When Russian aristocrats sold shoelaces in Istanbul

After the Bolshevik Revolution, Russian refugees indeed traded on the streets of Istanbul, but this is only part of a larger story.

The revolution in Russia occurred in 1917, and the main wave of emigration reached Istanbul in November 1920 after the fall of Crimea. Ships of the Russian army under General Wrangel approached the shores of the city, 126 vessels with about 150 thousand people. This was a shock for Istanbul.

With the influx of refugees, a whole vanished world arrived in the city: princes, counts, officers, Cossacks, doctors, engineers, teachers, students, officials, and workers. Many hoped to stay here for a few months and return home, but there was nowhere to go back to. Money ran out, savings disappeared, and titles and former status meant nothing anymore.

Yesterday's aristocrats and officers began to do what was necessary for survival. Some sold flowers, newspapers, toys, or small goods. In one of the photographs taken in Istanbul, Russian emigrants are selling shoelaces and haberdashery. Mahmutpasha became one of the places for such trade.

Russian emigrants gradually changed not only the streets of Istanbul. Restaurants and establishments related to Russian emigration appeared in Beyoglu: Rejans, Turkuaz, Maxim. Borscht, pies, beef stroganoff, and 'Russian salad' appeared on the tables. Russian women worked as florists, and their presence became so noticeable that the story of Russian florists was linked to the transformation of the Parisian Cité de Péra into the Flower Passage, Çiçek Pasajı.

Behind the beautiful side of this story lay a real tragedy. Among the emigrants were people with brilliant educations. It was even said that a former mathematics professor from St. Petersburg could work as a cashier at Rejans, although this story might have become a legend. But the picture was real: educated people, representatives of the upper classes, and former wealthy citizens of the Russian Empire were forced to start life almost from scratch.

By 1926, the first wave of emigration began to disperse. Paris, Belgrade, Sofia, New York, the white emigration spread across the world. In Istanbul, those who lacked money for the next ticket remained. It is said that at the docks, one could see people staring for hours at the departing ships, including former countesses and princesses. People who had recently lived in mansions, held titles, had servants and wealth, now stood by the sea watching the ships leave, perhaps still hoping: 'Someday we will return home.'

But for most of them, Istanbul became part of a new life. Today, little remains of that Russian emigration: a few dishes that entered Turkish cuisine, old buildings and temples, family stories, and yellowed photographs. Such photographs are especially important because they show not just street vendors, but people who did not yet know that their former world had disappeared forever. They thought they were leaving temporarily, but it turned out to be forever.