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Shpakovich (talk | contribs)
387 edits
Would you stop deleting the harward numbers?? I noticed those are not offical numbers, but thats it. Stop hurting the concensus version!!!
Shpakovich (talk | contribs)
387 edits
I can simply delete Judaism and Islam, but i wont because theres a concensus version.
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|popplace = [[Alaska]], [[California]] ([[Los Angeles, California|Los Angeles]], [[Fort Ross, California|Fort Ross]]), [[New York City]], [[Chicago]]
|popplace = [[Alaska]], [[California]] ([[Los Angeles, California|Los Angeles]], [[Fort Ross, California|Fort Ross]]), [[New York City]], [[Chicago]]
|langs = [[American English]], [[Russian]]
|langs = [[American English]], [[Russian]]
|rels = [[Judaism|Jewish]], [[Eastern Orthodox Church|Eastern Orthodox]], [[Islam|Muslim]]
|rels = Ethnic [[Russians]]: Mostly [[Eastern Orthodox Church|Eastern Orthodox]]. Non ethnic: Mostly [[Judaism]], also [[Islam]].
|related =
|related =
}}
}}

Revision as of 16:18, 9 May 2008

Russian American
File:AmeRus2.jpg
Notable Russian Americans:
Vladimir Zworykin • Sergei Rachmaninoff • Igor Stravinsky • Igor Sikorsky
Ivan Turchaninov • Vladimir Yourkevitch • Nikolai Rezanov • Alexander Procofieff de Seversky
Russia United States
Regions with significant populations
Alaska, California (Los Angeles, Fort Ross), New York City, Chicago
Languages
American English, Russian
Religion
Ethnic Russians: Mostly Eastern Orthodox. Non ethnic: Mostly Judaism, also Islam.

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

Demographics

The Russian American or Russophone population is estimated to be around 3 million. Many Russian Americans are Jews. Many Russian Americans do not speak Russian, having immigrated to the United States more than fifty years ago. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Census 2000, 706,242 Americans indicated Russian as their spoken language.[citation needed]

Harward researchers stated that only 750,000 Russian Americans are ethnic Russians.[3]

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 Greek Catholic Church in America. Today, most of this group has become assymilated 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

One of the first Russians to move to the United States during that wave was Ivan Turchaninov, one of the leaders of the Union Army during the American Civil War, who moved to the US a few years before that war.

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. Millions traveled to the new world, 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.[4] 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[5][4], two large groups of Shtundists moved to Virginia and the Dakotas[4], and, finally in 1908-1910, the Old Believers, prosecuted as schismatics, arrived and settled in small groups in California, Oregon, Pennsylvania, and New York[4].

A notable Russian American from the low tide period before the beginning of this wave was Ivan Turchaninov, who immigrated in 1856 and became a Union army brigadier general in the American Civil War in 1861.

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] Mistakenly, it is often referred to as the first wave. 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", and Alexander Lodygin, arrived with this wave. 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 the 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 simply to improve their quality of life. 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.

post-Soviet era

A large immigration from the Soviet Union came to the United States of America after it's collapse. Even though only some of the immigrants were from Russia itself, and according to the statistics people of Russian ethnicity were in minority there while the Jews formed a majority, all of that immigration were labeled as a Russian immigration.[dubious – discuss]

A major 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[6]. 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[7], and the Russian software engineers were responsible for 30% of Microsoft producst in 2002[6].

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. ^ "US Census Factfinder".
  2. ^ "Introduction to Russian Curriculum".
  3. ^ http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~gstudies/russia/curriculum/intro.htm
  4. ^ 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.
  5. ^ Chapter 1 - The Migration in Molokans in America by John K. Berokoff, 1969
  6. ^ a b Brain Drain: history and present
  7. ^ Template:Icon ru ""Утечка мозгов" - болезнь не только российская". Экология и жизнь. 2003. Retrieved 2008-05-09.
Holy Trinity Cathedral, Chicago, an Orthodox church by Louis Sullivan.
Russian American communities
Russian American organizations




References

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