Ryazantsev S.V., Serra Truzzi Oswaldo Mario, Smirnov A.S. The History of Emigration from the Russian Empire to the United States from the Late 19th to the Early 20th Century. Migration Law. 2023. No. 2. Pp. 9-16. DOI: 10.18572 ...

Abstract

Introduction. At the 19th and early 20th centuries the United States of North America used to be a state that actively welcomed immigrants from all over the world, including the Russian Empire. Emigration from the Russian Empire was geographically and ethnically diverse. The article aims to analyze the quantitative and qualitative characteristics of the emigration flows from the Russian Empire to the United States in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The research objectives: first, to determine the scale and main channels of emigration; second, to determine the geography, social and demographic structure of the emigrants’ flows; third, to determine so-called push and pull factors of the Russian emigration; fourth, to identify the features of emigration from the border regions of the Russian Empire, as well as their Jewish and German waves of emigration to the United States of North America. The results. Due to the American data, the number of emigrants from the Russian Empire from 1821 to 1886 considered to be 109 thousand people. 265 thousand people emigrated to the United States of North America in 1881-1890. In 1899-1913, approximately 2,4 million Russians arrived in the United States of North America. The main motives for the emigration of the Russians from the Russian Empire to New World were unfavorable economic circumstances as economic crisis and famine, and political turmoil later. The main share of the Russian emigrants to the United States of North America at the end of the 19th century was directed through German ports: more than 90% of emigrants came to America by sea routs through Hamburg and Bremen. The share of ethnic and Orthodox Russians gradually grew and reached its maximum in 1913 (17,2%). Also, the Jews, Poles, Lithuanians, Finns, Germans, and the other nationalities emigrated from the Russian Empire to America.