The revolutionary events of 1917 and the subsequent civil war became a disaster for a large part of Russian citizens who were forced to leave their homeland and find themselves outside of it. The age-old way of life was violated, family ties were torn. White emigration is a tragedy in the history of Russia. The worst thing was that many did not realize how this could happen. Only the hope of returning to the Motherland gave strength to live on.
Stages of emigration
The first emigrants, more far-sighted and we althy, began to leave Russia at the beginning of 1917. They were able to get a good job, having the means to draw up various documents, permits, choosing a convenient place of residence. Already by 1919, white emigration was a mass character, more and more reminiscent of flight.
Historians usually divide it into several stages. The beginning of the first is associated with the evacuation in 1920 from Novorossiysk of the Armed Forces of the South of Russiatogether with its General Staff under the command of A. I. Denikin. The second stage was the evacuation of the army under the command of Baron P. N. Wrangel, who was leaving the Crimea. The final third stage is the defeat from the Bolsheviks and the shameful flight of the troops of Admiral V. V. Kolchak in 1921 from the territory of the Far East. The total number of Russian emigrants is between 1.4 and 2 million people.
Composition of emigration
Most of the total number of citizens who left their homeland was military emigration. They were mostly officers, Cossacks. In the first wave alone, according to rough estimates, 250 thousand people left Russia. They hoped to return soon, they left for a short time, but it turned out that forever. The second wave included officers fleeing the Bolshevik persecution, who also hoped for a speedy return. It was the military that formed the backbone of white emigration in Europe.
They also became emigrants:
- prisoners of the First World War who were in Europe;
- employees of embassies and various representative offices of the Russian Empire who did not want to enter the service of the Bolshevik government;
- nobles;
- civil servants;
- representatives of business, clergy, intelligentsia, other residents of Russia who did not recognize the power of the Soviets.
Most of them left the country with their families.
Initially taking over the main stream of Russian emigration, there were neighboring states: Turkey, China, Romania, Finland, Poland, the B altic countries. They were not ready to receive such a mass of people, most of whom were armed. For the first time in world history, an unprecedented event was observed - the emigration of the country's Armed Forces.
Most of the emigrants did not fight against the Soviet regime. They were people frightened by the revolution. Realizing this, on November 3, 1921, the Soviet government announced an amnesty for the rank and file of the White Guards. For those who did not fight, the Soviets had no claims. More than 800 thousand people returned to their homeland.
Russian military emigration
Wrangel's army was evacuated on 130 ships of various types, both military and civilian. In total, 150 thousand people were taken to Constantinople. Vessels with people stood in the roadstead for two weeks. Only after lengthy negotiations with the French occupation command, it was decided to place people in three military camps. Thus ended the evacuation of the Russian army from the European part of Russia.
The main location of the evacuated military was determined by the camp near Gallipoli, which is located on the northern shore of the Dardanelles. The 1st Army Corps was stationed here under the command of General A. Kutepov.
In two other camps, located Chalatadzhe, not far from Constantinople and on the island of Lemnos, Cossacks were placed: Terek, Don and Kuban. By the end of 1920, 190 thousand people were included in the lists of the Registration Bureau, of which 60 thousand were military, 130 thousand were civilians.
Gallipoliseat
The most famous camp for A. Kutepov's 1st Army Corps evacuated from Crimea was in Gallipoli. In total, more than 25 thousand soldiers, 362 officials and 142 doctors and orderlies were stationed here. In addition to them, there were 1444 women, 244 children and 90 pupils - boys from 10 to 12 years old in the camp.
Gallipoli seat entered the history of Russia at the beginning of the 20th century. Living conditions were terrible. Army officers and soldiers, as well as women and children, were housed in old barracks. These buildings were completely unsuitable for winter living. Diseases began that weakened, half-dressed people endured with difficulty. During the first months of residence, 250 people died.
In addition to physical suffering, people experienced mental anguish. The officers who led the regiments into battle, commanded the batteries, the soldiers who went through the First World War, were in the humiliating position of refugees on foreign, deserted shores. Lacking proper clothes, left without a livelihood, not knowing the language, and having no profession other than the military, they felt like homeless children.
Thanks to the general of the White Army A. Kutepov, further demoralization of people who found themselves in unbearable conditions did not go on. He understood that only discipline, the daily employment of his subordinates could save them from moral decay. Military training began, parades were held. The bearing and appearance of the Russian military more and more surprised the French delegations visiting the camp.
Concerts, competitions were held, newspapers were published. Military schools were organized in which1400 cadets were trained, a fencing school, a theater studio, two theaters, choreographic circles, a gymnasium, a kindergarten and much more worked. Services were held in 8 churches. 3 guardhouses worked for violators of discipline. The local population was sympathetic towards the Russians.
