Русские американцы (Russian) | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Total population | |
| 2,432,733 self-reported[1] 0.741% of the U.S. population (2019) 391,641 Russian-born[2] | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
| |
| Languages | |
| American English,Russian | |
| Religion | |
| Predominantly:Eastern Orthodoxy (Russian Orthodox Church,Orthodox Church in America) Minority:Old Believers (Russian Orthodox Old-Rite Church),Catholic Church (Russian Greek Catholic Church),Protestantism,Judaism,Shamanism,Tengrism | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Belarusian Americans,Rusyn Americans,Ukrainian Americans,Russian Jews, Alaskan Creoles |
Russian Americans areAmericans of full or partialRussian ancestry. The term can apply to recentRussian immigrants to theUnited States, as well as to those that settled in the 19th-centuryRussian possessions in what is nowAlaska. Russian Americans comprise the largestEastern European andEast Slavic population in the United States, the second-largest Slavic population afterPolish Americans, the nineteenth-largest ancestry group overall, and the eleventh-largest fromEurope.[3]
In the mid-19th century, waves of Russian immigrants fleeing religious persecution settled in the US, includingRussian Jews andSpiritual Christians. From 1880 to 1917, within the wave of European immigration to the US that occurred during that period, a large number of Russians immigrated primarily for economic opportunities. These groups mainly settled in coastal cities, includingBrooklyn (New York City) on theEast Coast, andLos Angeles,San Francisco,Portland, Oregon, and various cities inAlaska, on theWest Coast, as well as inGreat Lakes cities, such asChicago andCleveland. After theRussian Revolution of 1917 and theRussian Civil War of 1917–1922, manyWhite émigrés also arrived, especially in New York,Philadelphia, andNew England. Emigration from Russia subsequently became very restricted during theSoviet era (1917–1991). However, after thedissolution of the Soviet Union at the end of theCold War, immigration to the United States increased considerably.
In several major US cities, manyJewish Americans who trace their heritage back to Russia and other Americans of East Slavic origin, such asBelarusian Americans andRusyn Americans, sometimes identify as Russian Americans. Additionally, certain non-Slavic groups from thepost-Soviet space, such asArmenian Americans,Georgian Americans, andMoldovan Americans, have a longstanding historical association with the Russian American community.
According to the Institute of Modern Russia in 2011, the Russian American population is estimated to be 3.13 million.[4] The American Community Survey of the US census shows the total number of people in the US age 5 and over speaking Russian at home to be slightly over 900,000, as of 2020.
Many Russian Americans do not speakRussian,[5] having been born in the United States and brought up in English-speaking homes. In 2007, however, Russian was the primary spoken language of 851,174 Americans at home, according to the US census.[4] According to the Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies atHarvard University, 750,000 Russian Americans were ethnicRussians in 1990.[6]
TheNew York City metropolitan area has historically been the leading metropolitan gateway for Russian immigrantslegally admitted into the United States.[7]Brighton Beach, Brooklyn continues to be the most important demographic and cultural center for the Russian American experience. However, as Russian Americans have climbed insocioeconomic status, thediaspora from Russia and other former Soviet-bloc states has moved toward more affluent parts of the New York metropolitan area, notablyBergen County,New Jersey. Within Bergen County, the increasing size of the Russian immigrant presence in its hub ofFair Lawn prompted a 2014April Fool's satire titled, "Putin Moves Against Fair Lawn".[8]
Sometimes,Carpatho-Rusyns andUkrainians who emigrated fromCarpathian Ruthenia in the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century identify as Russian Americans. More recent émigrés would often refer to this group as thestarozhili 'old residents'. This group became the pillar of theRussian Orthodox Church in America.[citation needed] Today, most of this group has become assimilated into the local society, with ethnic traditions continuing to survive primarily around the church.
