: [Z]. [11] PP, La franc-maonnerie russe, August 1933, 2 p., AN/19940500/306. Paris and the Russian exiles, 1920-1945, Kingston 1988: McGill-Queen's University Press. Some sold books, some handcrafted souvenirs and some flowers. [62] Kazem-Beg, for his part, reacted to the invasion of Poland not by supporting German and Soviet policies, but instead by sending a telegram of support to the President of the French Council, ending with these words: I wish to renew in the name of the Young Russian Movement our commitment to fight alongside France against our implacable enemy, Germany. Most of the Russians went to Manchuria (especially in Harbin, which at the time had the largest population of Russians of any city outside Russia[27]) and treaty ports such as Shanghai, but a few ended up in Beijing. The American explorer Roy Chapman Andrews said he frequented the "cafes of somewhat dubious reputation" with the explorer Sven Hedin and scientist Davidson Black to "have scrambled eggs and dance with the Russian girls."[29]. The White Russian: A Novel of Paris: Bennett, Vanora: 9781250079411 [59] The Gestapo thus found a ready pool of agents among the White Russians in France, enabling it to infiltrate broader migr circles. Source: Open source. The fact that Nice was a crucial base for the Russian emigration had an immediate political consequence. The leader of the Young Russians preferred to look to Italy, from which he obtained funds.[52]. At this time of growing political polarization between anti-communism and antifascism, the French government sought to contain both the French Communist Party, perceived as a bridgehead of the Comintern,[1] and far-right groups agitating the dangers of a Bolshevik revolution in France. The first task of the organization was to try to build new networks in Paris.[58]. migr enterprise: How Russian aristocrats became fashion pioneers The Union of the Russian Empire, founded in 1928 as the discreetly pro-Kirill Russian Empire Union, had only 200 members spread across Paris, Nice, Belgium, Bulgaria, China, the United States, and Poland; some of its members went to fight for General Franco. The first arrivals found some jobs in the French and British representations, commissions, or alongside them in civil service, translator, or even military or security units in Istanbul.[31][32]. [26] During the war, the white migrs came into contact with former Soviet citizens from German-occupied territories who used the German retreat as an opportunity to either flee from the Soviet Union, or were in Germany and Austria as POWs and forced labor, and preferred to stay in the West, often referred to as the second wave of migrs (often also called DPs displaced persons, see Displaced persons camp).