ABSTRACT
Once the Russians converged in Australia from two sides of the world, the diaspora community that formed, characterised by nationalism, anti-communism and a firm attachment to the Orthodox Church, looked reassuringly ‘White’. This was generally accurate, but there were some complications. In the first place, many of these ‘Whites’ had actually been raised as ‘Reds’. In the second place, there was a degree of ideological ‘Red’ presence in the Australian Russian community, which, despite its relative invisibility from the standpoint of the historian, was of concern to the dominant ‘White’ group. For many postwar Russian migrants, the church provided the backbone of Russian community in Australia. The Orthodox and nationalist influence was even more overt in the youth organisations set up by Ukrainian-born Russian Anatole Zakroczymski after his arrival from France in 1951. Sydney’s main White Russian club was the Russian House, founded in 1924 in a rented room on Pitt Street and later moving to 800 George Street.
