People · Russian consul-general, leader of the Russian community
Victor Fedorovich Grosse
格罗思1869–1931
Russian consul-general at Shanghai who stayed on after his government lost recognition and became the practical leader of Shanghai's Russian refugees.
Victor Fedorovich Grosse (格罗思, Géluósī) was the last Russian consul-general in Shanghai under the old regime and, for the next decade, the nearest thing the city’s Russian refugees had to a leader.
A career diplomat, he arrived in China in 1894 and served in Tianjin, Yantai, Newchwang and Yokohama before reaching Shanghai. When the Chinese government stopped recognising tsarist diplomats he stayed in the former consulate and helped Chinese officials deal with Russian residents. When China and the Soviet Union established relations in July 1924 he moved out and took the chairmanship of a committee protecting Russian refugees’ rights, as well as the presidency of the Russian Chamber of Commerce.
In January 1925 the Shanghai Municipal Council hired him as its adviser on Russian affairs. During the May Thirtieth strike of that year, the Council asked him to recruit Russians, and he found nearly a thousand to take the places of striking Chinese workers. He died in 1931.