“Its not a Just a different country, its a different planet:”

Immigrants from the Former Soviet Union in the US.

Russian Immigrants in a New Century

Nearly 3 million people claimed Russian ancestry in the 1990 US Census. (Could we get 2000 figures?)Russians are the only group ranking in the top ten of migrant nationalities during both the first and last decades of the twentieth century. Moreover, Russian immigrants in the US are an extremely diverse population, who come to the US for different reasons, carry with them distinct skills and opinions and adapt to the US in strikingly different ways.

Motives for Emigration

Migrants and refugees from any country are a self-selected group. The life stories selected for this book clearly emphasize the high levels of education, ambition and independence of Russian migrants. In addition to their being more urban and educated than the typical Russian, a great many come from ethnic and religious minority groups. That is, they are typically not members of the Russian Orthodox Church. In Russia, such minorities were long subject to harsh treatment, both informally, from the religious majority, and institutionally, as a consequence of government policies. 
In fact, while millions of persons have come to the US from Russia in the last 120 years, less than 20 percent of these are ethnically Russian. About half are Jews. Others are Catholics, Protestants, Latvians, Poles, and Armenians. While immersed in Russian culture and language, members of these groups were not fully accepted as Russians, while in Russia. Nevertheless, they have often made significant contributions to Russian-American life and as such, must be considered as important parts of the Russian emigrant population. The US has never been the sole destination for Russian emigrants. Since the 1970s, hundreds of thousands of Russians and Soviets have left their homeland not only for the US, but also for Canada, Europe and elsewhere. About a million have settled in Israel. 
Emigration is generally the result of a complex of "push" factors that encouraged exit as well as the "pull" extended by desirable Western locations. Prior to the fall of communism, push factors included personal and institutional discrimination, blocked mobility, a low standard of living, and a repressive political environment. After the fall, economic collapse and fear of violence became the driving factors.
Pulls that motivate emigration include political and religious freedom, the presence of friends or relatives overseas, a high standard of living, the availability of resettlement services, and a stimulating and secure social environment. Russian emigrants with families almost universally claimed that their children's future -- not personal religious or political freedom or even economic opportunity -- was their primary reason for emigrating. Prior to the downfall of the Soviet system, emigrant parents told of their willingness to sacrifice their own relatively secure status and the easy retirement of their parents in order to improve their children's life chances. In contrast to these familial reasons for leaving, other Russians refer to more personal motives for exit, such as a desire to start life anew or even a fascination with some American cultural form like jazz or psychology. 

Russian Immigrants in Historical Context

Russian emigration to the US has been shaped by a series of historical developments. The first Russians came to the west coast, exploring Alaska, the Pacific Northwest and California. Starting in the 1880s, political and economic turmoil, coupled with government-sanctioned anti-Jewish riots called pogroms, caused millions to leave to eastern North America. Early migrants represented a wide range of social groups including urban sophisticates and rural peasants, Jews and Christians, socialists and Communists. Following the Russian revolution in 1917, those opposed to the Communist regime fled. However, restrictive immigration policies in the U.S. made entry difficult. 
From the 1930s through the 1950s, the Soviet Union was controlled by Joseph Stalin, a ruthless and paranoid dictator who transformed the country’s political, military, economic and social organization while executing or jailing thousands who he felt were threatening or disloyal. The Soviet Union was able defend itself against the Nazis under Stalin’s leadership. However, the dictator’s actions disillusioned and terrorized the country’s intelligentsia as well as its rank and file. Several hundred thousand fled, entering the US during the late 1940s and early 1950s (the second wave).
From the late 1950s until the early 1980s, Soviet society went through a series of changes in leadership and political climate, during which opportunities for open expression of ideas, contact with the West, and emigration expanded and contracted by turns. Then in 1985, Mikhail Gorbachev became general secretary of the Communist party. Embracing policies of glastnost (openness) and perestroika (economic restructuring), he sought to reform the Soviet system. During this time, possibilities for emigration, travel, free enterprise and self-expression became much greater than ever before. Rather than being strengthened by these innovations, the system fell apart.
Since about 1990, many of the countries that had been joined together to form the Soviet Union became self-governing. Others, notably Chechnya, are engaged in protracted conflicts intended to secure their independence. Initial optimism about social and economic freedom in the former USSR has been shattered by political and economic crises, as once-powerful Soviet institutions collapsed and corruption became rampant. Living standards have fallen so much that life expectancy has actually declined. 
And while repressive and bureaucratic aspects of Soviet life have been attenuated, so have many of its positive attributes, including education, the cultural climate and public safety. An extensive Mafia now controls many aspects of economic life. Many Soviet-era policies that benefited women -- including opportunities for education and work -- have withered away. As a result, women have lost a disproportionate number of high status jobs. Meanwhile, the media increasingly idealizes docile, seductive and home-focused females. Self-confident and assertive women are portrayed as rigid and fanatical throwbacks to the communist era. 
Another consequence of the post-Soviet period is the rise of intolerant political movements. Along with the new-found freedoms of being able to run businesses, travel overseas and declare political opinions, Russia citizens now also have the opportunity to openly express (and often act on) their nationalist, racist and anti-Semitic beliefs. While the administration of Russian President Vladimir Putin (former director of the KGB -- the Soviet national police force) has enhanced public order, ethnic and religious minorities have been subject to continued oppression.  At the same time, media workers, the staff of human rights organizations, environmentalists, scientists and foreigners have been harassed and accused of spying. Economic conditions continue to stagnate, increasing the possibility of political instability. Surveys have found that about half of Russia’s citizens find the present state of their country to be no better than during the Communist period. Such chaotic conditions continue to encourage Russians to seek their fortunes overseas. 

