Russian Americans

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Russian American
Regions with significant populations
Alaska, California, New York City, Chicago
Languages
American English, Russian
Religion
Eastern Orthodox, Atheism, Judaism, Islam
Related ethnic groups
Jewish American, Ukrainian American, Belarusian American

Russian Americans are Americans of Russian descent or who were born in Russia. Non-ethnic Russians in this group could be Jews, Ukrainians, Armenians, or any other ethnicity who were born and grew up in Russia (Tsarist, Soviet, or post-Soviet) and speak Russian.

Demographics

The Russian American population is reported to be around 3 million.[1], but less than a third of them were born in Russia[2]. Many Russian Americans do not speak Russian, having been born in the USA and brought up in English-speaking homes. According to the year 2000 U.S. Census, only 706,242 Americans use Russian as the primary spoken language in their homes.[3]

Harward researchers stated that only 750,000 Russian Americans were ethnic Russians in 1990.[4].

Sometimes Carpatho-Rusyns and Ukrainians who emigrated from Galicia in the 19th century and the beginning of 20th century are confused with Russian Americans.[citation needed] More recent emigres would often refer to this group as the 'starozhili', which translates to mean "old residents". This group became the pillar of the Russian Orthodox Church in America. Today, most of this group has become assimilated into the local society, with ethnic traditions continuing to survive primarily around the church.

Chronology

Russian Alaska

Main article: Russian colonization of the Americas

The territory that today is the United States state of Alaska was settled by the Russians and controlled by the Russian Empire between 1733 and 1867. Russian explorers and settlers continued to establish trading posts in British Columbia, Washington, Oregon, and California. The southermost such post was Fort Ross, established in 1812 by Ivan Kuskov of the Russian-American Company some 50 miles north of San Francisco, as an agricultural supply base for the Alaska colony. Russian Alaska was not a profitable colony, due to high transportation costs and declining animal population. After it was purchased by the United States, the majority of the Russian setters went back to Russia, but many resettled in southern Alaska, California and parts of Oregon.

First wave

The first massive wave of immigration from all areas of Europe to the United States took place in late 19th century, following the 1862 enactment of the Homestead Act. Although some immigration took place earlier -- the most notable example being Ivan Turchaninov, who immigrated in 1856 and became a Union army brigadier general -- millions traveled to the new world in the last decade of the 19th century, some for political reasons, some for economical and some for a combination of both. Between 1820 and 1870 only 7,550 Russians immigrated to the USA, but starting with 1881, immigration rate exceeded 10,000 a year: 593,700 in 1891-1900, 1,6 million in 1901-1910, 868,000 in 1911-1914, and 43,000 in 1915-1917.[5] The most prominent Russian groups that immigrated in this period were the groups seeking freedom from religious prosecution: the Russian Jews, escaping the 1881-1882 pogroms by Alexander III, moved to New York and other coastal cities, the Molokans, treated as heretics at home, settled in the Los Angeles and San Francisco areas[6][5], two large groups of Shtundists moved to Virginia and the Dakotas[5], and, finally in 1908-1910, the Old Believers, prosecuted as schismatics, arrived and settled in small groups in California, Oregon, Pennsylvania, and New York[5].

Second wave

Main article: White Emigre

A large wave of Russians immigrated in the short time period of 1917-1922, in the wake of October Revolution and Russian Civil War. This group is known collectively as the White emigres. United States of America was the second largest destination for those immigrants, after France.[citation needed] This wave is often referred to as the first wave, when discussing Soviet era immigration. The head of the Russian Provisional Government, Alexander Kerensky, was one of those immigrants.

Since the immigrants were of the higher classes of the Russian Empire, they contributed a lot to American science and culture. Inventors Vladimir Zworykin, often referred to as "father of television", Alexander M. Poniatoff, the founder of Ampex, and Alexander Lodygin, arrived with this wave. The American army benefited greatly with the arrival of such inventors as Igor Sikorsky (who invented the Helicopter and Aerosan), Vladimir Yourkevitch, and Alexander Procofieff de Seversky. Sergei Rachmaninoff and Igor Stravinsky are by many considered to be the greatest composers ever to live in the United States of America. Vladimir Nabokov, considered a novelist of the highest level, helped American literature to gain a higher status.

Soviet era

During the Soviet era there were some Soviet dissidents who immigrated to the United States of America because of political reasons, from Ayn Rand in 1926 to Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn in 1974. On the other hand, there were many Communist immigrants who fled in fear of prosecution by their opponents within the Party, including even Svetlana Alliluyeva, daughter of Soviet premier Joseph Stalin.

In the second half of the 1980's, when the collapse of the Soviet Union began, many immigrated to the United States because they belived it could work out for them better their. An notable example of this group are the Russian Five - five ice hockey players coming from an hockey empire, the Soviet Union, who left to the United States in the end of the 80's and in the 90's led the Detroit Red Wings.

