"Children of the Spanish Civil War" in Russia: a difficult homecoming. BBC Russian Service - Information Services Spanish children in the USSR

60 years ago, in the spring of 1937, eight months after the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War, the first ship carrying Spanish refugee children arrived in the Soviet Union from Valencia. There were only 72 of them. But the next ship "Sontay", moored in Kronstadt in July 1937, had already brought 1499 children of different ages to Soviet Russia: from 5 to 15 years old.

Thus began the long emigration of over 3,000 Spanish children. For many of whom it never ended. And although today the Spanish government is doing a lot for their return (for example, a special agreement was signed between Moscow and Madrid on the recognition of dual citizenship for these people, on the transfer of pensions from Russia to Spain), nevertheless, even here the authorities (this time - already Spanish) act selectively and largely for propaganda purposes. It's a pity... After all, nothing characterizes the government as its attitude towards its citizens and compatriots.

How “children running from a thunderstorm” appeared in Spain ...

More than half of the Spanish children who arrived in the Soviet Union in 1937-1939 were from the Basque Country, from which - after the infamous bombing of Guernica and the fall of the main republican strongholds - mass emigration began. According to some reports, in those months more than 20 thousand Basque children left their homeland, many of whom, however, returned after some time.

Many Spanish children in the 30s were also adopted by such countries as France (9 thousand people), Switzerland (245 people), Belgium (3.5 thousand), Great Britain (about 4 thousand), Holland (195 people), Mexico ( 500 children). In total, 2895 children arrived in the Soviet Union (in 1937 - 2664, in 1938 - 189, in 1939 - 42 people). For that time, it was a truly unprecedented emigration of children. In two years - from 1937 to 1939 - more than 34 thousand children aged 3 to 15 emigrated from Spain. Most of them soon returned to their homeland, but those who emigrated to Mexico and especially to the Soviet Union lingered in a foreign land for a long time. But if it was easier for Spanish immigrants in Mexico, if only because the language environment was the same as in their homeland, then those who ended up in the USSR had to go through a lot before they could adapt to Russian realities. And many never found a new homeland in the USSR.

Many parents sent their children to a foreign land, thinking that this would not be for long - until the fighting and bombing in their homeland subsided. But life decreed otherwise: most of the children who arrived in the USSR stayed here to live, many never saw their relatives again.

I was convinced of this when I got acquainted with numerous documents at the Russian Center for the Storage and Study of Documents of Recent History (RTsKhIDNI). This center is located in Moscow and is the legal successor of the former Institute of Marxism-Leninism. Among other materials, the archives of the Comintern are also concentrated in the RTSKhIDNI.

So, just in the archives of the Comintern, it turned out to be possible to find a lot of evidence that makes it possible to draw up a fairly vivid picture of how Spanish children lived in the USSR, how they were received, what difficulties they faced, how they adapted or did not adapt in a new environment for them. . All the documents below are, as usual, labeled "Top Secret".

Out of the frying pan into the fire

The first thing that catches your eye on a careful reading of the archives is the method of providing Soviet assistance to Spanish refugee children. Here's what it's about. If in most countries that hosted underage Spanish emigrants, children were mainly distributed among families, then in the Soviet Union special boarding schools were created in which children lived and studied. With them were both Spanish and Soviet educators, teachers and doctors. The special Department of Children's Homes for Special Purposes, created under the People's Commissariat for Education, supervised the activities of orphanages.

By the end of 1938, there were 15 orphanages for Spanish children in the USSR: ten in the RSFSR (including one - N10 in the city of Pushkin near Leningrad - especially for preschoolers), and five others - in Ukraine. In Russia, orphanages were mainly concentrated near Moscow and Leningrad, and rest houses of the All-Union Central Council of Trade Unions, old noble mansions were used to create them. In Ukraine, these orphanages were created in Odessa, Kherson, Kyiv and Kharkov. During the Great Patriotic War, most of the "Spanish orphanages" were evacuated to Central Asia, Bashkiria, the Volga region, the North Caucasus and Georgia. In the spring of 1944, more than a thousand children were again brought to the Moscow region, some remained in Georgia, the Crimea, Saratov.

The All-Union Central Council of Trade Unions was involved in the financing of orphanages, and many organizations supervised the orphanages - from the Central Committee of the Komsomol and the Central Committee of the Trade Union of Preschool Institutions and Orphanages, to the People's Commissariat of Health and the People's Commissariat of Education. Before the war, the maintenance standards for one pupil of the "Spanish orphanage" were 2.5-3 times higher than for pupils of an ordinary Soviet orphanage. In the summer, some children (mostly in poor health) were taken south to pioneer camps, including the famous Artek camp.

In total, about 1400 teachers, educators, doctors worked in orphanages, among them 159 people were Spaniards. In the documents of the Comintern, special attention is paid to the party affiliation of the Spanish personnel. The archival data on this issue is as follows:

"Of these, members of the Communist Party of Spain - 37 people, members of the United Socialist Party of Catalonia - 9 people, members of the United Socialist Youth of Spain - 29 people, members of the Socialist Party of Spain - 11 people, left-wing republicans - 9 people, non-partisans - 62 people."

The RTSKhIDNI archive contains a list of "unreliable" adult Spaniards from among teachers and educators, who, in the opinion of the Spanish representative in the People's Commissariat of Education Soledad Sanchi, the author of the note, should have been "returned to Spain as soon as possible." The characteristics that are given in this document to Spanish teachers and educators who did not meet Soviet requirements are curious:

“Soledad Alonso cannot work with children because she is not interested in it, has no political training and does not want to acquire it. For her, the Soviet Union is a country - like any other.

As is clear from the report of the department of orphanages under the People's Commissariat of Education dated December 31, 1938, the structure of each "Spanish" orphanage in the USSR was as follows:

“The institution for Spanish children is called and is essentially an orphanage with a school attached to it. The head of the orphanage is the director, who has the following deputies and assistants:

a) for academic work,

b) for political and educational work /candidates for this work are selected directly by the Central Committee of the All-Union Leninist Young Communist League and approved by both the Central Committee of Komsomol and the People's Commissariat of the RSFSR/,

c) for administrative and economic work.

Thus, we see that these small colonies of Spanish children were built according to the socialist principle of collectivism, which was imposed in everything on the Spaniards, who, on the other hand, were kept rather isolated from the rest of Soviet society. Political conversations, seminars on "familiarization with the basis of the Soviet system, with the tasks and work of the CPSU / b /" (quotes from the same report) were held regularly in orphanages. There are cases when Spanish teachers and educators were expelled from orphanages, who, according to the directorate of these orphanages, were a “negative element”, and also showed a “Spanish disposition”. For example, here is one of the archival evidence:

“The People’s Commissariat of Education was frightened by the message that in the Leningrad orphanages the Spaniards had already created an organization for themselves - the Committees of the Popular Front of Spain ... During the seminar of Spanish teachers in Moscow, the Spaniards of the N7 orphanage held a meeting without informing anyone, and singled out one who then spoke on behalf of the entire group at the final meeting of the workshop. In general, the manifestation of Spanish mores began ... ".

(This is from a letter from an employee of the Comintern, Blagoeva, to the head of an all-powerful international organization at that time, Georgy Dimitrov. Let us note that we will encounter the unattractive role of Dimitrov himself in covering this topic more than once).

