White Russians, Red Threat?

17 hrs. 8 min.

Miscellaneous

Language Russian

Author Sheila Fitzpatrick

Narrator Irina Bulekova

Description

The book by the well-known expert and adviser Sheila Fitzpatrick sheds light on a little-known chapter of history: the migration of more than 20,000 ethnic Russians to Australia after World War II in search of a better life.

The author describes in detail the first years of the Russian-Australian community’s existence, as well as the influence of Australian and Soviet special services on its life.

“Russians in Australia”—this unusual topic is the focus of a new work by the well-known Australian and American historian Sheila Fitzpatrick. After World War II, the Green Continent became a new home for thousands of displaced persons—people scattered across Europe during the war, who for different reasons did not want to return home to the USSR. In turn, Australian authorities sought to solve the country’s shortage of workers, so the cooperation, while not cloudless or ideal, was nonetheless mutually beneficial: thousands of people boarded steamships to set off for a new life.

A second wave of Russian immigrants poured in from Manchuria, where an extensive Russian diaspora had already lived for several decades, formed during the construction of the Chinese Eastern Railway (CER).

But after Chinese communists came to power, Russians were forced to leave their settled places, and Australia became a new home for many of them.

These journeys were full of dramatic events, at times even detective-like twists, when even “the most ordinary person with a high probability could tell the most extraordinary story of their wandering.”