Russian and Cossack Remembrance of Refugee Life in the 1920s

Defeated by the Reds/Bolsheviks on multiple fronts, the Whites, who aimed to restore the old regime and were supported by some Western powers, began to leave Russia. Following their evacuation from Black Sea ports such as Crimea, Kerch, Feodosia, Yalta, and Evpatoria, a large number of refugees arrived in Istanbul. In November 1920, in Moda Bay in Istanbul, there were 126 ships carrying approximately 146,000 people. Around 60,000 of these refugees were military personnel from the White/Wrangel Army, while the remaining were civilians. The civilians were settled in refugee camps in and around Istanbul, while the White Army corps were settled in Lemnos, Mudros, and Gallipoli. This article, based on memoirs of White Army refugees and Russian archival materials as well as secondary sources, aims to draw a comparative picture of refugee life for Russian soldiers and officers in Gallipoli and that of Russian Cossacks in Çatalca and Lemnos in the early 1920s. By explaining the similar life conditions of Russian refugees and Cossacks and the hardships they suffered and endured, both memoirs and Russian sources also provide valuable and insightful information on how Russian and Cossack refugees described the conditions they faced and how these descriptions reflected differently on their identity even though they were once on the same side, fighting against the same enemy.