Speaking about the problems of the adaptation of Spanish emigrant children in the Soviet Union, at least one of them should be mentioned. While every "Spanish" orphanage had a primary school, only a few had a secondary school. Largely because of this, having reached the age of 16, when by age they were supposed to continue their education in technical schools or in factory training schools (FZO), Spanish children, due to the low level of general education, were not capable of more specialized training. Teaching was conducted in Spanish, and Russian was given as a foreign language. But the school curriculum was Soviet, translated into Spanish. Therefore, as Soviet instructors and experts wrote in their reports,

"... when passing programs with Spanish teachers, especially those who do not have much training and have not yet completely broken away from the bourgeois Catholic school, great difficulties arise"

Difficulties also included the lack of textbooks and manuals. Narkompros specially translated and published 15 school textbooks for Spanish children in the main disciplines: primer, books for reading, mathematics, works of classical Spanish and Russian literature, geography, history, and even “decisions of the Central Committee of the CPSU/b/ about school”.

In some orphanages, "due to housing conditions", schools worked in two shifts. The average success rate in 1938 for all schools was 87.3%.

There were also special classes for adult staff of orphanages. As follows from the same report dated December 31, 1938, “in all homes for Russian teachers, educators and pioneer leaders, circles for the study of the Spanish language are organized, and for Spanish workers - circles for the study of the Russian language. Political studies were organized: the study of the history of the CPSU / b /, circles of current politics; a number of employees work individually. In some orphanages, as, for example, in orphanage N5, a general education school has been created for the whole group, including for Spanish comrades, according to the adult school program.

In orphanages, a lot of time was devoted to the so-called "out-of-school work". Functioned, and with great success, various sports sections and amateur art circles. So, on November 6, 1938, Spanish children from orphanage N1 performed at a gala concert at the Bolshoi Theater.

But Spanish children had problems with social education. So, in the mentioned report dated December 31, 1938, it literally says the following:

“... Labor training for children is much weaker and unsatisfactorily organized. Self-service has only recently begun to be fully implemented ... A serious drawback is the lack of a well-thought-out and unified system for all homes to reward and punish children based on the principles of the Soviet school and developed in relation to the special conditions of Spanish orphanages.

In all schools there were pioneer and Komsomol organizations, in which at least half of the children of school age consisted (out of 2129 children, 1221 were pioneers by the beginning of 1939). Meanwhile, in the “report of the representative of the Communist Party of Spain, comrade. Luis to the secretariat of the ECCI on August 1, 1939" it was noted that

“There is strong resistance on the part of children to the question of joining the Komsomol, and those who belong to the Komsomol are considered bad.”

“Life used to be better in Spain than in the Soviet Union; the leadership of the communist party left Spain at a time when many remained there.”

Such a position of his countrymen, according to the same “comrade. Luis" was the result of the activities of "certain anti-communist elements who use trifles in order to cause discontent among Spanish children." The difficulties that the children faced while living in the USSR, according to Luis, were used by "these hostile elements" in order to "develop a campaign to discredit the Soviet Union and the Spanish Communist Party."

"Groups of dissatisfied" among the Spanish staff and teenagers were in almost every orphanage. Certain measures were taken against such "elements": first, a "cleansing" was carried out among the staff and the "unworthy" were sent to Spain, then - after 1939 - they simply disappeared. Commissions "for inspection" were regularly sent to schools, and a "special regime" was established for children aged 16-17. Most of the problems were in orphanages located in Leningrad. Perhaps due to the fact that many adult Spanish sailors who worked in the port lived in this city.

Speaking about the social adaptation of Spanish immigrant children in the Soviet Union, one should also pay attention to a little-known detail, which was carefully guarded by the stamps of special storage in the archives of the Comintern. For various reasons, many Spanish children suffered from various diseases, some of which were caused by living conditions and climate. Thus, children's home N1 at the Pravda station near Moscow (450 children lived here) was located in an area favorable for malaria. Most of all, Spanish children suffered from tuberculosis caused by a humid climate. The authorities were undoubtedly aware of this. It was also known that a special orphanage for tuberculosis patients was established in Evpatoria. However

"Some children in need of sanatoriums due to tuberculosis-type diseases have been waiting for a place in sanatoriums for months," -

said in one of the reports to the Secretariat of the ECCI (Executive Committee of the Comintern).

Soviet concepts of citizenship

When the immigrant children reached the age of 16, of course, the question of citizenship also arose. Formally, the Spaniards had the right to choose citizenship, but these Spanish refugees living in the USSR were actually denied such a right. By persuasion or more stringent methods (“work was carried out to accept Soviet citizenship”), they were forced to renounce Spanish citizenship and accept Soviet citizenship. But the measures taken by the authorities did not always give the desired result.

“Everyone filled out applications for Soviet citizenship and only five people refused to apply,”

stated in the report of Uribes and Gallego to the Secretariat of the ECCI on the situation in the Leningrad orphanage. From the same report it was possible to learn that

“There are a lot of guys who filled out applications without any interest, under the pressure of the environment. For example: Adolfo Cabal, Jose Sapico, Vicente Gonzalez objected for 15 days to applying for Soviet citizenship. It was only in the last days that they applied after the director talked to them many times and put pressure on them. In addition to the correct questions about whether they could return to Spain, etc., some of the guys could be seen to have a complete lack of any interest in the USSR and questions of the revolution. They just want to live as best they can. If becoming a citizen helps them live a better life, then they don’t need anything else.”

The cunning of the Soviet political commissars manifested itself later - the forced adoption of Soviet citizenship subsequently became for many Spaniards one of the obstacles to returning to their homeland.

According to Stalin - from slingshots,

About the real state of affairs

In connection with the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, all orphanages from Leningrad, Moscow and Ukraine in the fall of 1941 were evacuated to Central Asia (Kokand, Tashkent, Fergana, Kyrgyzstan), the Volga region (Saratov, Saratov and Stalingrad regions), Bashkiria (Ufa) and Altai . Of course, in the conditions of the war there was nothing to talk about prosperity, and the authorities tried to do everything they could for the Spanish children. So, the Basel orphanage even had its own bathhouse, laundry and hairdressing salon, although the guys lived in a rather deserted place (100 km from Saratov).

And yet they had to experience a lot.

“They were sent to Saratov along the Volga, but they were not taken to Saratov. The captain of the steamer on which they were traveling arbitrarily landed them almost at the deserted village of Basel. The German population living in it was resettled. In this deserted village, the leadership of the orphanage, through the organizational troika of the village council, began to create conditions for the placement of children.

They lived in almost unheated rooms, many of them slept in twos in a bed. Even doors, window frames, tables were used under the bed. Due to the lack of firewood, they did not wash bed and underwear and did not wash the children for 1-1.5 months, the children drank raw water. Ate poorly:

“For breakfast, bread and coffee (sometimes without sugar), lunch - bread and cabbage soup or lean noodle soup, potatoes were sometimes given for the second, dinner - tea with bread. Children from the table got up hungry "

Of course, the children were sick - tuberculosis, dysentery, beriberi, typhoid fever. Thus, in the Kukkus orphanage, out of 390 people, 134 were registered as sick, five of them with an open process of tuberculosis. But after visiting the orphanages by the KIM team, the conditions improved somewhat. Representatives of KIM managed to “knock out” for Spanish orphanages an increase in food standards, the issuance of firewood and material for clothing. In this report, it was noted that

“Through the district committee of the party, 3 tons of cucumbers and 2 tons of pickled tomatoes, 203 thousand each, were released from the vegetable factory to the Kukkus orphanage. mandarin, lemon, orange.