Adaptation to America

First-Wave Arrivals

Russians who arrived in the US prior to the 1920s followed social patterns similar to those of other Southern and Eastern migrants of the same period. Jews settled in large cities of the Northeast and Midwest, working in garment factories and small business. Non-Jewish Russians, many of rural origins, found work as laborers in mills, meatpacking, and construction industries in the large cities of the East, Midwest and California or were employed in mines, railroads, food processing and lumber in the Rocky Mountain and Western states. The children and grandchildren of Russian immigrants, like the young people of other immigrant groups, often moved away from ethnically-defined urban neighborhoods and into the suburbs. Those of Jewish ethnicity tended to merge with American co-religionists and did not emphasize their Russian heritage. 
Meanwhile, due to America’s six decades of political conflict with the former Soviet Union (termed The Evil Empire by former president Ronald Reagan), Americans of Russian descent have been subject to particular hostility. In the public mind, Russian Americans were frequently associated with Socialism, Anarchism or Communism and as such, were considered to be both un-American and dangerous. As a result, numerous Russian aliens were deported. Because of the negative image of their homeland, many Russian Americans felt forced to abandon their heritage in favor of total assimilation. The consequences of this were disastrous for ethnic communal organizations because public displays of Russian heritage became taboo. 

Recent Russian Immigrants
The nearly 400,000 persons from the former Soviet Union who have settled in the United States since the mid 1960s have arrived in two distinct flows. The first group, who entered from about 1972 to 1986, came as refugees from a functioning and highly restrictive communist nation. Since the beginning of the glastnost era, thousands more have left a society marked by increases in both freedom and social disorganization. 
Until the late 1980s, the former Soviet Union carefully controlled emigration and even short-term travel abroad. Consequently, emigrants were limited to a few high level defectors and those permitted to leave on the basis of national or ethnic membership. During this period, the Cold War -- which refers to the political and ideological conflict between communist and capitalist nations from the 1940s until the late 1980s -- shaped the West’s reception of Soviet citizens. Seeking to discredit the Soviet regime, the US offered asylum to oppressed and discontented individuals and groups in the former USSR. The image of millions of religion and freedom-seeking Jews, Christians, artists and political dissidents being held against their will behind the "iron curtain" provided a powerful indictment of the Soviet Union. To facilitate their adjustment, the US Government offered these Soviet refugees a package of benefits including permanent residency, resettlement assistance, health care and job training.
Priority was given to selected groups of former Soviets that the US Congress has identified as likely targets of persecution. These include Jews, Evangelical Christians, Ukrainian Catholics and followers of the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church. Eligible persons with close, legal-resident relatives (parent, spouse, children, siblings, grandparents and grandchildren) in the US were granted priority for entry. .
Most Russians who have entered the US since 1970 are characterized by very high levels of education -- often in technical and professional fields. As such, after a short period of learning about American culture and the English language, their economic progress has been impressive, yielding near-universal entry into the American middle class. Many find professional and technical positions in medicine, engineering, computer programming and small business.
In contrast to non-white migrants to the US -- who confront racial minority status as they cope with life in their new home -- Russians enjoy the privilege of white skin. Members of Russian ethnic and religious minorities -- including Jews, Armenians, Catholics and Protestants -- enjoy a relatively higher status in the US than they did prior to emigration. Despite their generally successful adjustment to the US, Russian immigrants observe and are not always happy with the vast differences between these two nations. Several describe their culture shock with the popular aphorism “the US is not just a different country, it’s a different planet.”

