Disability in exile

This article examines the post-war experience of a specific group of war veterans: the Russian refugees after the October Revolution in 1917. What happened when disabled veterans were stateless and dispersed among several foreign states? The focus is on comparing interwar Bulgaria and Yugoslavia, two countries on opposite sides of the Great War. There the refugees established various societies, mostly dominated by the military. Drawing on unpublished archival sources, this article investigates how the Russian societies for disabled persons functioned at four levels: amid the other Russian associations in Bulgaria and Yugoslavia; among the greater diaspora known as “Russia Abroad”; within the international humanitarian networks; and in relation to the national governments in both countries. Whereas most scholarship addresses disabled veterans’ national context, this article intertwines issues of disability, migration, and citizenship. It argues that the social construction of double alterity, being refugee and disabled, was mostly instrumentalized by the other émigrés’ organizations and by the state. Yet, this dual marginalization acted as a catalyst and mobilized disabled communities to actively seek allies.