Russian-born population in the US since 2010:[9][2]
| Year | Number |
|---|---|
| 2010 | 383,166 |
| 2011 |  399,216 |
| 2012 |  399,128 |
| 2013 | 390,934 |
| 2014 | 390,977 |
| 2015 | 386,529 |
| 2016 | 397,236 |
| 2017 | 403,670 |
| 2018 | 391,094 |
| 2019 | 391,641 |
Themedian household income in 2017 for Americans of Russian descent is estimated by the US census as $80,554.[10]
| Ethnicity | Household Income | College degrees (%) |
|---|---|---|
| Russian | $80,554 | 60.4 |
| Polish | $73,452 | 42.5 |
| Czech | $71,663 | 45.4 |
| Serbian | $79,135 | 46.0 |
| Slovak | $73,093 | 44.8 |
| Ukrainian | $75,674 | 52.2 |
| White non-Hispanic | $65,845 | 35.8 |
| Total US population | $60,336 | 32.0 |
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The territory that today is the US state of Alaska was settled by Russians and controlled by theRussian Empire; Russian settlers include ethnic Russians but also Russified Ukrainians, Russified Romanians (from Bessarabia), andIndigenous Siberians,[citation needed] includingYupik,Mongolic peoples,Chukchi,Koryaks,Itelmens, andAinu.Georg Anton Schäffer of theRussian-American Company built three forts inKauai,Hawaii. The southernmost such post of the Russian-American Company wasFort Ross, established in 1812 byIvan Kuskov, some 50 miles (80 km) north ofSan Francisco, as anagricultural supply base for Russian America. It was part of the Russian-America Company, and consisted of four outposts, including Bodega Bay, the Russian River, and the Farallon Islands. There was never an established agreement made with the government ofNew Spain which produced great tension between the two countries. Spain claimed the land but had never established a colony there. The well-armed Russian fort prevented Spain from removing the Russians living there. Without the Russians' hospitality, the Spanish colony would have been abandoned because their supplies had been lost when Spanish supply ships sank in a large storm off the South American coast. After theindependence of Mexico, tensions were reduced and trade was established with the new government ofMexican California.
Russian America was not a profitable colony because of high transportation costs and the declining animal population. After it waspurchased by the United States in 1867, most Russian settlers went back to Russia, but some resettled in southern Alaska and California. Included in these were the first miners and merchants of theCalifornia gold rush.[citation needed] All descendants of Russian settlers from Russian Empire, including mixed-race with partialAlaska Native blood, totally assimilated to the American society. Most Russians in Alaska today are descendants of Russian settlers who came just before, during, and/or after Soviet era; two thirds of the population of town of Alaska namedNikolaevsk are descendants of recent Russian settlers who came in the 1960s.
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The first massive wave of immigration from all areas of Europe to the United States took place in the late 19th century. Although some immigration took place earlier – the most notable example beingIvan Turchaninov, who immigrated in 1856 and became a United States Armybrigadier general during the Civil War– millions traveled to the new world in the last decade of the 19th century, some for political reasons, some for economic reasons, and some for a combination of both. Between 1820 and 1870 only 7,550 Russians immigrated to the United States, 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.[11]
The most prominent Russian groups that immigrated in this period were groups from Imperial Russia seeking freedom from religious persecution. These includedRussian Jews, escaping the 1881–1882pogroms, who moved toNew York City and other coastal cities; the Spiritual Christians, treated asheretics at home, who settled largely in the Western United States in the cities ofLos Angeles, San Francisco,[11][12] andPortland, Oregon;[13] two large groups ofShtundists who moved toVirginia and theDakotas,[11] and mostly between 1874 and 1880 German-speakingAnabaptists,Russian Mennonites andHutterites, who left the Russian Empire and settled mainly inKansas (Mennonites), theDakota Territory, andMontana (Hutterites). Finally in 1908–1910, theOld Believers, persecuted as schismatics, arrived and settled in small groups in California,Oregon (particularly theWillamette Valley region),[13]Pennsylvania, and New York.[11] Immigrants of this wave includeIrving Berlin, legend of American songwriting andAndré Tchelistcheff, influential Californian winemaker.
