Spaniard and Kazakh make documentary about Spaniards held in Soviet gulags

18:53, 19 November 2014

MADRID. KAZINFORM On Sept. 30, 2013, during Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy's visit to Kazakhstan, Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev presented him with a list of the names of 152 Spaniards who were held in the former Soviet Union's gulags, some of which were located on Kazakh territory.

The list made it possible for relatives of soldiers from the Blue Division and republicans to learn the fate of their ancestors, EFE reports. The story is told in the documentary "Los olvidados de Karaganda" (The Forgotten of Karaganda). The documentary is the product of a research project aimed at learning more about relations between Spain and Kazakhstan. The project was carried out by historian Bakyt Dyussenbayev, Kazakhstan's current ambassador to Spain, and Spaniard Enrique Gaspar, the president of the Asociacion Nexos-Alianza. "Relations date to the 14th century," when King of Castile Enrique III sent Ruy Gonzalez de Clavijo to Tamerlane's court with the mission of forming an alliance to fight the Turks, Dyussenbayev said. Details also at

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