In lieu of an abstract: The Revolution of 1917 and the ruthless civil war that followed forced many subjects of the former Russian Empire to flee. Russian-speaking refugees from different parts of the empire rushed to board the often overcrowded and sometimes scarcely seaworthy steamers that could take them from the empire’s southern ports to Istanbul. By the beginning of 1921, refugees from the former Russian Empire were almost everywhere in the city (fig. 1). It is not surprising that with such a large number of new settlers, many periodicals and other publications in the Russian language began to appear.