Driving northwest from Montevideo, toward the Uruguay River, you’ll eventually come across Сан-Хавьер, or San Javier, a sleepy town founded in 1913 when a group of Christian refugees fled the Russian Empire to settle on the Uruguay-Argentina border. The largest autonomous Russian colony in South America, San Javier is steeped in history and tradition but is facing present-day turbulence due to the ongoing Russo-Ukrainian war.
Some 98 percent of the town’s 1,800 inhabitants are of Slavic descent, encompassing Russia, Ukraine, and other former Soviet nations. “We have neighbors who see Russia, but also Ukraine, as the motherland of their ancestors, which still generates a romantic approach to their European roots,” says Leonardo Martínez, San Javier’s tourism director.
“Of course, they see everything to do with the war with great concern. But they don’t take sides in the conflict. All they want is peace and the end of the war.”
The town was originally formed by a group of 300 families...
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