While walking through the medieval Barri Gothic near the Barcelona Cathedral, we turned onto a small plaza, where a medieval tragedy had occurred in modern times.

It was the Plaza de Sant Felip Neri, which was bombarded by Franko’s forces during the Spanish Civil War. The convent was used as a shelter for children evacuated from other war zones, but tragically many of them did not survive the bombing.

The damaged walls of Esglesia de Sant Felip Neri were left unrepaired to remind everyone about the brutality of fascism and the tragedy of Civil War.

Those who grew up in Soviet Russia, knew about The Spanish Civil War since childhood – from school lessons, books and movies. Spain was one of the foreign countries that Russian people knew a lot about and not only because of Spain’s contributions to both, World culture and World crises.

A memorial for Soviet warriors who fought in The Spanish Civil War. Cementerio De Fuencarral, Madrid

For the Soviets there was another important reason – direct involvement into the Spanish Civil War, not only by official channels but also by secret participation in combat and guerrilla operations. Despite the Non-Intervention Agreement, thousands of Soviet citizens were smuggled into Spain to fight against Franco.

Fascists and communists were mortal enemies and attempted to force their ideologies upon people all over the world, while viciously eradicating any opponents (as the communists did within the Internationalist Brigades).

The major non-military role played by Soviet Russia was an active participation in evacuation of Spanish children from the Civil War zones. More than three thousand young refugees landed in the ports of Leningrad and Yalta in 1937-1938.

In Mexico and the UK, there were heated parliamentary debates, about whether or not these countries should accept children evacuated from Spain. Not everybody there was happy with the concept of accepting refugees or “hidden immigration”. Sounds familiar, doesn’t it?

Children preparing for evacuation from Spain. Donated to Wikipedia Commons by the estate of Olga Brocca Smith, and is dedicated to all innocent victims of war.

As you understand, “debates” were not applicable for Soviet Russia. Although the stories about Russian fighters in Spain were not publicized in the Soviet Union until the 1950s, the rescue of Spanish children was widely used by the Soviet propaganda machine. Coinciding with the time of The Red Terror, this action (among other reasons) was another way to distract attention from Soviets’ internal problems.

The treatment of refugee children in the Soviet Union was initially very good, but World War II was around the corner and the same children found themselves in the middle of a war zone, yet again. Their fate was no different than the fate of any orphan child in Soviet Russia – the oldest fought (and some died) at the front, and the younger ones were evacuated again. Their conditions were not exclusive anymore. The innocent victims of wars got uprooted again.

This year will mark 81 years since the first mass evacuation of women and children during The Spanish Civil War. It was ordered by the Basque government following the bombardment of civilians and the destruction of the town of Guernica by The German Condor Legion – General Franco’s allies – in April of 1937.

Guernica became a spark in the artistic mind of Pablo Picasso. A few months before the tragedy, Picasso was commissioned to create a large-scale painting for the Spanish Pavilion at the World’s Fair in Paris, and his Guernica, emphasizing the horror of any war, became a powerful artistic statement – a direct accusation of General Franco.

The ruins of Guernica, 1937

A few days after walking around the Plaza de Sant Felip Neri in Barcelona, we were in Madrid to see Picasso’s Guernica in Reina Sofia.

We knew this work, as everybody else does – from illustrations, photos and posters. But seeing the original Guernica, in full size, was a totally different experience. We stood in front of Guernica for quite a long time, not being able to move. It was overwhelming.

Today, we all are living in unstable times – a world of polarized opinions, a world of loud, populist, provocateur politicians, and a world full of powerful (but still mostly quiet) military weapons that humanity has never had before.

Most of us don’t have to travel far to find an example of the devastating tragedies inflicted on humanity by Wars. But any time we do travel, it is imperative to remember – those marks and symbols are there, on your route, just as the Plaza de Sant Felip Neri was on ours, with the shadows of the children, who belong to nobody.