Russians in the World

This is an investigation of a database of half a million men, women, and children who left the Russian Empire and settled in the United States between 1834 and 1897. The project explores the history of this “wave” of emigration in two ways.

First, it establishes the historical, social, spatial, and cultural context in which emigration unfolded and attempts to put the significance of human experience - at the level of both the individual and the community - in perspective. Dig into the "Context" sections to learn more.

Second, the project aims to unpack bits and pieces of the National Archives database itself. The database is compiled from passenger lists and ship manifests of voyages arriving in a handful of US ports along the eastern seaboard. We offer here the stories of just a few of those who made the long journey, leaving behind all that was familiar to embark on a new life on a new continent, far from the reach of the tsarist system. What did they fear? What did they feel? What did they know? What did they find? Read the "Migration Stories" to find out.