"THE CHILDREN OF RUSSIA" "During the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939)... 3000 children were temporarily evacuated from Spain to the USSR... fleeing the hardships of war." "When war broke out, all my family went to defend the Republic... because the first place the fascists attacked was the Basque country... a fundamental objective they intended to liquidate." "Then they bombed Guernica... it was the vilest carnage I"ve ever seen." "It was a Sunday... a market day for the village women and their children..." "Sundays was always like a fair... and they massacred hundreds of women and children." "Well, you"ve seen the Guernica painting." "In the aftermath of the Guernica bombing..." "Franco"s planes flew more often... the Nazis." "They were doing the bombing;" "the Junkers." "I couldn"t stand it, such terrible fear." "My two brothers were so scared they wouldnt go inside our house." "My mother held on to me while I held my two small brothers." "I looked after them, I"d take them to the air raid shelters... but the shelters were even more frightening... because it felt like everything was going to cave in." "My mother has always been a very stoic woman... very brave, very left wing... and I overheard a conversation in which she told them:" ""I love my children above all... and here they would die." "Ive got to do something... so that these children may carry on living." "This will end and they will continue to live."" "Thats when the Basque government propaganda... set the objective of evacuating at least 20000 children... to France, England, or any country... willing to receive... these people, these children." "Countries that wanted to take them in." "And the last one to reply to this proposal was the Soviet Union... stating that they were also willing to receive Basque children..." "A quota of 3500." "Of course, that"s when my eyes lit up... and I told my mother, "Lets go."" "She said, "Can you manage with two children?"and I said, Yes"." "So she said, "OK"." "She was brave." "I was the one who knew how to write and read properly..." "So she said. "OK, sign up." "Come on."" "You see, for us at that time... the Soviet Union was considered heaven on Earth." "So we signed up." "I think my father had no intention of sending us... anywhere other than the USSR." "He knew theyd look after us." "Like everyone, Dad thought... wed win the war, and return soon." "My father went to the front... and was killed near to Vitoria." "My mother... handed me over to an orphanage." "My father was a founder of the Party." "My father..." "I heard was executed in 1934." "Hed been involved... in the revolutionary movement." "At dinner, I knew something big was going on." "Plates were thrown... whenever politics were mentioned." "Why?" "Because my mother was a communist... my father was a socialist and my uncle was a trade unionist." "L"m from the Basque country, from Bilbao." "Anyone who wanted to go to Russia... to accompany the children of Vasconia, could go." "All our youth wanted to see "Mir"." ""To Russia, to Russia", and so off we went." "We were innocent... moreover, we were young... we had no life experience." "I cant remember a lot." "It was strange." "We didn"t understand." "They said it was for a few months... and at the start we were even glad at the idea of going somewhere." "The headquarters of the International Brigades was in Albacete." "There were Russians and it was all concentrated there." "So it was very heavily bombarded." "Once we were all in the basement when a bomb hit very close." "Everything shook and the lights went out." "That"s when our father sent us to Barcelona." "Castellterçol." "We lived on the outskirts." "Remember how the Mayor gave us rollerskates?" " Skates." " And the hill..." "We were nearly killed." "We weren"t killed because there were no cars then... but there were mile long hills we went down on skates." "One day, our father arrived in a car..." " To say goodbye." " With a police escort, on bikes... and he came just to say goodbye." "I remember that in our house, our bedroom was upstairs... and also Mum and Dad"s." "I remember that we both got up and jumped into bed with him." "That was the last day we saw him... and I remember when he left... he cried as he sat down in the car, he had tears in his eyes." " He cried." " Knowing that... he"d never see us again, and that"s what happened." "The majority were Basque and Asturian children, they were..." "I don"t mean I was higher class, but they were miner"s kids." "My husband was a kid that couldnt go to school if it rained... because he only had straw sandals." "I had no childhood, not only no affection..." "I also had to look after my brothers." "I had to do the washing..." "Sometimes, they"d cry." "I had nothing to feed them." "I never went to school." "My life was a misery." "I dont know what would"ve become of me." "That"s why for me... going to the USSRwas a blessing, my salvation." "My mother and I arranged to evacuate my brothers to England." "My two brothers went." "Wherever I have been, I have always retained a mental image... of my mother and me, with my two brothers... when we went to the port of Santurce to hand them over... to the post ship... that was going to take them to England." "It was really terrible." "My mother said, "Araceli, don"t cry, they must see us laughing"." "Off they went, seven and eight years old... a little cardboard sign and their knapsack." "I can still see it now, I can see this image... as they boarded the gangway... of that famous post ship that carried them." "They turned around and waved goodbye with their little hands." "And my mother said, "Dont cry, they must see us laughing." "Dont cry, we must look happy"." "And off they went." "They boarded the ship." "Thats when my mother collapsed... screaming like shed lost her mind... I"m losing them!" Thats what happened." "Just imagine our bad luck that one month later... the Soviet Union gave the authorisation... so that all those registered, could go." "I said to my mother, "Shall I stay or shall I go?"" "She asked what I wanted, I wanted to go." "And she replied, "Well, go." "You may become somebody there."" "It was 13 June, 1937... the day they began bombing Bilbao... no longer with planes but with cannons." "And of course, we left from here." "The day before theyd bombed Sestao." "They"d hit us hard." "They hit the square and the main avenue." "There were even cars... hanging from the balconies." "I used to be a player." "Then, life in Spain took place on the street." "We used to play stones, marbles, conkers, buying this and that... I"d say I was a litttle urchin and I liked it." "The day before, I met all my friends