Evacuation and Repression: The Spaniards' Life in Kazakhstan

Abstract

When the war erupted between the USSR and Germany, the emigrants who were in the European part of the USSR were evacuated to the eastern republics, including Kazakhstan along with some children from children’s homes. The Spaniards repressed by the Soviet government and the soldiers-prisoners of the “Blue Division” were kept in the Kazakh camps. This paper examines the Spanish emigrants’ life and activities in Kazakhstan, their resettlement from Kazakhstan to the Crimea, and the problem of Spanish emigrants’ conscription in the Soviet Army. Also, the fate of repressed Spaniards who were sent to correctional labor camps in the Karaganda region has been traced.

Keywords

• Civil war
• Spanish emigrants
• repressions in the USSR
• Spanish Republicans
• MOPR
• Karlag.