Elena Alliloueva-Lorigan is from a Russian family steeped in the revolutionary politics of the old Soviet Union. Her great-great grandfather, Sergei Alliluyev, sheltered Vladimir Lenin during the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917, a time when he was the most wanted man in Russia.
He also assisted a little known revolutionary at the time named Joseph Dzhugashvili, who later became known to the world as Joseph Stalin.
Alliluyev’s daughter, Nadya, and Stalin married in 1919, when he was 40 and she was 18. Nadya died by suicide in 1932, apparently because she could no longer stand her husband’s cruelty.
Alliloueva-Lorigan's grandfather, Alexander Alliluyev, who died of Covid-19 last year aged 90, remembered visiting Stalin's dacha as a child and sitting on his knee. He would recall that even Stalin had a human side.
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Despite her connections to Russian history, Alliloueva-Lorigan, who has been living in Ireland for 20 years, did not hesitate to reach out and support Ukrainian refugees. She never believed her country would invade Ukraine, surmising that president Vladimir Putin would instead use the threat of force to avoid having to resort to actually using it.
“At first it was denial, we couldn’t believe this was happening. People who I spoke to were all saying the same thing – we felt so ashamed. That was the initial reaction. It was an absolute shock when it happened,” she says. “We should have listened to American spies who said he was going to invade.”
Alliloueva-Lorigan is part of a large group of Russian and Ukrainian expatriates based in Ireland who are helping refugees. They share a distain for Russia’s aggression despite their two countries being at war. The group meet daily via Zoom and share their knowledge and contacts to help people out.
Support
When Ukrainian refugees were moved from Citywest to the Emmaus Centre in Swords, some children developed stomach bugs. She liaised with the health services to ensure they got the correct treatment. She also intervened to ensure families, who were being threatened with eviction from a hotel because they had complained about the food, were allowed to stay.
Every day brings new challenges. A host family is complaining because a dog belonging to refugees is barking constantly; there are legal problems when trying to evacuate Ukrainian orphans; and many refugees can no longer leave the country because they do not have passports.
But helping is a “very natural thing to do” given the linguistic and cultural links between the countries, Alliloueva-Lorigan says.
“Speaking the language and knowing the Ukrainian mentality, it was easier for me to do than for Irish people who might not know the culture,” she adds. “For Russians like me it was, in many ways, we are a very similar people. I have not come across a single situation where people did not want me to help. Ukrainians are accepting us.”
The feedback received has been generally good. Refugees are grateful for the support, but there is perhaps not enough awareness of the trauma they have been through. Many have travelled for weeks before reaching Ireland and are desperately trying to find stability.
“After a while families try to get some kind of normal life as soon as possible,” Alliloueva-Lorigan says. “Local communities have been incredibly supportive. They help people integrate and find schools and creches.
“Unfortunately, it has happened so often that people move from temporary accommodation elsewhere and they don’t want to because they have been moving since the end of February. A child has made friends or been invited for a sleepover. It’s a very big problem for them. It has happened so often.”
Missing family
She says the prospect of the war dragging on and people potentially not being able to return to Ukraine for years causes upset, with women missing their husbands and children their fathers. One woman told her she wanted to return to Kyiv immediately as the city’s trams were back working.
Many still believe the war will be over by May 9th, when the Soviet Union's defeat of Nazi Germany on the eastern front is celebrated. There is speculation that Putin may use that date to declare some form of a victory, regardless of how far away that may be.
The defeat of Nazi Germany is central to Russia’s image of being a force for global good, Alliloueva-Lorigan says, but she believes it will be generations before the country can purge itself of the shame of the Ukraine invasion.
“When we were growing up we were told that Germans were always aggressors, Germans were bad people. Now we are going to be in that situation,” she says. “Unfortunately, there will be generalisations. It is happening already.
“It’s very hard, we know how many problems the country has. I can’t think of anything positive that will come out of this war. A lot of people are leaving Russia if they can. A lot of people don’t have confidence in the future. It all seems to go from bad from worse.”
