Emigration from Russia

By the 2/3 point of the 19^th century, many emigrants began to seek homes outside Russia and Russian emigration to the United States began in earnest in the 1880s.  Some Russians had made the move to America as early as the 1820s and those numbers had slowly increased through the decades.  In the 1870s more than 35,000 Russians immigrated to the States, but in the succeeding decades, that number increased dramatically.  This chart shows the numbers through the 1930s:

Decade	Number of Emigrants
1820-1829	86
1830-1839	280
1840-1849	520
1850-1859	423
1860-1869	1670
1870-1879	35177
1880-1889	182698
1890-1899	450101
1900-1909	1501301
1910-1919	1106998
1920-1929	61604
1930-1939	2463

These numbers represent the number of immigrants coming into the United States in the given years who indicated that their last country of residence was Russia.  This does not necessarily mean that the immigrants were ethnic Russians.

http://www.dhs.gov/yearbook-immigration-statistics-2009-3

Of the emigrants leaving Russia between 1881 and 1914, over 50% were Jewish while only around 2% were native Russian.  Most of the emigrants at this time were seeking improved economic status, while a sizeable number (including the Jewish Russians) were seeking improved religious freedoms.  Many of these emigrants who were not ethnic Russians originated from the southwest areas of the Russian Empire including the provinces of Poland, Volhynia and Podolia and other provinces of the Ukraine.  Those Russian citizens leaving the country after 1920 were largely fleeing the Bolshevik regime and the establishment of the USSR. 

http://www.everyculture.com/multi/Pa-Sp/Russian-Americans.html#b

Many of the German Mennonites living in Ostrog and Zaslaw Counties migrated to the United States in the 1870s.  Along with the Mennonites from the Molotschna Colony and other locations in Russia, more than 10,000 Mennonites emigrated in the 1870s – that’s almost a third of all Russians who immigrated to America in that decade.  In some of the Volhynian villages after 1874, Mennonite homes were sold to German Lutherans, and Mennonite churches were converted to Lutheran churches.  After 1874, the majority of the remaining Mennonites in Volhynian Karolswalde area moved to the village of Lisna (Leeleva).  In the succeeding years though, almost all the Mennonites left and Lisna probably became a German Lutheran village.

  

http://www.gameo.org/encyclopedia/contents/U568.html/?searchterm=immigration%20to%20united%20states

http://home.arcor.de/pulin/karlswalde/history/brief_h.htm

The Helpless Poles, Abe J Unruh, 1973 Montezuma, KS.

Most of the Mennonites who left Volhynia for America in 1874 travelled aboard the following ships:

• SS Colina, bound for New York via Antwerp, 02 September 1874; carrying Mennonites primarily from Heinrichsdorf.

• SS London, bound for New York via Liverpool, 18 November 1874; carrying Mennonites primarily from Karolswalde.

• SS Montreal, bound for New York via Liverpool, 27 November 1874; carrying Mennonites primarily from Karolswalde.

• SS Nederland, bound for Philadelphia via Antwerp, 28 November 1874; carrying Mennonites primarily from Michalin.

• SS Vaderland, bound for Philadelphia via Antwerp, 26 December 1874; carrying Mennonites primarily from Antonovka.

• SS Kenilworth, bound for Philadelphia via Liverpool, 09 January 1875; carrying Mennonites primarily from Karolswalde and Antonovka.

• SS Illinois, bound for Philadelphia via Liverpool, 28 January 1875; carrying Mennonites primarily from Karolswalde and Antonovka.

• SS Suevia, bound for New York via Hamburg and Le Havre, 12 November 1875; carrying Mennonites primarily from Karolswalde.

Abe J Unruh

http://www.odessa3.org/collections/ships/link/mindiv.txt