In August 1921, the export of emigrants to Serbia and Bulgaria began. It continued until December. The remaining soldiers were placed in the city. The last "Gallipoli inmates" were transported in 1923. The local population has the warmest memories of the Russian military.
Creation of the "Russian All-Military Union"
The humiliating situation in which the white emigration was, in particular, a combat-ready army, consisting practically of officers, could not leave the command indifferent. All the efforts of Baron Wrangel and his staff were aimed at preserving the army as a combat unit. They had three main tasks:
- Get material assistance from the Allied Entente.
- Prevent the disarmament of the army.
- In the shortest possible time, reorganize it, strengthen discipline and strengthen morale.
In the spring of 1921, he appeals to the governments of the Slavic states - Yugoslavia and Bulgaria with a request to allow the deployment of the army on their territory. To which a positive response was received with the promise of maintenance at the expense of the treasury, with the payment of a small salary and rations to the officers, with the provision of contracts for work. In August, the export of military personnel from Turkey began.
On September 1, 1924, an important event took place in the history of the white emigration - Wrangel signed an order to create the Russian All-Military Union (ROVS). Its purpose was to unite and rally all units, military societies and unions. Which was done.
He, as the chairman of the union, became the commander in chief, the leadership of the EMRO was taken over by his headquarters. It was an emigrant organization that became the successor of the Russian White Army. Wrangel set the main task of preserving the old military personnel and educating new ones. But, sadly, it was from these personnel that the Russian Corps was formed during the Second World War, fighting against Tito's partisans and the Soviet army.
Russian Cossacks in exile
Cossacks were also taken from Turkey to the Balkans. They settled, as in Russia, in stanitsa, headed by stanitsa boards with atamans. The "Joint Council of the Don, Kuban and Terek" was created, as well as the "Cossack Union", to which all the villages were subordinated. The Cossacks led their usual way of life, worked on the land, but did not feel like real Cossacks - the support of the Tsar and the Fatherland.
Nostalgia for their native land - the fat black soil of the Kuban and the Don, for abandoned families, the usual way of life, haunted. Therefore, many began to leave in search of a better life or return to their homeland. There were those who did not have forgiveness in their homeland for the brutal massacres committed, for the fierce resistance to the Bolsheviks.
Most of the villages were in Yugoslavia. Famous and originally numerous was the Belgrade village. It was inhabited by variousCossacks, and she bore the name of Ataman P. Krasnov. It was founded after returning from Turkey, and over 200 people lived here. By the beginning of the 1930s, only 80 people remained living in it. Gradually, the villages in Yugoslavia and Bulgaria entered the ROVS, under the command of Ataman Markov.
Europe and white emigration
The bulk of Russian emigrants fled to Europe. As mentioned above, the countries that received the main flow of refugees were: France, Turkey, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia, Latvia, Greece. After the closure of the camps in Turkey, the bulk of emigrants concentrated in France, Germany, Bulgaria and Yugoslavia - the center of emigration of the White Guard. These countries have traditionally been associated with Russia.
Paris, Berlin, Belgrade and Sofia became the centers of emigration. This was partly due to the fact that labor was needed to rebuild the countries that took part in the First World War. There were over 200,000 Russians in Paris. In second place was Berlin. But life made its own adjustments. Many emigrants left Germany and moved to other countries, in particular to neighboring Czechoslovakia, because of the events taking place in this country. After the economic crisis of 1925, out of 200,000 Russians, only 30,000 remained in Berlin, this number was significantly reduced due to the Nazis coming to power.
Instead of Berlin, Prague has become the center of Russian emigration. An important place in the life of Russian communities abroad was played by Paris, where the intelligentsia, the so-called elite, and politicians of various stripes flocked. It's inmostly were emigrants of the first wave, as well as the Cossacks of the Don army. With the outbreak of World War II, most of the European emigration moved to the New World - the United States and Latin America.
Russians in China
Before the Great October Socialist Revolution in Russia, Manchuria was considered its colony, and Russian citizens lived here. Their number was 220 thousand people. They had the status of extraterritoriality, that is, they remained citizens of Russia and were subject to its laws. As the Red Army advanced to the East, the flow of refugees to China increased, and they all rushed to Manchuria, where the Russians made up the majority of the population.
If life in Europe was close and understandable to Russians, then life in China, with its characteristic way of life, with specific traditions, was far from understanding and perception of a European person. Therefore, the path of a Russian who ended up in China lay in Harbin. By 1920, the number of citizens who left Russia here was more than 288 thousand. Emigration to China, Korea, on the Chinese Eastern Railway (CER) is also usually divided into three streams:
- First, the fall of the Omsk Directory in early 1920.
- Second, the defeat of the army of Ataman Semenov in November 1920.
- Third, the establishment of Soviet power in Primorye at the end of 1922.
