Russian Berlin

Around a hundred years ago, up to 300 thousands of Russian refugees came to Berlin, fleeing from the Soviet Revolution.

It was a diverse crowd of democrats and monarchists, artists and priests, tsarist military officers and decadent poets.  Russian restaurants, grocery stores, publishing houses, theatres, artistic cafes, active social and cultural life - the émigré community was called in one memoir   ''A Russian lake within Berlin's shores.''

 

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We’ll walk around some historic localities in West Berlin, starting at the Kurfürstendamm avenue in the Charlottenburg district, which was once nicknamed ‘’Charlottengrad’’ due to the numerous amount of Russian expatriates living there.

 

Then, we’ll proceed to Schöneberg and Wilmersdorf and discover numerous stories: about Russian White Army generals working as taxi drivers, about a Russian cabaret dancer who later brought yoga to the US, about a future world-famous novelist was chasing butterflies and giving tennis lessons, and many others.