Russian refugeedom of 1914-1922 in the contexts of the latest native and foreign historiographies

The article interprets intermediate results of special study of Russian refugeedom of 1914–1922 which demonstrates the peculiarity of native and foreign traditions of retrospective research caused by distinctions of theoretical and methodological approaches. Refugee history is reproduced in Russian researches mainly through a channel of external history written «from outside» and «from above». The researches are focused on organizations and persons who were connected with refugee cause whereas migrants as a certain impersonal group are pushed to the background. Another integrating factor for native variations of writing Russian refugeedom history is an obvious domination of regionally oriented works which came to be well stabilized within the framework of virtually «universal narrative» without pretending to any tangible thematic diversity. Foreign historiography of Russian refugeedom is characterized by correlation of various scales, points of view and temporal dimensions within the broadest historical context. Such approaches which put refugees outside of «discourse of suffering» contribute to reconceptualization of both refugeedom and social history of «modernity» in general. The authors argue that urgent need of shortening the distance between theoretical and methodological «preferences» of Russian and Western scholars will provide an opportunity to reveal and examine those contexts of refugee problem in which the very term «refugeedom» could get a new lease of life.