Two orphanages from Odessa were evacuated in a hurry, first to Krasnodar, then sent to Saratov.

“This journey has been very long and painful. They traveled from Krasnodar to Saratov for about two months. The children did not eat anything for several days and drank raw water. When we arrived in Saratov in January, 90% of the children were ill with dysentery and typhoid fever. Despite this, for 11 days they were still kept in a dead end at the station. Saratov, almost without food and had to drink rotten water. No one paid any attention to them or helped them. The state of health became threatening ... Finally, this matter came to the Regional Committee of the Party, and only then did they find accommodation and food. The children were so emaciated and ill that most of them were carried out of the cars on their hands... Out of 253 pupils, 165 tested positive for tuberculosis. Of these, 32 people with an open form of tuberculosis”

And here are excerpts from a letter from the Spanish teacher V. Martinez, who worked in an orphanage evacuated to the Zalessky district of the Altai Territory:

“After a ten-day journey, we arrived in Barnaul and were told that we would be sent to a magnificent sanatorium. But our joy was short-lived… We just sleep on the floor. We don't even sell water here. They want clothes or bread. We endure great need, but endure everything very steadfastly ... A week later / upon arrival / several children had to be sent to the hospital, among them Julito, who a month later we were told that he had died. A few days later, Luis Kovshely Lazcano died of gangrene on his leg, and a few days later, Ross del Bosque... We are very cold, because the stoves do not heat up. At night we cry from the cold and cannot sleep. My hands are numb, and I cannot describe my suffering to you.”

Adult Spaniards did not live in the best conditions. All this caused discontent, which was expressed in "open harmful conversations." In his report, someone “Comrade. I. Kabin, who inspected the orphanage in the Volga region in the summer of 1942, reported:

“A lot is said about the Soviet Union, but not about what should be…”.

For example, about what

“In the Soviet Union, bureaucracy in the apparatus is incredibly developed. We used to think that bureaucracy is the most in Germany. Now we have to state that this is not so, terrible bureaucracy in the Soviet apparatus.

“At one pedagogical meeting, when it was a question of the political education of orphanage teachers and children, Comrade Lagos spoke and said: “Let's leave Marx's philosophy aside and look at the situation. What do kids get for lunch? That's where you have to dance. Existence determines consciousness… We brought children here to educate educated politicians, and not pick potatoes and chop wood.”

And here is an absolutely incredible picture for those times (from the same report):

“Children often use such expressions: “Where is the invincibility of the Red Army.” During the reading of Comrade Stalin's speech on November 6, they shouted to the whistle: "Thank you Stalin for your concern." When a portrait of Comrade Stalin was placed in the room, the guys smashed it with slingshots. They desecrated the portrait of Comrade Kaganovich. Once at school, the children broke desks. They were told: why are you destroying socialist property? They replied: "We want to destroy socialist property ...".

“It is difficult to imagine that the children themselves came to this. It is clear that they heard such conversations and expressions.

On the other hand, it is not difficult to imagine what could have become of those adult Spaniards or Russian teachers who were then suspected of such educational work.

Living conditions were indeed appalling. Here is more documentary evidence of how the Spanish political emigrants and their children lived during the war years. Excerpts from a letter from Deputy People's Commissar of the NKVD of the USSR Merkulov for December 31, 1942, Georgy Dimitrov speak for themselves:

“Due to the lack of housing, the Spaniards are placed in cramped, cold dormitories that require major repairs. So, in Kokard two people live in a room of 2 square meters, in a room of 12 square meters. meters - six people ... As a result of overcrowding and unsanitary conditions, 26 deaths were registered among political emigrants during the past part of winter alone (children 0 24, adults - 2). The disease of jaundice has spread.

The same report cited excerpts from letters from Spanish women to their husbands who fought at the front. As you can see, all correspondence was then censored - the censors reported on sedition "up", "from above" information was transmitted further. So, Merkulov - Dimitrov, quoted a fragment of a number of private letters. Sedition was found in one of them:

“My things I have already sold everything, and life is very, very difficult. I am very afraid that a lot of young people will die here. Valentino's wife, aged 21, who lived in Mytishchi and Monino, has already died. Pillar - Vernavo's wife, suffers from tuberculosis. There are three more women in the hospital, who probably will not live. The people here are getting weaker.”

As Merkulov noted in this regard in his report, “individual members of the Spanish team show remigration sentiments.” And again excerpts from letters, as proof:

“Only in the USSR do I starve. If I were in another country, I would never starve and would not be in such miserable conditions. Here the working class lives worse than in the capitalist countries.”

“Here, as in Kramatorsk, I do not believe in the victory of the Red Army. All the workers at the plant no longer believe in victory either. They only wait and hope for a second front. When we go to Spain, then I will talk about it.”

And here are examples from the report of another NKVD employee, Fedotov, for March 21, 1943, and again - excerpts from letters:

“I can’t say anything good from here. Our people keep dying and worst of all, many of them are dying of starvation.”

For many Spaniards, accustomed to a completely different climate, the Russian cold was hellish torment. It is no coincidence that this was also mentioned in letters (from the report of the same Fedotov):

“The most difficult thing is the cold, which here reaches 55-60 degrees. With the clothes that we have, it is impossible to withstand. Already now we have many sick people because of the cold. We need to get out of here, because we can't stand it."

Since local authorities often used Spanish political emigrants and children for menial work (and this is directly noted in Fedotov's report), some people dared to write about this:

“I came from the collective farm, where I endured all the torments of Cain. Now we are back, but not for long, because we must go and pluck the chickens. They don't leave us alone, they don't let us study, but we would like to study so much. And all this because no one cares about us. We are almost barefoot and this is in the local mud. I'm in the mood to get out of here."

The pictures that arise before our eyes of the unbearable living conditions of Spanish political emigrants and Spanish children do not at all correlate with our traditional romantic idea of ​​the heroes of the civil war in Spain.

Who and how were "ennobled" by labor

From the end of 1942, overgrown children began to be employed in the schools of the FZO so that they could receive working professions.

“In small groups, they were scattered throughout the FZO, and in such specialties that the guys did not want to study: woodworkers, textile workers, etc. Everyone had a desire to work as locksmiths, turners, auto generators”

But after several serious skirmishes with Soviet teenagers, almost all of the Spanish children from orphanages in Saratov were transferred to the same FZO school - N12 at the aircraft manufacturing plant. In total, 259 people studied there, who, after training, were all sent to the plant. At the FZO school, living conditions were slightly better than in orphanages: they received 800 g of bread per day (in orphanages - 400-600 g), lived in spacious, clean and well-heated rooms, had 2-3 changes of outerwear and underwear . But even among these guys there was a high percentage of patients, especially tuberculosis.

