History 06/03/20 What happened in the USSR Spanish orphans
the Civil war in Spain between Republicans and Franco became the Soviet Union’s “their” war. Moscow Communists supported the forces who opposed the regime the rebels left propaganda dubbed him a fascist. The sad “legacy” of the conflict ended with the defeat of the Republicans, thousands of orphaned children. The Soviet Union took them in 1937-1938 and placed in orphanages. What happened in the “country of victorious socialism” Spanish orphans?
Evacuation
the Republicans hold control of several districts in the North of Spain, allowed to evacuate abroad 34 thousand children. 3 thousand of them were in the Soviet Union. Most of them were children of ordinary miners from Asturias and the Basque Country. The export was carried out in several stages. For example, one of the parties evacuees were transported by ship “Havana” from the port of Santurtzi to France. There children were divided between States that agreed to accept them. The youngest child taken was 4 years old, the oldest was 14 years.
“the Spanish” the orphanage
Despite a common destiny, the Spanish children in the USSR were in the initially unequal conditions.
For arrivals was organized 15 special orphanages on the territory of the Russian Federation and Ukraine – this issue personally Commissars of education of both republics. Companies were located in Moscow, Pushkin (Tsarskoe Selo), Yalta, Kiev, Kherson, Kharkov and other cities. As reported in the article “Make them love life” leading specialist of Department of acquisition of the Russian state archive of phonodocuments Anna Fernandez-Eres, specifically for children have been converted in a holiday home.
On each of the young refugee was separated almost 3 times more than the average Russian orphans. The task was to make “Spanish” the orphanage exemplary for demonstrate the successes of the Comintern. However, not all of them were the same logistical equipment-in some companies, the situation was deplorable. Lack of facilities, lack of adequate heating, water and sanitation – such were the conditions of life of orphans, even in such large centres as Leningrad and Odessa. Different and quality of food – in the capitals it was better and more varied than in the province. Worse of all was the case in Ukraine.
With qualified personnel is also a problem to find enough teachers who know Spanish, for all the orphanages in the Soviet Union could not. Therefore, some children have partially forgotten their mother tongue. Educated young Spaniards in a very ideologiserad spirit – as the future builders of communism and the fighters for the liberation of Spain. Each of them, according to approved program, had to master Spanish literary and spoken Russian language. In fact, instead of studying a lot of time was given to entertainment and spectacle, and some of the inmates overwhelmed by the attention of the staff, do not cope with basic self-help skills. A specific problem of the management of orphanages was to guard the children from the influence of adults in Spain, do not adhere to leftist ideology. As noted in the article “the untold truth about the Spanish children in the USSR” journalist and historian Elena Vicens, these were among educators, and outside the perimeter – for example, sailors in the port of Leningrad
during the great Patriotic war
the War against fascism, from which he escaped children, soon came to Soviet Russia. Graduates of orphanages were sent to the front immediately after reaching the military age. 412 people have died from German bullets – and someone, possibly from the Spanish because of Franco sent to help Hitler volunteer Blue division, consisting of 18 thousand people.
Since most of the orphanages were in the Western territories of the USSR, from the beginning of the offensive of the Wehrmacht’s children for the second time in the neOia life was evacuated deep into Russia, Georgia and Central Asia. Here their living conditions were much heavier than the original – along with other young Spaniards endured cold, hunger and deprivation. Rations were cut so that the memories of some, they had to eat tree bark. Evacuated high school students worked in collective farms. However, the death of children were still single.
the fate of the Spanish orphans
Bilingual system of education has led to the fact that the General competency orphans of knowledge was small. Many of the Spaniards were faced with great difficulties when entering thecinema and other educational institutions. However, the majority eventually became world-class experts in their field – doctors, teachers, engineers. Incidentally, according to one version, from Spain was the famous children’s writer Sergei Kozlov (author of “Hedgehog in the fog”) – he was in a “national” of the orphanage at the Taganka and was subsequently adopted by the Moscow family of the Gantry. This fact of his biography are told, for example, a literary critic Dmitry Shevarov on pages “the Russian newspaper”..
Lived in the Soviet Union the Spanish had the opportunity to return home after the death of dictator Francisco Franco in 1975. Several hundred have gone there even earlier – in the 1950s. Others emigrated to Spanish-speaking Cuba. In Russia there are only 3% of the total number of “Spanish children” – they have roots here and got families.
Kristina Rudich
Source:
© Russian Seven
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