I'm not sure if this is the right section for this question. Apologies if not.

I'm doing some research on Madrid in the early 1970s for a book.

I know that there was no Soviet embassy in Madrid until the late seventies; but that, in around 1970, a Soviet maritime mission opened in Madrid as a kind of proxy embassy. As far as I can find out it was under the name of the Black Sea Shipping Company.

Does anyone have any idea exactly where it was? A street address would be perfect.

I know this is a weird and very specific question! Thanks in advance for any help.

Hi, RayNewman! Welcome to our humble message board. Question: Was this known as "Black Sea Shipping Company" in ENGLISH or are you translating its Spanish name? If you have the Spanish name, can you share that, too, please? The Spanish name may spark the memory of someone here and/or it may aid a search having the Spanish name.

Saludos, MadridMan

TASS open a news office in 1970 in madrid and EFE in Moscow for the first time.The Spanish Communist Party founded in 1920 ,you can contact them and they will sure provide you with the information.I vaguely remember that name you have given but it was around 1967 that the contacts started, and continue until officially in 1976. However it very well could have been using that name as the focal point of "official" contacts between the two countries.

hope it helps

The Black Sea Shipping Company is commonly referred to as BLASCO , now based in Ukraine :

Blasco Black Sea Shipping Company ( Head Office ) .. They used to be State owned , but may well be private now .

3 Lanzheronivska Street , Odessa 65026 , Odessa Oblast, Ukraine Tel: 380 48 2247038

Maybe they could help . There is a company called The Baltic and Black Sea Shipping Company based in London ( 72 Wilson Street ) that , since they speak English , may be able to help .. I vaguely recall seeing there offices nearby to where I used to work .

Raynewman,

I just came back from Madrid, and ask my oldest relatives there and as usual the conversation was long ....
you should seek out Intramar, this company had Soviet spies that were spelled from Spain, also a fishing company in around 1971 Sovhispan. Intramar and the Agencia Maritima Mar Negro was all handled by Soviet spies, but not as embassy, althought with the commercial transactions of the times anything could have been done.
This was the time I was living in Madrid too.Hope it helps

by the way the Agencia Maritima Mar Negro is the Black Sea Shipping company you mentioned ::)

Thanks for the replies, everybody, and for asking around.

I believe that they operated internationally as the Black Sea Shipping Company (in English) or BLASCO but have seen them described as Agencia Maritima Mar Negro elsewhere.

Still trying to pin down this street address but have a few more leads now, at least.

Thanks again.

good luck with your search, and let us know at the end if find anything more.ok