British policy towards Russian refugees in the aftermath of the Bolshevik revolution

Abstract

Russian refugees from the Bolshevik regime became one of the most serious humanitarian and political problems in inter‐war Europe, affecting both individual countries of refuge and the international community as a whole. Many European countries assisted Russian refugees, for example, by offering them asylum in their countries. There were, however, great differences in the policies of different governments. Britain had long enjoyed a reputation of a liberal country of asylum. This liberalism had, however, started to be undermined already in the late nineteenth century with the arrival of large numbers of Jewish refugees. As a consequence, the first immigration acts were passed in 1905, 1914 and 1919 and they endowed the Home Secretary and immigration officers with wide powers over the entry of aliens. This stricter atmosphere towards immigration also manifested itself in the government's policy towards Russian refugees. From the beginning, the British government adopted a strict policy against the entry of Russian refugees to Britain, despite the fact that it had been the most active foreign government supporting anti‐Bolshevik forces in the Civil War in Russia.