Late last year in Yasnaya Polyana the ashes of Leo Tolstoy’s son Mikhail were reburied. For many years he had lived in Morocco, and it was in the capital city of Rabat that he had died. In the first half of the 20th century, this North African country, at the time a French protectorate, became a second home for many of our fellow citizens, including representatives of prominent aristocratic families who by the will of fate found themselves in this strange land.
Later, after Morocco gained its independence, most of the Russians living there dispersed in all directions. Life in the once numerous communities gradually died out. Over time, virtually the only “material traces” left by our compatriots on Moroccan soil were several closed Orthodox churches and cemeteries. Recently they were threatened by the fate of so many Russian cemeteries scattered throughout the world – the absence of anyone to take care of the graves. Fortunately, nothing like that has happened in Morocco, though. In December 2007, the restored Russian cemetery Ben `M` Cinque in Casablanca was opened. “The cemetery was in terrible condition,” said Vyacheslav Novoselov, Russia’s consul general in the largest Moroccan city. “Frankly, I was ashamed of us Russians. One of the reasons why we decided to restore it was that we should not be oblivious to our kinship.”
The formation of the Russian colony in Morocco began after the Civil War in Russia. The first large transfer of our compatriots arrived in Casablanca in January 1922. They were mostly officers and sailors of the Black Sea fleet after Wrangel’s evacuation from the Crimea to Bizerte.
By this time Casablanca had quite a few immigrants from Europe. But all of them, save perhaps for the French military, civil administration officials and members of their families, lived according to the principle of “every man for himself,” with many arriving in Morocco exclusively in search of easy profits. Often their behavior brought the colonial administration as much trouble as the recalcitrant native tribes. Russians, by contrast, sought to settle in Morocco “seriously and permanently.” There were also many highly skilled professionals among them – both military and civilian. The French accepted them into the service, offering prestigious and highly paid positions. Our compatriots in Morocco oversaw the construction of roads, ports, the laying of water pipes, and area surveys. Many officers joined the Foreign Legion.
The Russians who wound up in Morocco understood perfectly well the ephemeral nature of hope for a speedy return home. At the same time, they sought to preserve their own national, cultural and religious identity. Doing so without mutual support was impossible. Our compatriots were therefore the first among all the European diasporas in Morocco to take real steps toward unification. In the 1920s and 1930s, the French colony was home to the Russian All-Military Union and the Red Cross Society, which was headed by Princess Urusova. In 1935, Assumption Church was built in Casablanca. The local Orthodox parish soon became one of the main centers of Russian political life and became home to a mutual aid fund, a parish choir, as well as children's clubs and sports clubs. After some time, these organizations expanded their activities across all of French Morocco, and the choir (which later became the Pevchesky Foundation) even performed concerts abroad.
Aside from Princess Urusova, an important role in the life of the Russian community in Morocco was also played by D.P. Sazonov, the former adjutant-general of Nicholas II, Colonel A.A. Podchertkov of the General Staff (who led the Moroccan division of the Russian All-Military Union), Admiral A.I. Rusin, Colonel H. de Salza and Colonel N.I. Likholet, Captain G. Soloviev of the 2nd Regiment of the Foreign Legion, and others.
From this entire list (which, of course, is far from complete) Admiral Alexander Rusin should be given special mention. He was born in 1861 in the Tver province. In 1882, he graduated from the Naval Academy and became a midshipman. In 1888, he joined the hydrographic division of the Nikolaev Naval Academy, and in 1896 the artillery officer class.
In 1899, Rusin began serving as Russia’s naval attache to Japan. He took part in the military campaign in China in 1900-1901, and in subsequent years he successfully worked in naval intelligence and was able to obtain a large amount of valuable information about Japanese military capabilities. Due to the inertia of the Russian military command, however, these materials did not find practical application.
After the beginning of Russo-Japanese War, Rusin led the Office of the Chief of the Naval Camp and soon became the commander of the naval port of Nikolaevsk. After the war, he was part of the Russian delegation that participated in the peace conference at Portsmouth. By 1913, Rusin had been promoted to Chief of Naval Staff and in the following year led the Naval General Staff. In 1915, he was appointed Assistant Minister of Sea Forces, and the following year became a full admiral – the last to receive the title from Nicholas II.
