References
- This new dimensionality of mass displacement and flight in the inter-war decades is a common site of scholarship on refugee humanitarianism and what Claudena Skran calls the emergence of a new international regime in managing transnational humanitarian effort. Claudena Skran: Refugees in Inter-War Europe. The Emergence of a Regime, Oxford 2011 [1995]. It must be questioned, however, whether Europe’s nineteenth century was indeed as free of mass flight as commonly perceived; Polish post-partition migration, and especially post-1830 migration, arguably exceeded the dimension of »refugee exile[s]« (ibid., pp. 15; compare to Philipp Ther: Die Aulßenseiter. Flucht, Flüchtlinge und Integration im modernen Europa, Berlin 2017, pp. 73–75, 179–191). It remains undisputed, however, that the inter-war international order faced a challenge of unprecedented scale.
- For the re-arrangement of the European political map and specifically the redrawing of borders in East and Central Europe, consider Larry Wolff: Woodrow Wilson and the Reimagining of Eastern Europe, Stanford 2020.
- For a comprehensive history of international humanitarian effort in the Near East see David Rodogno: Night on Earth. A History of International Humanitarianism in the Near East, 1918–1930, Cambridge 2021.
- K.D. Watenpaugh: The League of Nations’ Rescue of Armenian Genocide Survivors and the Making of Modern Humanitarianism, 1920–1927, in: The American Historical Review 115/5 (2010), pp. 1315–1339.
- Cf. e.g., Haris Exertzoglou: Children of Memory. Narratives of the Asia Minor Catastrophe and the Making of Refugee Identity in Interwar Greece, in: Journal of Modern Greek Studies 34/2 (2016), pp. 343–366.
- Numbers are not uncontested here, for a whole set of political, administrative, and purely technical reasons. Among these are the dynamics of refugees moving across states past to any registration; their self-identification as refugees; and the flexibility of naturalisation in post-imperial nation-states. Skran quotes 1122667 Nansen passports having been issued by 1926: Skran, Refugees in Inter-War Europe, pp. 120. Later in this article, I will come to speak of individual nations’ responses to the census that claimed roughly half a million refugees in Poland and Germany alone.
- The term ›Russian‹, though firmly established in historiography of mass migration and history of humanitarian work, must be seen critically, owing to its over-homogenising character. Obviously, the displaced people were not only Russians, but representatives of numerous and rather diverse cultures and nations that fled from the shattered empire. Their cultural self-ascriptions, national aspirations and political programmes reached far beyond the »White« (i.e. monarchist) versus »Red« (communist) divide, but have remained profoundly understudied for decades.
- Phil Orchard: A Right to Flee. Refugees, States, and the Construction of International Cooperation, Cambridge 2014, p. 34.
- See Gatrell on, first, the mobilisation of formerly-uninvolved non-refugee members of national minorities living abroad, who stepped up to stem most diverse forms of daily humanitarian aid along the lines of perceived and cherished imagery of ethnic belonging: Peter Gatrell: The Making of the Modern Refugee, Oxford 2013, pp. 42–46). Second, consider his argument on the momentum of non-governmental organisations that stepped up into the interventional vacuum while governments struggled to react adequately owing to budgetary constraints (ibid., p. 21).
- Peter Becker / Natasha Wheatley (eds.): Remaking Central Europe. The League of Nations and the former Habsburg Lands, Oxford 2020.
- As Orchard puts it, »even as refugee numbers increased, traditional forms of protection within the state were being systematically dismantled«. See Orchard: A Right to Flee, pp. 102–104.
- Cf. Skran: Refugees in Inter-War Europe, pp. 146–184, and Gatrell, The Making of the Modern Refugee, pp. 89–117.
- Orchard: A Right to Flee, pp. 13-17.
- On social de-stratification under the overarching nation-bound identity of refugees in the inter-war period, see Gatrell, The Making of the Modern Refugee, pp. 46.
- Bruno Cabanes: The Great War and the origins of humanitarianism, 1918–1924, 1 Cambridge 2014.
- Tania Konn-Roberts: ›Guests of the British Crown‹. White Russian Refugee Camps in Egypt, 1920–1922, in: Slavonica 26/1 (2021), pp. 37–57.
- The legal and administrative strain of repatriating Russian refugees as practiced by Bulgarian officials becomes a topic in Katy Long: Early Repatriation Policy. Russian Refugee Return 1922–1924, in: Journal of Refugees Studies 22/2 (2009), pp. 133–154.
- Martyn Housden: White Russians Crossing the Black Sea. Fridtjof Nansen, Constantinople and the First Modern Repatriation of Refugees Displaced by Civil Conflict, 1922–23 in: Slavonic and East European Review 88/3 (2010), pp. 495–524.