outside my house... and gave it all away." ""The stones for you, the marbles for you... for you this, for you that."" "And that is how we said goodbye." "The next morning, we left." "As we were leaving all the kids hugged each other." "The whole neighbourhood." "They called us Lenin"s children." "The day we left, it was a hard day for Bilbao." "My mother took me there by the hand." "We hid from the bombing in doorways." "It felt like the bombs were going to drop right on top of you." "And off we went to Santurce... where the ship, the Havana, was waiting." "My brother was only 7." "He didnt understand what was going on." "He thought we were just going for a ride on a boat... he was excited about it." "But I was already 12 so you can imagine." "They kept telling us... it was only temporary." "Temporary." "Most, and certainly my family thought we wouldn"t be gone long... three or four months at the most." "We believed blindly that the Republic would win, and that wed return." "It was not our families that bid us goodbye with tears in their eyes... it was the whole village of Santurce." "All Santurce were there... a vast expanse of people, I"d never seen anything like it." "It was amazing." "Then they embarked us on the Havana, it tooted its horn... and we left." "Before I left Spain, I had no good shoes... when I went out with the kids, I"d ruin my straw sandals... so my mother bought me some shoes." "They looked good... but as I walked they began to rub my heel... and the back of my feet began to bleed." "0nce onboard, I took them off and flung them into the sea." "When this happened, I was eight, nearly nine." "I remember a great sorrow... at leaving the family and everything... but there was also the relief of getting away from the bombs... the fear, and above all the hunger." "So in a way it felt like we were being compensated for it." "No, I left very relaxed, even more so, happy." "Others were crying, but not me." "It sounded to me like an interesting adventure." "As we boarded the Havana... my mother took this ring off her finger and placed it on mine." "I don"t know..." "I"ve lost everything, moving around so much... but I still have it." "It is my talisman." "I held on tight to my mother's skirt." "I wasnt crying... but I couldn"t understand why they were taking me away from my mother." "For a eight year old to lose his mother is very hard... and I was about to." "And my mother was tugging, trying to release my grip... until she succeeded." "She turned around..." "I watched her walk away." "There were tears in her eyes, but we didn"t see her cry." "She held on to her tears as she said goodbye... knowing she had to remain strong... or we wouldve drowned in our tears... when we said goodbye to her." "But she held on." "Although her eyes were brimming with tears... she held on to them." "Tragic, because the parents arrived with the children... and we had to pull those children out of their arms." "The first crying on the ship... began as we left the port of Santurce." "We were leaving." "It was as if the horn was the signal to cry... everyone began to cry." "When we got to France, we were put on another ship." "The Sontai, I think." "Those going to Russia were labelled USSRwith a number." "Those going to France were labelled France with a number, on a card." "What happened is that many continued on to the Soviet Union... they removed their numbers and came with us." "0thers took their Russian tag off... and ended up in France." "Just like that." "Kids." "And the French authorities that came out to meet us... tried to tempt us with freshly baked French white bread..." "French rolls, so delicious and crunchy." "They came out and showed us... just to see if anybody else wanted to get off." "To those who disembarked, the French women gave a piece of bread... and a chocolate bar." "I was so hungry, I thought:" "If here they give out bread, I"m staying." "But they said I had to go to Russia." " We were just drooling." " We were starving." "Then they put us on another ship, on a French boat, the Sontai." "The Havana was a nice boat... but the Sontai was dreadful." "The rats running around were the size of cats." "A merchant ship." "It was a lousy boat." "We were in the ship"s hold, laid out on the floor..." "I remember that none of us spoke any other language... and neither did the crew." "The girls asked them for food." "A girl beside me asked for food:" ""Allo pan"." "The Chinese understood." "I think they were Chinese because their eyes were like that." "The crew was Chinese or Indo-Chinese." "They were Vietnamese or Chinese." "All of us holed up in that French ship"s cargo hold... everybody throwing up..." "What a disaster." "Bilbao had already fallen." "I think the worst moment of my life... was hearing the screams and tears of thousands of children... when they heard about Bilbao." "Where were all the parents?" "On board the Sontai we crossed the North Sea... and into the Baltic Sea to Leningrad." "When we entered the Bay of Leningrad... we heard noises, whistles... shouts and songs... some were launching fireworks... and the Soviets with us said:" "Youve arrived in the Soviet Union." "Youre now in the waters of Leningrad... the port of Leningrad."" "The welcome the Soviets gave us was impressive." "They made us feel like I don"t know what..." "For the Russians we were always... the children of the heroic Spanish Republic." "I remember that we were standing on the ships deck... and on the docks, on the pier, the crowd... received us with so much warmth." "Slowly we all disembarked." "Instead of a suitcase, I had a box... a big shoe box, where I kept my things... tied with a piece of string." "... arrive in the USSR for the first time." "The savage fascists destroyed cities and villages." "They murdered and wounded defenceless women and children." "Fleeing the fascists... the children of the Spanish soldiers had to leave their motherland." "We all got off the boat with our fist like this." "Children of six, seven, eight, nine and five years old... and the women watching the children, so dark, compared with the Russians." "The port of Leningrad was also washed, but not with our tears... with the tears of the Russian women who watched the children get off." "They hugged us, kissed us, they gave us sweets... asking us "Familia, familia?"... which in Russian means "Surname, surname?"" "And we replied "Familia?" "Bilbao"." "Hundreds and hundreds of Pioneers with their scarves... shouting, with little Spanish flags... and we looked starved, full of lice, dirty... terrible, you can imagine the journey we had just made." "And of course, as soon as we arrived in Leningrad... there was an army... of doctors, nurses, wardens, women... 