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World War I dealt a heavy blow to Russia. Between 1914 and 1918, starvation and poverty increased in all parts of Russian society, and soon many Russians questioned the War's purpose and the government's competency. The war intensifiedanti-Semitic sentiment. Jews were accused of disloyalty and expelled from areas in and near war zones. Furthermore, much of the fighting between Russia, and Austria and Germany took place in Western Russia in the JewishPale of Settlement. World War I uprooted half a million Russian Jews.[14] Because of the upheavals of World War I, immigration dwindled between 1914 and 1917. But after the war, hundreds of thousands of Jews began leaving Europe and Russia again for the US, modern-day Israel and other countries where they hoped to start a new life.[15]
A large wave of Russians immigrated in the short time period of 1917–1922, in the wake ofOctober Revolution andRussian Civil War. This group is known collectively as theWhite émigrés. The US was the third largest destination for those immigrants, after France and Serbia.[citation needed] This wave is often referred to as the first wave, when discussing Soviet era immigration. The head of theRussian Provisional Government,Alexander Kerensky, was one of those immigrants.
Since the immigrants were of the higher classes of theRussian Empire, they contributed significantly to American science and culture. InventorsVladimir Zworykin, often referred to as "father of television",Alexander M. Poniatoff, the founder ofAmpex, andAlexander Lodygin, arrived with this wave. The US military benefited greatly with the arrival of such inventors asIgor Sikorsky (who invented the practicalHelicopter),Vladimir Yourkevitch, andAlexander Procofieff de Seversky.Sergei Rachmaninoff andIgor Stravinsky are by many considered to be among the greatest composers ever to live in the United States of America. The novelistVladimir Nabokov, the violinistJasha Heifetz, and the actorYul Brynner also left Russia in this period.
As with first and second wave, if the White émigré left Russia to any country, they were still considered first or second wave, even if they ended up moving to another country, including the US at a later time. There was no 'strict' year boundaries, but a guideline to have a better understanding of the time period. Thus, 1917-1922 is a guideline. There are Russians who are considered second wave even if they arrived after 1922 up to 1948.
During theSoviet era, emigration was prohibited, and limited to very few defectors anddissidents who immigrated to theUnited States of America and otherWestern Bloc countries for political reasons. Immigration to the US from Russia was also severely restricted via theNational Origins formula introduced by the US Congress in 1921. The chaos and depression that plagued Europe following the conclusion of World War II drove many native Europeans to immigrate to the United States. After the war, there were about 7 million displaced persons ranging from various countries throughout continental Europe.[16] Of these 7 million, 2 million were Russian citizens that were sent back to the USSR to be imprisoned, exiled, or even executed having been accused of going against their government and country.[17] Roughly 20,000 Russian citizens immigrated to the United States immediately following the conclusion of the war.[18] Following the war, tensions between the United States and the then Soviet Union began to rise to lead to the USSR placing an immigration ban on its citizens in 1952.[18] The immigration ban effectively prevented any citizen or person under the USSR from immigrating to the United States. This came after a large percentage of Russian immigrants left for the United States specifically leaving the USSR embarrassed at the high percentage of Russian citizens emigrating. After the immigration ban was placed into effect, any Russian citizen that attempted to or planned to leave Russia was stripped of citizenship, barred from having any contact with any remaining relatives in the USSR, and would even make it illegal for that individual's name to be spoken.[19] Some fled theCommunist regime, such asVladimir Horowitz in 1925 orAyn Rand in 1926, or were deported by it, such asJoseph Brodsky in 1972, orAleksandr Solzhenitsyn in 1974, some were communists themselves, and left in fear of prosecution, such asNKVD operativeAlexander Orlov who escaped the purge in 1938[20] orSvetlana Alliluyeva, daughter ofJoseph Stalin, who left in 1967. Some were diplomats and military personnel who defected to sell their knowledge, such as the pilotsViktor Belenko in 1976 andAleksandr Zuyev in 1989.
