White Russian émigrés in the US, in Europe in the UK! Sure, there are plenty of them. But what about in Australia, New Zealand, Venezuela, Brazil? Who are the Russian émigrés and what is their Russian ancestry?
(Image: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/resources/idt-sh/russian_revolution_and_me)
You may be surprised to know that almost in all corners of the world there are pieces of Russian émigrés’ history that seem to have been blown all over the world like confetti at a wedding. Many of their tales are lost forever but some survive.
Making Meaning: Russia’s Lost Émigrés
For example, in Australia there are Old Believers (Starovertsy) who came to Queensland in the early 1930’s and settled in a country town called Yarwun/Targinnie in Central Queensland and scratched out a living growing and selling paw paws (papaya). How do I know? Well when I was working as an engineer in Gladstone in Central Queensland in the 1970’s constructing wharves, we had a few guys working as carpenters and they spoke Russian and told me stories about the locals in Yarwun from where they came.
In itself, the history of the Old Believers is quite something. Just like in the Catholic Church who had a schism when Martin Luther proclaimed his demands for reform which subsequently led to the creation of the various Protestant churches, so also with the Russian Orthodox Church. However in the case of the latter, it was the reforms promulgated by Patriarch Nikon in the mid 1600’s that were resisted by parts of the church as being too radical (crossing yourself with three fingers instead of two etc.etc.) that led the Old Believers to split from the Orthodox Church.
(Image: Australian Census Demographic Map – dark green areas indicative of Russian communities)
On the other hand, there is the case of Vladimir Vasilivich Bodisco (1912 -1998) a Russian émigré who went to Venezuela via a long stint in Serbia, learned Spanish and applied his veterinary science training to breeding cows that could withstand the heat and humidity of the country to yield lots of milk. Even received a medal from the government for his efforts. If you would like to know more about Vladimir Vasilivich Bodisco’s story, you can read about it in my book (p. 152).
So if your grandparents or parents were Russian émigrés and there are old medals, swords, uniforms or photographs gathering dust, wipe off the dust and do some research. You may find a new window through which to look at their world.
The wonderful world of communications today is at your behest. Start with the usual online searches, and then search in Google in Cyrillic and a completely new world opens up!
From there you can contact the various government archives in Russia, email museums and libraries. One thing leads to another and soon you are going to bed late because you have been glued to the monitor reading captivating information that you had no idea existed before this.
By the way, the Russians seem to have a high regard for keeping accurate records in their archives and have a great fascination in what happened to their countrymen that were scattered to the four winds.
Some of the sites that I have encountered are:
Russians in Yarwun/ Targinnie
https://www.gladstoneobserver.com.au/news/apn-searching-for-the-forgotten/103024/
http://deniswright.blogspot.com.au/2011/05/white-russians-of-yarwun.html
Russians in Queensland
http://qldruscentre.com/russians.php
Russian cattle breeding in Venezuela
http://www.oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/kt9m3nc1r5/entire_text/
If you would like to know more about my useful resources used for tracking Russian ancestry go to RUSSIAN ANCESTRY SEARCH RESOURCES
