By the 2/3 point of the 19th 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.
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.
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.
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