Following the international condemnation of the Soviet reaction toDymshits–Kuznetsov hijacking affair in 1970, the Soviet Union temporarily loosened emigration restrictions for Jewish emigrants, which allowed nearly 250,000 people leave the country,[21] escaping covert antisemitism. Some went to Israel, especially at the beginning, but most chose the US as their destination, where they received the status ofpolitical refugees. This lasted for about a decade, until very early 1980s. Emigrants included the family ofGoogle co-founderSergey Brin, which moved to the US in 1979, citing the impossibility of an advanced scientific career for a Jew.[citation needed] By the 1970s, relations between the USSR and the United States began to improve and the USSR relaxed its emigration ban, permitting a few thousand citizens to emigrate to the United States.[18] However, just as had happened 20 years prior, the USSR saw hundreds of thousands of its citizens emigrate to the United States during the 1970s.[18] The Soviet Union then created the "diploma tax" which charged any person that had studied in Russia and was trying to emigrate a hefty fine. This was mainly done to deter Soviet Jews who tended to be scientists and other valued intellects from emigrating to Israel or the West.[16] Due to the USSR suppressing its citizens from fleeing the USSR, the United States passed theJackson-Vanik amendment to theTrade Act of 1974. The amendment stipulated that the United States would review the record of human rights before permitting any special trade agreements with countries with non-market economies.[22] As a result, the USSR was pressured into allowing those citizens that wanted to flee the USSR for the United States to do so, with a cap on the number of citizens allowed to leave per year.[23] The Jackson-Vanik amendment made it possible for the religious minorities of the USSR such as Roman-Catholics, Evangelical Christians, and Jews to emigrate to the United States.[18] It effectively kept emigration from the USSR to the United States open and as a result, from 1980 to 2008 some 1 million people emigrated from the former Soviet Union to the United States.[18]
The 1970s witnessed 51,000 Soviet Jews emigrate to the United States, a majority after the Trade Agreement of 1974 was passed.[22] The majority of the Soviet Jews that emigrated to the United States went to Cleveland.[22] Here, chain migration began to unfold as more Soviet Jews emigrated after the 1970s, concentrating in the eastern suburbs of Cleveland.[22] The majority of Soviet Jews that had arrived were educated and held college degrees.[22] These new immigrants would go onto work in important industrial businesses in the city such as BP America and General Electric Co. Other Russian and later post-Soviet immigrants found work in theCleveland Orchestra or theCleveland Institute of Music as professional musicians and singers.[22][24]
The slowBrezhnev stagnation of the 1970s andMikhail Gorbachev's followingpolitical reforms since the mid-1980s prompted an increase of economic immigration to the United States, where artists and athletes defected or legally emigrated to the US to further their careers: ballet starsMikhail Baryshnikov in 1974 andAlexander Godunov in 1979, composerMaxim Shostakovich in 1981, hockey starAlexander Mogilny in 1989 and the entireRussian Five later, gymnastVladimir Artemov in 1990, glam metal bandGorky Park in 1987, and many others.
| Year | Speakers |
|---|---|
| 1910a | 57,926 |
| 1920a | 392,049 |
| 1930a | 315,721 |
| 1940a | 356,940 |
| 1960a | 276,834 |
| 1970a | 149,277 |
| 1980[25] | 173,226 |
| 1990[26] | 241,798 |
| 2000[27] | 706,242 |
| 2011[28] | 905,843 |
| ^a Foreign-born population only[29] | |
Withperestroika, a mass Jewish emigration restarted in 1987. The numbers grew very sharply, leading to the United States forbidding entry to those emigrating from the USSR on Israeli visa, starting October 1, 1989. Israel withheld sending visa invitations from the beginning of 1989 claiming technical difficulties. After that the bulk of Jewish emigration went to Israel, nearing a million people in the following decade. However, the conditions for Soviet refugees belonging to several religious minorities - including Jews, Baptists, Pentecostalists, and Greek Catholics - were eased by theLautenberg Amendment passed in 1989 and renewed annually. Those who could claim family reunion could apply for the direct US visa, and were still receiving thepolitical refugee status in the early 1990s. 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[30] with the trend steadily dropping to as low as 1,394 refugees accepted in 2003.[31] For the first time in history, Russians became a notable part ofillegal immigration to the United States.