80% of the kids were covered in lice and fleas... up to their ears in filth." "So, one by one... the boys had their hair shaven off." "Thats where it began, they took us to shower and change." "It was a scandal... they put boys and girls together in the showers, what a scandal." "The girls were crying because they didnt want to shower with the boys." "As I looked like a boy they put me into the showers with the boys." "You can imagine, I began to cry and to cover myself up... and nobody understood what was up." "I showed them I wasn"t a boy." "How could I shower with the boys?" "In brief, it was a disaster." "The women showered us and made us strip completely." "Oh, dear!" "My brother didnt care, he was 7, but we were 13." "Understand?" "They looked at us as if to say "Watch out!"" "Do you understand?" "So after the shower they dressed us in a sailor suit." "With a sailors hat, blue, really nice, it looked smart." "And then they organised a little..." "What would I call it...?" "We had a bite to eat." "They made us caviar sandwiches... there were tables full of everything, caviar, cheese... but our children..." "I say children, although they"re grandparents now... they didn"t want caviar, because they weren"t used to it." "In the hotel dining room... we wasted and ruined more food than we ate." "We were half savages." "Later they began to distribute us in the Childrens Houses... and I consider myself very lucky getting put into house number 2." "At Kursk station... students and Muscovite escorts... received the Basque youth as their dearest friends." "They took us to a children"s residence... and they put me in one room and my brother in another." "But my brother and I had to stay together." "So a boy was kicked out, and I got his place." "Here Paco, and me in the next bed." "In school, at our desks:" "Here Paco, and me beside him." "We were always together." "If Paco was sick, I was sick as well." "Curious, isnt it?" "At bedtime, I always went to kiss my brothers goodnight." "The others made fun of me." ""Look at her kissing them!"" "I would tuck them in and give them a kiss." "But I was so embarrassed at being made fun of, I stopped going." "Three or four months passed since we saw our parents... but we still remembered them." "We would cry." "When it was bedtime, I"d think a lot of my parents..." "I remembered that my mother was in one place and my father in another." "And even more when the war was over." "When the war finished, we knew nothing of their fate." "They"d throw everything out of the window." "They opened the window and threw things out." "They threw the soap out." "It was the mentality of being in a country where they knew nobody... with no family other than us." "There were 500 of us... from different families, with different upbringings." "With that Spanish character." "They had to drill some discipline into the whole herd." "In the morning they"d wake us with a bugle call... and we"d go to do our exercises." "The physical trainer would shout..." ""One, two, three"... and we"d all shout back, in a chorus... in Russian, by then we could shout in Russian." "We"d say good morning in Russian to absolutely everybody." "Then we"d go downstairs to get washed... get dressed and make their beds." "Then, we"d go to the dining room for breakfast and then to school." "It was all in Spanish." "Russian was one of our subjects." "They printed books for us in Spanish." "We were also taught maths in Spanish." "The teachers came from Spain." "All of them, except the Russian teacher." "So we retained our mother tongue perfectly." "We learnt the grammar, Spanish geography..." " history, El Cid, we knew all that..." " All that." "We also studied Russian." "A letter to Voroshilov." "To Klim Voroshilov, a letter I wrote." "Comrade Voroshilov, the commissar of the people... will lead the Red Army to peace." "Against the Red Army, the enemy charges." "Comrade Voroshilov, when the battle begins... early in the morning, let us lead the attack." "They were good students, very disciplined, "Ochem"." "Please pass the bow over the A." "Slowly." "Well done." "Hold." "Good!" "Stop, now in the opposite direction." "Easy." "Do you see children?" "That is the right way." "That"s enough for now." "Will the girl please come here now." "Hold the violin properly." "Place your head correctly." "We just studied and played, there was nothing else to do." "If you did anything wrong you werent allowed to go to the movies... that was the worst thing that could happen to you." "Where is that street?" "Where is that house?" "Where is the girl I have fallen in love with?" "This is the street, this is the house... this is the girl I have fallen in love with." "They gave us caviar by the plateful." "Imagine, caviar." "The butter, the cream." "It was all prepared the previous day... we ate marvellously." "We didn"t like the food, because it was Russian food... but little by little, they got the idea... of our longing for Spanish food." "But they did try to give us what we wanted... of course theyd make us eat things by saying that Voroshilov ate it... and we"d eat it because it had a lot of iron." "The director asked Petrovich why the Spanish children... wouldnt eat caviar and expensive fish." "Petrovichs replied, "You dont know Spanish children." "Spanish children want Trisca", cod."" "Some days later, he went out and bought cod, "Trisca"... and our kids, shouted through the corridor of that great big house..." ""There is cod today!" "In Russian." "And afterwards "chichivicha", that"s lentils." "Only lentils, the rest ate either lentils or beans." "Isnt it the Basque food, Spanish food?" "Who doesnt want to eat like Cervantes?" "Every Wednesday Cervantes ate chichivicha", lentils." "Thats the story of the children." "I was a very religious girl." "0f course, when we arrived they began to give us an atheist education... and I suffered tremendously." "I would go to pray, into the garden or far away." "I suffered as I thought God was testing me and I had to overcome it." "We had a pigeon coop, with messenger pigeons... and it was so nice." "We"d let them out in the morning... and it was wonderful." "They fly up and you go..." "You"d use the sticks..." " And game beaters." " The game beaters..." "Its an art, the art of the pigeons." "When I arrived, the pigeons would go... as if telling me that theyd seen me... and they"d come right up to me." "I fed them from my mouth." "L"d put wheat in my mouth and feed them." "Theyd kiss me like that." "That was basic." "The pigeons." "A beautiful thing." "The elders told me I had to make a food deposit... in the hut, to set up a food reserve." "That is what