The Russian diaspora in France takes a special place among Russian communities abroad. Several waves of emigration from Russia have brought Russians to France. Each of them brought new generations of compatriots who left their Fatherland in various times and for various reasons.
Emigration of Russians to France began before the October revolution of 1917. About 15, 000 representatives of the Russian intelligentsia and aristocracy settled in France just after the revolution of 1905. More than 400,000 of "white Russians" came to France in the early twenties. It is hardly possible to find another place outside Russia with such a high concentration of Russian nobility, whose history is tightly entangled with the history of Russia. We can also find here outstanding artists, writers, publicists, and musicians. The third an even fourth generation of the first-wave emigrants still live in France today.
After the Second World War no less than 40, 000 Russian prisoners of war and forced labourers, chose to stay in France rather than return to the Soviet Union. Several thousand dissidents from the Soviet Union settled in France between 1970 and 1980. The fourth wave of emigration appeared after 1991, which included businessmen, contract workers, and so-called economic migrants. And there are two special categories of Russian émigrés - Russian women married to French citizens, and children adopted by French adoptive parents.
Unfortunately, there is little interaction between representatives of these different waves of Russian immigrants. Furthermore, sometimes there is no unity within each group. Most of the descendants of the first wave of are now French citizens, and their attitude to their former Fatherland is very complicated and contradictory. A small part of this group, however, have been trying to restore ties with Russia since the early 1990s. Their attitude to Russia is highly positive. Most of those who settled in France recently have kept their Russian citizenship, but they do not show any intention to get organised in any way.
In working with the Russian community in France it is necessary to take into consideration these specific factors. Apart from routine consular issues many Russians in France are seriously interested in preserving and strengthening cultural and spiritual ties with Russia. The older emigrant organisations are feeling a constantly strengthening affection for modern democratic Russia. But they are avoiding political cooperation, not even supporting the development of the International Council of Russian Compatriots (ICRC). Meanwhile, the president of the ICRC, Pyotr Sheremetev, is one of the outstanding representatives of the first wave of Russian emigration to France.
The exact number of compatriots in France, especially taking into consideration the legal ambiguity of the term, is undeterminable. According to common practice and "republican principles" in force, the ethnic background of French citizens is not taken into account by the census. The emigrants of the first wave preserved close ties within the "Russian community" for the first decades of its life in France, but these were partly dissolved later, due to mixed marriages and gradual assimilation. Nevertheless, integration into French society did not prevent most descendants of white émigrés from preserving close spiritual and cultural connections with Russia. They did not dissolve in French society. The main region of settlement of Russians here is the Ile-de-France district. But the geography of Russians' settlement in France is becoming wider year-by-year.
All unions and associations of compatriots are registered in France, according to a law on non-commercial public organisations passed in 1901.
The most significant and organised associations of Russian nationals were founded by emigrants of the first wave in the first years of their residence in France. There are practically no organisations uniting representatives of later emigration waves. And even the "white émigrés" society was never united into a single common organisation. Their main aims were organisation of mutual assistance among Russian emigrants, and uniting emigrants on the basis of common interests - such as political or social status, service in the imperial army, profession, youth organisations, etc. Nowadays the main goal of these organisations is preserving the memory of the first wave of emigration and to some extent about pre-revolutionary Russia in general.
The leading organisations are the Territorial-town committee/Zemgor (G. Trubnikov), the Association of Officers of His Majesty's Lifeguards Cossack Regiment (А. Bobrikov), the Union of Cadets of the Russian Cadet Corps in France (А. Shmeman). The most known cultural associations include the Russian Musical Society (P. Sheremetev), the Association of Friends of Ivan Turgenev, Polina Viardo, and G. Malibran (A. Zvigilsky), the Association of Friends of Leo Tolstoy (К. Tolstaya), the Association of Slavic Arts (P. Shevtsov), the Committee of Z.E. Serebryakova, and the Centre of Russian Language and Culture (I. Komo).
The European Association of Saint Vladimir (K. Muruzi), the Assistance to Children of Zlynka-Chernobyl association (N. Sokolsky) and the Christian Action of Russian Students do humanitarian and charity work and actively cooperate with Russian charity organisations by financing several humanitarian projects.
It is remarkable that such youth unions as Vityaz, Sokol, and the Association of Russian Scouts in France still exist, uniting representatives of the fourth generation of emigrants of the first wave.
Ties with a range of other associations of compatriots from different waves of emigrations are still kept. Those include Versailles cadets, Officers of the Russian imperial fleet Naval Assembly, the Russian Inter-professional Association of Mutual Aid, the Association for the Preservation of Russians, the Conservatory named after Alexander Skryabin, the Russian Composers Club, the Association of Russian Artists, etc.
It also should be noted that Russian nationals are represented in many French organisations and associations that develop and deepen cooperation with Russia and provide humanitarian aid.
One of the most significant and symbolic recent events in the life of Russian emigrants were arrangements for the return to Russia of the remains of General Anton Denikin and philosopher Ivan Ilyin and their wives.
The Russian state, particularly the Russian Embassy in France, is carefully monitoring the situation around memorials of history and culture, which are of importance to both Russian and French culture. These include the mansion and house-museum of Ivan Turgenev in Bougival and the Russian cemetery in Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois. At the end of 2007 the Government of the Russian Federation allocated about 700,000 euros to pay the debt for renting cemetery plots at Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois, where many Russians are buried. The heads of various emigrant organisations expressed their deep gratitude and admiration for this gesture at the reception for compatriots in the Russian Embassy in Paris on January 11, 2008. The next stage is reconstruction of the Russian pension house and creation of a memorial and research centre of Russian emigration on its basis.