“Spanish Children” in the ussr. Return to Their Motherland... Through Cooperation with the kgb

They left civil war-torn Spain as children in 1937–1938, “for temporary rescue”. They returned home only two decades later, already adults, with broken biographies.

The archives of the Foreign Intelligence Service of Ukraine contain a number of declassified case files on so-called “Spanish children” – whom the soviet system brought up and prepared for repatriation to their homeland in the mid-1950s. But these documents are not about nostalgia or return. They are about recruitment.

Shortly before their leaving, many young men and women had “preventive conversations” with kgb officers. They were offered to “help their new motherland”, established operational contact, were taught the basics of illegal work abroad, worked out passwords, meeting places, and methods of communication. They were given their first tasks. They were paid money.

Who were those people really – victims of a great geopolitical game or conscious agents of soviet secret services? Did they have a choice? And what exactly did moscow expect from those whom it had once saved from war but later used as a tool of influence in Europe?

Declassified case files provide a glimpse behind the scenes of this little-known chapter of the 20th century – a story where saving children turned into a lifelong debt.

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