At the end of World War I and the Russian Revolution, he gave the first legal recognition to half a million refugees and stateless persons. Created in 1922 by the League of Nations, the Nansen passport in theory allowed nationals to recover an identity and dignity. Carl Bouchard, professor of history, talks to Jacques Beauchamp about the political turmoil caused by the collapse of four empires and the emergence of Bolshevik Russia.
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In 1921, the Norwegian Fridtjof Nansen was appointed High Commissioner for Refugees at the League of Nations. Former athlete and explorer turned scientist, hero in his country, Nansen must create international standards that will allow refugees to assert their identity in order to access services in their host country.
Traffic on the continent
The refugees come from the Russian, German, Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman Empires, which were dissolved during the redefinition of borders following the First World War. They also include, in particular, those Russians who emigrated after the revolution of 1917 and whose nationality was revoked by a decree of the new Bolshevik government in 1921. Christian minorities and Armenians, persecuted under the Ottoman Empire, also fill their ranks.
Russian refugees in the forests of Latvia, 1917
Photo : Getty Images / Hulton Archive
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Nations have very little interest, at first, for this question [des réfugiés], because they are too preoccupied with their own nationals in the context of post-war reconstruction. So there is a bit of a victim competition in this case: who is most in a state of emergency?
Children of Armenian refugees in a camp in 1915
Photo : Getty Images / Hulton Archive
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Precious paper
The Nansen passport was officially created in 1922. It is written in French, the usual diplomatic language, as well as in the language of the issuing country. To obtain it, a candidate must pass before an examination commission made up of officials and nationals of the same country as himself.
While it is in principle supposed to prevent deportation from host countries, the document is however frequently rejected by stakeholders, such as immigration officials.
During this program, Carl Bouchard tells how the passport was issued to half a million people until the end of the interwar period, and how great figures like the photographer Robert Capa and the shipowner Aristotle Onassis benefited from it.
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