The Peace Propaganda in Cold War Narratives: Czechoslovak and Spanish Communist Parties after the February Prague Coup (1948–1953)
The Peace Propaganda in Cold War Narratives: Czechoslovak and Spanish Communist Parties after the February Prague Coup (1948–1953)

Summary/Abstract: This article examines how the concept of peace became a central instrument of propaganda within the communist world at the outset of the Cold War, focusing on its deployment by the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (Komunistická strana Československa, KSČ) after the 1948 communist coup, and by the Communist Party of Spain (Partido Comunista de España, PCE). Following the seizure of power in February 1948 – celebrated in official communist historiography as “Victorious February” (Vítězný únor) – the KSČ incorporated the language of peace into a broader strategy of legitimization that combined Marxist-Leninist ideologywith narratives of national sovereignty and anti-imperialism. From this position, Czechoslovakia emerged as an important hub of the pro-Soviet peace campaign, formally launched in 1948 and later institutionalized as the World Peace Council.The article also analyses how the international communist movement, and the PCEin particular, interpreted and appropriated the Prague coup. For the Spanish communists, operating clandestinely under Franco’s dictatorship, “Victorious February”bserved both as a symbolic reference and a practical resource, shaping their politicaldiscourse and reinforcing anti-imperialist narratives that linked U.S. support forFranco with the threat of a new world conflict. Through a wide array of initiatives,from peace-committee activism to transnational petition drives, both the KSČ and the PCE deployed peace propaganda to situate their struggles within a shared ColdWar political culture. By examining the activities and discursive strategies of bothcommunist parties between 1948 and 1953, the author shows how concepts suchas peace, culture, and national sovereignty were mobilized to legitimize political projects in a polarized world.

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