One of the most well known Russian immigrants of this era is Google co-founder Sergey Brin.

In music a band whose members were Russians who immigrated to the United States at that wave was Gorky Park, who reached success.

post-Soviet era

With the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991 and the subsequent transition to free market economy by means of shock programs came hyperinflation and a series of political and economic crises of the 1990s, culminating in the financial crash of 1998. By mid-1993 between 39% and 49% of Russians were living in poverty, a sharp increase compared to 1.5% of late Soviet era[7]. This instability and bleak outcome prompted a large new wave of both political and economic emigration from Russia, and one of the major targets became the United States, which was experiencing unprecedented stock market boom in 1995-2001.

The major group of post-Soviet immigrants were the political refugees, persons who claim persecution or reasonable fear of persecution in Russia. 50,716 citizens of ex-USSR were granted political refugee status by the United States in 1990, 38,661 in 1991, 61,298 in 1992, 48,627 in 1993, 43,470 in 1994, 35,716 in 1995[8] with the trend steadily dropping to as low as 1,394 refugees accepted in 2003[9]. For the first time in history, Russians became a notable part of illegal immigration to the United States, the most common example being mail-order brides -- Russian women would advertise themselves in international marriage agency with the express purpose to marry american citizens. Nearly half of all mail-order brides to come to the United States in 1996 originated from Russia and Ukraine[10] Together with illegal immigration, the influence of the Russian Mafia became prominent in the United States.

A notable part of the 1991-2001 immigration wave consisted of scientists and engineers, who left to pursue their careers abroad, faced with extremely poor job market at home[11] coupled with the government unwilling to index fixed salaries according to inflation or even to make salary payments on time. This coincided with the surge of hi-tech industry in the United States, creating a strong Brain Drain effect. According to the National Science Foundation, there were 20,000 Russian scientists working in the United States in 2003[12], and the Russian software engineers were responsible for 30% of Microsoft products in 2002[11].

Soviet Union was a sports empire, and many prominent Russians sportsmen found great acclaim and rewards for their skills in the United States. Examples are Maria Sharapova, Alexander Ovechkin, Semen Varlamov, Alexandre Volchkov, and Andrei Kirilenko.

Russian American communities

In 2002 the AmBAR was founded, to help the Russophone community of Palo Alto.

Geography

Distribution of Russian Americans according to the 2000 census.

Apart from such settlements as Brighton Beach, concentrations of Russian Americans occur in Anchorage, Alaska; Baltimore, Maryland; Boston, Massachusetts; Bronx, New York; Brooklyn, New York; Queens, New York; Cleveland, Ohio; Western Connecticut; Chicago, Illinois; Detroit, Michigan; Los Angeles, California; Northern New Jersey; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Portland, Oregon; Sacramento, California; San Francisco, California; Seattle, Washington; South Florida and Staten Island, New York.[citation needed]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b "Selected Social Characteristics in the United States: 2006". U.S. Census American Community Survey. 2006. Retrieved 2008-05-09. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |b= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |bl= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |bo= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |cx= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |cy= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |dh= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |dt= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |dw= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |fl= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |ft= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |g= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |if= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |l= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |ms= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |pz= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |t= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |zf= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |zl= ignored (help)
  2. ^ a b "2006 ACS Study". Integrated Public Use Microdata Series. 2006. Retrieved 2006-05-09.
  3. ^ "Language Use and English-Speaking Ability 2000" (PDF). U.S. Census. 2000. Retrieved 2008-05-09.
  4. ^ "Immigration: Russia. Curriculum for Grade 6-12 Teachers". Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Harvard University. Retrieved 2008-05-09.
  5. ^ a b c d Template:Ru icon Nitoburg, E. (1999). "Русские религиозные сектанты и староверы в США". Новая и новейшая история (in Russian) (3): 34–51. Retrieved 2008-05-08.
  6. ^ Chapter 1 - The Migration in Molokans in America by John K. Berokoff, 1969
  7. ^ Branko Milanovic, Income, Inequality, and Poverty During the Transformation from Planned to Market Economy (Washington DC: The World Bank, 1998), pp.186–90.
  8. ^ "Fiscal Year 1999 Statistical Yearbook" (PDF). Department of Homeland Security Office of Immigration Statistics. Retrieved 2008-05-13.
  9. ^ "Refugees and Asylees: 2005" (PDF). Department of Homeland Security Office of Immigration Statistics. Retrieved 2008-05-13.
  10. ^ "The "Mail-Order Bride" Industry and its Impact on U.S. Immigration" (PDF). U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Retrieved 2008-05-13.
  11. ^ a b Brain Drain: history and present
  12. ^ Template:Ru icon ""Утечка мозгов" - болезнь не только российская". Экология и жизнь. 2003. Retrieved 2008-05-09.

External links

Holy Trinity Cathedral, Chicago, an Orthodox church by Louis Sullivan.
Russian American communities
Russian American organizations




References

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