we did... because they were planning to run back to Spain, to fight... at the Ebro, or wherever." "They"d heard about it." "Theyd heard about Belchite, and Madrid." "Five Spaniards picked up a Republican flag... and sat down at the station and rode the trains... with the Republican flag and sang in Spanish..." ""The steel companies"..." "Marching around." "Hell, the Russians thought they were nuts." "As if they were in Spain." "The Basques from Euzkadi FC came here... and they trained with them." "It was a boost of life for the kids... the Bilbao team, Euzkadi." "And that is why our kids followed the team." "It is precisely those team lads who ended up dying in Leningrad." "We would go to a field close to the school we were at." "We went to see them... and vibrate with all the energy of our soul for the victory of our team." "Not the Soviets." "Right at that moment... all the loudspeakers went dead." "All is silent and suddenly:" ""Attention, attention..." "Molotov is about to speak." An expectant silence... and then he informs us that the Soviet Union has been invaded... by the fascists and so on." "And that from that moment everybody... should go back to their workplaces... because we had begun to live to win the war." "It was terrible for us." "My word!" "Lmagine, four years after arriving, another war!" "It was Sunday and we girls were ironing our dresses for the dance." "At that moment they told us Molotov was about to speak." "That"s when he announced that at 5am, they"d attacked us." "History goes round in circles." "On the 22nd June, 1937... we set foot for the first time on Soviet soil." "0n the 22nd June, 1941, war broke out." "When the war broke out, we lost everything... that is where the tragedy begins." "Hitler attacked the USSR." "A treasonous surprise attack." "The German aviation began to bomb the Soviet cities." "Caught by surprise, the Soviet planes... didn't have time to take off from the airfields." "An unloyal and unexpected enemy attack.... left our country and army in very unfavourable conditions." "With great sorrow in their heart our soldiers had to withdraw... leaving cities and villages to the enemy." "The fascist murderers, experienced in the blitzkrieg victories in Europe... entered our cities and villages, looting, raping, killing." "The surprise attack allowed Hitler's troops... to occupy Soviet land.... in only 3 days, averaging 30 to 40 kilometres a day." "Although they would be unable to continue at such speed." "At each step, they encountered the resistance, defensive strongholds... counterattacks, and counter-strikes of our armies." "That is what happened in Grodno, Lutsk, Daugavpils, Minsk..." "Berdichevi and Korostin." ""The Russian campaign has been won in 14 days'"... was hastily announced." "Our main priority at that time... was to go to the military committee and volunteer." "We always held on to the idea... that the Soviet Union was so strong... that in no time at all theyd finish off the Germans." "They closed the dining hall, the teachers disappeared..." "I dont know how we managed those months in Moscow..." "I dont know how we survived." "I cannot remember well because the bombings began." "Most of the bombs were incendiary, right?" "In Moscow, when the bombing started... the people would clamber onto the rooftops... with a pail or a bucket of water... and when the bombs dropped... they grabbed them, and dropped them in the water to put them out." "Yes, then I climbed upon the roof... and watched the sky fill with tracers." "The childrens residences had to be evacuated... because they were all on the side being attacked by the Nazis." "They put us on a boat and we sailed down the Volga to Stalingrad." "On it were those in houses number 2 and 12... another children"s house in Moscow." "They took us to behind Stalingrad to a village called Leninzs... and there we spent about a year." "I think I have never seen death so close." "There were lots of us on board the ship... and we had no cabins so we slept on the ships deck." "Well, the German planes would drop flares to see... and then they"d bomb us." "We arrived at a village in Stalingrad... and I remember seeing round pats of shit..." "I wondered what it was." "It was camel dung." "In Stalingrad there were no horses or donkeys, just camels." "We were savages." "We"d go to a watermelon field, grab a water melon... and split it over our knee, then eat its inside." "The Russians would say "Here come the Spanish locusts"." "Thats when I realised food was beginning to be scarce... and it just kept getting worse and worse." "It was a very hard time... it was terribly cold, forty below zero... and we had nowhere to study other than our bed... wed read and write in bed... but they never left us a day without schooling." "We were all tucked in bed, covered with blankets... and the teacher would give us a zoology class." "It was there we built the airfield, the railway." "They didnt force us to, but we would go and help." "The Germans had surrounded us, we had to lend a hand, didn"t we?" "THE SIEGE OF LENINGRAD" "When the winter began, we lived in a three storey house... but as all the window panes had been shattered by the bomb blasts... the cold crept into the house... and on the walls we had this much ice... some 15 or 20 centimetres of ice." "The food was terrible, very scarce, 125 grams of bread... half of it wasn"t even bread, but birch bark." "I have letters from the director of the childrens residence." "He speaks of the valour, the heroism... and the resilience of the Spanish children in Leningrad." "The people would huddle against the walls." "They had no strength, they supported themselves on the walls... and the streets, like I told you... were full of dead bodies." "The people left them there." "Understand?" "And then you would see one of those small children sleighs... with a mummy covered in bed sheets... you had to take them to the cemetery." "But the cemetery was frozen, you had to break the ice with bars." "It was damn hard." "I went to the cemetery, and the dead were piled up." "And of course by the time we left in March..." "Lake Ladoga was already thawing." "0ur lorry crossed with water nearly covering the wheels." "You must consider something else, the heroism of the Russians... that built the first railway on top of ice." "Did you know that?" "The Russians built a railway over the frozen Lagoda river... to supply Leningrad." "When we left Moscow, it was already cold... and the Germans were only a couple of steps away." "They evacuated us, on a train." "Nobody told us wed need warm clothing or what to take... there was nobody, that"s why we left for Siberia in such a manner." "Thejourney