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Stalin’s Niños examines how the Soviet Union raised and educated nearly three thousand child refugees of the Spanish Civil War. An analysis of the archival record and numerous letters, oral histories, and memoirs uncovers a little-known story that describes the Soviet transformation of children into future builders of communism and reveals the educational techniques shared with other modern states. Classroom education taught patriotism for the two homelands and the importance of emulating Spanish and Soviet heroes, scientists, soldiers, and artists. Extra-curricular clubs and activities reinforced classroom experiences and helped discipline the mind, body, and behaviours. Adult mentors, like the heroes studied in the classroom, provided models to emulate and became the tangible expression of the ideal Spaniard and Soviet. The Basque and Spanish children thus were transformed into hybrid Hispano-Soviets fully engaged with their native language, culture, and traditions while also imbued with Russian language and culture and Soviet ideals of hard work, comradery, internationalism, and sacrifice for ideals and others.
Throughout their fourteen-year existence and even during the horrific relocation to the Soviet interior during the Second World War, the twenty-two Soviet boarding schools designed specifically for the Spanish refugee children – and better provisioned than those for Soviet children – transformed displaced niños into Red Army heroes, award-winning Soviet athletes and artists, successful educators and workers, and in some cases valuable resources helping to rebuild Cuba after the revolution. Stalin’s Niños also sheds new light on the education of non-Russian Soviet and international students and the process of constructing a supranational Soviet identity.
Using multiple languages, numerous archives, press reports, oral histories, letters, and memoirs, Stalin’s Niños investigates the well-resourced boarding schools designed specifically for nearly 3,000 child refugees from the Spanish Civil War.
- Imprint: University of Toronto Press
- Published: January 2020
- Pages: 264
Karl D. Qualls is the John B. Parsons Chair in Liberal Arts and Sciences and Professor of History at Dickinson College.
"Besides telling an important story, the book raises a key theoretical question concerning the results of the double assimilation: How viable were its hybrid products and did they remain truly hybrid in the long-term perspective rather than eventually choosing just one part of their complex social identity?"
Zukhra Kasimova
Ab Imperio
"This is a well-researched and insightful book that should find a broad readership among scholars of the Spanish Civil War, refugee movements, and Soviet history."
Glennys Young, University of Washington
Bulletin of Spanish Studies
"This book is based on rich primary sources, including oral histories, memoirs, official documents from the Spanish archives in Madrid and Barcelona, and Russian archival holdings in Moscow. This broad range of sources creates a balanced, multifaceted narrative that sheds light on the professional dilemmas that children’s mentors and educators faced, as well as the lived experiences of Spanish niños as told in their own words."
Zukhra Kasimova
Ab Imperio
"Qualls offers a unique perspective on the young Spanish Civil War refugees’ lives, while also shedding light on the connection between Soviet foreign and domestic policy on a larger scale."
Mirjam Galley
Kritika
“In Stalin’s Niños, Qualls provides an exemplary model of how excellent scholarship can tell memorable stories about extraordinary lives.”
E. Thomas Ewing Virginia Tech
American Historical Review
“The achievement of this excellent, highly readable, and meticulously researched book should not be understated.”
Daniel Kowalsky, Queen’s University, Belfast
Journal of Family History
"Relying on material in multiple archives, correspondence, and reminiscences, Karl D. Qualls presents in gripping detail the troubled yet heroic story of 3,000 young Spaniards who found refuge in the USSR during the late 1930s. In the best work on that subject to date, the author offers valuable insights into the nature of childhood, the goals of Soviet pedagogy, the education of Soviet non-Russian children, the extent of the USSR’s commitment to communist internationalism, the meaning of Soviet identity, and the potential for social mobility in the Soviet Union. Qualls recounts exceedingly well how a remarkable network of special boarding schools fashioned hybrid Hispano-Soviets, many of whom pursued successful careers in the USSR and for some, eventually, abroad."
Larry E. Holmes, Department of History, University of South Alabama
"In his compelling and informative account of the casas de niños, boarding schools created to educate but also confine nearly 3,000 Spanish refugee children who arrived in the USSR in 1937 and who were soon to endure further upheaval during the Great Patriotic War, Karl D. Qualls sheds fresh light on Soviet education and nationality policy at a critical juncture. Stalin’s Niños deserves to be read by anyone interested in ambitious state-led attempts to mold the behaviour, personality, and outlook of young children whose lives were disrupted by war and other calamities."
Peter Gatrell, School of Arts, Languages and Cultures, The University of Manchester
"Stalin’s Niños places the education of Spanish children in the USSR in dialogue with the historiography on Soviet education, foreigners and outsiders in the USSR, and international communism. Drawing on Russian archival sources, this book gives readers unprecedented insight into the Soviet Union’s attempt to infuse the children with Soviet values and make them productive members of Soviet society."
Glennys Young, Department of History and Jackson School of International Studies, University of Washington
"Telling the fascinating story of the organization of Soviet schools for Spanish refugee children and illuminating the lived experiences of the children themselves, Karl D. Qualls engages with a wealth of Russian archival materials and oral histories published in Spanish."
Lisa Kirschenbaum, Department of History, West Chester University