D. W. You know that seventy seven percent. Are younger than six of. Guts me and me and you. And you know what its time all voices. On the seventy seven percent to talk about the issues that. There is a plan to cut. The seventy seven percent this weekend on d w. In the one Nine Hundred Twenty s. The Russian Revolution and the Armenian Genocide led to millions of people being forced to leave their homelands to make it impossible for them to return to their
respective rulers revoke their citizenship on matters. Jurists introduced the term stateless to describe people who had been driven into permanent exile. Writer Vladimir Noble Cause himself one of those affected said it was as if they had dropped off the face of the planet over two Million People mainly russians and armenians were brutally up rooted in force to begin a new life elsewhere they dispersed to the four corners of the earth. But in spite of all their misfortune the stateless people were lucky enough to have a headstrong humanist norwegian on their side his name was freaking off nuns. After the First World War had ravaged europe and left millions dead the League Of Nations was founded in geneva in One Thousand Nineteen its goal was to prevent such a catastrophe from ever happening again. The forty founding nations sent delegates there and with high hopes. Norway chose freedom often onsen to be its permanent representative. He shared the ideals of the League Of Nations a city picked us to jail didnt know him at the time since the First World War the intellectuals were a man with Authority Whose opinions were sought after. At the League Of Nations people came together whod never been trained for the roles that they were now expected to fill after world war one you know toward some pivot when you again. Trigger off once and was primarily
a scientist who liked to work outdoors he led several perilous expeditions to conduct through logical windows you know graphic research. In One Thousand Nine Hundred Five he came close to reaching the north pole and exploit that made him world famous. His scientific discoveries also learned Him Recognition from academics Around The World Manson used his fame to support norways Independence Movement which led to the dissolution of norways union with sweden in one thousand know five. Months and was celebrated as a hero by his countrymen. His First Mission for the League Of Nations was to repatriate Prisoners Of War in late one nine hundred Ninety Nansen Set off for russia where thousands of men whod been captured by Russian Forces during world war one were still being held in far flung parts of
the country. Its right that the League Of Nations takes the repatriation of the prisoners in hand as their suffering is the result of a war the likes of which the world has never seen the leak must make it impossible for such a catastrophe to ever repeat itself it nansen its mission was made more difficult by the fact that russia was in the midst of a revolution nicholas the second the last tsar had been forced to abdicate in one Nine Hundred Seventeen he was then imprisoned by The Bolsheviks and later executed along with his wife and five children under lenin the communists swore to rid russia of its old aristocracy but people who use it. At the start it was viewed as a coup detat. But then the whole course of history and what was to come next wasnt clear. Still it was a Declaration Of War on the ruling classes because you dont. Not hear hall there at the mike. Great grandfather was a chamberlain or Something Like that at the Winter Palace he served there until the revolution and even in the months that followed that ended badly because there was an attempt to assassinate lenin when a certain family kaplan shot him. Lenin survived the attack and reacted by arresting five hundred dignitaries including my great grandfather and locking them up in the crunch that fortress off them. From what i understand after a few days or maybe two weeks because they didnt know what to do with these hostages they tied them together back to back and tossed them into the gulf of finland. They all drowned including my great grandfather neither he nor my grandfather have a grave they just disappeared disappeared. The song is all the stuff becomes. The communists came to power in moscow and St Petersburg and raised the red army to fight a life and death struggle against the counterrevolutionary whites jetted took dope from october one Nine Hundred Seventeen when everything blew up until the moment when they fled they lived in a country which was still their own but surrounded by terra result all the bushes he caught in The Bolsheviks would derail entire trains and then davy up the passengers they checked peoples hands and if someone had a well kept hands they shot him on the spot when they saw it as a sign of the bush was eat the aristocracy you cant overstate the savage area of the revolution this is with us leader evolution. In my new shoes given a christmas q this is the heart of the revolution the thing which people remember most vividly both the whites and the reds for the expropriations. The
expropriation of peoples homes first confiscation then dispossession symbolized the collapse of the social order. It was into this chaos that freed you off once and came to arrange for the repatriation of Six Hundred Thousand soldiers captured in the First World War. I have returned from the land of shadows and when i think of all the unbearable Human Suffering i saw there i cant sit back and do nothing but join forces before its too late. Mansons travels through russia convinced him that the country was on the verge of famine so he asked the big Western Powers to provide food aid right away. When they refused to turn to humanitarian organizations like the American Red Cross and since persistence on this is very First Mission earned him the reputation of being an on
phone to replay at the League Of Nations. And was also one of the few westerners to predict the coming apocalypse which would drive so Many Russians into exile. To. The uk you see surface appears is where three centuries of history for the suspects in ski family came to an end. They rose with a romanovs when they ascended to the throne in sixteen thirteen by one Nine Hundred Twenty it was all over. Look if we measured this is he did imagine that its night the Seas Frozen All The Way to the finish coast thirty five or forty kilometers away you set off in the dark to reach the finish border. My grandfather was accompanied by his two eldest sons my father was twelve his older brother
fifteen my grandfather was forty one of forty two he and his eldest son were on crosscountry skis. My father was in a horse drawn sleigh possibly with other escapees the red guards would patrol here at night and shoot whenever they heard a sound. A horse galloping or noises made by a sleigh or skis. He did this good for me all bruce and each night the reds would send out an ice breaker from petrograd to foil Escape Attempts will be sure to treat a little nearer to me but what my father remembers most is the sound of the ice cracking and wondering if theyd make it across before the ice breaker. Robbery maginnis because if you can imagine how risky it was to meet with the people traffickers who had to be paid as my grandparents didnt own much they were expelled they might have had
