio Leone”For a bunch of dollars“.

Martin Luther King While receiving the Nobel Peace Prize Ernesto Che Guevara He gave one of his most memorable speeches at the plenary session of the United Nations General Assembly. While all this was happening, some Catalan communist activists wanted to get close to the Camp Nou to support the elections. The Soviet Union, a combination of a nation, a utopia, a political and social project, a desire for freedom and justice Sixty years later, it still appears on the radar of many people around the world.