Visiting CIRA & IISH, researching Aragon collectives and the incarceration of CNT members in USSR
May 12 2008 19:00
I’m planning a research trip in June and I’m wondering if anyone has been to the International Centre for Research into Anarchism in Lausanne, or the International Institute of Social History in Amsterdam. I’m also hoping to get to Barcelona and am interested in collections there, for example the Centre d'Estudis Josep Ester Borràs.
My research interests are the economic and social organisation of villages in Aragon (especially around Fraga) during the revolution, and the experiences of the CNT/ FAI members who were stranded in the USSR at the end of the Civil War, and subsequently imprisoned in the Karaganda gulag. I am especially interested in images of everyday life, living conditions, agrigultural production, popular culture, etc.
Anybody got any tips for particularly useful resources and/ or advice for visiting the above centres (I only speak English but I’m travelling with a friend who habla el Spicko)? How available are documents/ books – is it advisable/ necessary to give advance notification of what you want to see? Anybody know much about the Centre d'Estudis Josep Ester Borràs? Finally, anybody know of contemporary libertarian activity in Huesca province?
Cheers!
May 12 2008 19:55
#2
Quote:
the experiences of the CNT/ FAI members who were stranded in the USSR at the end of the Civil War, and subsequently imprisoned in the Karaganda gulag.
I hadn't heard about that. Would be fascinated about more info!
May 13 2008 15:20
#3
Quote:
I hadn't heard about that. Would be fascinated about more info!
Yeah very little has been written about it, I guess after the Civil War so many anarchists ended up in camps all over the place and the individual stories get lost. As I understand it, they were supposed to be receiving some sort of military instruction in Moscow. When the Republic fell they were stranded and in 1941 (I think) they were interned in Karaganda. I believe they were released in 56 but I'm not sure if they all survived. I was once told by a Polish comrade (who knew someone who knew someone whose dad played chess with a guy who...) that some of the CNT comrades were in Norilsk at the time of the 53 rebellion. I think this is probably erroneous, but not impossible - there was a significant rebellion at (male and female) camps in Karaganda and a number of 'political' prisoners were transferred to the Norilsk complex. Anyway, I hope to find out a bit more over the next month and I'll let you know what I turn up.
Quote:
libcom library has a brief bio of Borràs
Cheers. Borràs was the central figure in the campaign for the release of the Soviet prisoners, so I'm hoping to learn a bit from his papers.
May 13 2008 20:40
#4
Well, Greeks bearing gifts, eh?
May 14 2008 22:59
#5
There´s an anarchist centre in the city of Huesca called Ateneo Libertario Ramon Acin, but I don´t know the adress, and another one in calle Vidania 11 bajo, but I don´t know the name. Hope that helps a bit.
May 15 2008 17:38
#6
Quote:
Hope that helps a bit.
Yes, thank you. I'm hoping to get to Huesca region so perhaps I will be able to contact them.
May 15 2008 21:57
#7
I've been to IISH of course. The person who knows best here is probably Rata. Can advise if you PM me.
About Karaganda, there's much to say. Even Solzhenitsyn mentioned the anarchists, but just briefly. Lots of people were in camp 99 -but there were communists considered Trotskyists there and also pilots who weren't political but just arrested. Something like 13 anarchists? This is what you are looking for: http://www.iisg.nl/archives/en/files/f/10824116full.php
http://www.iisg.nl/archives/en/files/e/10883486full.php
It's a little confusing because there were 59 people named in the press conference in 1948 - pilots and sailors. I don't know if the anarchists were among them.
The historians Nikolaev and Kuznetsova published a book with names of prisoners, including those shot by firing squads. Info here: http://visz.nlr.ru/project/books/uk2003/13.html
There is very good documentation made by the MVD in 1946-47 of prisoners, including those from Spain, but ones arrested during the Civil War time and the Second World War are mixed togther. Some anarchists may have been at camp 159 in Odessa as well. 14 Spanish prisoners, maybe some anarchists, were transfered there in May 1947 from Karaganda. (I have the names of those people.) Of course reports still have anarchists in the 1952-53 revolts in Karanganda, so this isn't clear if any or part of them were really transfered. According to the MVD, there were 336 Spanish people in the camps in 1947. It is unclear if any of them were the "Juany" - children who were sent out of Spain in 36 to Russia. They were usually from 6-12 yeard old. In 39, about 60% of these kids (some as young as 9!) were arrested for being Trotskyists. Some ended up in the camps, some died, some went bad, some committed suicide, some were resocialized. Those weren't anarchists, although some came across them. Ten years ago I had contact with some of those people who were still alive and they had a center in Moscow. I can give you the address. (Don't know if they are still around, but worth a try.)
