CHILDHOOD AND EXILE. THE EXPERIENCES OF CHILDREN OF THE SPANISH CIVIL WAR IN THE SOVIET UNION AND MEXICO

Abstract

The study focuses on the Spanish "children of war" who were evacuated to Mexico and the USSR during the Spanish Civil War between 1937 and 1938, and their experiences described in various sources. These are both memories and scholarly research, incorporating information collected through various research projects to study the perception of exiles of their experience. No less significant for this work is the material related to the influence of the "children of war" on the societies that host them; this perspective is of particular relevance at the present stage. Both the USSR and Mexico supported the Second Republic both in the international arena and in the humanitarian direction. At the same time, the USSR accepted more children than Mexico and the living conditions of the exiles varied significantly. Life stories testify to the traumas associated with separation from families, both when moving to Mexico and the USSR, the difficulties of returning and reuniting with their relatives, the impact on the fate of Spanish children of the break that occurred in Spain after the defeat of the Republicans and the establishment of the Francoist dictatorship.

Keywords

• children of spain's civil war
• children of russia
• exile
• spanish repub-lic
• ussr
• mexico
• historical memory