During the war years, 440 Spanish children graduated from high school and entered universities or technical schools, another 500 people were employed in factories and factories after studying at the FZO.

However, after the age of the children left the orphanage and ended up in the FZO or factories, they turned out to be completely unadapted to ordinary life.

“Bearing in mind the complete inability to live independently for young men and women brought up in orphanages, the Spanish comrades raise the question of maintaining the boarding school in Leningrad as a transitional point for an independent life within a year”

Many were sent to study at military schools, and after graduation - to the front. It was at that time “at Comrade. Starinov", the head of the Higher Operational School, a veteran of the Spanish Civil War, a whole sabotage group was created, consisting of the Spaniards.

“Starinov agrees to take all eighteen-year-old Spanish youth. These young people are now in a very difficult position. In Samarkand, where there are only about 90 boys and girls, after the liquidation of the house of the Spanish youth, the guys, instead of studying, are looking for work, because they are starving. The weaker ones steal, one has already been arrested. There are about 100 young people in Saratov, some of them in a vocational school, some at the factory - shod and undressed.

More than 100 people in Bashkiria and about 200 in Tbilisi were in the same situation. And then comes the explanation why the Spaniards should be sent to the front (paradox!):

“Both in the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, and in the People's Commissariat of Education of the RSFSR, there is now a directive that the Spanish youth should be in the same conditions as the Soviet. And she, leaving directly from orphanages, without contact with people, remains homeless and many decay ... And in the army they will all become hardened and persistent ... and in this way we will save the Spanish youth "

During the two years of the Starinov group, 80 Spaniards died.

No right of return

The assertion that existed in the first months of the stay of Spanish political emigrant children that “soon” they would be able to return to their homeland (by the way, in documents dating back to the period before 1941, one can often find references to the “return to their homeland” of the Spaniards), was soon replaced by ideological pressure-installation in the spirit that there is no better country in the world than the USSR and therefore there is nothing to wish to leave it. Parents' requests for the return of their children were answered by the Soviet government with refusal or silence.

“In connection with repeated attempts on the part of reactionary elements in Spain, such as the Biscay government, as well as some of the Falanges in Spain, to organize the return to Spain of Spanish children in the USSR through relatives, the Organizing Committee of the ECCI submits for your decision the question of a fundamental refusal in the exit permit. Only in some cases, by agreement with the leadership of the ECCI, to provide permission to leave, "-

And below, by hand, one word: "I agree" and the signature - Dimitrov.

Who knows what was the true reason for the unwillingness of the workers of the Communist International to satisfy a simple human request for the reunification of children with their parents - is it a whim of Stalin

(“At the reception of the Spanish General Cisneros and his wife, Comrade Stalin was interested in how many Spanish children were in the USSR, and when he was told that there were about 3 thousand, he said that this was not enough, more children should be brought” -

whether the idea of ​​​​the leadership of the Spanish Communist Party, led by Dolores Ibarruri, that they are raising a change of communist cadres for Spain

(“Comrade José Diaz, Dolores Ibarruri and Jesús Hernández object to the sending of some of the Spanish children to Spain. They declare that these demands come from the reactionary organizations of Spain ... which themselves write letters to the children on behalf of the parents, seek out relatives who are forced to demand the return of the children ", -

But be that as it may, even the above evidence suggests that the institution of "cultivating" defectors became one of the elements of the state policy of the Soviet regime.

After the end of the Patriotic War, many Spanish children who had already grown up petitioned to be allowed to return to Spain or go to Mexico to their relatives (many families were separated by thousands and thousands of kilometers, since parents often sent one child to Russia, and with the other went to Mexico through Europe) . But the Soviet leadership did not heed the requests of Spanish immigrants, many of whom even ended up in camps for trying to illegally cross the border.

Of course, it was impossible to directly forbid leaving to visit relatives, but here is a document from the archives of the Comintern:

“In response to your request regarding the request of the Mexican Embassy to send 29 Spanish children to Mexico, in accordance with the wishes of their parents, I inform you that Comrade. Dolores Ibarruri believes that the request of the Mexican government could be granted. At the same time, Comrade Dolores believes that the children to be sent should be transported to Moscow, where our comrades will have the opportunity to exert an appropriate, favorable influence on them.

And the signature is already known: Georgy Dimitrov. And to all this - an application with information about these Spanish children and their parents, their party affiliation and "reliability".

There is also evidence that the NKVD sometimes used Spaniards as informers and agents. The archives of the Comintern contain the case of a certain Maria Cuquerella, whose husband, Victor, who emigrated to Mexico, petitioned the Soviet government in January 1941 to allow his wife and child to leave the USSR. As archival materials show, both spouses were members of the Communist Party of Spain (CPI). But it seems that Maria Cuquerella did not follow the instructions of the Soviet "competent" bodies and the leadership of the Spanish Communist Party in Moscow. These instructions boiled down, in particular, to the fact that when visiting the US embassy she should in no case mention her membership in the CPI and her ties with the Comintern. In the subsequent report to the "competent authorities" (?), M. Cuquerella missed something. Vigilant "comrades" could not pass by this:

“She was instructed to come and report after a conversation at the embassy. In a report about what happened at the embassy, ​​she hid that she had asked permission to call the Comintern ... She should suggest that she herself write to her husband in America that she could not leave because of her fault, since her husband’s letter was disturbing.

And yet it pulls home ...

After the end of the Second World War, there was some, however, temporary relief, and until January 1947, about 150 Spaniards were able to leave the Soviet Union, mainly to Latin American countries. The first remigration to Spain of the "children of the civil war", as they were called here, was allowed only after the death of Stalin, in 1956. But then, largely due to the fact that the dictator Franco still ruled in Spain, few returned to their homeland. The second, and quite powerful, wave of re-emigration occurred after the death of the Generalissimo, starting in 1976. And now many "Soviet Spaniards" are returning to Spain to live out their lives in their homeland. How this desire of theirs is realized in practice is a topic for a separate discussion.

The sad end of the "romantic story"

... There is a place called Alalpardo 30 kilometers north of Madrid. Here, in a small Spanish village, at the very exit from this settlement, there is a "residence" - actually a nursing home - "El Retorno" (translated from Spanish means "Return"). A small part of the "Hispano-Sovietikos", as the locals call them, lives here, that is, the "Soviet" Spaniards - those who have re-emigrated from Russia to Spain in recent years.

"Residence" is located in a very picturesque place. There is a lot of sun here, however, as in all of Spain. The two-story red brick building is reminiscent of our sanatoriums near Moscow. Inside there is a large hall with comfortable easy chairs, a dining room, a library with books donated to the house by a Spanish pilot (in the library there is a huge map of the Soviet Union that covers the entire wall, and on the shelves are the complete works of Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels and Vladimir Lenin. True, as it turned out, no one reads these books for a long time.They are stored here, rather, as a symbol of an entire era in which the life of the inhabitants of the "residence" passed).

In the "residence" each "Hispanosovieticos" has its own room with a balcony. Around the house - bushes with huge roses of various colors and an orchard - apricot, peach and almond trees. All this is planted by the residents of the "residence". They take care of the garden themselves (until recently, "El Retorno" had its own agronomist - a Spaniard from the locals: "a real Spaniard", as they call him here). Until recently, they even had their own melons - the seeds of watermelons and melons "hispanosovieticos" were brought from the Crimea and the Saratov region. But last summer was very hot and the melon dried up.

