IN SEARCH OF PARADISE. RUSSIAN EMIGRATION IN INDIA IN THE 20–40s OF THE XX CENTURY

The article attempts to reconstruct the “Russian World” in India in the 1920–1940s as a unique socio-cultural phenomenon using prosopographical and axiological methods of research. Currently, the eastern branch of Russian emigration, and above all the history of the Russian diaspora in China, is being actively studied. But the life and fate of former subjects of the Russian Empire who settled in India, save for a few case studies, remains unknown. Based on a number of memoir sources and documents from the National Archives of India, the author shows and analyzes the peculiarities of the formation and evolution of the Russian diaspora in British India, as well as its geographical localization, population, social composition, professional and leisure activities with a focus on the mechanisms of adaptation and integration of emigrants of the first wave in a foreign cultural environment. Special attention is paid to the history of mental representations of “Wonderland” in Russian literature and philosophy of the pre-revolutionary period and their reinterpretation in the minds of Russian refugees. While some perceived India as an alien and extremely difficult place where they were forced to stay, others perceived India as a second, spiritual homeland, where they unlocked the secret of their own essence. The article concludes that through their efforts, individual representatives of the Russian diaspora in India (the Roerich family, Indra Devi, M. M. Nachman), brought a significant contribution to the cultural rapprochement of the two countries, which laid the foundations for strengthening Russian-Indian friendship and promoting Indian culture in the USSR and the Russian Federation in subsequent years.