The participation of the white Russian emigration in World War II has always been one of the most controversial issues in its history. A significant part of representatives of the older generation of Russian post-revolutionary emigrants, closely associated with the military-political organizations of the emigration, considered the Nazi attack on the USSR, especially at the beginning of the war, as an instrument of struggle against Bolshevism. At the same time, emigration youth with different political views and educated in the new cultural and political landscape, took an active part in the Resistance movement in many European countries. There were many scientific specialists among them, a phenomenon that still needs to be understood. The article examines the experience of the Russian emigrants and scientists in the anti-fascist struggle and the European Resistance movement during World War II, as well as the circumstances of their awarding Soviet orders and medals in 1965. It introduces new archival documents disclosing the procedure of making decisions on awards at the level of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.