Russian Americans

Significance: Russian Americans have blended well with mainstream American society, many having peasant or industrial backgrounds similar to those of other European immigrants, while others were refugees from the Russian upper class or Jews who did not consider themselves Russian. Some immigrants were, however, suspected of promoting communism or being members of the Russian mafia.

Throughout the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries, large numbers of Russians immigrated in successive waves to the United States and Canada. Many were members of the Russian Orthodox church, and Orthodoxy remains one of the visible hallmarks of Russian immigrant communities. Its rituals and teachings are followed in Russian communities in Alaska, Los Angeles, and Brooklyn’s Brighton Beach. Nevertheless, Russian Jews were, and are, numerically the largest group of immigrants, particularly to the United States. However, because Russia was not very accepting of Jews, many of these immigrants were more likely to identify themselves as Jews rather than Russians upon entering the United States and Canada. In addition, because many came from western Russia, the so-called Pale of Settlement to which Russian Jews were restricted, which was once part of Poland-Lithuania, they might equally well have considered themselves Polish or Lithuanian Jews.

The first Russians to reach the shores of North America came as traders, adventurers, and explorers. These hardy fur traders and missionaries settled the Alaskan wilderness when that territory belonged to Russia. The first Russians settled on Kodiak Island, Alaska, in 1784, and converted many natives to the Russian Orthodox religion, which many still practiced in the late twentieth century. However, with the sale of Alaska to the United States in 1867, many of these first settlers returned to Russia.

The First Wave

A huge influx of immigrants from czarist Russia reached North America between 1881 and 1914. Almost half of these were Jews fleeing pogroms and other forms of persecution following the 1881 assassination of Czar Alexander III, for which the Jews were blamed. During this period, Jews were allowed to live only in the Pale of Settlement in western Russia, lands taken from Poland during the partitions of Poland a hundred years earlier. Most of these Jews lived in shtetls, and many were impoverished. Only about sixty-five thousand ethnic Russians left Russia during this period, most for economic reasons. Others, from the Carpathian area of the Ukraine and the eastern reaches of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, did self-identify as Russians and were adherents of the Orthodox or the Uniate religion.

The Second Wave

The second wave of immigration occurred as a result of events in Russia that made it impossible for many persons, particularly members of the upper classes, to remain there. These events were the Bolshevik Revolution of October 1917 and the Russian Civil War of 1918 to 1922. More than two million people fled the new communist nation, many to the Balkans, Western Europe, and Manchuria. Of these, approximately thirty thousand came to the United States. Among them were former White Russian soldiers (as opposed to the Red Communist armies), aristocrats, clergy, artists, and intellectuals. United in their hatred of the Bolsheviks, many intended to stay only until the Bolsheviks were ousted. Ironically, anticommunist movements in the United States often singled out these extremely anticommunist Russians for oppressive treatment, suspecting that a communist lurked behind every fur hat.

The Third Wave

The third major wave of Russian immigration resulted from the massive dislocations of World War II. Germany had at various times occupied much of the Soviet Union, captured many Russians, and made them work in forced labor camps. After the war, many of these people were forcibly returned to the Soviet Union, where they were often accused of collaboration with the enemy. Others, fearing similar oppression, chose to remain in displaced-person camps in Germany and Austria until they were allowed to immigrate to North America. This brought approximately twenty thousand Russian Americans to the shores of North America.

The Fourth Wave

In contrast to earlier emigrations from Russia and the Soviet Union, these immigrants left Russia near the end of the twentieth century without hindrance on the part of the government in power. The impetus for this emigration was in large part agreements between the United States and the Soviet Union allowing Jews to leave Russia, nominally for Israel, but often in fact for the United States. Following their lead, a number of other Russians emigrated as well. This migration caused some social disturbances in the United States because a number of Russian mafia members who were among the newcomers caused major problems for newly arrived immigrants and the population at large.

Bibliography

Bowen, Richard A. The Russian Americans. Philadelphia: Mason, 2003. Print.

Gorbis, Boris. “Barriers to the Integration of Russian-Speaking Jews in the United States.” Journal of Jewish Communal Service 89.1 (2014): 112–124. SocINDEX with Full Text. Web. 19 May 2015.

Hardwick, Susan Wiley. Russian Refuge: Religion, Migration, and Settlement on the North American Pacific Rim. Chicago: U of Chicago P, 1993. Print.

Magocsi, Paul R. The Russian Americans. New York: Chelsea, 1987. Print.

Wertsman, Vladimir, ed. The Russians in America: A Chronology and Fact Book. Dobbs Ferry: Oceana, 1977. Print.