- Pinar Üre: Remnants of empires. Russian refugees and citizenship regime in Turkey, 1923-1938, in: Middle Eastern Studies 56/2 (2020), pp.207–221.
- On the partial possibility of repatriation to an empire’s successor states, see Gatrell, The Making of the Modern Refugee, pp. 5.
- Gatrell: The Making of the Modern Refugee, p. 58.
- See, e.g., a Memorandum of April 22, 1922, by the Austrian Federal Ministry for Internal Affairs, Office for Tracking of Persons missing in war (Kriegsvermißten-Ausforschungsstelle) to the International Red Cross Committee delegates in Vienna and Berlin in the Folder 93, Rapatriement d’Autriche, ILO, C1285/181/7, League of Nations Archive.
- See folder »Expulsion of Russian Refugees from Poland«, R1725-45-25659-14509, League of Nations Archive.
- Secretary General, League of Nations, 1921, Memorandum, »The Question of Russian Refugees« in League of Nations – Official Journal, November 1921, pp. 1006–1016.
- Fridtjof Nansen: Russian Refugees. General Report of the Work Accomplished up to March 15, 1922, Lausanne 1922, p. 4.
- On the tacit Eurocentrism of the League’s inter-war international regime, see, e.g., Klaas Dykmann: How International was the Secretariat of the League of Nations?, in: The International History Review 37/4 (2015), pp. 721–744.
- Gatrell: The Making of the Modern Refugee, pp. 56.
- On the historical role, uniqueness and limitations of the Nansen Pass, see, e.g. Kathrin Kollmeier: Das Nansen-Zertifikat. Ein ambivalentes Schlüsseldokument des ersten internationalen Flüchtlingsregimes, in: Zeithistorische Forschungen/Studies in Contemporary History 16 (2019), pp. 354–362.
- For a coherent two-century panorama of census-taking as a practice of counting and governing, see Gunnar Thorvaldsen: Censuses and Census Takers. A Global History, London 2018.
- Bruce Curtis: The politics of population. State formation, statistics, and the census of Canada, 1840–1875, Toronto 2001, pp. 3–4.
- A comprehensive classic primer on the issue is Ralph S. Clem: Research Guide to the Russian and Soviet Censuses, Ithaca 1986.
- Juliette Cadiot: The 1897 census - the limits of imperial control and the representation of nationalities, in: Cahiers du monde russe 45/34 (2004), pp. 441–446. See also E.A. Bri͡ukhanova / N.P. Ivanova: Dokumentovedcheskiĭ i istochnikovedcheskiĭ analiz pervichnykh materialov pervoĭ vseobshcheĭ perepisi naselenii͡a rossiĭskoĭ imperii 1897g., in: Vestnik Tomskogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta 442 (2019), pp. 96–107.
- Tolts provides an enticing argument on relating and correcting data given by the 1937 and 1939 Soviet censuses on the number, gender composition, literacy and urban / rural distribution of the population. His analysis allows for extrapolation on the massive numbers of displaced and imprisoned populations that entirely changed the demographics of late inter-war Kazakhstan, which was the target republic of many Stalinist deportations and the »homeland« to a whole network of GULAG camps. Mark Tolts: The Results of the 1939 Soviet Census. Two problems of Adequacy, in: Demographic Review 7 (2019), pp. 100–117. For a comprehensive analysis of the 1937 census, its design and deceit choices, as well as consequences for census takers, see, in Russian, Valentina B. Zhiromskai͡a / Igor͡ N. Kiselëv / I͡UriT A. Poli͡akov: Polveka pod grifom »sekretno«. Vsesoi͡uznai͡a perepis͡ naselenii͡a 1937 goda, Moscow 1996.
- E.g., for Central Asian republics of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and Turkmenistan, see a recent analysis by Shairkul Batyrbaeva: Tabulations of the 1926 Census Results in the Context of the 1937 and 1939 Censuses: Necessity or Deliberate Distortion?, in: Herald of the Russian Academy of Sciences 93, Supplement 2 (2023), pp. 173–182.
- Elena Chinyaeva: Russian Émigrés. Czechoslovak Refugee Politics and the Development of the International Refugee Regime between the Two World Wars, in Journal of Refugee Studies 8/2 (1995), pp. 142–162.
- Natalia Surzhikova: Rossiĭskoe obshchestvo VS rossiĭskoe bezhenstvo - 1914–1922gg., in: Sot͡siologicheskie issledovanii͡a 9 (2017), pp. 88–98.
