Russian diaspora
Encyclopedia
The term Russian diaspora refers to the global community of ethnic Russians
, usually more specifically those who maintain some kind of connection, even if ephemeral, to the land of their ancestors and maintain their feeling of Russian national identity within a local community.
The term "Russian speaking (Russophone
) diaspora" (русскоговорящая диаспора) is used to describe people for whom Russian language
is the native language regardless whether they are ethnic Russians or Ukrainian
s, Tatars
, Jews
, Chechens, etc.
schism in the 17th century (see, for example, Lipovans
). On some occasions later ethnic Russian communities, such as Doukhobor
s, also emigrated as religious dissidents fleeing the central authority.
Ethnic Russians migrated from Russia proper throughout the extent of the Russian Empire
, and later the Soviet Union
, sometimes at the encouragement of the government. After the Belavezha Accords
, many ethnic Russians found themselves in newly independent states outside of Russia, notably the Baltic states
, Ukraine, and in Central Asia. They represent the largest number of ethnic Russians living outside Russia. Russians distinguish these migrations, however, from several bursts of emigration in the twentieth century.
A sizable "wave" of ethnic Russians emigrated during a short time period in the wake of the October Revolution
and Civil War
, known collectively as the White émigré
s. It is also referred to as the "first wave," even though previous emigrations took place, as it is the first wave to have come in the wake of the communist revolution and it exhibited a heavily political character.
A smaller group of Russians, often referred to by Russians as the "second wave" of Russian emigration, left during World War II
. They were refugees, eastern workers
, or surviving veterans of the Russian Liberation Army
and other anti-communist armed units who had served under the German command and evaded forced repatriation
. In the immediate postwar period, the largest Russian communities in the emigration were to be found in Germany
, Canada, the U.S.
, United Kingdom and Australia.
In the 1970s a number of Russian-speaking Soviet citizens (predominantly Jews) emigrated to Israel
and the U.S. due to political and economic reasons, and also to escape antisemitism. Some Soviet dissidents
were forced to emigrate by the KGB
, which threatened them with arrest. This group is often called the "third wave" of Russian emigration.
Immediately before and after the dissolution of the Soviet Union
, significant emigration of citizens of the Russian Federation to various parts of the world has taken place, mostly for economic reasons. Israel and Germany
have received the largest shares of Russian speaking immigrants (Israel, predominantly Jews; Germany, predominantly ethnic Germans
and Jews) in the 1990s, because of incentives institutionalized by the governments of both countries.
Statistics compiled using local country statistics or best available estimates. Note that the percentages may not add up due to varying census and estimate dates.
Today largest ethnic Russian diasporas outside of Russia live in former Soviet states
such as Ukraine
(about 8 million), Kazakhstan
(about 4.5 million), Belarus
(about 1.2 million), Latvia
(about 620,000), Uzbekistan
(about 650, 000) and Kyrgyzstan
(about 600,000).
Their situation varied widely, from no perceivable change in status, as in Belarus
, to becoming foreigners or non-citizens as in Estonia
and Latvia
if none of their ancestors had been a citizen of these countries before Soviet occupation and if they did not request Russian Federation citizenship during the period it was available.
are one of the 56 ethnic groups officially recognized by the People's Republic of China
. There are approximately 15,600, living mostly in northern Xinjiang
, and also in Inner Mongolia
and Heilongjiang
. In the 1920s Harbin
was flooded with 100,000 to 200,000 Russian White émigrés fleeing from Russia. Some Harbin Russians
moved to other cities such as Shanghai
, Beijing
, and Tianjin
. By the 1930s, Shanghai's Russian community
had grown to more than 25,000.
There are also smaller numbers of Russians in Japan
and in Korea
. The Japanese government disputes Russia's claim to the Kuril Islands
, which were annexed by the USSR in 1945 after Japan's surrender in World War II. The Red Army expelled all Japanese from the island chain, which was resettled by Russians and other Soviet nationalities. A few Russians also settled in the Korean peninsula in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The population of Russians in Singapore was estimated at no more than a thousand by the local Russian embassy in 2008; they are a largely professional and business-oriented expatriate community, and count among their numbers more than a hundred company owners or local heads of branches of large Russian multinationals.
