From 1948 to 1953, around 6,000 ‘White Russian’ refugees lived in Tubabao Island in the Philippines. The community comprised of teachers, doctors, engineers, architects, ex-military officers, lawyers, artists, performers, and priests.
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Museum of Russian Culture, San Francisco/ President Elpido Quirino Foundation
From 1948 to 1953, around 6,000 ‘White Russian’ refugees lived in Tubabao Island in the Philippines. The community comprised of teachers, doctors, engineers, architects, ex-military officers, lawyers, artists, performers, and priests.
Larissa Krassovksy/President Elpido Quirino Foundation
Before the arrival of the Russian refugees, the typhoon-ravaged island, which was a receiving station for personnel working for a U.S. Naval base during the Second World War, had a small population of fishing families and a handful of concrete structures.
Larissa Krassovksy/President Elpido Quirino Foundation
“Through sheer hard work, they converted the settlement into a very livable town,” says Larissa Goncharova, a historian who is writing a book on ‘White Russians.’
Museum of Russian Culture, San Francisco/ President Elpido Quirino Foundation
The camp eventually grew to be a thriving ‘little Russian city,’ divided into 14 main districts with organized communal kitchens, power stations, Russian schools, a hospital and a dental clinic, an arbitration court, a police force and a little jail, and several churches.
The camp eventually grew to be a thriving ‘little Russian city,’ divided into 14 main districts with organized communal kitchens, power stations, Russian schools, a hospital and a dental clinic, an arbitration court, a police force and a little jail, and several churches.
Constantine Koloboff/President Elpido Quirino Foundation
The International Refugee Organization, which later became the United National High Commissioner for Refugees, helped the refugees leave China and issued identity cards to them.
Nikolai Hidchenko/President Elpido Quirino Foundation
Tubabao Island had several schools spread across the districts in the newly created Russian town.
Nikolai Hidchenko/President Elpido Quirino Foundation
Several government and army units inspected the town. It was President Quirino who had the barbed wire around the camp removed.
Olga Valcoff/President Elpido Quirino Foundation
The refugees even set up an open-air cinema, a theater company and conducted piano and dance lessons.
Irene Kounitsky/President Elpido Quirino Foundation
The bishop is remembered to this day as the holy man who blessed the camp from four directions every night to ward off typhoons and other potential dangers.
Larissa Krassovksy/President Elpido Quirino Foundation
The refugees never hesitated to express gratitude to the authorities for letting them move in to the camp and live on the island.
