The Phenomenon of Migration from the Russian Empire: History and Contemporary Parallels
- Where: Václav Havel Library, Ostrovní 13, Prague 110 00
- When: October 26, 2023, 19:00 – 21:00
After the First World War, not only did the map of Europe change – the continent also faced the first great wave of modern migration. Up to three million people were expelled from the former Russian Empire, which after the red revolution turned into a Soviet state with no room for opposition. The Czechoslovak Republic accepted 30,000 migrants immediately after its establishment, and was also the only state in the world that targeted and consistently “shaped” its immigration: students, scholars, farmers and artists were the main beneficiaries of a programme named Russian Aid Action. What did the migration wave look like then? What impact did it have on the Czechoslovak state? And how did its citizens perceive the new arrivals?
These questions and more will be answered by historian Dana Hašková from the Institute of Slavonic Studies of the Czech Academy of Sciences, and historian Petr Hlaváček, who is director of the Research and Education Department at the Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes.
Týdeník Echo’s Lukáš Novosad will chair the talk.
The biographical dictionary Osobnosti emigrace z území Ruské říše v meziválečném Československu (Notable Emigres from the Russian Empire in Interwar Czechoslovakia), the culmination of 30 years of historical research, will be “baptised” during the event.