Immigrants Look Back

The history of the Soviet Union is punctuated by a catalogue of cataclysmic events including war, revolution, failed economic plans, show trials, the jailing of dissidents, the Hitler-Stalin pact, (whereby Communist Russia and Nazi Germany agreed not to attack each other during the late 1930s and early 1940s) a legacy of corruption, and Chernobyl -- the worst nuclear accident in history. Nevertheless, the country also accomplished a lot, and, as clearly evident in these interviews, inspired a great deal of affection and pride for Russia’s people, culture, education, and science, if not its political and economic system. 
The pride in the educational and scientific system is well-founded. For example, Soviet scientists were able to put a satellite and a manned capsule into earth orbit before the United States. Today, leading computer companies, university departments, hospitals and symphony orchestras in many countries are staffed by the graduates of Soviet universities and institutes. Former Soviets, such as Olympic swimmer Lenny Krayzelburg who won gold medals in the 2000 games, have brought athletic honors to the US. Even school-aged immigrants find that they are years ahead of their American-born counterparts in math, science and other subjects.
Further, despite the fact that many emigrants from the Soviet Union complained of discrimination, the Soviet system did provide significant opportunities for education and career advancement for an ethnically diverse population, (even while demanding that minorities abandon their own religious, linguistic and cultural practices in favor of the atheistic Russified style of the Communist elite). Repudiating many forms of gender and ethnic discrimination, the Soviet Union provided opportunity and advanced training for women and members of ethnic minority groups in prestigious fields such as the arts, music, medicine, science and engineering. 
Consequently, despite their dislike of the Soviet system, most Soviet émigrés remain devoted to Russian language, culture, landscape, and social forms. Even those who have migrated to the US proudly display their Soviet war-time medals at Veterans Day parades, demonstrating a remarkable degree of patriotism towards a country that they left as refugees.

From Empty Shelves to Consumers’ Paradise 

As is evident in many of these interviews, Soviet citizens were proud of their ability to "make do" and enjoy a high standard of living in the USSR despite the discrimination, war, shortages and purges that they had endured. Often, they became skillful manipulators of the system, and described their access to luxuries such as a car, a dacha (summer house), Western and Japanese consumer goods, a rich cultural life and the resources required to provide opportunities for their children. 
As Erving Goffman pointed out in Asylums, the sense of accomplishment a person derives from obtaining scarce privileges or goods through unconventional means is often more valuable than the actual possession of the good or privilege in itself. In maintaining a decent standard of living, a Soviet citizen was able to prove the strength of his or her character and an ability to triumph over adversity. This "culture of savvy" is retained by many former Soviet in the United States. It provides motivation in times of difficulty and contributes to positive feelings about one’s Russian identity. However, this outlook also has detrimental effects on émigrés' communal life. Because Soviet emigrants are so invested in individualistic and conniving solutions to problems, they often avoid formal, collective approaches to adaptation and community formation in their new homeland. Moreover, those Russians who took great satisfaction in their ability to acquire the basics of physical survival find few opportunities to practice these hard-earned skills in a country filled with Wallmart and Target stores. 

Family and Gender Patterns
Russians’ ability to cope with their environment is rooted in their families. Due to the shortage of housing in the former USSR, it was common for extended families of 3 or 4 generations to reside together in very close quarters. Further, because the birth rate among urban, middle class Russian was low, a small family size made for a great deal of parent-child interaction. In contrast to American children who are socialized by peer groups, Soviet youth were more involved with kin. Relatives provided young Soviets with political/bureaucratic influence (useful for securing school and career opportunities) as well as emotional support. 

Gender Arrangements
The USSR advocated and often practiced a socialist-inspired egalitarian ideology that called for women’s involvement in the paid labor force. Further, because many men the former Soviet Union were killed or wounded in war or were members of the military service, women’s labor was especially in demand. Accordingly, prior to their entering the US, Soviet women were accustomed to working outside of the home for income. 
Despite women’s relative economic autonomy, cultural norms and the limited availability of social services meant that domestic work was the responsibility of female family members, with men offering little, if any, help. Prior to migration, Russian women relied on informal networking to help them acquire health care and various services. They obtained as much education as possible, built a wide variety of informal connections to procure goods and services (from food to a child’s education) and limited their fertility to about one child in order to maximize available resources and to cope with the ubiquitous housing shortage.
Having already adopted a practical and pragmatic approach to family and career prior to migration, Russian women have shown themselves better equipped at adapting to life in the United States than Russian men. As several interviewees observe, men often mourn the careers they lost in migration, and spend months or even years in an effort to secure an equivalent position, leaving their wives to both care for children and support the family. In contrast, women more often resolved to do what was necessary to care for themselves and their children. Further, Russian women often master English and became competent in American culture prior to their husbands. At least in the economic realm, Soviet women’s pre-migration survival techniques appear to work well in the US, leaving them with a feeling of security, and a degree of optimism about their own and their children’s futures. 
The interviews in this book offer a diverse, detailed and highly personal overview of the most recent wave of Russians to enter the US. Present in America for over a century and having already exerted considerable influence on our institutions, economy and way of life, Russian immigrants will continue to shape American society in the 21st Century.