from Moscow to Samarkanda... took us 38 days and 38 nights." "What did we eat on the way?" "Whatever the elder boys managed to bring us:" "Boiling hot water, bread or things like that." "The main staple was "kipiatok"." ""Kipiatok" was a source... of steaming hot water... and for Russia, hot water with tea and a bit of sugar... is pure salvation." "It took so long because we kept stopping... as the military trains from Siberia were arriving... laden with the Siberian soldiers who were to save Moscow." "They were so handsome, so good, so well dressed." "We sat in cattle rolling stock... but when youre young it doesn"t matter... but we arrived very lean." "The worst was the water on the way, along the steppe." "We"d melt the snow but it was full of steam train soot... and all that contributed... to us catching diseases of the digestive tract." "Little children died of hunger, of cold... they bombed us on the way." "It was a bitter cold." "We left accustomed to Moscow... and we were suddenly at minus 40 and we could hardly breathe." "We were hungrier than a gamekeeper's dog." "We began to steal... from the warehouses where they stored the wheat and corn." "But, that"s children for you, isn"t it?" "It was really hard because we had no food." "We"d eaten it all." "We were covered in lice." "I remember we used to have fun... seeing who had the largest lice." "We"d throw them into the tin stoves:" ""That"s mine, come on!"" "We had no toilets as your urine froze immediately... so we would all stick our bums out, at forty below zero... into the coldest winter thered been in a long time." "From Moscow we travelled North, then headed towards the Urals... and continued along the Transiberian... and then on to Kazajstán... until we arrived in Samarkanda in Uzbekistán." "We stayed in Samarkanda." "They gave us a house, a school." "We worked in a "koljoz" farm." "Work was really hard at the koljoz, that hard, dried-up soil... the shovels they gave us were too big for our little hands... but it was war and we had to work." "We picked cotton." "Wed go to the koljozs to steal... wheat, cucumbers, beets, whatever." "We had our own system." "While one stole, the others kept watch... and if, for example, they shouted "water"... everyone ran away because the guard was on his way." "In brief, we"d hit the farms and plunder them." "We ate all the cats in the vicinity." "We had also developed a killing method." "Wed put them inside a bag... otherwise youd get scratched all over." "We would feel around and when we felt its head... we"d grab a string and..." "In February 1943 they got me working... and I worked in a tank factory in Saratov... at the age of 14." "It was hell, it was really hell." "Towards the end of the month, wed work 18 or 20 hours... we had to supply the front... without planes and tanks, there is no front." "I worked in a factory where steel shavings surround the machines... and in summer we went bare footed because we had nothing to wear." "When the Germans got ready to attack Stalingrad... we were already under attack." "It didn"t stop." "Planes were attacking from all sides." "It was the opening stages of the battle of Stalingrad." "When the German offensive began... we had to evacuate, get out of Stalingrad." "Some of my colleagues remained... and so did one of my teachers." "The one we all felt most fond of." "And then they pulled us back towards the Urals." "Its true that they evacuated us... even before the Russian colonies, their own children." "That is when they took us by train... and we spent many days, I think it took over a month." "That was when we stopped in a village and they said we"d stay a few days." "We went swimming in the river." "Thats when the Germans arrived and began to shoot." "The bullets hit the water." "And as we went running back, a bomb hit the village." "By the way, there was a queue of people waiting for bread... and the next day, they were all dead... a mountain of naked corpses." "Their families arrived, pulling them out, searching for their relatives." "One thing that contributed... to bring the German army almost to a standstill... was that winter of 1943 into 1944." "At minus 15 or 20 and the freezing gusts... that would"ve frozen the Holy Mary herself." "Whenever we left the children"s home in Samarkanda... during "41, 42 and 43..." "I will never forget that in the doorways... we"d always see people huddled up like this... dead." "The war was a cruel war... for the Soviet people and for everyone... but it was twice as much for us." "How do I justify that?" "Because for us it was a foreign land... we still didnt speak the language properly... we were not used to all that cold... we had parents, but we were orphans." "But when you"re young everything seems so much easier." "I remember that we managed to enjoy ourselves... we would fall in love, we had our little boyfriends... but even so, they were very special friendships... very healthy relationships." "I remember that my sister would tell me:" ""Lala, dont forget you"re ugly." "All you have is your virtue... don"t even consider losing your virtue"." "In 1944, we returned to Moscow." "The return journey was also extremely hard." "We all came back to Moscow together on the train." "When we arrived we were distributed." "I was worked just outside Moscow." "They brought us together, and concentrated us in Moscow... first, because it was the best thing in all senses... and also to keep track of us in a way." "When got to Moscow they put us in a bachelors-only residence." "Well, the jug of water was frozen." "I enjoyed my work." "We arrived and worked building aircraft engines." "We broke into the warehouse of a factory." "I was hungry, Id go for anything." "Some dared, others didn"t." "You see?" "That night, everything went perfectly." "We hid the loot in a hole which we covered with snow... fur coats and "balinkis"." "They were wonderful." "But that idiot Gregorio, decided to stop working." "Soon they became suspicious, and took him in." "He sang and they came for us at 3am, and took us to the police station." "There, we spent four months in prision, in the "Taganka"." "As I had nowhere to sleep..." "Id sleep in the residences of the other Spaniards." "Ive stayed in all the student residences in Moscow." "I have slept in train stations." "And I continued to study." "We had no room, no place to sleep." "They distributed us among the people." "I slept with Maria, in the same bed." "She asked me what was going on." "We got up quickly... and the director appeared in her nightgown. "Girls, the war is over."" "Can you imagine?" "The war was over." "Without a word, as if by inertia... we got dressed in what we had and