How much was the wealthy elite harmed by the Bolshevik revolution?
score:16
Answers to your questions:
Were most of [the super-wealthy Russians] able to flee the country?
No. Most of them were executed by the Bolsheviks along with their families and anybody that the Bolsheviks deemed to be in league with them.
You can get a sense for the survival chances by reading about the last Grand Dukes of Russia. Remember that these are the richest and most powerful of the nobles and had far more resources than most of the nobles, yet even so, many of them died. The Grand Dukes who surived:
Nicholas Nikolaevich - lived under the protection of the French
governmentMichael Mikhailovich - exiled by the Tsar long before the war, all assets in England; went crazy after virtually all of his relatives were executed
Peter Nikolaevich - escaped with his wife and children; lived in retirement on the French riviera.
Alexander Mikhailovich - escaped with his wife and children; lived in retirement on the French riviera.
Cyril Vladimirovich - escaped with his wife and children; was a leader of the Russian exiles in France.
Andrei Vladimirovich - escaped and lived an upper middle class life in Paris.
Dmitri Pavlovich - exiled by the Tsar in 1916 after he conspired to murder Rasputin; was able to keep his wealth and lived among the emigre elite in Switzerland.
The other 7 grand dukes of Russia were all captured and executed along with their entire family and all their relatives.
or Otherwise avoid repercussions from the new regime?
A small number became Bolsheviks themselves and escaped destruction, but most such people remained under a shadow of suspicion for the rest of their lives. One example was David Bronstein (known as "Trotsky"). Bronstein was the son of a wealthy factory owner and he became an important Bolshevik. Eventually he had to flee the country and was assassinated in Mexico.
Were those that evaded the risk to their lives able to keep much of their wealth?
No. The ones who escaped took what they could in movable valuables, but typically this was only a tiny fraction of their wealth, which was mostly tied up in land or other non-movable assets. A few had foreign bonds, notably French bonds, and this allowed them to remain rich after fleeing, but this was only a small number of people. The large majority of the refugees escaped with nothing but the shirt on their backs.
When you read about rich Russians in exile, in most cases those were Russian nobles who were already living in Western Europe at the time of the revolution and just stayed where they were. In those cases they were able to maintain their lifestyles somewhat, but of course their income was terminated, so they only had what savings had been set aside.
Was their lifestyle impacted significantly?
Obviously.
The life of an exile is lonely. I remember when I was a student at Princeton many years ago, several times in the very early morning, just at dawn, staggering back from the parties, once or twice I saw an elderly woman walking a large Russian wolfhound on the greens of the campus. This was one of the Great Russians (Bolshoi Russky) who had escaped when she was a little girl. She walked in such a graceful and delicate way that you cannot imagine, yet with her gaze fixed ahead, oblivious, like she was drifting through another world, and I was only seeing her ghostly shadow. It is an isolation and loneliness beyond comprehension.
Upvote:2
If you want to know what happened to the wealthy elite during and after the revolution; read Former People by Douglas Smith.
He researched in Russian archives and interviewed relatives and descendants of the wealthy elite. Generally, what happened was that they either escaped or were jailed or sent to the gulags. However, some were able to maintain aspects of their old lifestyle (one family held secret balls in their attic) and find ways to support their families. However, they never became ardent supporters of the Communist Party.
Upvote:3
The most of assets of wealthy people as of now are stored in shares of their enterprises. So if one seizes their enterprises, the shares they have no longer posess any value.
At the time the Russian revolution happened, another valuable asset, possesd by the wealty people was land. It was similarly confiscated.
The only higly liquid asset one could possess is bank accounts, but the wealthy people usually do not store their wealths in banks. This is both because of high risk of bank's collapse (or liquidity shortage), and because the income is too small, often surpassed by inflation. This is especially true for the war time.
Even if you store some money in a bank, it would be very difficult to retrieve something and transfer it to another country after the revolution and during the war.
So, in short, anything of any value would be only property in other countries and movable valuables such as paintings, gold, diamonds etc.
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