Russian Emigration — a Consequence of the Civil War: Salvation, Preservation of Culture and Comprehension

Abstract

The First World War, Revolution and Civil War are historical milestones. Comprehending them, a contemporary researcher sees huge panoramas of the fate of Russia unfolding in the beginning of the 20th century. Is it worth reproducing the long chain of historical events that led the Russian emigration to Serbia? We are interested primarily in searchшing for causal relationships. The starting point will be the presence of Russian emigrants in Serbia — not how exactly they got into this hospitable region. In this way we will get the opportunity not only of a historical but also of a historiosophical, cultural comprehension of the “consequences of the Civil War in Russia” for emigrants and for Serbia. Vivid examples of the mutual influence of both sides can be found in a short article by Aleksej Borisovich Arsenyev “At the bend of the Danube. The Russian colony in Novi Sad”. He introduced the participants to this work during the summer school “Russian Emigration in Serbia: Portraits and Fates” (August 25–31, 2019). Arsenyev reflected a lot of interesting details of the Russian-Serbian interaction in the lecture read in Matica Serbian, the oldest Serbian literary and scientific community, founded in 1826. We decided to reveal the topic of the presence of Russian emigrants who came to Serbia after the Civil War through three key concepts, each of them is dedicated to a small fragment of the text: the salvation of Russian culture, its preservation and comprehension of the Civil War. We believe that this is the most accurate way to convey how the emigrants understood their place in the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (KSHS) and the mission of sustaining the life of Russian culture, which, as they comprehend it, lies with them.