a Little Jewelry with them i dont know about. It to tell me it all ended right here it involved its moving. List to they left everything behind them absolutely everything. This could say to you people were fleeing mainly from the big cities like moscow and St Petersburg which were in the hands of The Bolsheviks. The elicit a rallying cry among the classes opposed to the revolution was goes south. Well a forerunner of the white army was already forming. With the capture of Rostov On Don in january nineteen twenty the reds victory was sealed the white army forces were pushed back and eventually driven out of russia. The allies also played a major role during this huge up evil and really during the entire civil war as well not only did they supply the whites with weapons they also played an important part in their evacuation of their ships were docked nearby. They came and collected people in the Caucasus Region and on the black sea coast. That was the start of the mass exodus because all back you know. I dont get it at first the reds let the white forces go but many civilians went along with them. By the final months of one Nine Hundred Twenty people were fleeing in panic on the news and so on. By the end of one Nine Hundred Twenty one and
a half million russians had left their own land and more waiting to be taken in by various European Countries most of these refugees hope to settle in germany or france but in constantinople the capital of the Ottoman Empire their situation only worsened becoming a humanitarian catastrophe. Hundreds of thousands of soldiers from the defeated white army streamed into the city with their families and became stranded there. They lived in cramped Emergency Shelters scattered throughout constantinople. At the time of their arrival turkish nationalists were driving Orthodox Christian minorities out of the Ottoman Empire so the russians were also Orthodox Christians were unwelcome. The red cross cared for the russian refugees as best they could but soon realized that the problem was too big for them to handle on their own they sent a telegram to the diplomats at the League Of Nations who decided to create the post
of High Commissioner for refugees and gave the jan two free job finance. You should not send the decision to make munson High Commissioner for refugees was prompted by the success of his mission to repatriate the Prisoners Of War. In addition that the League Of Nations humanitarian affairs were considered matters for smaller nations. So the major powers were more than happy to in shops this task to the representative of the Nordic Country a few resource. Once in arrived in constantinople and his function as High Commissioner for refugees he was shocked by the russian refugees living conditions. I thought i saw a whole city before me with its thousands of lights it was their camps spread out over the plain camp fire by camp fire and there they were sleeping on the ground
without any shelter of any kind they do not know where they are going and will find no shelter when they come dancing quickly realized that the russians had to be evacuated from constantinople Circle San Lucas feeling that raise the question of how they should be distributed among the various host countries and who should care for them look its true that you went right from the start there was also the question of their legal status who are these people and how can we protect them from a legal perspective balls and also everyone assumed that nuns and would also be organizing the refugees expected return to their homeland a short while later. Yet in december of one Nine Hundred Twenty one issued a decree in the form of an automated. All russians living outside of the country or called upon to recognize the new regime and had three months in which to register
at a soviet consulate if they failed to do so by this deadline their citizenship would be revoked one and a half million russians ignored this ultimatum and consequently became stateless. The bolshevik governments wholesale and collective disenfranchisement of millions was completely unprecedented with a simple decree a stroke of a pen peoples worlds fell apart. Piece couldnt. Because russians who Werent Living In russia were no longer russian citizens they now had no nationality at all finding themselves in a legal vacuum that raised the question who are they then they were stateless and that wasnt just a fact but also a legal issue. So some thought had to be given to introducing
a system to care for those who no longer benefited from the protection of any state of being he he. Put the son who can only not and efficient refugees were now seen as people without nationality who no longer had a country of origin and so were anomalies in the context of international companies. Little. At this time when new Nation States were arising Out Of The Ashes of empires the first thing that these new states did was to introduce Border Controls for soon visitors. To some entrance and exit visas and Identity Papers were now required most everywhere book produced but as Many Russians had left their country with documents that were only valid in their own land and had since expired or had no idea at all they had nothing to show. This marks the first time that europe was confronted with
the issue of undocumented migrants a solution had to be found which would allow these people to travel within europe. The idea for the nuns and passport was born in the p. S. If you know it was called a certificate at first it was a solution to a very concrete and urgent problem it was your final. Yes consul then there never really been any agreement at the european level on the Refugee Issue so this was a real innovation and one that was realized in a very short time and will cool. Manson assembled a group of lawyers comprised of Stateless Russians together they considered what rights and responsibilities would be associated with such an Identity Document for different host countries their goal was to coordinate residency and working
conditions and to facilitate Travel Nansen embarked on a Parable World Tour to present and promote his passport in as many countries as possible. Through commission will sell my commission and munson and takes office which was linked to the League Of Nations had virtually no Financial Resources will no funding didnt do all they had was an Operating Budget that was simply ridiculous rigid function Motility Truett the League Of Nations gave nansen just Fifteen Thousand pounds sterling which were allocated for the evacuation of the refugees from constantinople. When the people left constantinople they had no idea theyd be in paris only two years later project why they only found their way there gradually. Relatively few made their way directly from constantinople to paris or to france at all. About the one there is really was
a journey in stages. Whether in paris berlin new york or shanghai russian refugees had to register with the committee comprised of a representative of the office of the High Commissioner and other russian refugees checked whether the state was people met the criteria to receive a Nansen Passport it was valid for a year and could be extended for a lifetime holders were expressly. Forbidden from returning to their countries of origin after receiving the passport they were under the protection of their host country. Its going up and up even at the beginning of the one Nine Hundred Thirty s. People were talking about the nuns and passport but in reality it was only a collection of visas that looked like anything but a passport from this description everyone thinks of a complete document but flipping through its pages you