ABSTRACT
The World War produced an unparalleled refugee crisis, with East Central Europe as the chief crucible of displacement. The Russian Revolution in October 1917 and the Civil War in 1918–1921 had profound consequences for refugees and the international refugee regime. Refugees and Non-governmental organizations were confronted with outright hostility in some quarters: the British undersecretary for foreign affairs, Cecil Harmsworth, derided ‘Cossacks, Kalmucks, priests, generals, judges and ladies’ whom he regarded as ‘an intolerable burden’. The refugee service bureau of the International Labour Organization found jobs for Russian refugees in France and Yugoslavia, for example. Population displacement gave rise to innovations in international refugee law and contributed to the efflorescence of non-governmental organizations. The withdrawal of the British from Palestine paved the way for the formation of the state of Israel, which helped to address the ‘problem’ of Jewish refugees, but which at the same time contributed to a prolonged and unresolved ‘Palestinian refugee problem’.