went into the street." "You cant imagine the difference in the life of the same person... living in Moscow or in a smaller capital." "You can"t imagine it." "It was easy to find work, there was all the work you wanted." "The bad thing was they paid you very little." "The worker would earn more than an engineer." "Absurd, isn"t it?" "Doctors and teachers, we always had very low wages, very low." "Where I lived, there were two large rooms... in one lived the wife of an engineer... and in the other, Tonia and I." "Kitchen and bathroom were shared by all." "I went to talk to the Spanish, the Party as we called it... and I said, "Comrade, I want to study music, I want to sing..." "I want to be an artist." "Help me enroll in a school."" "He said, "What are you studying?" I said "History."" ""Study history." "Spain doesn"t need singers... or jugglers or musicians... it needs specialists, historians and architects"." "I never forgave them." "And then there was the hierarchy... the Party members... who were those who lived the best." "As always." "They lived better than us, they gave them better homes and wages." "We worked and they educated us, no?" "Stalin, yes, we love Stalin." "Regardless of what he did, he treated us very well." "He and his government treated us well." "They couldnt have done better." "I saw him as if he were my father." "I thought that if he died, it"d be the end of the world." "20 million died in concentration camps." "That"s unforgivable." "Not for me." "It cannot be forgiven." "Be it Stalin, or whoever." "He was a criminal to the umpteenth power." "The people suffered a lot as a consequence of that regime... hammered out with such ferocious methodology." "Until people discovered the scam... they believed they were happy." "Nobody dared to doubt or even to think badly... because everybody thought it was a happy paradise." "If I am glad of anything... it"s of having lived in the Soviet Union... of having met that people." "They only thing I regret was the antisemitism..." "I saw it with my first husband... and even with my son." "It was irate, official and savage." "It"s been a terrible ideological failure, for me." "Because I believed in that ideology." "I think if they committed an error with us... it was not in bringing us here, for that we must be grateful." "The error was that, after the war... they should have proposed our return." "That is the error, the crime, the felony." "By the time we were able to return, back in 56, "57... we were grown up, many of us had families." "There was nothing there for us anymore." "When the Spanish war was over we couldn"t return because Fascism won." "When the Second World War broke out, we couldn"t go either... when the war ended... they said we couldnt because of Franco"s regime." "Stalin said that the children were handed to him by the Republic... and that he would only return them to the Republic." "I think that Stalin had his own political views." "Or they wouldnt let us out or Spain wouldnt let us in." "Or we were scared, I don"t know." "It"s just that nobody proposed it." "At that time, we didn"t consider returning to Spain." "Wedjust come out of a terrible war... we weren"t thinking of returning to Spain." "Little by little as we grew up and finished our studies... and then yes, people began to consider their return." "I finished my degree, began work and enjoyed it so much..." "I hardly wanted to come back to Spain." "They didn"t let us out of Russia." "They said, "We"re not giving the children to a fascist dictatorship."" "Not only the government but also the communist party meddled in this." "It was they who forbade us to leave." "In "57 there was an avalanche of youths." "In 57 we were young, we were some 30 years old." "We began to protest so they"d allow us the return to Spain... because we couldnt get housing, we lived in hostels." "Married people had to cover themselves with the sheets... to have marital intimacies, because they were in a 20 person bedroom." "That is where we lived." "So we wrote a clandestine letter to the UN." "We said we were the children who left Spain... and that they wouldn"t let us out." "Then the UN... called the Soviet representative and asked him about us." "He said, "We have Human Rights Laws, and you won"t let them go home?"" ""What an idea!" "0f course we"d let them."" "So he showed him the letter, which he read with great shame... then he spoke to Krushchev... the secretary general the equivalent of a president... and Krushchev said:" ""Well, let them go."" "The first repatriation of children... the first return took place in 56, 57, after the death of Stalin." "I worked in an aircraft factory..." "I don"t know why they let everyone go from that factory, but me." "We said goodbye to a train full... of Spaniards who returned to Spain for good." "I was there to say goodbye." "They spoke of equality but they only let return to Spain... those women married to Spaniards, but not viceversa." "When we arrived, they were mothers, fathers, brothers..." "Then I saw my sister Isabel..." ""Here she comes, my sister!" And she screamed, "Araceli!"" ""Araceli!" "Araceli!"" "And my father and mother saw me coming." "The emotion was just too much for my father." "A man who used to be a champion weightlifter... a Basque weightlifting champion." "When the car arrived and he saw me come out... he held himself against a tree... and fell on the ground... such was his emotion." "Coming from Moscow... to a small mining town was for me..." "I don"t know..." "I didnt have too much in common with the people." "We were like aliens for them." "0n arriving in Spain, I hugged a tree." "I felt it was my homeland." "But when I hugged my mother..." "I don"t know, it was terrible, I think many of us felt like that." "Perhaps because I didn"t grow up with her... or because of all those years gone by... but imagine how painful it is to find someone who is family... your mother, your brother... but who you hardly feel anything for." "It was a very sad encounter and I never saw her again." "To be honest, sometimes I thought my parents got rid of me... that they decided there were too many of us, and they"d never feed us." "At least the USSRwould take us." "When we arrived from Russia to Spain... we found my mother... we knew that lady was our mother... but that was it." "And to love a person by force, is impossible." "That was the problem, not only with us... but with all the kids that came back." "Many went back because they didnt find their parents affection... or didnt find their parents at all." "One thing is to live with your mother all your life... another is to meet her after 19 years." "Also, she was used to living alone." "And