ИСТИНА

The paper deals with the historical experience of Russian diaspora in the XXth century. Mainly referring to the personal evidences of the representatives of the so-called 1st Wave of Russian cultural emigration, the author focuses on such concepts as cultural identity, nostalgia, adaptation and assimilation.The main problems which effected Russian intellectuals' integration into Western culture of 1920-1940 still require researcher's attention. The situation of the past and the study of the cultural output of Abroad Russia is compared to that of the modernity, highlighting unsolved questions and problems to examine, such as brain drain from modern Russia.