==Following from Finland==
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- I am writing from Finland and I would like to contribute to the article with some things. I had never berfore heard here in Finland anybody talk about some "White Russians" until many years after the fall of Soviet union and yet I live only about 350 km from St.Petersburg. Here in Finland "reds" are communists and socialists and nobody talks any more about the "Whites". Somehow such seem to have disappeared even from this society. Finland had the civil war between the reds and the whites. The word "ryssä" seems always mean only red Russians, nobody knows anything about the White Russians here. And nobody seems to know much about the emigrants here, but new groups of immigrants are entering the country and some have wrongly used that word - or maybe there surely are some who have fled their country due to some political reasons.
- In our circles the group who fled the Russian Revolution was never called "emigrés", but always "emigrants" Everybody knew emigrants were from Russia so there was no use call such people Russian Emigrants. "Emigrants" do not mean any other group of people here and if somebody use that word to something else it sounds nothing but very wrong. I could find the word "emigrant" in my German dictionary together with, but on the first place, before the word "emigré". The emigrant means "politischer Flüchtling" - a political refugee and the word emigré doesn't meant that. And before the very modern times after the fall of the Soviet Union the word "emigré" was never used here and this country didn't either take in many political refugees, but now even that has changed. However, English has not been much in use here before the end of the II World War, but Swedish, German and many knew Russian. But, however, speaking some Russian or German become more or less abandoned among the descendants of the Russian Emigrants, who had those languages as their real mother tongue. They should know Finnish and become real Finns. And many such people don't know much - if anything - about their roots either, something that surely is a tragedy for this whole group of people as they have been deprived their roots. Somehow it is suicidal if not a genocide if they have been discriminated in the local society. It seems as if these families are dying out and disappearing completely from this society. This might be a prove that they never intergrated to the tiny Finnish population. They might have suited better the Swedish population even here.
- The article lets us know that the people who fled for political reasons and emigrated "spanned all classes". I don't quite believe in this. The people highest up in the scale had difficulties of their own in leaving the country, but however some seems to have left. Nobody was allowed to take any money with and all property and money were confiscated - or, however, were these not taken away from "everybody"? Who could flee in those conditions without money? The jewelry might have disappeared during a long journey as did the whole group of people who travelled with some "special" person! All were killed - or were they, however, not? I have never heard here in Finland of other emigrants than those who belonged to the more well off and higher (highest??) social classes. Among us the "social class" was, however, never talked about, not even mentioned. Maybe because these people owned nothing any more - had their roots and former life, but no poperty. However, I have asked a child that emigrated and fled with his parents from Russia, what class does he belong to and without any hesitation he says that to the highest excisting. And these people waited for their whole life that the situation in the Soviet Union might change and maybe that they could go back. Getting back some property was never mentioned - you don't quite even know what they had owned and where they had been living! To preserve some Russian culture abroad and to take it back to Russia was either never worked for in any way. The heritage I am now talking about is from people born around 1883-1893 and they were young people who had just got married and had babies when they had to fly for their lives. Their parents were killed on the spot in their homes. All the roots, family graves and memories were left in Russia. And the whole life was just of waiting to get back, but then started even the II World War. And not even their grandchildren will be leaving back to Russia as they are already too old!
- The article lets us even think that all these people where of "real Russians" by their origin. However, it is said that Russia (St. Petersburg
) had a foreign "upper class" and well of people. However, if this was the case it must have been a rather strange situation - but what I have heard this was the case. But who were those people? Some of the people I know where people who had Huguenot roots and who had already fled the French Revolution and ended in St.Petersburg. These were protestants and not belonging to the Russian Orthodox Church. They seems to have ended in the city in the times when it was built. But these people felt themselves Russians and where could they flee if they had to leave the country? France might not have been the place this time - it had already gone through its Revolution and might not have wanted this kind of people back! There are no noble, French people after the French Revolution either! Maybe this dying out of some "Russian" people should also be regarded as dying out of some "French" people - even families - mixed even with other European nationalities!
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