The flight of two million anti-Bolshevik refugees from Russia's new Soviet regime during the late 1910s and early 1920s caused a major refugee crisis that was the first in twentieth-century Europe ultimately to require significant governmental intervention and resolution. Large international charitable organisations, especially from America, worked in Europe to administer a professional and scientific solution on the colossal post-war humanitarian emergency. However, among the Russian refugees were active members of the former Unions of Zemstva, Union of Towns and the Russian Society of the Red Cross who were able to pool their own considerable collective expertise to provide significant practical humanitarian aid as well as to advocate 'from the inside' for the rights of the refugees on the national and international stage. In the refugee camps of Constantinople the activists used multiple, often creative, methods to deliver relief aid while struggling with a limited budget and overwhelming numbers of needy refugees. In Paris, Zemgor, under the chairmanship of Prince G. E. L'vov, negotiated funding and international support for the exiled Russians, keeping the refugee crisis in plain sight of a sometimes impassive world. As refugees themselves, the professional and intellectual members of the former Russian public organisations were able to present and validate the unheard voices of the most vulnerable displaced people on a broad platform which began with, but was not limited to, emergency food aid in 1920-21.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:698863 |
| Date | January 2016 |
| Creators | Grieve-Laing, Jenny |
| Publisher | University of Aberdeen |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Source | http://digitool.abdn.ac.uk:80/webclient/DeliveryManager?pid=231015 |
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