This week Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov dismissed reports that 700,000 Russians have left the country since the start of the September 21, 2022 partial mobilization. "No, [this figure] is not [close to the truth]. It looks like some kind of canard"[1]
The emigration phenomenon however cannot be ignored and the government-controlled press tries to combat it either by shaming them as spoiled ingrates: " the affluent, privileged strata of the population are the least eager to defend the country, which has provided them the best for decades."[2]
Alternatively, the official press warns the emigrants that their stay in the country where they have found refuge is tenuous, as the massive presence of Russians is arousing Russophobia. Any demonstration against the influx of Russians is highlighted. Izvestiya cited a recent demonstration in Georgia.
"Russians, leave this country, you are not welcome in Georgia. Your government is not our problem."[3]
While this represents the dominant tone of the official press, two columns recently appeared that took a nuanced if not sympathetic view of the emigration phenomenon. One was authored by Professor Alexei Portansky of the School of World Economics and World Politics at the National Research University–Higher School of Economics. The second was authored by Kommersant columnist Mikhail Gurevich. Both sought to situate the emigration within the context of an historical pattern, where Russians chose over exile over remaining in Russia under a problematic regime. Both Portansky and Gurevich noted that the current emigration wave was taking place roughly around the time of the 100th anniversary of the sailing of the last "philosophical steamship" that took ideological opponents of the Bolshevik regime into exile. Many of the exiles went on to illustrious careers that benefited their adoptive land rather than Russia. Both writers carefully hinted that the Putin regime was responsible for driving this massive emigration. Counter to the reports of hostility to the emigres, Gurevich emphasized the compassionate treatment that they were encountering in the former Soviet Republics.
The full text of the two articles follows below:
Portansky wrote that the Ukraine war had enhanced the size of the "second Russia" – the Russian diaspora – and had put on hold efforts to reconcile the two Russias.
Alexei Portansky (Source: Wto.ru)
"Data flashed in last week's news agencies reports, about the Russians who left the country. According to the Kazakhstani Ministry of Labor, since the beginning of this year, more than 260 thousand people have entered this republic from Russia, including 98 thousand after September 21 [the date partial mobilization was announced in Russia]. By comparison: in 2019, 30 thousand people arrived in Kazakhstan from the Russian Federation, in 2020 - 33 thousand, in 2021 - almost 32 thousand. Foreign agencies reported that more than 200 thousand people had arrived from Russia to Georgia, Kazakhstan and the EU after 21 September. And one more figure: in the period from 2000 to 2020, from 4 to 5 million Russians left the country, which is three-fold the emigration of the first wave of 1917-1924 (1.0-1.5 million people).
"Much has been written about the phenomenon of Russian emigration. However, in the near future, writers, journalists, and political scientists will certainly return to this topic - a new powerful wave of departing people provides both extensive material and new reasons for this.
"In the mid-1990s, thanks to official business in Canada, I managed to immerse myself for a while in the topic of the Russian diaspora. In the 20th century, one of the largest Russian diasporas in the world was formed in the Maple Leaf Country. Meetings with some representatives of the first wave of Russian emigration of the 20th century - descendants of nobles, priests - were remembered for a long time.
"The son of a White Guard officer, Vladimir Innokentyevich Grebenshchikov, left his homeland with his parents in 1919 at the age of eight. In 1995, when our meeting took place, the 84-year-old Vladimir Innokent'evich was a professor at the University of Ottawa. He ferried me in his car to his own cozy house, where his wife was waiting for us. We chatted at length. The interest was mutual. My interlocutor was keenly interested in Gorbachev's recent perestroika, Gaidar's reforms and, of course, Russia's prospects.
"The speech of Vladimir Innokentyevich, like that of most emigrants with his experience, took on a distinctive accent. However, his feelings, attachment to his historical homeland never vanished. 'The civil war in Russia in the form of various kinds of repression and persecution continued for many decades,' he said sadly. 'All this has influenced us here, but hopefully those gloomy times are a thing of the past.'
On that trip to Canada, I had to hear from many of my interlocutors the hitherto unusual phrase “two Russias”: geographical Russia in its almost old borders - and foreign Russia in the face of many thousands of Russians who found themselves in a foreign land after 1917. Is it possible to connect them? Vladimir Grebenshchikov, the priests of the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad whom we managed to meet, the Russian ambassador in Ottawa Alexander Belonogov, and the consul general in Montreal Nikolai Smirnov spoke about this with excitement in conversations.
"Returning to Moscow, I suddenly discovered that at home, too, the topic of uniting the 'two Russias' began to stir minds, including power structure representatives. Some of them, by virtue of their capabilities, tried to promote this bright goal's achievement, believing that precisely in this way it was possible to restore historical justice, reclaim lost cultural traditions to our land, finally put an end to the civil war and thereby strengthen the legitimate foundations of young Russia. Unfortunately, this could not be done.
