Authors

Elisabeth Miljkovic¹;  ¹ Sciences Po, France

Discussion

In the 1920s, nearly one million individuals fled the former Russian Empire, of which approximately 100,000 sought refuge in France. Paris, as a major hub for this immigration in France and Western Europe, became a focal point for the development of cultural, educational, journalistic, and religious activities. In 1927, the first youth camp of the Russian Students’ Christian Action (RSCA), a “movement” founded in 1923 “on the roads of exile by Russians fleeing the Bolshevik Revolution” (official website), was established in the Isère region of France. With the exception of an interruption during the Second World War and the German occupation, the summer camp has been held annually ever since.

While several organisations, such as Russian schools, boarding schools, cultural centres, publishers, newspapers, and magazines, have disappeared over time as generations passed and the face of Russian immigration in France changed, others emerged or persisted. Among these are several youth organisations and their summer camps, including the RSCA. Initially, these camps welcomed first-generation immigrants; today, they gather some of their descendants and have opened up to include members outside of this historically defined group. These new members share either the same Christian Orthodox faith or a connection to Russia.

This historical foundation, combined with a recent openness to members without direct ties to Russian immigration, raises the question of how Russian identification is transmitted to further generations. In examining the case of a century-old youth camp in France, we seek to explore what constitutes the “Russianness” of a place that emphasises religion while also maintaining visible markers of Russian culture - such as the use of specific Russian words, traditional music, and, until 2022, the display of the Russian flag.

We argue that identity formation occurs through material and performative practices, which are continuously renegotiated by young and older adults in response to geopolitical events, such as the removal of the white, blue, and red flag following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Symbols that remain are invested with new meanings, leading to the emergence of new forms of identification. This process complicates the “Russianness” of central socialisation spaces like youth camps and the identifications of their young and older members.

This study is based on three types of data: first, interviews with members (aged 18 and more) of the RSCA as well as members of other camps of similar historical background (n=75); second, observations conducted during two consecutive summer camps organised by the RSCA; and third, documentation authored or provided by the organisations and their members.