Anyway, it would need to be explored which prisoners were which.
You can try this book too:
http://www.laislalibros.com/libros/TERROR-COMUNISTA-EN-ESPANA-LAS-CHEKAS/LAHP0000000/
In Russia one can talk to Memorial or anarchist historians. Contacts through PM.
May 22 2008 16:22
#8
What does "MVD" means?
There's a short text, edited in 1948 by the CNT in the exile (France) called "Kuraganda: la tragedia del antifascismo español" ["Kuraganda, the tragedy of the spanish antifascism"]. I haven't read it, but I could search if you're interested.
Edit: I see. Securely it's the text included in the book laureakai posted.
May 25 2008 14:03
#9
Quote:
What does "MVD" means?
It's the Russian Interior Ministry I believe.
Quote:
There's a short text, edited in 1948 by the CNT in the exile (France) called "Kuraganda: la tragedia del antifascismo español" ["Kuraganda, the tragedy of the spanish antifascism"]. I haven't read it, but I could search if you're interested.
Thanks Gatito (and Laureakai) - I'm in the process of getting hold of a copy.
Jun 19 2008 18:31
#10
Okay I've been away and I've written something up...
The Tragedy of Karaganda: Members of the CNT and other Spanish Anti-Fascists in the Soviet Union, 1938-1956
Abstract: In March 1939, Republican soldiers who had been training as aviation pilots were stranded in the USSR along with the sailors of several vessels from the Spanish merchant navy. They were prevented from leaving and in 1941 were arrested and sent to Novosibirsk Transit Prison. Also detained were several civilians who had been working with children evacuated from the Civil War. In 1942 the three groups were brought together in an agricultural labour camp in Kazakhstan, where eight Spaniards fathered children with Austrian prisoners. They remained there until 1948 when, partly due to a vigorous solidarity campaign fought by exiled Spanish anarchists on their behalf, they were transferred to a camp near Odessa. 18 prisoners signed documents accepting Soviet citizenship and were released to work in the region around the Black Sea. The rest remained in the Gulag system until 1954 or 1956. Towards the end of their imprisonment they were held with Spanish fascists who had been captured during WWII while fighting in the Blue Division. In addition to those Spanish anti-fascists who went missing or died in the first years of detention, out of 66 anti-fascists known to have been in Kazakhstan on the 1st January 1943, 11 died in Soviet camps. That the majority survived can be attributed in part to the togetherness and solidarity they maintained in captivity, evident in their work stoppages and hunger strikes.
We didn't get as much time in the archives as I'd been hoping and there are a lot of things I'm stil unsure about and may have got wrong. I'd be very happy to put the whole thing up on libcom but it is very long (9000 words).
Jun 19 2008 21:10
#11
So put it in the library! The abstract looks great!
Jun 24 2008 12:47
#12
With Dave on this one, get it up there!
Jun 24 2008 17:58
#13
yeah it does look fucking brilliant
Jun 24 2008 18:13
#14
Not wanting to add to yer already by now overly inflated ego or anythin mate but go on, stick it in the library fer fuck sake.
Jun 24 2008 19:00
#15
this looks really good, its a piece of history that i know nothing about. well worth getting it in the library wayne.
Jun 25 2008 14:58
#16
Okay I've finally managed to submit it to the library (it took me a while cause I'm a fuckit). By way of warning I have to mention that it's extraordinarliy boring and nerdish. It's here:
Jun 25 2008 19:55
#17
formatting something that long takes ages, thanks, it looks fucking ace. should we credit it to "wayne foster"?
Jun 27 2008 12:44
#18
Cheers - Wayne Foster to the max 
Jun 27 2008 17:20
#19
Very well written and informative. However, i spotted one minor error of fact.
Quote:
I’m not a historian
Horseshit.
libcom library has a brief bio of Borràs