Russians Russians ( ) are an East Slavs, East Slavic ethnic group native to Eastern Europe. Their mother tongue is Russian language, Russian, the most spoken Slavic languages, Slavic language. The majority of Russians adhere to Eastern Orthodox Church ...

are a small diaspora in

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

but one of the most important groups in the

Russian diaspora The Russian diaspora is the global community of Ethnicity, ethnic Russians. The Russian-speaking (''Russophone'') diaspora are the people for whom Russian language is the First language, native language, regardless of whether they are ethnic Russ ...

History

The

French Riviera The French Riviera, known in French as the (; , ; ), is the Mediterranean coastline of the southeast corner of France. There is no official boundary, but it is considered to be the coastal area of the Alpes-Maritimes department, extending fr ...

was a favorite spot, where the European aristocracy had launched the fashion of the rainy season. Some also came there to treat tuberculosis which was then rampant. The Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, wife of the late

Nicolas I Nicholas I, group=pron (Russian language, Russian: Николай I Павлович; – ) was Emperor of Russia, List of rulers of Partitioned Poland#Kings of the Kingdom of Poland, King of Congress Poland, and Grand Duke of Finland from 18 ...

, liked to stay there to rest after she became a widow. She raised money in 1856 to build a church for the parish. The was consecrated on December 31, 1859 in the city of

Nice Nice ( ; ) is a city in and the prefecture of the Alpes-Maritimes department in France. The Nice agglomeration extends far beyond the administrative city limits, with a population of nearly one million County A county () is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesL. Brookes (ed.) '' Chambers Dictionary''. Edinburgh: Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, 2005. in some nations. The term is derived from the Old French denoti ...

of the

Kingdom of Sardinia The Kingdom of Sardinia, also referred to as the Kingdom of Sardinia and Corsica among other names, was a State (polity), country in Southern Europe from the late 13th until the mid-19th century, and from 1297 to 1768 for the Corsican part of ...

, belonging to the House of Savoy, before being annexed to the French Empire by plebiscite a few months later in April 1860. In December 1912, half a century later, the Russian Orthodox Cathedral would be consecrated in memory of

Nicholas Alexandrovich, Tsarevich of Russia Nicholas Alexandrovich (; – ) was tsesarevich—the heir apparent—of Imperial Russia from 2 March 1855 until his death in 1865. Early life Grand Duke Nicholas was born on 1843, in the Alexander Palace in Tsarskoye Selo south of central Sa ...

, who died in Nice. The building itself and the parcel of land on which it stands remain the property of the Russian state to this day.

Russian Civil War

Of approximately 1.5 million exiles during the

Russian Civil War The Russian Civil War () was a multi-party civil war in the former Russian Empire sparked by the 1917 overthrowing of the Russian Provisional Government in the October Revolution, as many factions vied to determine Russia's political future. I ...

, about 400,000 took up residence in France. Political refugees,

White émigré White Russian émigrés were Russians who emigrated from the territory of the former Russian Empire in the wake of the Russian Revolution (1917) and Russian Civil War (1917–1923), and who were in opposition to the revolutionary Bolshevik com ...

s gathered around charities like the Zemgor Committee and the company of the Russian Red Cross, the

St. Sergius Orthodox Theological Institute The St. Sergius Orthodox Theological Institute ( French: ''Institut de théologie orthodoxe Saint-Serge'') in Paris, France, is a private university of higher education in Orthodox theology. Founded in 1925 by a group led by Metropolitan Eulogiu ...

(founded in 1924) and the Action chrétienne des étudiants russes (ACER ) (1926), which provided to their community an associative link, political and religious, as well as material aid. As a symbol of this massive immigration, 10,000 Russians are buried at

Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois Russian Cemetery Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois Russian Cemetery () is part of the ''Cimetière de Liers'' and is called the Russian Orthodox cemetery, in Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois, close to Paris, France. History The ''Cimetière de Liers'' was created as the se ...

Exodus of White Russians in Corsica

The ship "Rion", carrying some 3422 refugees (Russians, Ukrainians and Cossacks) from Constantinople to Brazil had stopped in

Ajaccio Ajaccio (, , ; French language, French: ; or ; , locally: ; ) is the capital and largest city of Corsica, France. It forms a communes of France, French commune, prefecture of the Departments of France, department of Corse-du-Sud, and head o ...

, on May 15, 1921 at 2 am. Ajaccio, an island city of 20,000 inhabitants, saw in one day its population increase by 20%. On May 25, 10 days after the arrival of the ship, some 600 refugees were finally allowed to land and settle at the Livrelli barracks, located in the center of Ajaccio.

Notable people

* Igor and Grichka Bogdanoff *

Olga Khokhlova Olga Picasso (born Olga Stepanovna Khokhlova; ; 17 June 1891 – 11 February 1955) was a Russian ballet dancer in the Ballets Russes, directed by Sergei Diaghilev and based in Paris. There she met and married the artist Pablo Picasso, serve ...

* Nicholas Alexandrovich * Alexandre Alekhine *

Mary Marquet Mary Marquet (born Micheline Marguerite Delphine Marquet; 14 April 1895 – 29 August 1979) was a Russian-French stage and film actress. Career Marquet came from a family of artists: her parents were actors, an aunt was a star dancer at the P ...

Arthur Adamov Arthur Adamov (23 August 1908 – 15 March 1970) was a playwright, one of the foremost exponents of the Theatre of the Absurd. Early life Adamov (originally Adamian) was born in Kislovodsk in the Terek Oblast of the Russian Empire The ...

Élie Metchnikoff Ilya Ilyich Mechnikov (; – 15 July 1916), also spelled Élie Metchnikoff, was a zoologist from the Russian Empire of Moldavian noble ancestry and alshereat archive.org best known for his research in immunology (study of immune systems) and ...

References

{{Russian diaspora Ethnic groups in France Society of France Immigration to France by country of origin

History

Russian Civil War

Exodus of White Russians in Corsica

Notable people

See also

References