Russians of Croatia

[6] In 1920, there began mass immigration of refugees fleeing the Soviet-controlled Russia to the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes; some of those people settled in what is now Croatia, first mainly in Dubrovnik and Split, later in Zagreb and elsewhere.

[18] In Crikvenica, an Orthodox church of St Nicholas was built in 1923–1924 specifically for Russian worshippers and survives as a building.

Notable figures of the interwar period include: Margarita Froman, a principal dancer and choreographer of the Croatian National Theatre in Zagreb; generals Alexander Adlerberg, Daniil Dratsenko and Ivan Polyakov, who consecutively headed the Zagreb chapter of the Russian All-Military Union (ROVS); counter admiral Fyodor Vyatkin (Vjatkin) who in 1931 took over as chairman of Zagreb′s chapter of the Union of Russian Officers; generals Nikolai Stremoukhov, Alexander Ozarovsky and Pavel Panchenko-Krivorotenko; Archbishop Germogen (Maximov), who became the primate of the Croatian Orthodox Church in 1942.

[23] The commander of the Corps, with headquarters in Belgrade, was Russian general Boris Shteifon, who died in Zagreb′s Esplanade hotel[24] in April 1945 while leading his men to Austria.

According to a report received by the Main Ustaša Headquarters in early 1942, in the territory of the NDH there were forty Russian colonies with about 5.500 people.

[25] Since most of the Russians in the NDH were of anti-Communist and anti-Soviet political orientation, a significant number of them had left Zagreb months before the end of WWII and the establishment of the Communist regime in Croatia, the final massive departures occurring in the autumn of 1944 and in early spring of 1945; a considerable number of those who stayed were later in 1945 subjected to reprisals and prosecution.

[33] During the period of dissolution of Yugoslavia, Croatia′media created a negative perception of those residents of Croatia who were Orthodox Christians; teaching of the Russian language in schools was largely abandoned.

[38] Chapter 16 thereof reads as follows: ″Members of national minorities, their associations and national minority councils and representatives may freely maintain contacts with people with whom they share the same ethnic, linguistic, cultural and/ or religious traits, and with legal entities based in the country of that people which engage in educational, scholarly, cultural, publishing and humanitarian activities.″[38][39][40] According to 2021 Census, there were 1,481 Russians in Croatia.