From Europe to South America - The Civil War in the Russian Empire scattered Cossack troops around the world. But largely thanks to emigration, the Cossacks and their heirs managed to preserve memories of life before the October Revolution and relics of a bygone era. The project "The Legacy of Those Who Left the Homeland" is aimed at preserving the historical memory of the unknown heroes of the past.
As the project manager Irina Shcherbakova said, the idea of the project arose thanks to cooperation with the Cossacks of the All-Cossack Union of the Czech Lands and Slovakia. They told that the archive and belongings of the Terek Cossack-emigrant Viktor Karpushkin, which his daughter Nina brought from the USA, were preserved.
"His memoirs became the basis of our project, they reflect that time. From them we can learn what happened in the Vladikavkaz cadet corps, how the Cossacks lived before the revolution. He describes the civil war as an eyewitness from the trenches, he describes the mood in the army, what they thought Cossacks about Denikin and Wrangel. There is very little such evidence left. We consider this manuscript a valuable heritage that has survived abroad, "says Irina.
In addition to her memoirs, Nina Karpushkina gave the Terek Cossacks a valuable family relic - her father's headdress - and an icon.
But there is also other evidence of the life of the Cossacks in exile - the memories of Anastasia Manstein-Shirinskaya, who arrived in Tunisia with her parents as an eight-year-old girl. Anastasia became an elder of the Russian community in Tunisia and wrote a book of memoirs "Bizerte. The Last Camp", published in French and Russian.
Paraguay has become another haven for the Cossacks who were forced to leave their homeland. One of the "Paraguayans" was the last chieftain of the Terek army, Sergei Fleischer. The Cossacks and Russian officers who came to Paraguay, according to Irina, literally created the army and navy of this country. When the Chaco war with Bolivia began, Russian officers defended Paraguay and helped the country win. In the capital of Paraguay, 17 streets are named after Russian officers and Cossacks.
The great-grandson of the ataman Igor Fleischer handed over to the Terek Cossacks the materials preserved after the death of his grandfather. All these materials will form the basis of a documentary-historical film about the White emigrants on the example of the life of Viktor Karpushkin, the sailors of the Russian squadron in Tunisia and the Cossacks who created the army and navy of Paraguay. This film will also be transferred to the Stavropol Regional Library for the Blind and Visually Impaired. V. Mayakovsky, where he will be prepared for perception by blind people.
The Heritage of Those Who Left Their Homeland project was among the winners of the Presidential Grants Competition in 2021. The Presidential Grants Fund will donate about 1.8 million rubles to the Khopertsy Charitable Foundation of the Stavropol Territory for the implementation of the project.
In addition to the film, an electronic and printed book "The Life of Viktor Vasilyevich Karpushkin" will be published at the expense of the President's grant. In addition, there will be a conference dedicated to the anniversary of the end of the Civil War and the 100th anniversary of the "Russian Aid Action" organized by the Czechoslovak government in 1921 for Russian refugees, and a historical quest dedicated to the events of the Civil War.
Already now, the history of the Cossack emigrants can be found on the multimedia portal "The Legacy of Those Who Left Their Homeland", which presents materials about the Civil War and the Russian Exodus. In the future, an audiobook for blind people will be created from the materials of the site, which will be transferred to the Stavropol Regional Library for the Blind and Visually Impaired.
