Russians , native_name_lang = ru , image = , caption = , population = , popplace = 118 million Russians in the Russian Federation (2002 '' Winkler Prins'' estimate) , region1 = , pop1 ...

are a small diaspora in

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...

but one of the most important groups in the

Russian diaspora The Russian diaspora is the global community of ethnic Russians. The Russian-speaking ('' Russophone'') diaspora are the people for whom Russian language is the native language, regardless of whether they are ethnic Russians or not. History ...

History

The French Riviera 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 , house = Romanov-Holstein-Gottorp , father = Paul I of Russia , mother = Maria Feodorovna (Sophie Dorothea of Württemberg) , birth_date = , birth_place = Gatchina Palace, Gatchina, Russian Empire , death_date = ...

, 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 ( , ; Niçard dialect, Niçard: , classical norm, or , nonstandard, ; it, Nizza ; lij, Nissa; grc, Νίκαια; la, Nicaea) is the prefecture of the Alpes-Maritimes departments of France, department in France. The Nice urban unit, agg ...

, which at that time had more than 45 000 inhabitants and was part with its

County A county is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposes Chambers Dictionary, L. Brookes (ed.), 2005, Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, Edinburgh in certain modern nations. The term is derived from the Old French ...

of the

Kingdom of Sardinia The Kingdom of Sardinia,The name of the state was originally Latin: , or when the kingdom was still considered to include Corsica. In Italian it is , in French , in Sardinian , and in Piedmontese . also referred to as the Kingdom of Savoy-S ...

, 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 (russian: Николай Александрович; – ) 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 ...

, 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 {{Infobox military conflict , conflict = Russian Civil War , partof = the Russian Revolution and the aftermath of World War I , image = , caption = Clockwise from top left: {{flatlist, *Soldiers ...

, 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 commun ...

s gathered around charities like the Zemgor Committee and the company of the Russian Red Cross, the St. Sergius Orthodox Theological Institute (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 (french: Cimetière russe de Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois) is part of the ''Cimetière de Liers'' and is called the Russian Orthodox cemetery, in Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois, Paris, France. History The ...

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, 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; russian: Ольга Степановна Хохлова; 17 June 1891 – 11 February 1955) was a ballet dancer in the Russian ballet. She was also the first wife of Pablo Picasso, one of his ea ...

Nicholas Alexandrovich Nicholas Alexandrovich (russian: Николай Александрович; – ) 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, i ...

* Alexandre Alekhine *

Mary Marquet Mary Marquet (born Micheline Marguerite Delphine Marquet; 14 April 1895 – 29 August 1979) was a 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 Paris Ope ...

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 to a wealthy ...

Élie Metchnikoff Ilya Ilyich Mechnikov (russian: Илья Ильич Мечников; – 15 July 1916), also spelled Élie Metchnikoff, was a Russian zoologist best known for his pioneering research in immunology. Belkin, a Russian science historian, explain ...

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