On the territory of the "residence", in addition to the main building, there are two more log houses - two "dachas". They are visible from afar and, driving up to El Retorno, you think that you are in a village near Moscow, just going to the dacha to your friends. The first house was built by some Russian businessmen who wanted to set up the production of wooden summer houses in Spain and erected this house “for show”. But things did not work out for the businessmen, and the house remained on the territory of the “residence”. The second house has already been built by the Spaniards themselves. “It's nice to have two log cabins like this here, far from Russia,” they say. Oddly enough, but being on the territory of El Retorno, communicating with its Spaniards, you all the time feel their nostalgia overflowing for Russia, for that homeland left far, far away.

El Retorno is now home to 25 Hispano-Sovieticos. Among them are several Russian women - the wives of the Spaniards, in their old age (and they are all well over sixty) who decided to leave their homeland in order for their husbands to find their own.

Not of their own free will, they lost their homeland as children and ended up in the distant Soviet Union. Forced to grow, educate, learn and live in a foreign environment, many of them never acquired a new homeland in the face of the USSR. Most of them were subsequently doomed by fate to eternal wandering and eternal nostalgia. Few of them were able to adapt to new, essentially alien conditions, and few of them were able to find themselves, family, work, friends, and homeland in the subsequently disintegrated Soviet state. Those who did not succeed dreamed of returning all their lives. And when it became possible, many people left everything in Russia and went on a long, unexplored path. For many, this was the first meeting with their homeland, which took place more than 50 years later. They left not because it was bad in Russia, but because they were home. That's why it is the homeland, to pull, beckon to itself, especially in the declining years.

I was 12 years old when I was brought from Spain to the Soviet Union, - recalls, for example, the current guest of El Retorno named Marino. - I gave this country 57 years of my life. But all our lives we dreamed of returning. In Russia, I worked for 38 years - from 1947 to 1985 - at a mechanical plant in the city of Krasnogorsk. Then he retired and worked at the Spanish Center in Moscow...

By the way, I note that this club for Spanish emigrants, created in the 50s, still exists. Spaniards who emigrated to Russia gather there even today, drink coffee together, play chess, and arrange holidays. It has its own library, Spanish language and dance clubs. But every year fewer and fewer people come there - who left, and who died forever.

- ... Well, then, - continues Marino, - I had to finally solve a difficult question: well, what should I do, what should I do next? I am already 72 years old. And what difference does it make where to be a pensioner, “here” or “there”. But here is our homeland, Spain. It somehow draws to itself, our homeland. Whatever you want, it pulls. And I decided to come, so that, as they say, calmly, in my old age, rest here and, as they say, give my soul to the Spanish land. But here we often remember Russia. We remember, because she did a lot of good for us, and we often remember the life that we lived there. We sometimes miss Russia and will never forget Russia. I do not regret that I was brought up in Russia, I do not regret at all.

It should be noted that in conversations with many residents of "El Retorno" one could alternately hear about the "Soviet Union", then about "Russia". And every time this meant that it meant exactly the state in which my interlocutors spent many, many years away from their true homeland - about the Soviet Union. In the new Russia, most of those who returned to Spain hardly lived.

Eloquent confirmation of the memory of the now gray-haired Spanish children about their second (for many, failed) homeland is not so difficult to find. For, surprisingly, the residents of El Retorno mostly speak Russian among themselves, sometimes switching to Spanish or a mixture of both languages ​​- Rusiñol, as this “adverb” was called in Moscow. By the way, most of the Hispano-Sovietikos speak Russian with an accent, although they have lived in Russia for more than 50 years and began to learn Russian as a child. Many in Russia (or other republics of the former USSR) have relatives whom they have hardly seen since their return to Spain. By tradition, they celebrate all Russian holidays, arranging for themselves twice Christmas, twice New Year. Of course, Victory Day is celebrated - some of them are participants in the Great Patriotic War.

Now it's time to tell how this Spanish "residence" appeared. It was inaugurated in 1993 and built especially for the Hispanosovieticos by the Municipality of Madrid. 25 people living here do not pay for housing and food. They receive an allowance from the Spanish government and are in line for an apartment. At one time, the Spanish government, having decided to give all Spanish emigrants to the USSR the opportunity to return to their homeland (not only a formal, but also material opportunity), also adopted a special resolution on assistance to re-emigrants, which fell on the shoulders of local autonomous governments.

This assistance consists in assigning some kind of allowance to all returnees and providing housing in the places where the emigrants come from. But not all local authorities have the opportunity to quickly resolve the issue with apartments (the best situation in this matter is with people from Asturias and Valencia - they have already been allocated housing for almost everyone. Spaniards from the Basque Country have settled well - by the way, they are the majority among emigrants. Madrid is the most difficult - in the Spanish capital, as in any capital of the world, there is an acute problem with housing). And so it was decided to settle emigrants returning to Spain - temporarily - in a kind of "sanatorium" (one of them is "El Retorno"). Of course, many are unhappy with this - they still want to spend their old age in a cozy apartment - albeit small, but their own. But they do not lose hope.

Worse is the situation with pensions. At one time, an agreement was signed between Spain and Russia, according to which dual citizenship is recognized for this category of Spanish emigrants. The Pension Fund of Russia undertook to send a monthly pension to Spain to all Spaniards who issued it before their return to Spain. By the way, if it weren’t for the pension, many Spaniards could have returned earlier, but they specially worked in Russia before retirement, so that they would have something to live on later in Spain. But here's the incident: those who re-emigrated to Spain before July 1992 receive a pension, and those who did not after that. And those who receive it, in the end, do not receive the money that they are entitled to. But this is already from the category of financial and legal tricks: the Pension Fund of Russia sends a pension to Avtobank, which, for some reason, to a US bank, this one, in turn, makes money for the Spanish bank Central Hispano, and only after that the money goes to the pensioner. Each of the clinging banks takes its commissions and as a result the pensioner does not receive more than 16 to 18 percent of his pension. To this we must add that banks pay pensions only once every three months, and even then irregularly.

If it weren’t for the Spanish government, which is trying to help the remigrants in some way, they would have had a very difficult time in their homeland. But there is no need to idealize the other side: the residents of "El Retorno" told me that the director of the "residence", a Spaniard (not from emigrants, but a local) forbids the inhabitants of the house to invite relatives to visit them. Of course, they can come, but they must live in the city, in a hotel, and not in a "residence", although the area allows it. And those to whom the government does not allocate an apartment by the end of the year will still have to vacate rooms in the “residence” for new residents.

Such, alas, is the sad end of the "romantic history" of the Spanish Civil War. It turns out that those whom it touched directly, even now - already in their homeland - only rejoice at what is beyond the control of bureaucratic people in any country - that they, the former "Spanish children in the USSR", could not be deprived of the right to live …

Moscow-Bilbao-Alalpardo-Moscow

Copyright (c) Elena Vicens, 1997. All rights reserved.

Copyright © RM, 1997. All rights reserved.

Russian Thought Nos. 4177, 4178, 4182

A small apartment in Troparevo. Two women, between them on the table - a dictaphone. The hostess, a cheerful gray-haired lady, speaks Russian quite clearly, only the sound “l” somehow softens by itself:

I was born on the shores of the Bay of Biscay ...