suddenly..." "how many were we?" "Six of us appear in her house, being noisy, and with two kids." "When I ran over to see my mother..." "I noticed something." "What did I expect after 20 years?" "I could see that woman was my mother, but that was all." "You know its your mother, you know, but there"s no... I"ve spent my life thinking of her..." "That happened to 95% of all the Spaniards that returned from Russia." "If shed welcomed us, in time we"d have loved her again." "She was a bad in-law to your wife, that"s it." "What?" "She was a bad mother-in-law to your wife." "She was a bad mother to me." "After losing her husband and kids, 18 years without leaving her house... we arrive and we go again, and she is left alone." "Alone again." "She died heartbroken, for Gods sake." "Don"t tell me she didn"t." " After 18 years." " You were single..." "Very well, Ernesto, my case is different." "But she kept her vow to stay home until we returned for 18 years." "And we spent 20 years without our parents." "We weren"t to blame." "That has nothing to do with it." "Father sent us away, if shed said no, we wouldn"t have gone." "Don"t go saying mother died heartbroken, she didn"t." "What would"ve become of you, of us, if we hadn"t gone to Russia?" "If we"d stayed in Spain, it wouldve been a disaster." "My father held out all the war right up to the 30th of March." "0ne day before the triumph of the gentleman I prefer not to mention." "My father then went with some other friends to..." " Did you say a gentleman?" " Well..." "They went to the port of Alicante where they waited..." "Twelve thousand republicans were waiting there... for an English ship." "None came." "There they fell." "It was a trap, to catch the republicans." "Thousands of republicans fell, amongst them, my father." "In Alicante there"s a village called Albatera... a notorious concentration camp... where my father spent seven months." "Then he was escorted to Albacete by the Guardia Civil... to the firing squad." ""15 November, 1939"..." "My father was shot the following day." ""To my dearest children:" "Piedad, Ernestito and Paquito." "Until now, you have lived in a world full of roses... and have been happy with your mother and me." "You cannot understand now why today I die." "When you are older... and understand lifes mysteries and hardships... when you know what men are like... youll understand why your father, who was a good man all his life... who not only never harmed anybody, but who sacrificed his future... and his life for a better one, has died." "Yes, my children, for nowjust know that I will die in a few hours... and that we will never meet again." "Mother stays with you, you know how good she is... and how much she loves you." "She will be alone without me... but she is not left alone, because you are still there... and that is a lot:" "Three children that adore her... because she is your blessed mother, who loves you so much." "You must go and live with her immediately and never leave her." "I have nothing to regret, quite the opposite." "I die with a clear conscience and in peace, calm." "I leave no bad memories, except the bitterness of leaving you without me." "Live proud of your father... who was always respectable, honest and loyal." "Live with a clear conscience... a serene spirit, and your head held high... with the same dignity your father always lived with... and one of the things I die with." "Goodbye my children, goodbye my children." "I hold your photographs, and your mothers... and with my heart broken at leaving you, I"ll close my eyes." "Goodbye, a big hug from your father." "Ernesto."" "When we arrived, this was a disgrace." "There was still hunger in 1956." "When you looked for work and told them you"d come from Russia... they didn"t want to know, nobody wanted to commit themselves." "Until I found a job in the Ministry car pool." "There wasn"t much work and I became a chauffeur." "In my free time I drove a taxi." "Before I got my own, I worked for others." "I only worked at weekends, I couldnt do it other days." "L"d leave home at 6am on Saturday, and return at 2am." "Ive driven Carrero Blanco"s." "Now, if he"d known who I was..." "He didn"t know I"d lived in Russia." "Id drive him to the Moncloa palace, on Thursdays." "Hed dispatch with the Prince, when he was a prince." "He never spoke a word, not even to his escort." "Yet every time he came... hed salute us with his cap." "Carrero Blanco." ""CARRERO BLANCO MURDERED BY ETA"Slf that day Jose Luis... had broken down or been sick... perhaps it would"ve been me." "We arrived at the Presidency and he didn"t arrive." "How could he arrive?" "They were blown skyhigh." "If the car hadn"t hit the edge of a building... it wouldve landed in Serrano street." "Soon after we arrived in Madrid, at my mother's house..." " Aunt Ines arrived, the nun." " The nun." "She sent us two nuns that came every day to teach us..." " To teach us the "Our Father"" " The "Our Father" and us like idiots." "What else could we do?" "I was going to get married, they had to teach me how." "Of course, in Buensuceso Church in Madrid." "You married again." " They baptised..." " The boy and Tonia." "Tonia and the boy." ""Do you take Tonia as your wife?" I said: "Of course"." "I said yes." "She was my wife." "Why not?" "Do you remember?" "That priest was Francos confessor." " Really?" "Fuck!" " Yes, the little fat one." " You were really lucky." " Really lucky." "My husband refused to get married on the altar." "He married us in the vestry." "But first he said: "Heres the book so you can start studying."" "Study?" "He didnt know my husband." "He said:" ""L"m only doing this because if not they won"t give any money to live." "Thats the only reason." They made us get married." "I remember there was a priest from the hills." "I told him the truth, "l"m here because I have no choice... but I am not..." "What do you mean?"" ""You dont believe?" "No."" "He called me everything." "He called me dog, animal, beast." "Just as lm telling you." "In those times, religion had enormous power here." "My father had a business." "He pretended he went to church." "He knew if his clients found out theyd stop being his clients." "Me, my brother and his Russian wife would go for a walk in the village." "The old women would say, "Look, there"s the Russian." "But where are the horns and tail I was told the Russians had?"" "I said, "Who told you that?" She said, "The priest." "Theyd say, "In Russia... the state steals children..." " and puts them in crèches."" " Rubbish!" "They were free crèches while the parents worked." ""Now, they pay money to take the children away!"" "Of the 2000 that returned to Spain, half of them