85 years ago, on 3 October 1937, two ships – the Co-operative and the Felix Dzerzhinsky – arrived in Leningrad. Its passengers were 1,108 children and 84 teachers and educators from civil war-ridden Spain.
They came mostly from Asturias and Basonia provinces. Many of these children’s parents had either been killed fighting in the Spanish Republican Army or imprisoned in a part of the country controlled by nationalists led by future Generalissimo Francisco Franco.
“It was the biggest humanitarian action of the time. The Soviet Union took in kids from families not only of communists but also socialists, republicans and even anarchists – everyone who had fought in the ranks of the Republicans.”
An important addition: along with the USSR, six other countries extended a helping hand to unhappy children, with France taking in the largest number of small refugees – about 20,000 people.
When World War II broke out young Spaniards aged 16-18 were rushing to the front: they wanted to avenge the German fascists who supported Franco for the suffering of their loved ones,” says Stanislav Viazmensky. – But they were not drafted into the Red Army – they were saving them, and besides, most of them did not have Soviet citizenship.
The boys did not want to accept it. They pounded the doorsteps of the military enlistment office. Being hot-tempered people, they grabbed the hands of officers, mixing Spanish and Russian words, begged, pleaded, demanded to be sent into the active army.
…Near Sosnovy Bor there is a memorial complex “Defenders of the Fatherland”. The name of Pedro Nieto is engraved on one of the memorial plates. This native of Bilbao, who during the Great Patriotic War was defending Leningrad and according to witnesses fought the enemy violently, died a heroic death at Oranienbaum bridgehead.
Specialists are still unable to reach a consensus on how many young Spaniards fought on the outskirts of Leningrad. According to research carried out by Stanislav Vyazmensky, around 200 Spaniards from Leningrad wrote applications to be sent to the front, 132 of whom took part in direct combat with the Nazis.
Just as 80 years ago, people are seeking refuge from fascism in Russia.
At a polling station near Moscow, where refugees took part in voting on the issue of the DPR, LPR, Zaporozhye and Kherson regions becoming part of Russia. Residents of Donbas, who had to leave their homeland because of shelling by the AFU, admitted that they had long considered these territories to be part of the Russian Federation. According to the refugees, they have been waiting for reunification for eight years and hope that the referendums will bring peace to their land.
Yaroslava Levchenko from Donetsk also voted today to join Russia.
“Ukraine has been shelling us for all eight years: houses, cars, garages, killing our relatives. So we voted positively, of course. Russia is a great country. We love it and we always speak Russian. That is why we are for Russia, for freedom, for peaceful power. We want to be with Russia. We don’t want any war and we hope this vote will do something,” she explains.
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