She is 89 years old, her name is Virtudes Compagne Martinez. In 1937, she was brought to the USSR, saving her from the war. The Spaniards figuratively called such children "running from a thunderstorm."

The guest's grandfather, a young fragile brown-haired woman, is also a Spaniard who found salvation in the Soviet Union, only he came here as an adult. Anna Fernandez is a leading specialist of the Russian State Archive of Audio Documents. She studies the history of the "Spanish children" and writes down their memories.

TAKE UNDER WING

On July 18, 1936, the Civil War began in Spain: the nationalists, led by Franco, opposed the republican government. It soon became clear that it would be difficult to feed the orphans and those whose parents had gone to the front. It is necessary to take at least some of the children to friendly countries - France, Belgium, Mexico ... And to the Soviet Union, which provided humanitarian and military assistance to the Republicans.

On March 28, 1937, the country received the first batch of "storm runners" - a group of 72 children, says Anna Fernandez. - They were sent to receive treatment and rest in Artek, and on August 15 they were transported to Moscow. On June 24, the second batch arrived, the largest - 1505 people. Then there were a few more.

Historian Andrey Elpatyevsky calculated that the USSR sheltered about 3 thousand children. Publicist Elena Vicens found a document dated December 27, 1938 in the archives of the Comintern. It says that, having learned about the number of those saved, Stalin dropped:

Not enough, we need to bring more children.

SWEET DRAINAGE

Many Soviet people were ready to accept small refugees into their families. And some were adopted, but there are no statistics on adopted Spaniards. The vast majority of children went through state institutions. From the very beginning, it was decided that they would not be distributed to ordinary orphanages - special institutions would be created for them, with partly Spanish staff. Of the 15 houses opened in the USSR by 1938, two were located in Moscow: one in Shelaputinsky lane, 1, the other - on Bolshaya Pirogovskaya, 13. In 1940, the orphanage on Pirogovka was turned into the House of Spanish Youth - something like a boarding school for young men and girls from 17 to 21 years old.

Francisco Mansilla Karames is 91 years old. He heads the Spanish Center in Moscow, an organization that unites "those who fled from the storm" and their descendants. Francisco still cannot forget how he, an 11-year-old boy, was brought to an orphanage in Pirogovka.

It was a real palace - with a garden, a football field, - Francisco recalls. - I thought how right my father was, a staunch socialist, who said: "The USSR is a paradise for the proletariat."

In the "Spanish" children's homes in Moscow, Leningrad and Kyiv, the conditions were indeed luxurious (in the provinces - worse). According to Elena Vicens, 2.5-3 times more funds were allocated for each pupil than for a Soviet child in an ordinary orphanage. The Spaniards were supervised by the All-Union Central Council of Trade Unions (AUCCTU), an organization that existed from 1918 to 1990. Through him, according to official information, money was received for their maintenance. Andrey Yelpatyevsky believes that this was a disguise: "The only source of funding for Spanish emigrants was the state budget."

The USSR supplied the Pyrenean guests more generously than its citizens, but, of course, only adults could appreciate this difference. For example, the former commander of the republican army corps Manuel Taguena, who came in 1939 to study at the Frunze Military Academy. One day the director of the holiday home in the dining room approached Manuel and a group of other Spaniards and, trying to hide his embarrassment behind a grin, asked:

Dear companions ... You either stir sugar or bite it, or something, eat ...

The Spaniards looked at each other. The director, even more embarrassed, explained: Russian dishwashers are unbearable to see cups with a thick layer of undissolved sediment. Sugar, which was on all the tables in the rest home and which the Spaniards poured into their coffee without looking, was a terrible shortage in the city ...

THERE WAS MINERS - BECAME SENIORS

"Spanish Children" became the favorites of Soviet journalists. Black-eyed charmers stretch their hands in the classroom, read Pushkin's poems, listen to Chkalov who came to visit them ... Yes, all this happened. But there were also difficulties that were not written about at that time.

Young machos who do not know a word of Russian, with a specific mentality, and even traumatized by the war, turned out to be a tough nut to crack for teachers. The artificially created little world, which consisted of half of the compatriots, slowed down the integration and conserved many problems.

Nine-year-old Virtudes Compagne Martinez and her twelve-year-old sister had to be enrolled in the same class: at home, both girls managed to study at school for only a year. Of the remaining 18 children in their class, six could neither read nor write in their native language.

Spain lagged far behind the USSR in terms of education and technical development, explains Anna Fernandez. - My grandfather, who was born in a working-class family, managed to finish only four classes.

The social and regional complexes brought from the homeland could not be eradicated for a long time. At dinner, representatives of national minorities - Asturians and Basques - staged violent fights on forks. People from poor families were at enmity with the "rich". Everyone reconciled in the classroom - together they arranged such a ruckus that the teachers grabbed their heads.

In 1946, the leadership of the children's home No. 1 near Moscow described their helplessness in a report: "Elements of expansiveness, reaching the state of passion, are considered by the Spaniards as a national phenomenon ..." But the guys by that time had lived in the USSR for at least nine years! Apparently, the physical maturation of the Spaniards began earlier than that of their Soviet peers, and this added to the difficulties. Enrique Castro Delgado, a member of the Central Committee of the Spanish Communist Party, who visited his compatriots in one of the Leningrad orphanages, left an expressive phrase in his report: "The sexual problem is real cancer."

The states of orphanages were inflated - there was one person from the staff for two pupils. From excessive guardianship, the offspring of miners and peasants imagined themselves to be seigneurs. They exploded if they were attracted to the easiest self-service jobs - sweep the bedroom, be on duty in the dining room.

How did they find justice in their homeland? Very simple - they thrashed, put their knees on peas. Soviet teachers were horrified when their Spanish colleagues began to apply national methods before their eyes. To the credit of our teachers, they did not stoop to such a thing.

"Them ... THE POLICE RARELY DETAIN"

After the war, there were fewer Spanish orphanages, and they were all concentrated in the Moscow region. The contingent was reduced - the refugees grew. In 1951, the last special orphanage located in Bolshevo was closed.

Most Spaniards received education and a profession. Virtudes Kompany, for example, worked as an editor in a publishing house until her retirement, and Francisco Karames worked first as an agronomist and then as a translator. But, alas, there were those for whom life was not so successful.

In 1945, a gang of 24 thieves was caught in Moscow. The guys were, as if by choice, swarthy and black-haired. It turned out - the Spaniards! A member of the Presidium of the All-Union Central Council of Trade Unions, E. G. Shulga (the initials could not be deciphered) wrote indignantly to the head of the criminal investigation department of Moscow that the robbers were also trying to corrupt their decent fellow countrymen: seldom delays. Why did "Uncle Styopa" show such tolerance? Maybe they were afraid of a scandal? From the children who were showered with flowers in the ports eight years before, they turned out to be thieves. What a blow to the reputation of Soviet pedagogy!

In the same year, 1945, the All-Union Central Council of Trade Unions found out that many of his wards work carelessly in factories, play truant, steal. 60 of the most malicious violators were sent to prison, and they decided to support those who had not yet completely turned onto a crooked path: they ordered local trade unions to pay subsidies to them in the first six months of work, to give out clothes and shoes according to warrants.

