Chapter 2. Europe and Statelessness The large numbers of refugees339, already noted above and among which certainly were stateless people, remained a cause for concern among states. It is worth noting in this regard that the responses towards stateless people and refugees in principle protected both groups, often without making a distinction between them.340 In the context of the LoN, the aforementioned concern of states was met with the appointment of a High Commissioner for Russian Refugees in September 1921: Fridtjof Nansen. His task was to identify and repatriate over a million Russian refugees.341 He managed to build up institutions to this end, which essentially were a blueprint for the later established UNHCR.342 Indeed, the foundation of the High Commissioner has been viewed as “a critical turning point in the long aftermath of the war, because it was the first formal acknowledgement of international responsibility for refugees”.343 An important achievement relevant to the stateless was the introduction of the so-called ‘Nansen passport’, which was (at first) a special identity certificate for Russian refugees. The majority of these refugees, who had fled Russia because of the Civil War, were stateless and faced a multitude of problems such as lack of freedom of movement and of diplomatic protection.344 The statelessness of the Russian refugees was an issue of political debate at the time. They were formally deprived of their citizenship in December 1921 by the Bolshevik government. Recognition of statelessness of the former Russian subjects by officials of other European states was viewed as acceptance of the new Russian government as it would acknowledge the government’s right to deprive nationality of its citizens.345 Nansen had therefore emphasized that any action to address the plight of the refugees should be regarded as “humanitarian and therefore politically neutral”.346 The Nansen passport, made possible through the Arrangement with respect to the Issue of Certificates of Identity to Russian Refugees347, gave the Russian refugees some form of legal status and a travel document. Furthermore, it made burden sharing among host countries easier. In 1924, the Nansen passport was extended also to Armenian refugees – often also stateless – by the Plan for the Issue of a Certificate of 339 340 341 342 343 344 345 346 347 For a short overview of the formation of modern international refugee law in the interwar period see also Eric Fripp, Nationality and Statelessness in the International Law of Refugee Status (Hart Publishing 2016) 104–108. Carol A Batchelor, ‘Stateless Persons: Some Gaps in International Protection’ (1995) 7 International Journal of Refugee Law 232, 240. Claudena M Skran, ‘Profi les of the First Two High Commissioners’ (1988) 1 Journal of Refugee Studies 277, 280. Ibid, 280–281. Mira L Siegelberg, Statelessness. A Modern History (Harvard University Press 2020) 62. Claudena M Skran, Refugees in Inter-War Europe. The Emergence of a Regime (Clarendon Press 1995) 102–103; Peter Fitzmaurice, ‘Between the wars – The Refugee Convention of 1933: A Contemporary Analysis’ in David Keane & Yvonne McDermott (eds), The Challenge of Human Rights. Past, Present and Future (Edward Elgar 2012) 236–255, 242–243. Mira L Siegelberg, Statelessness. A Modern History (Harvard University Press 2020) 62–63. Ibid, 63. Arrangement with respect to the Issue of Certificates of Identity to Russian Refugees (signed 5 July 1922) 30 LNTS 238 (No. 855). Intersentia 65