Yes, indeed! The answer to the unspoken question is, of course, that the bulk of the Russian émigré community came from the privileged classes and social strata of Tsarist Russia.
For a number of years in High School and College I dated a schoolmate who came from that community. One year I went with her and some of her Russian friends to the grand Masquerade Ball that the Russian émigré community held in San Francisco every year. The first prize for men was won that year by a very elderly Russian who wore his old uniform from his days as a cadet in the foremost military academy of Tsarist Russia. My date commented, every year one of those old military uniforms wins the first prize.
At that time (late 1950s - early 1960s) there was a Russian-language organization for boys and young men equivalent to the Boy Scouts (but quite independent of American Scouting), who were called Razvedchiki. Every year, my friend told me on another occasion, there was a special Panikhida (funeral service) for the Scouts who had died the year before. "Were there so many?" I asked. She replied, "Oh yes, some of the older Scouts are smuggled into Russia every year to sabotage the Communist regime. Most of them are probably soon caught and executed, because we stop hearing from them. But there are always lots of other young men eager to take their places." It was an open secret among the émigrés that the Razvedchiki cooperated heavily with the US intelligence services (at that time, chiefly with the CIA). But even without CIA involvement, there would have been plenty of young men eager to do and die in order to restore the last Tsar's heir to the Russian throne. I don't quite remember the name of that heir after so many years, but if I am not mistaken, he had been living in Paris. All my émigré friends knew who he was, and some households even displayed his picture,
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branchandroot
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Date: 2021-11-16 12:31 am (UTC)For a number of years in High School and College I dated a schoolmate who came from that community. One year I went with her and some of her Russian friends to the grand Masquerade Ball that the Russian émigré community held in San Francisco every year. The first prize for men was won that year by a very elderly Russian who wore his old uniform from his days as a cadet in the foremost military academy of Tsarist Russia. My date commented, every year one of those old military uniforms wins the first prize.
At that time (late 1950s - early 1960s) there was a Russian-language organization for boys and young men equivalent to the Boy Scouts (but quite independent of American Scouting), who were called Razvedchiki. Every year, my friend told me on another occasion, there was a special Panikhida (funeral service) for the Scouts who had died the year before. "Were there so many?" I asked. She replied, "Oh yes, some of the older Scouts are smuggled into Russia every year to sabotage the Communist regime. Most of them are probably soon caught and executed, because we stop hearing from them. But there are always lots of other young men eager to take their places." It was an open secret among the émigrés that the Razvedchiki cooperated heavily with the US intelligence services (at that time, chiefly with the CIA). But even without CIA involvement, there would have been plenty of young men eager to do and die in order to restore the last Tsar's heir to the Russian throne. I don't quite remember the name of that heir after so many years, but if I am not mistaken, he had been living in Paris. All my émigré friends knew who he was, and some households even displayed his picture,