"Let us recall once again that after 1917 the flower of our nation found itself outside the country - scientists, doctors, designers, inventors, and cultural figures. By the way, just last week it was 100 years to the day that the first "philosophical steamship" departed from the Petrograd [St. Petersburg] pier. 'Oberburgomaster Haken' took abroad representatives of the Russian creative intelligentsia, whom the Bolshevik authorities deemed opponents of the Soviet regime. In today's realities, all of them would have to be enrolled as 'foreign agents.' The analogy between the then 'opponents of Soviet power' and the current 'foreign agents' is almost complete, no matter how much someone tries to disown this fact.
Emigres board the "philosophical steamship" in 1922 (Source: Library.fa.ru)
"Those leaving Russia included the inventor of television Vladimir Zworykin, the famous aircraft designer Igor Sikorsky, who made an invaluable contribution to scientific and technological progress and prosperity in the 20th century, alas, not in Russia, but in the United States. In the 21st century, members of the Royal Society of London living in Britain, Russian scientists Andrey Game and Konstantin Novoselov, were Nobel laureates in physics, A rising star in economics, a 2003 Moscow State University graduate Oleg Itskhoki, became a professor at the University of California. An outstanding Russian programmer, creator of the VKontakte network and the Telegram messenger, billionaire Pavel Durov was forced to leave Russia in 2014. These are just widely known examples. And all four are a huge loss for Russia.
"Meanwhile, the stream of people leaving is not weakening and is hardly likely to decrease in the near future. Among them are IT specialists, engineers, young scientists, representatives of small and medium-sized businesses, and journalists. Some of them, having achieved success in a foreign land, will again make a significant contribution to another country's progress, not Russia's.
"In 2014 [after the annexation of Crimea and the creation of the breakaway Donetsk and Luhansk Republics], the Wall Street Journal published an article in which the author, either in jest or seriously, suggested that President Obama apply an additional type of sanctions against Russia, "throwing open the doors of America to the best and smartest Russians." The mechanism for this in the United States has already been created. I don't think we should view this merely as a joke.
"One can only hope that the moment will arrive when, like the mid-1990s, Russians abroad and Russians in their historical homeland will again think about the possibility of uniting the "two Russias". And maybe next time it will succeed."[4].
Mikhail Gurevich is gratified by the true peoples' friendship displayed in the compassion towards Russians fleeing their county by Russia's neighbors:
“There are refugees from Ukraine, but there are fugitives from Russia,” as my Tel Aviv friend aptly put it in early March. As of now, millions of Ukrainians, fearing for themselves and their children, rushed to the West. Some Russians, either being opponents of the special military operation [hereinafter -the SVO], or following their companies that had transferred their employees, were also drawn abroad.
"The number of such people was significantly lower than that of the Ukrainians, and some of those who fled, returned in the summer assessing that the situation had normalized. By October the situation had changed: while our neighbors [i.e., Ukrainians] were gradually returning to their cities, Russia was experiencing a major wave of emigration.
"It’s hard to say how many people have already left and will leave by the end of the year, but it’s clear that their number already amount hundreds of thousands and may well reach seven-digit figures.
"And among them there are not only the draft evaders and their families, but also those, who fear the closure of the ever-expanding homeland's borders. There are no official statements about this, but let’s recall that even mobilization, even in its partial implementation, only a couple of weeks ago was perceived [by the Russians] as a wicked rumor spread almost certainly by Western intelligence services.
"In contrast to the classical emigration of the early 20th century and the post-perestroika emigration wave, today the main direction of flight is headed not to Europe and the US, but to the former Soviet republics of Transcaucasia and Central Asia, i.e., countries that have traditionally acted as a source of cheap manpower have instantly turned into a center of attraction for new Russian emigration.
"Naysayers expected that now the Uzbeks and Kyrgyz would take it out on the former exploiters, however, instead, volunteer groups [for helping emigrants] are being created there, there are resettlement and settlement assistance services being organized. The cinemas located in northern Kazakhstan provide their halls for emigrants to stay overnight, while the Georgians bring water and sandwiches to the Upper Lars [crossing point]."
Russians fleeing their country mass at the Upper Lars crossing point into Georgia (Source: Media.zona)
"Mongolia even announced that it is ready to grant legal status to any migrant from the north. Recently it has become almost in trend to talk about Russophobia and the hatred of the entire world towards the Russians, but it turns out that in a difficult moment, those whom we ourselves have sometimes treated with condescension, open their homes to us and lend us a helping hand, not to the state (mind you), but to ordinary people, which is much more humane and important. After all, friendship of peoples doesn’t necessarily mean friendship of governments.
"By the way, if there are waves of anger that spill out, it is between Russians themselves. [There is animosity] between those who stayed and those who fled the country at the beginning of the year, or have just moved here recently. There are empty discussions about who was more correct and perceptive. While we argue, people help us. Maybe it’s time to abandon these discussions and start supporting each other. After all, no one can say how long those, who have left will be residing in a foreign land.
"For example, the passengers on the last 'philosophical steamship,” whose departure recently marked its 100th anniversary, believed that emigration would take two or three years [and by then the Bolshevik regime would collapse], while those who moved to the West in the mid-1980s thought they were leaving for good. As you know, they were both wrong."[5]
