Saint Nicholas parish, Boulogne-Billancourt

The parish was founded in 1926 on the initiative of Russian refugees — soldiers, officers, and Cossacks of the White Army who, after the First World War, worked in large numbers at the Renault automobile plants. At first the services were held in adapted premises, but already in 1930 the first wooden church was built with donations from the worker-parishioners. From its very founding the community, under the guidance of remarkable pastors (such as the first rector Fr Iakov Ktitarov and Fr Alexander Chekan), carried on an active spiritual, educational, and charitable life, becoming an important gathering point for the cultural elite of the Russian emigration, among whom were the writer Boris Zaitsev and the actress Ekaterina Roshchina-Insarova.

During the Second World War the community actively helped those who were going hungry; however, in April 1943 an Allied air raid on the factory district completely destroyed the original church building. The present white-stone brick church, with its blue onion dome in the style of 16th-century Russian churches, was erected during the post-war reconstruction and consecrated at the end of the 1940s, thanks to the assistance of the French authorities. Despite the threat of demolition in the early 2000s, the efforts of the parishioners saved and restored the historic building; today this active church is officially recognised as one of the city’s landmarks.