The testimonies agree. They were serious, friendly men, but somewhat distant in their dealings. They never gave a single problem and they displayed an exquisite education. It was the time when sailors arrived at the port of Santa Cruz de Tenerife from the Soviet Navy (Naval Military Forces of the USSR) and were attended by employees of sovhispan, a company located in Residential Anaga. But: were they simple workers or agents of the KGB came to camp freely in Tenerife?
On July 3, 1971, in Barcelona, the Spanish-Soviet company Sovhispan was established. The intention was to improve the process of supplying Soviet ships -its navy was one of the most important in the world-, every time they fished in waters near the Canary Islands. The ports of Santa Cruz de Tenerife and Las Palmas de Gran Canaria would be the great beneficiaries because, in addition, the arrival of these ships would allow highly beneficial commercial activities to be carried out.
The registered office would be located in Santa Cruz de Tenerife and the base of operations, in the port of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. In that curious handshake between Franco’s Spain, which continued to govern a country that, once again, continued to make foreshortenings so as not to be left out of a world marked by the Cold War, and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, the Canary Islands found themselves favored by the creation of a company that, in its first year alone, brought 923 fishing boats to the Islands.
The USSR had bet very heavily, with a large public investment, on its fishing fleet, setting its sights on the Saharan and sub-Saharan bank for its great resources, which made it possible for the Canary Islands to be chosen, as explained Irina Yanisev Neterova, PhD in History and author of an excellent book called Canary Islands in Spanish-Soviet relations 1965-1991, in the program episodes Island from Canary Islands Radio: “The Islands were a fairly comfortable supply point from a logistical point of view, but there were no relations between the two countries, so in 1967 a maritime treaty was signed between Spain and the USSR. Only two years later, another treaty was signed so that these ships could reach the Canary Islands, until in 1971 the mixed company Sovhispan was created”.
The agreement, according to ABC, contemplated the circulation of 15,000 Soviet sailors and 200 technicians in exchange for 20 million dollars for Spain and total immunity for the employees of the USSR. Many of those employees came under suspicion very early on, especially from the late 1970s: were they really spies?
KGB agents
The truth is that starting from the Canary Islands, those ships covered from Mauritania to Namibia, almost 6,000 kilometers of coastline and it was on the African continent that the agents of the KGB (State Security Committee) would act, mainly, but the Canary Islands and Spain were affected by the issue of espionage. Everything began to go wrong at the end of the 70s, when on March 5, 1977, Yuri Pivoravov, commercial delegate of the corporation, was expelled from the country when it was discovered that he was dedicated to obtaining information on weapons and heavy industry.
The problem is that those crews, beyond the amounts agreed between different governments, left a lot of money in the Canary Islands. It is estimated that each crew spent a total of two million pesetas on purchases such as warm clothing, electronic devices or alcoholic beverages, which is why, at times, it was preferable to look the other way. We are talking about crews that tripled the number that we used to see in Spain. “Their fishing vessels worked for six months with crews of 80 people (the Spanish boats of the time had 30) with work in three eight-hour shifts,” said the last director of the Spanish-Soviet consignee, Jose Luis Purinos to The province.
Each Soviet crew spent two million pesetas. They bought, above all, electronics, especially radios and transistors, they also exchanged them for cans of caviar, crab or watches
“The port areas of Santa Cruz de Tenerife and Las Palmas became places of commerce, so much so that it was common to see signs written in Cyrillic (Russian alphabet) to try to attract those sailors,” he recalls. Irina Yanisev Neterova: “I interviewed some workers of the Sovhispan company and their memories of it were very good both for their working conditions and for the environment in it.”
To promote connectivity, flights began to operate between Tenerife and Gran Canaria and Moscow, so tourism at that time could also be favored. In addition, the people of Tenerife began to be able to buy quality goods at an affordable price, such as clothing, footwear or cameras.
Everything seemed to be going from strength to strength, but, of course, the problem of espionage reached a point where it could not be ignored. Yuri Ivanovich Butchkov, Soviet general director of the company and who lived in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, received the expulsion order for “endangering national security”. The year was 1981. “At that time the Spanish press echoed many questions about alleged cases of espionage. Although my studies are focused on the economic and business aspect, I do not rule out the existence of these actions, but I cannot say so either. Any work as a historian is based on being able to handle primary sources”, he pointed out. Yanisev Neterova.
Curiously, the company went ahead, although the relations, at a political level, would not be the same. From 1977 to 1983, up to 12 people related to Sovhispan were expelled from the country, some of them resident in the Canary Islands. According to information from DIARY OF NOTICES March 8, 1981, the Government of Spain was tracking 108 “possible KBG spies.” The Spanish secret service believed that almost “150 Russian agents” were operating in bases in Madrid and the Canary Islands, 79 of them linked to embassy personnel, in Madrid, as well as in the Islands, mainly close to Sovhispan.
The adventure of this curious company would end in 1991. The entry of Spain into the European Economic Market, in 1986, and the arrival of Mikhail Gorbachev to power thanks to his Perestroika would be key factors in the dissolution of society: “The process of The privatization of the companies was key, the State stopped supporting the large public corporations created, the fleet suffered, especially when it was divided into the different nations that made up the USSR”.
Sovhispan would close and a little later, in areas of Avenida de Anaga and different parts of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, business signs in Cyrillic would no longer be seen and many employees of the port of the capital, as well as merchants, would stop doing barters with those sailors, always provided with cans of caviar and crab. The KGB spies, they say, had long since left the Canaries.