- This outward vector was already tangible in the inter-war Soviet attempts at propaganda abroad, as studied, e.g. by Michael David-Fox: Showcasing the Great Experiment. Cultural Diplomacy and Western Visitors to the Soviet Union, 1921–1941, Oxford 2011, or Pavel Ratmanov: Soviet Healthcare at the International Stage in the 1920–1940s. Between »Soft Power« and Propaganda (Western Europe and the USA), Vladivostok 2021.
- The term has been on the rise and under avid debate in recent years. Although it is currently being applied to contemporary challenges (see, e.g., Adam Tooze: Welcome to the World of the Polycrisis, in: Financial Times 28 (2022), URL: https://www.ft.com/content/498398e7-11b1-494b-9cd3-6d669dc3de33), it also is a good fit for the complexity and interconnectedness of the multi-vectoral reorganisation across the European continent in the largely European-dominated colonialised world of the post-Great War era.
- See Wolff: The Reimagining of Eastern Europe.
- Les Réfugiés Intellectuels Russes. Demande de secours d’un groupe de Réfugiés Intellectuels Russes actuellement à Genève dans la miseré, League of Nations Archive, R1724-45-14205-13953.
- Nansen, Russian Refugees, p. 4.
- See, e.g., letter of 23 May, 1922 by Cuno de Watteville, Assistant High Commissioner for Russian Refugees, to the Secretary General of the League of Nations, R1739-45-21688-18974, League of Nations Archive.
- Nansen: Russian Refugees.
- Memo of 30 September, 1921, with a copy text of a telegram from Fridtjof Nansen, High Commissioner for Russian Refugees, to the Delegates in Geneva of Canada, Australia, Chili, Uruguay, Brazil, and Peru, R1733-45-16776-16404, League of Nations Archive.
- Nansen: Russian Refugees, p. 5.
- Recensement des Réfugiés Russes dans les Camps et hors des Camps, R1733-45-16404-16404, League of Nations Archive.
- Cf. Kyselykaavake venäläisiä pakolaisia varten, Inquiry list for Russian refugees in the folder Census of Russian refugee in Finland, R1733-45-17888-16404, League of Nations Archive.
- Letter of 22 February, 1922, by Moritz Schlesinger to the High Commission for Russian Refugees of the League of Nations, R1733-45-17887-16404, League of Nations Archive.
- Instrukt͡sii͡a po perepisi russkikh bezhentDsev, prozhivai͡ushchikh v Turt͡sii, Instruction to the census on Russian refugees residing in Turkey, R1733-45-17254-16404, League of Nations Archive.
- For a comprehensive introduction to the history of census-taking, see, e.g., Gunnar Thorvaldsen: Censuses and Census Takers. A Global History, London 2018.
- Recensement des Refugies Russes dans les Camps et hors des Camps, R1733-45-16404-16404, League of Nations Archive.
- Ibid.
- Ibid.
- Ibid.
- Egon F. Ranshofen-Wertheimer: The International Secretariat. A Great Experiment in International Administration, New York 1945.
- Sara Silverstein: Reinventing International Health in East Central Europe. The League of Nations, State Sovereignty, and Universal Health, in: Becker / Wheatley: Remaking Central Europe, pp. 71–98.
- Nansen: Russian Refugees, pp. 13–14.
- Letter of 15 February, 1922, by Thomas Frank Johnson, Secretary to the High Commissioner for Russian Refugees, to Zévi Aberson, R1733-45-19048-16404, League of Nations Archive.
- Letter of 15 March, 1922, by Zevi Aberson, representative of the executive committee of the Organisation Juive de Secours [sic], to Cuno de Watteville, Deputy High Commissioner for Russian Refugees, R1733-45-19048-16404, League of Nations Archive.
- [Sic] in the correspondence.
- Letter of 13 January, 1922, by Acting Secretary to the High Commissariat for the Relief of Russian Refugees, to The Bulgarian Consul general, Secrétariat bulgare aupres de la Société des Nations, R1733-45-16404-16404, League of Nations Archive.
- Communication of 3 December, 1921, by Fridtjof Nansen, High Commissioner, to the Minister for Foreign Affairs of Bulgaria, R1730-45-17784-16024, League of Nations Archive.
- Letter of 7 January, 1922, by Paul Gentizon to Edouard Frick, Secretary of the High Commissioner for Russian Refugees, R1730-45-17784-16024, League of Nations Archive.
- Letter of 16 March by Thomas Frank Johnson, Secretary to the High Commissioner for Russian Refugees, to Dimitri Mikoff, R1733-45-16404-16404, League of Nations Archive.
- Letter of 21 March, 1922, by Dimitri Mikoff, Bulgarian Secretariat at the League of Nations, to the High Commission on Russian Refugees, R1733-45-16404-16404, League of Nations Archive.
