Black citizens of the Russian Empire: Where did they come from and how they lived

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

There are not so few people of African descent living in Russia. Many believe that they began to join the ranks of the Russians only at the end of the twentieth century, when students from Africa and Cuba began to come to the Soviet Union and then the Russian Federation. In fact, the Russian Empire had its own blacks. True, entry into the country most often did not depend on their will.

Abram Petrovich

The most famous black man in pre-revolutionary Russia is Pushkin's great-grandfather, Ibrahim Hannibal, a military engineer. Many people know its history. The son of an African ruler, a vassal of the Turkish sultan, he and his brother were captured during the conflict between the vassal and his suzerain and ended up in Constantinople. From there the boys were taken to Moscow by the Russian ambassador. Imbued with sympathy for the history of princes abroad, Peter I became their godfather (in Moscow, boys were baptized into Orthodoxy). The brothers were named Abram and Alexey. The Polish queen became the godmother of the princes.

A few years later, Ibrahim, who chose the surname Hannibal (in honor of the famous commander), was educated in France. He served a little in the French army as a practice, after being wounded, he retired and returned to Russia - where he again entered the army. Interestingly, in life, Hannibal struck with a combination of extraordinary humanism towards his serfs (for example, he forbade corporal punishment to be applied to them) and brutal cruelty to his wife, whom he was desperately jealous of and even went to torture.

Ibrahim Hannibal built the Kronstadt Canal and during the construction he opened a hospital for workers, and later - a school for their children. He also rebuilt many military fortifications on the border with Sweden. After Peter's death, Hannibal taught mathematics and drawing to non-commissioned officers in Pernov (as the Estonian Pärnu was then called) for some time.

Ibrahim and his brother were not the only black children in Peter's court. The emperor was greatly amused by the little Africans, and he was served by several black pages bought up in the east.

Araps of the Imperial Court

The first black servants appeared at the court of the mother of the first Romanov, nun Martha. But this position was permanently fixed only a hundred years later, at the beginning of the eighteenth century. In the nineteenth, she changed and began to be called the "Arab of the Imperial Court" - now not only Africans, but also immigrants from other southern regions were accepted for the post. Under Catherine, there were ten moors in the service, under Alexander - twenty, but there were never so many of them.

The importance of the position was mainly representative: at the Russian court, the araps were neither slaves nor serfs, but foreign citizens in the service and thereby demonstrated the capabilities of their royal master. They had a high salary. The Araps saw off some guests to the royal office, opened the doors at the entrance of the kings and queens to help, and also, starting from the reign of Nikolai Pavlovich, they bought and laid out gifts under the Christmas tree. Some see this as tracing paper from the black elves who accompanied the Dutch version of Santa Claus on Christmas, others as a symbolic reminder of the magi of the hot lands who brought gifts to the newborn Jesus.

In the second half of the nineteenth century, the Arabs of the Imperial Court received their uniforms.which included red silk trousers and a shawl slung over the shoulder. As for the origin of black "Arabs", they were often Americans, for example, the great master of one of the US Masonic lodges, Nero Prince. Sometimes the children of "Arabs" continued the careers of their fathers, especially since the "Arabs" often came to work immediately with their families.

The recruitment was very bureaucratic. They demanded, in addition to filing a petition, good manners and presentable appearance, a birth certificate or a formal list of service, a certificate of fulfillment of military service at home, a residence permit. Only Christians were accepted - why the main source of "Arabs" was the United States, and not some geographically closer countries like Turkey. In addition, there were very strict requirements for growth: only the tall ones were hired.

After the revolution, some of the "Arabs of the Imperial Court" remained in Russia, and some left for their historical homeland or emigration, if their families did not come from the United States. The children of one of the Tsar's Moors, George Maria, fought during the Great Patriotic War.

By the way, according to the decree of Nicholas I, any black slave who set foot on Russian soil automatically became free and it was forbidden to enslave him. This decree was issued twenty years before the abolition of serfdom for Russian peasants. Alexander Herzen wrote: “Why is it necessary to be black in order to be a man in the eyes of the white tsar? Or why doesn't he make all the serfs into neg … s?"

Black Abkhaz

From 1810 to 1917, Abkhazia was part of the Russian Empire. She joined in seeking protection from the Ottoman Empire, however, I must say, was not always a peaceful area. For example, in the sixties of the nineteenth century, a major uprising broke out in it due to dissatisfaction with peasant reforms, after which the Abkhaz massively moved to the very Turkey from which their ancestors tried to escape.

In Abkhazia, and during the years of its stay in the Russian Empire, both before and after, there lived its own community of African origin. They live in several neighboring villages, and no one knows exactly how their ancestors ended up in Abkhazia. According to one version, they arrived there in the seventeenth century, according to another - only in the nineteenth. In any case, throughout the nineteenth century they were Russian subjects. The exact origin of their ancestors can only be established using genetic analysis, but the most popular version is about Ethiopia.

The most romantic version of the arrival of Africans in Abkhazia sounds like this. Once the slaves were driven by an Ottoman ship. He was smashed by a storm, but the slaves managed to save and gain freedom (since every black man who set foot on Russian soil, as we remember, became free by law). True, not a single route along which the Turks usually imported slaves from Africa runs past the coast of Abkhazia.

It is known that at the end of the nineteenth century, all blacks in Abkhazia spoke Abkhaz and considered themselves a variety of Abkhaz. They traditionally married local girls in the same way they married blacks from the community. The surrounding Abkhazians also did not perceive them as strangers. Visiting Russian officials gladly hired black Abkhazians as "araps", imitating the imperial court.

In our time, the career of Afro-Russians is more varied. The daughter of a prime minister, an actor from a family of athletes, a failed doctor. Black actors of Russia and their fates.