The Middle East continues to be one of the most important regions for Russian foreign policy. The famous Eastern Question, which Catherine the Great sought to resolve once and for all, was, contrary to popular belief, never reduced to a simple struggle for control over the Balkans, the straits and Constantinople. Beyond these regions lied Palestine – the Holy Land – as well as the only indigenous Christian country in Africa – Ethiopia. Beyond the Black Sea region, Russian influence also extended to these lands. The Eastern Question meant that Russian economic and political interests took on a religious and ideological undertone. The dispute over control of holy sites in Palestine certainly did not always serve as a means of covering up other, more “earthly” motives. According to several Russian foreign policy experts, the territories lying along the Constantinople-Palestine vector were integral parts of the Byzantine oecumene for the Orthodox empire, a continuation of its own world, enduring separation due to a whole host of circumstances. The furthest of them all was the country of Negus.
Although Ethiopia was never really a noticeable center that attracted Russian йmigrйs, the religious commonality, undoubtedly, was one of the most important factors allowing for the successful integration of those who did come.
Perhaps the only emigrants from our country to settle in Ethiopia before the Revolution were one of Imam Shamil’s granddaughters and her husband. Her relatives’ categorical opposition to her marriage to a common trader from Kharkov meant that her only real option was to flee the country. In 1900, the couple based themselves in Ethiopia, and it was here that Nazima Hanafi Muhammed, great granddaughter of the legendary imam, was born. Nazima eventually married Yury Lapin, grandnephew of the writer Ivan Turgenev. After the death of her husband, Nazima converted to Christianity and took the name Maria. She spent her entire life in Ethiopia in a villa on the outskirts of Addis Ababa. She is well known as an adamant opponent of Chechen separatism, telling us in an interview that Chechnya simply cannot exist apart from Russia. Those surviving separatists, however, to this day hold Imam Shamil in high regard.
Nazima Hanafi Muhammed visited Russia for the first time in 1994. Although offered Russian citizenship, she declined it on the grounds that Ethiopian law would have prevented her from owning property as a foreigner. As such, in giving up her Ethiopian passport, she would have risked giving up her villa, which had belonged to her family under the emperor and under the socialist regime of Mengistu Haile Mariam.
As for the first wave of emigration following the Revolution, its members successfully assimilated in the exotic lands of Tunisia, Egypt and Morocco. Hardly any of them traveled as far as Ethiopia, however, despite its status as a Christian country.
The first Russian to settle in Ethiopia after 1917 was Imperial Army and later White Army Colonel Georgy Turchaninov. His subordinates defended Sevastopol in November 1920 during the evacuation of Vrangel’s forces and civilian refugees. After setting sail on several longboats and barges, Turchaninov and his soldiers were eventually picked up on the open sea by allied ships.
Although he could easily have established himself in Europe, Turchaninov set out directly for Ethiopia from Gallipoli. In his new country, he used his deep knowledge of agriculture to establish large farms and the imperial garden. He also worked to establish a fire department in Addis Ababa, which helped to prevent a number of large fires during the Italo-Abyssinian War of 1935-1936 and the subsequent Italian occupation. As a matter of fact, it also saved his own life from fire. Valuing his service, the emperor honord Turchaninov with awards more than once.
From 1925-1935, 17 former White Army officers settled in Ethiopia. By the end of the 1930s, despite the Italian occupation, the size of the Russian colony had increased to 80 people. By the early 1970s, however, it had declined to approximately 20 individuals.
It is interesting to note that despite all of the changes in the country’s political landscape, including the overthrow of the imperial government and the establishment of Mengistu Haile Mariam’s pro-Soviet regime, the lives of Russians living in Ethiopia were by and large not affected. Virtually all of them were able to retain control of their property after the change in government, including the descendents of Shamil. The explanation is not difficult; owing to its very small number, the Russian community in Ethiopia would have found it impossible to have any impact on the political situation in the country. As a result, they were simply left in peace.
As for why Ethiopia remained “unpopular” for our emigrants, the reasons were mostly surface-level in nature. Located on the outskirts, the poor country with its undeveloped economy offered immigrants few chances to establish themselves well. Undoubtedly, the relative inaccessibility of Ethiopia (compared to Egypt, for example) and its relative “closedness” to Europeans and especially Russians played a role as well. Even after the Suez Canal was opened, which freed travelers of the need to envelop the entire continent of Africa or cross the Sinai on dry land, the English, French and, to a lesser extent, the Italians, all attempting to establish their influence in eastern Africa, served as obstacles to Russians penetrating the region.
In 1889, Italian ships sought to block the disembarkation of a Russian spiritual mission headed by Archimandrite Paisy and accompanied by Cossacks under the command of Nikolai Ashinov. When, despite the opposition of the Italians, the mission was finally able to disembark at the port of Obok (present-day Djibouti), the French controlling the territory issued an ultimatum to the Russians demanding that they either lay down their weapons or take up the French flag. After being rejected, they opened fire on the Russian camp and took it after an assault. Five people were killed, and an equal number were wounded. Everyone else was disarmed, and the camp was destroyed.
Despite these difficulties, the mission began its activities in Ethiopia. The emperor (Negus Menelik) provided Russians with all kinds of assistance, and many of them were honored with various state awards. When the members of the mission began to prepare for their return to Russia in 1895, a delegation of Ethiopian clergy, headed by the bishop of Harar, set out with them in order to congratulate Nicholas II on his ascension to the throne.
In 1911, former Russian Ambassador to Ethiopia, Alexander Bulatovich, godson of Ioann Kronshtadtsky, attempted to establish a permanent Russian mission in the country. The attempt was unsuccessful, however, in part because of the opposition of local bishops who called on their flock to remain true to their traditional beliefs.
As one might expect, religious ties between Russia and Ethiopia were severed in 1917 and were only restored in 1948 after the establishment of a Russian mission in Jerusalem. In 1959, a Russian delegation headed by Archimandrite Nikolai arrived in what was still imperial Ethiopia. In 1966, a similar visit was held, during which an agreement was reached to allow Ethiopians to study at the Leningrad Theological Seminary and Academy.
Cooperation between the Russian Orthodox Church and the Ethiopian Church continued after the “socialist revolution” of 1974, which resulted in the separation of the church from the Ethiopian state. In 1974, Patriarch Pimen of Moscow and All Russia visited Ethiopia, and four years later, his Ethiopian colleague, Abuna Teofilo, visited Moscow to take part in celebrating the sixtieth anniversary of the restoration of the patriarchate in our country.
While the Soviet authorities did not necessarily welcome ties between the Russian and Ethiopian Churches, they did not particularly hinder them either. In other words, they turned the other way. Several contemporary historians and clergy attempt to view this as something of an idealistic or “sacral” event, a sort of “reincarnation” of the imperial and Byzantine tradition. Such people, of course, are engaging in wishful thinking. In reality, Soviet authorities acted pragmatically, and although the “imperial” component was certainly there, it was present in a completely different context.
In the 1990s, contacts between the Russian and Ethiopian Churches noticeably weakened after the overthrow of Mengistu’s socialist regime and the effective schism of the Ethiopian Church. Several of the bishops, including the highly influential Ethiopian Archbishop Yesehaq in the United States, refused to recognized Patriarch Paulos, who had been elected in 1992, supporting instead the deposed Patriarch Merkorios.
Religious ties between Russia and Ethiopia began to work out for the better only in recent years. As in earlier times, they are becoming one of the more important factors supporting the restoration of Russian influence in a country that traditionally considers itself part of the Orthodox oecumene.
