Agustín Pagola Gómez

Born to a Spanish-Soviet father in the extreme north of Spain’s Basque region, Pagola was one of the so called “Children of Russia” who were sent to the Soviet Union by the regional government to escape the Spanish Civil War. Already a talented footballer, he started playing around his adopted hometown of Odesa, Ukraine and later, when studying engineering in Moscow, he joined the famous Torpedo Moscow club. With Torpedo he won the Soviet Cup in 1949 and 1952, although the club was generally overshadowed by Moscow rival Dynamo and CSKA during this period. He was included in the Soviet Union squad for the 1952 Olympic Games, although he never played in any of their three matches. The same year he became the first foreign born sportsman to be awarded the title of Soviet Masters of Sports.

In 1956 General Franco allowed a small number of exiles to return home to Spain. Allegedly at the behest of the Communist Party of Spain, Pagola signed to play for Athletico Madrid even though he was unfit and coming to the end of his career. The strong rumour was that, as a Soviet Communist Party loyalist, he would be a useful “cover” to reorganize the party from inside the country.

He soon left Madrid to train a series of clubs in the Basque Country and was elected general secretary of the region’s Communist Party. In 1961 he was arrested and sent to the Carabanchel Prison in Madrid where he was allegedly tortured by the security police. This caused a serious diplomatic incident with the USSR and the Spanish authorities were eventually forced to let him go into exile in Paris.

Towards the end of the decade his pro-Soviet leanings caused friction between him and the leaders of the Spanish Communist Party and he was expelled from the movement. He returned to Moscow shortly before his death in 1975, just days before Franco died.