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Old China Hands Archives Newsletter, Volume 2, Number 2

March 09, 2022

From the Director: Ukraine and the Old China Hands

I write this as we witness the anguish resulting from the aggressive war waged by Vladimir Putin against Ukraine. Many Old China Hands may have their memories stirred by some of the words and place names occurring in the news: Ukraine, Moldova, Odessa, Crimea, Poland, refugee, separation, hunger, bloodshed, mass graves.  As a child of refugees from the Russian Empire, born in Shanghai, I am moved by memories of my own family's history.

My Jewish fraternal grandfather and grandmother lived and died in Kishinev, Moldova, and their children chose Harbin and later, Shanghai and Australia, as refuges from pogroms, revolution, and wars.  My maternal grandmother, the daughter of a prosperous businessman in St. Petersburg, also fled eastward to Manchuria and China, part of the tide of many Russian-speakers escaping the Russian Revolution and subsequent civil war. China also drew workers on the Chinese Eastern Railway branch of the Trans-Siberian Railway.  Later, Shanghai provided a safe harbor for some of the Jewish victims of the Nazis in Germany, Austria, Poland, and the Baltic states.

It is quite likely that the Old China Hands Archives would not exist without the historic links between China and such places as Russia, Ukraine, Moldova and eastern and central Europe generally.

Today we witness the tide of millions of Ukrainians leaving their country to escape wilful and callous attacks on civilians. Many thousands of Russians are leaving their homeland as well, whether through fear of persecution by Putin’s dictatorial regime for their opposition to the war, to live in a free society, or from simple shame.

Refugees and their descendants made up a large proportion of the foreign population of China in the first half of the previous century and our hearts ache in sympathy for the victims of this war waged upon the citizens of a working democracy, a war inflicted by a Russia many of us have esteemed for its culture, art, science, language and literature, while we condemn its succession of autocratic and murderous rulers and the pain and suffering they have inflicted on their own people.

We, Old China Hands, harbor memories of dislocation and loss in our own pasts and extend our sympathy and support to Ukraine and its people.

Robert Gohstand, Ph.D.
Founder and Director
March 2022

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Last Updated: 07/24/2024