RETURN WITH DOWRY

The Civil War ended on April 1, 1939 with the defeat of the Republicans. However, many emigrants - both adults and children - were not going to stay in the USSR forever. Some hoped that repressions in their homeland would not affect them, others wanted to reunite with loved ones who had fled to Latin America. But the Soviet Union in every possible way prevented the departure. This is easy to understand - so much effort was invested in their upbringing and education, how then to let them go to an unfriendly country?

Of course, separation from the birth family for Spanish children was a tragedy, a psychological trauma, says Anna Fernandez. - However, it is unlikely that such a good future awaited them at that time in their homeland. Immediately after the end of the Civil War, Republican families were considered "unreliable", many lived on the verge of poverty. And here the Spanish children were able to get decent knowledge, they were taken care of. For those who, years later, still had the opportunity to return, the education received in the USSR helped a lot to realize themselves professionally.

After the end of World War II, an indulgence was announced, and until January 1947, about 150 people left for Mexico. The leadership of the All-Union Central Council of Trade Unions gave them "23 drape coats, 19 Boston suits, 4 silk dresses, 26 pairs of men's underwear<…>46 pairs of stockings and socks. A good dowry for a war-ravaged country. These were entertainment expenses: so that the Spaniards would not lose face in front of their overseas relatives.

In 1956, emigrants began to leave for their homeland - almost 1,900 people left in 4 years. The second wave of exodus began in 1977 when Franco died. And the third - in the 1990s. Yet even then, not all Spaniards fled. And some, having left, returned.

- "Soviet Spaniards" are accustomed to a rich spiritual life, to museums and theaters, - says Anna Fernandez. - Compatriots seemed to them ... people from another world, or something. And it was also painful for them to hear when someone in their presence began to scold their second homeland, Russia ...

According to the calculations of the Spanish Center, every third "those who fled from a thunderstorm" did not succumb to the temptation to leave at all. “I don’t want my Russian wife to go through what I once endured,” said Manuel Pereira, a late Moscow engineer. Probably, his countrymen, who preferred to stay in their new homeland, would have subscribed to these words.

NUMBER

69 "Spanish children", brought in 1937-1939, lives today in Russia, of which 37 are in Moscow.

BY THE WAY

During and after the Civil War of 1936-1939, about 5,000 adult Spaniards also emigrated to the Soviet Union. About 780 emigrants voluntarily participated in the Great Patriotic War, at least 280 of them died or went missing. The commander of a machine gun company, Ruben Ibarruri (1920–1942), son of the General Secretary of the Communist Party of Spain, Dolores Ibarruri, posthumously became a Hero of the Soviet Union.

On June 23, 1937, the ship "Santai" arrived in the USSR with a group Spanish children from families of Republicans who were taken out of the country during the Civil War. In total, 32 thousand children were then sent to different countries from Spain, of which 3.5 thousand were sent to the USSR. After the end of the war in 1939, all other countries returned them to their homeland, but those who were in the Union were not released until the 1950s. Why were Spanish children kept in the USSR and how did they live in a foreign land?

Hat - "Spanish". Spanish children in the USSR
Spaniard hats
Brothers. Vadim and Gennady Namestnikov 1936
Spanish hats were in fashion (there was a civil war in Spain, and since our country supported the Communist Party of Spain, many Spanish refugees came to Moscow, provoking the fashion for Spanish clothes). Vadim graduated from Moscow State Institute of International Relations and worked in non-ferrous metallurgy almost all his life. Gennady worked for a long time in a printing house where art albums were printed, he was a very valuable specialist in his field.

On July 17, 1936, the Spanish Civil War began. On the one hand, the legally elected government, the Republicans; on the other hand, the rebellious General Franco, who was supported by almost the entire army. The republic was defended by a few military units that remained loyal to the government, poorly armed detachments of workers and people's militia. Franco supported the fascist regimes of Italy and Germany with regular troops; Republicans - the Soviet Union with weapons and civilian and military advisers, as well as volunteers from different countries. Jews actively supported the Republicans, regardless of their political sympathies. On the fronts of the civil war in Spain, they fought against fascism. Many military advisers and "volunteers" are Jews from Russia. The fate of most of them was tragic.

Every evening, dad read front-line reports from Spain, articles by Mikhail Koltsov. In cinemas, before a feature film, they always showed a newsreel magazine of Roman Karmen from under the fighting Madrid. It has become customary to raise your hand with your fist and greet: “No pasaran!” instead of “Hello!” (“They won’t pass!”). Mom made me a blue hat with a tassel in front. The hat was called "Spanish". The Spaniard has become the most common headdress of young people.

Spanish children arrived in Batumi. They performed in schools and clubs in the city. They sang Spanish songs and danced. Together with the audience they shouted: “But pasaran!”. A barricade was erected behind the fence of the theater under construction on Rustaveli Street. Spanish children acted out a fight between the rebels and the republicans. I watched the "battle" from the window of my grandmother's room. Spaniards-"Republicans" shouting: "But pasaran!" tried to capture the barricade. The Spaniards, the defenders of the barricade, also shouted: “But pasaran!” and did not want to leave their position. After some time, adult educators intervened “in the battle”, “republicans” and “rebels” changed places. Again everyone shouted: “But pasaran!”. Again there was a "fierce battle" for the barricade. Nobody wanted to give in. I also shouted with all my might: “But pasaran!”, Leaning out of the window, stamping my feet. With one hand I held on to the window sill, with the other - on the thick trunk of a grape tree, which ran against the wall under my grandmother's window. I leaned more and more out of the window to get a better view of the fight. At some point, under my weight, the grape branch began to slowly move away from the wall of the house, my legs came off the floor, my hand from the window sill, and I realized with horror that I was falling out of the window. A little more and I would have flown down from the second floor. My grandmother saved me: with one hand she dragged me into the room, with the other I received a blow to the soft spot. This place was on fire for several days. Grandma became ill, very ill. High blood pressure has risen. She lay in bed for several days. I stood leaning against my grandmother's bed, I could not sit, despite her requests, and crying I asked not to die. I promised I wouldn't even go to the window again. Grandmother promised not to die.

Before the war, there were few order bearers. When a military man with an order appeared on the street, the policemen saluted, the boys followed him with enthusiastic glances, ran after him. Such a person was called not just by name, but was added necessarily, the word "order bearer". For example: “order bearer Ivanov”.

Wherever Spanish children appeared, they were surrounded by a crowd of adults and children. They always asked a lot of questions.
One weekend, my dad and I met a group of Spanish children on the boulevard. With them is a man wearing the Order of the Red Banner on his jacket. The Spaniards are surrounded by a crowd of adults and children. The children are convinced: "The order was received in Spain". A man bustles around next to the order bearer. Dad said, "Special escort."