With thefall of the Soviet Union in 1991 and the subsequent transition to free market economy camehyperinflation and a series of political and economic crises of the 1990s, culminating in thefinancial crash of 1998. By mid-1993 between 39% and 49% of Russians were living inpoverty, a sharp increase compared to 1.5% of the late Soviet era.[32] 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 an unprecedentedstock market boom in 1995–2001.
A notable part of the 1991—2001 immigration wave consisted of scientists and engineers who, faced with extremely poor job market at home[33] coupled with the government unwilling to index fixed salaries according to inflation or even to make salary payments on time, left to pursue their careers abroad. This coincided with thesurge of hi-tech industry in the United States, creating a strongbrain drain effect. According to theNational Science Foundation, there were 20,000 Russian scientists working in the United States in 2003,[34] and the Russian software engineers were responsible for 30% ofMicrosoft products in 2002.[33] Skilled professionals often command a significantly higher wage in the US than in Russia.[35] The number of Russian migrants with university educations is higher than that of US natives and other foreign born groups.[36]
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51% of lawful Russian migrants obtain permanent residence from immediate family member of US citizens, 20% obtain it from the Diversity Lottery, 18% obtain it through employment, 6% are family sponsored, and 5% are refugee and asylum seekers.[37]
The Soviet Union was a sports empire, and many prominent Russian sportspeople found great acclaim and rewards for their skills in the United States. Examples areAnna Kournikova,Maria Sharapova,Alexander Ovechkin,Alexandre Volchkov, andAndrei Kirilenko.Nastia Liukin was born in Moscow, but came to America with her parents as a young child, and developed as a champion gymnast in the US.
On 27 September 2022, White House press secretaryKarine Jean-Pierre encouraged Russian men fleeing their home country to avoid being drafted to apply for asylum in the United States.[38] In early 2023, the Biden administration resumed deportations ofRussians who had fled Russia due tomobilization andpolitical persecution.[39]
Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the persecution of Russian citizens who disagree with the policies of Russian leaderVladimir Putin has increased significantly. For example, in early 2024, ballet dancerKsenia Karelina, a dual American-Russian citizen and resident of Los Angeles, was arrested while visiting family in Russia and charged with treason for sending $51.80 toRazom, aNew York City-based nonprofit organization that sends humanitarian assistance toUkraine.[40] She initially faced life in prison, but pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 12 years in prison.[41] In July 2024, Russian-American journalistAlsu Kurmasheva was sentenced to 6.5 years in prison forspreading "false information" about Russia's military operations in Ukraine.[42]
Communities with high percentages of people of Russian ancestry
The top US communities with the highest percentage of people claiming Russian ancestry are:[43]
US communities with the most residents born in Russia
Top US communities with the most residents born in Russia are:[47]
Apart from such settlements asBrighton Beach, Brooklyn, concentrations of Russian Americans can be found inBergen County, New Jersey;Queens;Staten Island;Anchorage, Alaska;Baltimore;Boston;The Bronx; other parts ofBrooklyn;Chicago;Cleveland;Detroit;Los Angeles;Beverly Hills;Miami;Milwaukee;Minneapolis;Palm Beach;Houston;Dallas;Orlando;Philadelphia;Pittsburgh;Portland, Oregon;[48]Sacramento;San Francisco;Raleigh and Research Triangle RegionNorth Carolina, andSeattle.
In a move certain to carry dire geopolitical consequences for the world, the Russian Federation has moved troops into the 32,000-person borough of Fair Lawn, New Jersey, only days after annexing Crimea and strengthening its troop positions along the Ukrainian border.
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