Russian emigration in France and the catholic church in the interwar period

This article is devoted to the development of relations between the first wave of Russian émigré diaspora in France and the Orthodox clergy on the one hand, and the Catholic Church with its affiliated French organizations on the other, in the period between the two world wars. The revolutionary events in Russia led to a mass exodus of subjects of the Russian Empire; tens of thousands of Russian émigrés who professed the Orthodox faith chose Catholic France as their new home. Russian émigrés and French society, Orthodoxy and Catholicism, had to find a way to coexist. This article examines the charitable, missionary, and cultural activities of the Holy See and French Catholic organizations in relation to Russian émigrés and the clergy, as well as mutual attempts to establish interfaith dialogue. To reveal this topic, it is necessary to touch upon the following issues: the motivations that determined the Vatican’s policy in the “Russian question”, the mutual perception of the Catholics and the Orthodox, and to describe the context of Russian diaspora’s existence in France during the interbellum.