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Russian Americans

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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 Jewish, 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

During the American Civil War there were Russian soldiers who immigrated to the United States of America to take part in the war. Ivan Turchaninov became one of the most important figures in the Union Army.

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 travelled to the new world, some for political reasons, some for economical and some for a combination of both. Between 1820 and 1870 only 7550 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].

Second wave

A sizable "wave" of Russians emigrated during a short time period in the wake of the October Revolution and Civil War, known collectively as the White emigres. United States of America was the second largest destination for those immigrants, after France. Mistakebly, it was often refered to as the first wave. The head of the Russian government, Alexander Kerensky, was one of those immigrants.

Since the immigrants were of the higher classes of the Russian Empire, those immigrants helped alot to American science and culture. Inventors Vladimir Zworykin, often reffered to as "father of television", and Alexander Lodygin, were of that immigration. Russiam engineers helped to the American army. Examples are the inventors 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 local 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, like Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. From the other hand, there were Communist immigrants who were persecuted by oppoinents.

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.

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




References

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