went back to Russia." "Their families made life impossible so they had to go back." "The CIAwere trying to discover... war children who were KGB agents." "Every 15 days I had to go to Security Headquarters... on the Puerta del Sol." "To the Social Politics Department, every 15 days." "One day the commissar was questioning me... he gave me some paper and said..." ""Write down the names of your friends."" "I said "What?" "Give me the names of your friends"." "I said there wasnt enough paper for all their names." "The names of my friends!" "Even when we went on holidays... within 3 days we had to show up... at what they called the "Social Brigade"." "He asked me, "Are you a believer?" I said I was not." ""Then youre an atheist." I played dumb and said I didn"t know." ""L"ll put atheist"." "I said he could put what he wanted, I didn"t believe." "And he said, "Look what the Russians have done to you!"" "We obtained the information, the proof... that Western intelligence services... were very interested in this contingent." "He asked, "Do you provide services to any foreign country?"" "And I said, "What services?"" "Most of the war children... were working for the Soviet military industry... mainly in the secret aircraft and rocket factories." "The Americans opened an office with Spanish authorisation... to question all of us who had worked in Moscows military factories." "You had to go, otherwise the police would come and get you." "For example, I"d be handed a sheet of paper and told to draw my factory." "To draw the workshops and what was manufactured in each shop." "I refused to do it." "I said they should go to Russia and jump the fence." "But to watch out for the guard dogs." "I refused." "I came to Spain to work." "I said "If you want to know, go to Russia."" "They had maps, not only of the cities... where they lived in the USSR... but of the layout of the factories." "My turn arrived in Orense street, number four." "And the Spanish secret policemen... were in the background like second class dummies." "The one at the table said, "You have worked in that plant..." "What did you do?" I said, "l"m telling you nothing."" "And I told one, Arias Navarro..." "looking at me with his wax face..." ""l"ll tell you nothing of what you"re asking." "Why should I tell you?" "What I know and what I have been... was given to me by people I will not betray."" "On the part of the Spanish police... there was a lot of pressure and threats." "They got me and they put me in a cell for I dont know how long." "The first time they put me inside..." "I needed to go to the toilet." "There was no chamber pot or anything." "I called the..." "Not policemen..." "Guards. "Guards!"" "They came with their rifles." ""What do you want?" In their filthy manner." "I want to go to the toilet"." "Another one came and I walked between the two, as if to the firing squad." "They took me to the toilet, but wouldn"t let me shut the door." "Shit!" "I had to do my necessities with an open door... so that they could watch." "It was designed to make you lose your dignity." "We decided to go back." "We went back... and we stayed in Russia till 63 when we came to Cuba." "And the party suggested I come to Cuba." "They left for Cuba and many are still there... lots of them also died in Cuba." "Russia is so big, so pretty, the Russian people are so good." "I am Spanish... but lm very pro-Russian." "L"m offended if someone speaks badly of Russia." "Many times I have thought that if I were born again..." "I wouldnt mind repeating." "Honestly." "Yes." "In spite of everything." "I feel more Spanish than anything, but I remember a lot from that land." "Id do it again." "There were good times and bad, but Id do it again." "With pleasure." "Its hard to say if I"m more Spanish or Russian." "I am still Spanish, I still feel Spanish." "Completely." "I think like a Spaniard." "No, no." "Spain can"t be forgotten." "It cant be forgotten." "Although its small." "No queue jumping!" "Lt"s you who is queuejumping!" "Christians, please, back off." "Nowadays, there"s everything, but people dont have any money." "Something that worries me is that lately, there are lots of beggars." "Don"t push." "Hungry people!" "L"m bothering no one." "L"ve got vouchers." "Don"t push." "Wait, wait." "Before, there wasn"t this misery." "There definitely wasn"t." "There wasn"t everything, but people weren"t hungry." "The Church is in charge here now... as it used to be in Spain." "The priests have a tremendous clout here... theyre everywhere, everywhere." "I don"t know if for good or for bad, but I am not too amused." "I worked 52 years for a tiny pension." "1200 roubles, about forty dollars." "I dont want to remain here, because I suffer." "Such good people, so suffering, so generous and so unfortunate." "If we die here, Spain will cover the burial expenses... because we haven"t even got enough for a funeral." "Perhaps somebody has an empty room over there... and tells this old girl to come and live in that room." "Personally, for me..." "Id like to end up in Spain... preferably in the Basque country." "The "rías" of Bilbao, Sestao, Baracaldo, Portugalete, Santurce." "I would like it there." "There isn"t a straight wall in the whole of that museum." "Everything is inclined, hunchbacked." " From Santurce to Bilbao..." " I walk beside the shore..." " with my skirt rolled up..." " showing my calves." "We, the Spanish children must remain forever grateful to Russia... to the Russians and to Stalin as well." "I wish all the children of the world could live as well... as we did in the Soviet Union." "We lived in the Soviet Union... hoping each would be our last year..." "Around this time, every year, we"d think it was our last New Year here." "Next year well go back to Spain." "That is the horrific part, the tragedy... the most tragic thing is the children who have to emigrate... without them having a say in it." "And if they hadn"t evacuated us?" "I don"t know." "Would many of us have perished under the bombs?" "I see my family and nobody died under a bomb." "They went through the same hunger we did." "If it was up to me, I"d recommend all nations... to never evacuate their children to another country." "Keep them at home." "To feel uprooted from your own land..." " is very, very hard." " Were free electrons now." "We never belonged anywhere." "Right?" "In the USSRyou were Spanish." "In Cuba you"re an Hispanic Soviet." "When I arrived in Spain, it was "Here comes the Russian"." "Now its "Here comes the Cuban"." "Well, I was all but Spanish." "And that"s the story of the children." "For all "The Children of Russia"... whose generous testimony tells us of their life and of our own history."