Dr. Maria Swanson

United States Naval Academy

Bio

Maria Lebedeva Swanson is an Associate Professor in the Department of Languages and Cultures at the U.S. Naval Academy. Her research focuses on Russian-Arab cultural ties and broader questions of Russian engagement with the Arab world, including migration, intellectual and cultural exchange, and historical interactions. Her current research examines Russian émigré communities in the Arab world after 1917, with particular attention to military displacement and settlement in North Africa.

From Military Service to Settlement in the French Maghreb

Abstract

This article examines the role of military displacement in the formation of first-wave Russian émigré communities in the French Maghreb after 1917. Comparing Algeria, Tunisia, and Morocco, it traces how wartime deployment, White Army dispersal, the evacuation to Bizerte, and French military service shaped migration and settlement. It argues that displaced populations did not necessarily produce lasting communities; their durability depended on employment, secondary migration, family settlement, and communal institutions that enabled émigrés to remain.