- Letter of 28 March, 1922, by Thomas Frank Johnson, Secretary of the High Commission for Russian Refugees, to Henri Reymond, R1733-45-17877-16404, League of Nations Archive.
- Letter of 24 July, 1921, by Egon von Pflügl to the Secretary General of the League of Nations, R1721-45-14267-13564, League of Nations Archive.
- Letter of 17 October, 1921, by Edouard Frick, Deputy High Commissioner for Russian Refugees, R1729-45-16899-16024, League of Nations Archive.
- Letter on 28 November, 1921, by Henri Reymond, Delegate of the Red Cross Committee (sic!), to the High Commission for the Russian Refugees, R1729-45-16899-16024, League of Nations Archive.
- Letter of 6 December, 1921, by Thomas Frank Johnson, Secretary to the High Commissioner for Russian Refugees, to Henri Reymond, R1733-45-17877-16404, League of Nations Archive.
- Highlighted by the author in the original »Les Secours aux Réfugiés Russes«.
- Letter of 22 March, 1922, by Henri Reymond to the High Commission of the League of Nations, R1733-45-17877-16404, League of Nations Archive.
- Letter of 25 March by Henri Reymond to the High Commission of the League of Nations, R1733-45-17877-16404, League of Nations Archive.
- Letter of 31 March by Henri Reymond to the High Commission of the League of Nations, R1733-45-17877-16404, League of Nations Archive.
- Letter 4 April, 1922, by Henri Reymond to the High Commission of the League of Nations, R1733-45-17877-16404, League of Nations Archive.
- Ranshofen-Wertheimer: The International Secretariat, pp. 152–156.
- Falsely dated with November, upon which Johnson also makes a note in his irate response in late March.
- Letter of 30 November, 1921, by Edouard Frick, Deputy High Commissioner, to Henri Reymond, R1733-45-19357-16404, League of Nations Archive.
- Memo of 18 April, 1923, by Henry Lassitch, R1733-45-19357-16404, League of Nations Archive.
- Memo of 31 May, 1923, by P.G. Watterson, Chief Accountant to Sir Herbert Ames, R1733-45-19357-16404, League of Nations Archive.
- Statement of account of the CICR [sic] for the period of 1 October to 31 December, 1922, handwritten version, R1733-45-19357-16404, League of Nations Archive.
- A typewritten exemplar of the same.
- See a staple of such accounts in the same folder, R1733-45-19357-16404, League of Nations Archive.
- Memo of 21 July, 1922, by the International Labour Office, R-201-20-3, League of Nations Archive.
- Note sur le Recensement des Refugies Russes se trouvant sur le Territoire de la France Continentale, de la Corse et de l’Afrique du Nord, of 14 February, 1922, R1733-45-17875-16404, League of Nations Archive.
- Number of Russian refugees in various countries, mostly without means of existence, Folder »Census of Russian Refugees«, R1733-45-19708-16404, League of Nations Archive.
- Ibid., p. 2.
- Ibid., p. 1.
- Cf. Lists in the Folder 93, Rapatriement d’Autriche. Delegation in Austria (Vienna). Repatriation of Russian Refugees from Austria: Transit through Poland, several transportation [sic] – correspondence, lists of repatriates. N 7, 1921-1925, C1285-181-7, International Labour Organisation, League of Nations Archive.
- Letter of 8 November, 1922, by Moriz Schlesinger, Vertreter des Völkerbundes für russische Flüchtlingsangelegenheiten to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (an das Auswärtige Amt), C1247-153.1, International Labour Organisation, League of Nations Archive.
- Letter of 11 January, 1923, by Moriz Schlesinger to the German Foreign Ministry, p. 2, ibid.
- Letter of 31 July, 1923, by Moriz Schlesinger to the German Foreign Office, Department Russia (Abt. Russland), ibid.
- Letter of 26 January, 1923, by Zévi Aberson to Frank Johnson with the Polish version of the law and its French translation in attachments, R1725-45-25659-14509, Jacket 1, League of Nations Archive.
- Letter of 31 January, 1923, by Major Berdez, Delegate in Poland, to the High Commission for Refugees, p. 3, R1725-45-25659-14509, Jacket 1, League of Nations Archive.
- See Jannis Panagiotidis / Hans-Christian Petersen: Antiosteuropäischer Rassismus in Deutschland. Geschichte und Gegenwart, Basel 2024.
- Judith Kohlenberger et al.: High Self-Selection of Ukrainian Refugees into Europe. Evidence from Kraków and Vienna, in: PloS One 18/12 (2023), e0279783–e0279783.