Vladimir Lenin lived in London in 1902–1903, publishing a revolutionary journal Iskra in a building in Clerkenwell that later became a home of the Marx Memorial Library.

The congress of Russian revolutionaries held in the Three Johns pub in Islington in 1903 became a critical point of division of the movement to hardline Bolsheviks, who would later establish the Soviet Union, and Mensheviks.

[18]: 17  Facing language barrier and unable to work on Saturdays for religious reasons, they were often employed by the London's East End sweatshops run by Jewish entrepreneurs.

Morris Winchevsky, who moved to London from Lithuania, published a socialist Yiddish newspaper Der Poylisher Yidl from the premises in Commercial Street.

[13]: 248 While earlier waves of immigration from Russia primarily consisted of political exiles, who were intent on continuing their activities in their new country, the migration of refugees from the Russian Pale of Settlement marked a significantly larger-scale movement.

While Britain continued to serve as a sanctuary for those unable to remain in Russia, anti-monarchists were succeeded by white émigrés, who represented a broad range of political beliefs.

[20]: 18  Britain admitted an estimated 15,000 refugees, a relatively low figure compared to countries such as France or Germany, as asylum was granted only under exceptional circumstances.

The author recounted his experiences in England in "Speak, Memory" and "Other Shores [ru]", with Cambridge providing the backdrop for his novels Glory and The Real Life of Sebastian Knight.

Yevgeny Zamyatin's time in Britain during World War I, spent as a naval architect on secondment, formed the basis for the works he wrote during his stay and upon his return to Russia.