The Russian Americans

The Russian-Americans

As of the last released comprehensive United States Census listing all nationalities, in 1990, there were over two million people claiming Russian ancestry living in America. Not included in this number was over one million people who were born in Russia. Sixty-six thousand entered the U.S. between 1980 and 1990 over 120,000 entered before 1980, slightly over 123,000 were naturalized citizens, and over 71,000 were not considered citizens of the United States.

When it comes to income and occupation the Russian-American ranks higher on the socio-economic ladder then many minorities. When it comes to occupations over half of the Russian population is in the managerial or professional field, while another third of the population works in sales. The rest of the population works in the service or labor field with the smallest bit of the population being farmers, .6 percent. In correlation the median income of a Russian-American is over 45,000 dollars, only 3.6 percent of the population lives in poverty. This can be a direct correlation to the educational attainment of the Russian-Americans 90 percent graduate high school, 49 percent have a bachelors degree, and 24 percent have a graduate degree. This is one of the highest percentages of any group that has come to the United States, except some of the Asian countries.

The Russians started to look for the American dream in the seventeenth century when Semen Dezhnev set out to find a route through the Bering Straight, although he never made it anywhere close to the United States, he did find the Northern-most point of Siberia, which is named after him. The next expedition was launched by Vitus Bering, and although he died while searching for America some of his crewmates did find the Aleutian islands and started the fur rush of 1973. In two years many fur industries were set up and people started to establish small communities in Alaska. In 1794 eight monks arrived to one of those small towns, Kodiak and started a Russian Orthodox mission. In seventy years when Alaska was sold to the U.S. the Orthodox religion was so ingrained into the people that it was, and still is the predominant religion in the area.

After the sale of Alaska, the immigration of Russians slowed until the beginning of the twentieth century and the beginning of Communism is Russia. In the beginning it was mostly laborers and farmers and then came the former Russian army and naval officers, highly qualified engineers and scientists, actors and composers, musicians and painters, and a number of world-famous singers and ballet dancers. After that wave there was no more ethnic Russian immigrants because the Soviets banned all immigration. The end of World War II triggered another wave of immigrants that were as qualified as the previous wave. These people were fleeing the horrors of the Soviet terror and when they arrived in America were staunch anti-Communists. Many of these people were sent back to the USSR because Stalin put a clause in the Yalta agreement which required the return of citizen of the Allied nations to their home countries after the war, by force, if necessary. With this decision to make many Russian's committed suicide rather then going back to their home country.

After World War II America went into a high sense of hatred for the Russian population. When many Americans saw the word Russia they saw the word Communist or Soviet. This caused much tension and harm to the loyal Russian-Americans who had been in the United States for years and did not see themselves as members of the USSR. This extreme hatred of the Soviet