Educating the communists of the future: notes on the educational life of the Spanish children evacuated to the USSR during the Spanish Civil War

Abstract

The high rate of child mortality registered during the early months of the Civil War led the Republican authorities to initiate several operations to evacuate youngsters with the purpose of protecting and saving the children of Spain. At the beginning, the children were evacuated to zones in the interior of the country far removed from the front lines. However, the rapid advance of the Nationalist Army caused the Government of the Republic to organise evacuations to other countries. The Soviet Union was one of many countries that offered to help the Republic. Between 1937 and 1938, minors numbering 2895 were taken under the protection of Narkompros in different collective Homes for Children (Dietsky Dom). This article discusses some of the educational practices carried out in the schools of these Homes, by analysing different documents produced by the children, both in this period (interscholastic and personal correspondence, school compositions, newspaper murals) as well as in their adult lives (autobiographies and memoirs). Through the analysis of these educative practices, the article will try to explain how the Soviet as well as the Spanish authorities wished to make these children into ideal communists, convinced that the future of Spain was in their hands.