The paper examines the destiny of the Swiss emigrants in the Russian Empire, on the Black sea coast near Odessa, in the region then called Bessarabia, before and after the First world war. On the basis of archival documents of the Swiss State archives in Bern and the Russian archives in Saint-Petersburg, we follow the events and the position of the official authorities. On the basis of private archives, community books and letters authors analyze Swiss settler’s perception of these historical events and the options they really had so as the choices they had and they made. The relationship between Swiss settlers’ views and official authorities’ position is explored. The paper provides a novel approach linking historical sciences and cultural studies and explores new facts.