Shanghai’s 1922 Refugee Crisis

I’ve posted before about various refugee waves and crises that hit old Shanghai….here in 1932, here in 1937 and here in 1947…1922 saw the sudden influx of a large number of White Russian refugees in sensational circumstances and is well worth remembering.

By the end of 1922 the Bolsheviks had effectively consolidated power across Russia…the civil war came to end and the Wars of Intervention forces withdrew. A flotilla left Vladivostok headed by a hero of the Russo-Japanese War Admiral Stark (below) of the White Army…30 boats, some in serious danger of sinking, 8,000 refugees crowded aboard. The boats made it down the coast to Korea where the Japanese refused to let sixteen of the boats leave due to their obvious un-seaworthiness. Those left behind stayed in the care of the Japanese Red Cross. The remaining boats with 3,000 refugees left and headed for Shanghai – two boats were lost at sea with all hands during the journey in a typhoon – the destroyer Dydymov and the transport Asia.

Despite their sufferings the refugees arrival at Shanghai was seen as problematic – the Chinese authorities and Settlement police were worried about illicit guns and ammunition on the boats that could be traded to warlords while the general view among many Shanghailanders was that they were about to be “swamped” by Russian refugees. The Chinese authorities (he was at Woosung, not yet in foreign Shanghai) ordered the ships to leave within 48 hours or be attacked. The ships did indeed have arms aboard but the Russians sold them to the Chinese army.

One of the refugee fleets dilapidated boats

Eventually most of the poor refugees stayed – about 2,000 out of the 3,000 who were non-naval or military personnel. Admiral Stark sailed out of town headed for Manila where he sold the remaining boats to raise money to support White Russian refugees – most of his crews eventually got passage to America, Stark himself went to France and then on to Finland where he died in 1928.

Shanghai easily absorbed a couple of thousand White Russians….and many, many more Russians and other refugees from across China and fleeing fascism for the remainder of its time as an International Settlement.