Jules Pekka Paivio | Canadian Cultural History About The Spanish Civil War

Alternate name(s):

Pauli Koponen; Airio

Date of birth:

Monday, 30 April 1917

Marital status:

single

Ethnicity/Nationality:

Canadian; Finnish

Profession:

clerk

Hometown(s):

Sudbury, Ontario; Mattawa, Ontario

Political affiliation:

Young Communist League, 1930, unit secretary; Joined the Communist Party in Spain

Approximate date arrived in Spain:

1937-03-13 arrived

Unit:

Abraham Lincoln Battalion; Mackenzie Papineau Battalion; Lieutenant; Served at Jarama, Brunete, then to Officers' Training School, promoted to teniente; Commander of the Non Commissioned Officer school

Final status:

Capture on 1 (or 3 or 4) April 1938; Imprisoned at San Pedro de Cardeña; Exchanged 5 April 1939; Survived; Returned to Canada 6 May 1939 on the Duchess of Bedford; Served in the Canadian Army during World War II, teaching map reading skills; Mackenzie Papineau Veterans Association (Toronto); Visited Spain with the Veterans Delegation in in September 1979; Later became an architect and directed construction of the Ottawa monument to the Mac Paps; Died 4 September 2013 as the last surviving member of the Mackenzie Papineau Battalion

Other:

He wrote a testimony about his experience as a prisoner of war at San Pedro de Cardeña; Paivio's story, including the story of his father Aku Paivio's poem, "To My Son in Spain," is told in the documentary To My Son In Spain

Sources:

RGASPI Fond 545, Opis 6, Delo 563, ll. 12-13; List of Canadian Casualties in Spain MG30 E173 Vol.1 File 13 (Captured April 1938); NAC, M-P Collection, Hoar, V. 1, F. 9, Accounts of Experiences in Spain, 1939; Geiser; Momryk; Petrou; Our Boys in Spain; Obituary, Toronto Star, September 13, 2013.