China, unlike the countries of the Entente, was not connected with Tsarist Russia by any military treaties, therefore, for example, the remnants of the army of Ataman Semenov, who crossed the border,first of all, they disarmed and deprived of freedom of movement and exit outside the country, that is, they were interned in the Tsitskar camps. After that, they moved to Primorye, to the Grodekovo region. Border violators, in some cases, were deported back to Russia.
The total number of Russian refugees in China was up to 400 thousand people. The abolition of the status of extraterritoriality in Manchuria, overnight, turned thousands of Russians into mere migrants. However, people continued to live. A university, a seminary, 6 institutes were opened in Harbin, which are still operating. But the Russian population tried with all its might to leave China. More than 100 thousand returned to Russia, large flows of refugees rushed to Australia, New Zealand, the countries of South and North America.
Political intrigues
The history of Russia at the beginning of the 20th century is full of tragedy and incredible shocks. More than two million people found themselves outside the homeland. For the most part, it was the color of the nation, which its own people could not understand. General Wrangel did a lot for his subordinates outside the Motherland. He managed to maintain a combat-ready army, organized military schools. But he failed to understand that an army without a people, without a soldier, is not an army. You can't go to war with your own country.
Meanwhile, a serious company flared up around Wrangel's army, pursuing the goal of involving it in the political struggle. On the one hand, the left liberals, led by P. Milyukov and A. Kerensky, put pressure on the leadership of the white movement. On the other hand, the right-wing monarchists, led by N. Markov.
The left completely failed in attracting the general to their side and took revenge on him by starting to split the white movement, cutting off the Cossacks from the army. With sufficient experience in "undercover games", they, using the media, managed to convince the governments of the countries where the emigrants were to stop funding the White Army. They also achieved the transfer of the right to dispose of the assets of the Russian Empire abroad.
This sadly affected the White Army. The governments of Bulgaria and Yugoslavia, due to economic reasons, delayed the payment of contracts for the work performed by officers, which left them without a livelihood. The general issues an Order in which he transfers the army to self-sufficiency and allows unions and large groups of military personnel to independently conclude contracts with the deduction of part of the earnings in the ROVS.
White movement and monarchism
Realizing that most of the officers were disappointed in the monarchy due to the defeat on the fronts of the civil war, General Wrangel decided to bring the grandson of Nicholas I to the side of the army. Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolayevich enjoyed great respect and influence among the emigrants. He deeply shared the general's views on the White movement and not involving the army in political games and agreed to his proposal. On November 14, 1924, the Grand Duke, in his letter, agrees to lead the White Army.
The situation of emigrants
Soviet Russia on 1921-15-12 adopts a Decree in which most of the emigrants lost their Russiancitizenship. Remaining abroad, they found themselves stateless - stateless persons deprived of certain civil and political rights. Their rights were protected by the consulates and embassies of tsarist Russia, which continued to operate on the territory of other states until Soviet Russia was recognized in the international arena. From that moment on, there was no one to protect them.
The League of Nations came to the rescue. The Council of the League created the post of High Commissioner for Russian Refugees. It was occupied by F. Nansen, under whom in 1922 emigrants from Russia began to issue passports, which became known as Nansen's. With these documents, the children of some emigrants lived until the 21st century and were able to obtain Russian citizenship.
The life of emigrants was not easy. Many have fallen, unable to endure difficult trials. But the majority, having preserved the memory of Russia, built a new life. People learned to live in a new way, worked, raised children, believed in God and hoped that someday they would return to their homeland.
In 1933 alone, 12 countries signed the Convention on the Legal Rights of Russian and Armenian Refugees. They were equated in fundamental rights with the local residents of the states that signed the Convention. They could freely enter and leave the country, receive social assistance, work and much more. This made it possible for many Russian emigrants to move to America.
Russian emigration and World War II
The defeat in the civil war, hardships and hardships in emigration left their mark on people's minds. It is clear that the SovietThey did not cherish tender feelings for Russia, they saw in it an implacable enemy. Therefore, many pinned their hopes on Hitler's Germany, which would open the way home for them. But there were also those who saw Germany as an ardent enemy. They lived with love and sympathy for their distant Russia.
The beginning of the war and the subsequent invasion of the Nazi troops into the territory of the USSR divided the emigrant world into two parts. Moreover, according to many researchers, unequal. The majority greeted Germany's aggression against Russia enthusiastically. Officers of the White Guard served in the Russian Corps, ROA, division "Russland", for the second time directing weapons against their people.
Many Russian emigrants joined the Resistance movement and desperately fought the Nazis in the occupied territories of Europe, believing that by doing so they were helping their distant homeland. They died, died in concentration camps, but did not give up, they believed in Russia. For us, they will forever remain heroes.
