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.

This book examines the relationship between post-Soviet societies in transition and the increasingly important role of their diaspora. It analyses processes of identity transformation in post-Soviet space and beyond, using macro- and micro-level perspectives and interdisciplinary approaches combining field-based and ethnographic research. The authors demonstrate that post-Soviet diaspora are just at the beginning of the process of identity formation and formalization. They do this by examining the challenges, encounters and practices of Ukrainians and Russians living abroad in Western and Southern Europe, Canada and Turkey, as well as those of migrants, expellees and returnees living in the conflict zones of Azerbaijan, Georgia and Moldova. Key questions on how diaspora can be better engaged to support development, foreign policy and economic policies in post-Soviet societies are both raised and answered. Russia’s transformative and important role in shaping post-Soviet diaspora interests and engagement is also considered. This edited collection will appeal to students and scholars of diaspora, post-Soviet politics and migration, and economic and political development.

This report updates information on refugee processing in Moscow, covering the period through May 1991, and specifically: evaluates Department of State and Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) implementation of section 599D of the Foreign Operations Appropriations Act for fiscal year 1990 and whether the refugee processing procedures in Moscow and Washington DC are effective; evaluates whether the INS adjudication process in Moscow is fairly and consistently applied and whether it conforms with INS implementation guidance; assesses whether the Soviet refugee admissions ceiling will be met for fiscal year 1991; and comments on the status of public interest parole offers being extended to Soviets denied refugee status. The report provides background information of the processing of Soviet refugee applicants in Moscow since 1988 and the changes in the State and Justice Departments Soviet refugee programme since that time. Comments are made on the implementation of section 599D and the fact that the INS was not complying with its implementation guidelines. However, it is noted that improvements and changes have been made in the Soviet refugee and adjudication system since last reported in May 1990, and several of the improvements are described. The report also provides information on the cost of operating the Soviet refugee programme and the public interest parole offered for most Soviets denied refugee status.

The untold story, in their own words, of the contributions of Soviet and post-Soviet immigrants to the US innovation economy, revealed through in-depth interviews and analysis. It will appeal to academics, business practitioners, and policymakers interested in innovation, entrepreneurship, the tech industry, immigration, and cultural adaptation.