As a monarchist, Rusin did not accept the February Revolution, and in June 1917 he resigned. Later that year he emigrated to France. There, he became chairman of a union of overseas naval organizations and oversaw the Russian mess hall in Paris. At the beginning of the Second World War he moved to Morocco, where he became the choirmaster in one of the Orthodox parishes. Rusin died in 1956 and is buried at the Ben `M` Cinque cemetery in Casablanca.
Admiral Rusin was one of our many compatriots who, after the war and especially after the Nazi occupation of France, moved from the flames of Europe to a relatively calm Morocco. The next wave of migration occurred in the late 1940s when many Russians moved to the French protectorate in North Africa. Most of these, of course, were anti-Bolshevik-minded individuals from eastern European countries that were caught up in the Soviet sphere of influence. Among them were those who had fought against Soviet troops in the German army, including V. N. Butkov who fought in the Turkul Cossack Brigade and rose to the rank of captain in the Wehrmacht. In the postwar years, he became the editor-in-chief of the Russian All-Military Union’s main publication. There was also M.I. Tikhonravov, a former battalion commander of the Russian Corps in Yugoslavia and major of the Wehrmacht. Both of them had fled from the U.S. camp for displaced person in Schleissheim. It is interesting to note that the Soviet military mission, whose efforts included searching for former collaborators, was very active in France itself, although it was never able to expand its work in Morocco.
Political differences did not have too bad of an effect on the life of the Russian community, however. Butkov and Tikhonravov worked side by side with patriotic feelings, and during the war, they both came out in support of the Soviet Union. Podchertkov, as we have noted, headed up the local branch of the Russian All-Military Union. His aides were N.A. Kolarovich and S.P. Kopiev.
The heyday of the Russian community in Morocco came at the end of the 1940s and early 1950s. However, in 1956, Morocco proclaimed its independence, and two years later, the kingdom established diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union. At that time massive numbers of Russian emigres left the country. Only a few remained, mostly those who were never engaged in political activities and social work and, therefore, were not afraid of possible forced repatriation to the Soviet Union. In 1962, the Moroccan division of the Russian All-Military Union closed, and a little while later, the closure of the local Red Cross followed. Then due to a sharp reduction in the number of parishioners, the Orthodox church in Casablanca shut down. An inventory of graves at the Russian (or European) cemeteries in Casablanca was last held in the 1960s.
The city of Casablanca has a total of three Christian cemeteries where Russian emigres are buried: Ben `M` Cinque, Al-Hank and Ain-Sebaa. Only the first of these is still operational. In 2004, the Ben `M` Cinque and Al-Hank cemeteries were surveyed by employees of Russia’s General Consulate in Casablanca. As a result, seventy-five graves of Russian emigres were discovered. In addition, memorial lists of compatriots buried in Casablanca were found in the chapel at Ben `M` Cinque. So far, the names of 161 people have been identified (due to the poor condition of the lists, work is progressing very slowly). Overall, it is estimated that for 1933-2000, Casablanca’s cemeteries hold the remains of approximately 300 of our emigres.
Almost simultaneously with the inventory work on the restoration of the graves began. About fifty people were reburied in a special section of the Ben `M` Cinque necropolis, which will henceforth be called the Russian cemetery. Almost all of the tombstones had to be remade.
Shortly before the opening of the restored Russian cemetery in Casablanca, Russian authorities decided to allocate 700,000 euros to pay rent for spots in Saint Genevieve de Bois near Paris. Thus, the most famous Russian necropolis abroad is no longer threatened by closure and destruction. “We started collecting our history bit by bit,” said Mikhail Margelov, the head of Russia's delegation and chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee at the Federation Council, in his speech at the opening ceremony of the Russian cemetery in Casablanca. “Previously, people would say that our country has had an unpredictable past. We are a country with the past that we have had, and we are not turning our backs on it.”
