在二十世紀時俄羅斯有四大群的移民潮。每群移民潮皆經歷過俄羅斯的政治事件，這是俄羅斯的悲劇。第一群移民潮在二十世紀俄羅斯革命與內戰以後。很多俄羅斯人離開自己的祖國之後在歐洲有了俄羅斯的現象，所有移民出去的民眾失去了自己的家鄉，這間接成立了“第二個俄羅斯“。很多移民在外面的國家迷失自己對社會及宗教的目標，因此東正教幫他們保存了宗教、民族自覺的精神。在蘇聯時期曾禁止討論有關俄羅斯移民的話題，甚至禁止書寫關於移民的文章。由於蘇聯共產黨理念之特殊性關係，所以寫這篇文章並沒有客觀所以關於這種主題的研究與文獻在當時並不真得具備客觀性，可以說都是很主觀且比較表面的，較客觀的研究始於十∼十五年以前。 Mighty cataclysms of revolutions and wars (1914-1920) threw the considerable part of Russian people out of Russia. The main stimulus to emigrate was their rejection of the new Bolshevism’s authorities. Mass emigration from Russia led to the phenomenon of a peculiar “state with no territory” (foreign Russia), which preserved the traits of previous way of life. The overwhelming majority of the emigrants were aware of themselves as of Orthodox Christians. As a result, nearly all the emigrant political organizations appeal in their activity to the values of the Orthodox Church. The Russian emigrants took the church as a link, which tie together their old life in Russia and their new life abroad. The Russian emigrants perceived the church as a force that could help them to preserve their national identity. It was especially important because there were neither other social, nor political organizations which would play such an exclusive role in emigrants’ adaptation like the Orthodox Church. That is why the majority of Russian refugees were guided by church authority in their entire political activity. From their part, the church hierarchs of the largest congregation (Carlovatskiy) took their principled political stand from the very beginning of emigration and they took an active part in the political struggle in the unit with the right wing of the emigration. The principled political position of the church abroad, its active participation in policy (e.g., their address to the Genoese conference to help in their fight against the Bolshevism in Russia) harmed the unity of the Orthodox Church. It endangered the Orthodox Church in Russia and led to a number of splits in the Russian Orthodox Church abroad. As the most of Russian refugees belonged to the cultural and political elite of the Russian Empire, it predetermined the unexampled high level of the cultural values, which were produced abroad for the time under consideration. As a result, the Russian emigration in Europe made a strong impact on the public ideas, culture and economy of the European countries.