Children try to touch the order with their hands, adults bombard the man with questions. The male order-bearer answers in broken Russian, inserting unfamiliar words. He is clearly embarrassed by his poor Russian language, he chooses words for a long time, they do not understand him. The escort cannot help, he does not know Spanish. We stood near the Spaniards for several minutes. The man accompanying the Spaniards (he said that he was from Moscow, provides for the guests' life and helps them communicate with the Soviet people) asked if anyone knows Hebrew. Of course he meant Yiddish. The Pope asked the order-bearer a question in Hebrew, and he perked up. Adults asked, dad translated. I do not remember any questions or answers, I only remember that everyone was interested. Thanks to my dad, I stood next to the hero, even held his hand, and was very proud of my dad. Everyone thanked dad, especially the escort. The Spaniard gave the pope a Spanish badge. On it are soldiers of the Republican army. In the hands of rifles and grenades. When we stepped aside, the escort caught up with us and took the badge from dad. He said: “Not allowed”, which disappointed me very much, and dad waved his hand and laughed: “We can do without badges. There would be no trouble." I never understood why there should be trouble. Uncle Shika came in the evening, they called Uncle Yasha. Mom was silent. The adults were discussing my father's meeting with the Spaniards. The unfamiliar was said several times: "contacts with a foreigner." A few days later, dad was summoned to the NKVD, there was also a Moscow escort. The Pope was asked questions about the translation from Hebrew into Georgian and Russian. They asked what he was translating, if he had said too much to the Spaniard. Everything was recorded. The papers were taken away. They did not appear for a long time, dad decided that they were calling somewhere, he began to worry. The answers, apparently, somewhere "out there" were satisfied. The Batumi "chiefs" were also pleased. The Pope was thanked and, moreover, the Spanish badge was returned.

Papa was later told by his acquaintance from the local NKVD that the "accompanying person" had an unpleasant conversation with Moscow because of the free communication of the Spaniard in Hebrew. Everything ended well. High Batumi officials from the NKVD held a reception in honor of the Spaniards in the hall of the Red Army House. At the table, toasts were raised to friendship with Republican Spain, to the great leader, to "No pasaran." Dad helped translate from Georgian and Russian into Hebrew and from Hebrew into Georgian and Russian. The Chin were happy. The Spaniard was also pleased. I was pleased most of all: dad was given a whole basket of sweets, most importantly - sweets in beautiful, very unusual candy wrappers, no one had such. The “work” of the escort was highly appreciated and gifts: he was given a cloak, the Moscow authorities were given a keg and a wineskin of wine.

Photo from the archive of Boris Solomin (Moscow)
The military sometimes came to the kindergarten. They were called "our bosses". One I remember well - Uncle Moses, with the Order of the Red Banner on his tunic. He talked a lot about the Spanish Civil War, and about Spanish children, war heroes who fought against the Nazis along with their fathers. Uncle Moses called them "Young Fighters of the Republic" and "Spanish Gavroches".

A young fighter of the Republic. Photo by R. Karmen and B. Makaseev

We hated fascists. Firmly squeezing the raised hand into a fist, they greeted each other: “But pasaran!”. And they swore: “But pasaran!”. This was the most important promise. There was no way to cheat. And they dreamed of defending Spain: "But pasaran!"

We dreamed of going to Spain as volunteers and bringing bullets to the Republicans under the bullets of the Nazis. At night, I jumped out of bed, shouted: “But pasaran!”, Scared my parents. The doctor advised me to take me out of kindergarten for a week and drink valerian several times a day.

After some time, our kindergarten group on the boulevard met several military commanders. Among them was Uncle Moses. He was without an order. I asked him: "Why?" Instead of answering, he put his finger to his lips, took our teacher by the arm and offered to take a picture. Dad, when I asked why Uncle Moses behaved so strangely, said that he was probably an illegal immigrant from Spain and should be silent about this. What is "illegal" I did not understand. But I got a "Secret".

Kindergarten No. 1. November 1939. From left to right.
Standing on the bench: 1.2 Little girl and boy - not known, not from the group, 3. Inga
4 Abrize, 5. Elvira Varshavskaya, 6. unknown, 7. Garik Shkolnik, 8. Edik,
9. The author is peeking out from behind, 10. a military man is standing behind the author, he is not known.
Sitting on the bench: 11 Uncle Moses, in his arms: 12. Nana Kushcheva-Makatsaria, 13. Ila, 14 Military unknown, 15 Cat Shestoperov in the arms of 14.,
16 Latavra Deisadze. She is in the arms of Kotik, 17 Our teacher is not known.
Standing over Inga and Abrize 18 Military unknown, 19 Lena Mamitova in the arms of 18, 20 Military unknown, 21 Dima Zabelin on the shoulders of 20, 22. Lampiko Canonidi,
23 Misha Yutkevich, 24. Oleg Shkala, 25 unknown, 26 unknown, 27 Maya
28 unknown, 29 Military unknown with little boy, 30 Lenya Kazachenko
Favorite poems-songs were "Grenada" and "Kakhovka" by Mikhail Svetlov. Almost everyone in our kindergarten knew them.

"I left the house
Went to fight
To land in Grenada
To give to the peasants ... ”(this is from“ Grenada ”).
We were sure that, after leaving our home, we would also go to win land from the rich in order to give it to the poor peasants in Spain. They were worried: they were born late: the revolution took place without us, the civil war - without us.

But we were ready, always ready, to fight for the poor and

“... our armored train
Standing on the siding…” (This is from Kakhovka).
Mom's artel was "inundated" with orders for Spanish hats. They worked two and a half shifts. Mom came tired, but happy: they worked overtime, the plan was overfulfilled, they promised a bonus. All local newspapers wrote about this shock work of the artel, although they did not name names. There was a meeting. Representatives of the authorities thanked for shock work. Many did not pay attention to the fact that at the meeting of the team they talked about hidden opportunities (hidden reserves. By whom?), Restrained (intentionally, consciously, criminally. By whom?) initiatives. The chairman of the artel was nervous. At the suggestion of one of the "workers" who came to the presidium of the meeting (the name of the initiator was not named), all the money earned in excess of the plan, on the "initiative of absolutely all the workers", as it is written in the protocol, was transferred to help Republican Spain. Of course, everyone sympathized with Spain. No one objected aloud, especially after the meeting. Another result of shock work was an increase in the plan and a decrease in wages. At work, everyone supported the increase in the plan or was silent. At our house (I think, and not only at our place) - relatives discussed and condemned. And I quietly sat at the table and memorized unfamiliar words (“hidden reserves”, “criminally held back”, “initiative”, “rates”, “overfulfillment of the plan”, etc.). Usually, when relatives went home, I went to bed, and my father or mother sat next to me and read children's stories and poems: A. Chekhov, L. Tolstoy, S. Marshak, etc. I was interested in new unfamiliar words that I memorized listening to the conversations of adults. I asked about the meaning of these words, dad was interested in how they became known to me, asked me not to use them anywhere. Grandmother was frightened, but she told everyone that I was developed beyond my years, dad objected: it’s not about development - it’s just that a child shouldn’t listen to the conversations of adults. This can lead to trouble. Grandmother did not agree: “He is developed beyond his years. Curious." "Curious," said Dad.

I was very proud of my mom. We were told about Alexei Stakhanov, Maria Demchenko, who overfulfilled the plan dozens of times, and I, interrupting everyone, said that my mother, like Stakhanov, overfulfilled the plan for Spanish hats, but for some reason they didn’t write about her in the newspaper. I didn't say anything about the "reduced prices" for Spanish flu, which we talked about at home.