Russian settlement
settlement in Mexico
was minimal but well documented in the 19th and early 20th centuries. A breakaway sect of Old Believers
of the Russian Orthodox Church
, the Molokans arrived in Baja California
in the 1880s-1920s to escape persecution from Tsarist Russia. The Molokans received a land grant in the Guadalupe Valley
south of Ensenada
to establish a few villages and held onto a Russian culture for a few decades before they were abandoned; cemeteries bearing Cyrillic letters remain. Dissenters of the official Soviet Communist party like the Trotskyites along with leader Leon Trotsky
found refuge in Mexico in the 1920s, where Trotsky himself was assassinated by Soviet agents in 1940.
and in the Balkans
. These communities may identify themselves either as Russians or citizens of these countries, or both, to varying degrees.
Russians
The Russian people are an East Slavic ethnic group native to Russia, speaking the Russian language and primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries....
, usually more specifically those who maintain some kind of connection, even if ephemeral, to the land of their ancestors and maintain their feeling of Russian national identity within a local community.
The term "Russian speaking (Russophone
Russophone
A Russophone is literally a speaker of the Russian language either natively or by preference. At the same time the term is used in a more specialized meaning to describe the category of people whose cultural background is associated with Russian language regardless of ethnic and territorial...
) diaspora" (русскоговорящая диаспора) is used to describe people for whom Russian language
Russian language
Russian is a Slavic language used primarily in Russia, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. It is an unofficial but widely spoken language in Ukraine, Moldova, Latvia, Turkmenistan and Estonia and, to a lesser extent, the other countries that were once constituent republics...
is the native language regardless whether they are ethnic Russians or Ukrainian
Ukrainians
Ukrainians are an East Slavic ethnic group native to Ukraine, which is the sixth-largest nation in Europe. The Constitution of Ukraine applies the term 'Ukrainians' to all its citizens...
s, Tatars
Tatars
Tatars are a Turkic speaking ethnic group , numbering roughly 7 million.The majority of Tatars live in the Russian Federation, with a population of around 5.5 million, about 2 million of which in the republic of Tatarstan.Significant minority populations are found in Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan,...
, Jews
Jews
The Jews , also known as the Jewish people, are a nation and ethnoreligious group originating in the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East. The Jewish ethnicity, nationality, and religion are strongly interrelated, as Judaism is the traditional faith of the Jewish nation...
, Chechens, etc.
History
The earliest significant ethnic Russian emigration took place in the wake of the Old BelieverOld Believers
In the context of Russian Orthodox church history, the Old Believers separated after 1666 from the official Russian Orthodox Church as a protest against church reforms introduced by Patriarch Nikon between 1652–66...
schism in the 17th century (see, for example, Lipovans
Lipovans
Lipovans or Lippovans are the Old Believers, mostly of Russian ethnic origin, who settled in the Moldavian Principality, in Dobruja and Eastern Muntenia...
). On some occasions later ethnic Russian communities, such as Doukhobor
Doukhobor
The Doukhobors or Dukhobors , earlierDukhobortsy are a group of Russian origin.The Doukhobors were one of the sects - later defined as a religious philosophy, ethnic group, social movement, or simply a "way of life" - known generically as Spiritual Christianity. The origin of the Doukhobors is...
s, also emigrated as religious dissidents fleeing the central authority.
Ethnic Russians migrated from Russia proper throughout the extent of the Russian Empire
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...
, and later the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
, sometimes at the encouragement of the government. After the Belavezha Accords
Belavezha Accords
The Belavezha Accords is the agreement which declared the Soviet Union effectively dissolved and established the Commonwealth of Independent States in its place...
, many ethnic Russians found themselves in newly independent states outside of Russia, notably the Baltic states
Baltic states
The term Baltic states refers to the Baltic territories which gained independence from the Russian Empire in the wake of World War I: primarily the contiguous trio of Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania ; Finland also fell within the scope of the term after initially gaining independence in the 1920s.The...
, Ukraine, and in Central Asia. They represent the largest number of ethnic Russians living outside Russia. Russians distinguish these migrations, however, from several bursts of emigration in the twentieth century.
A sizable "wave" of ethnic Russians emigrated during a short time period in the wake of the October Revolution
October Revolution
The October Revolution , also known as the Great October Socialist Revolution , Red October, the October Uprising or the Bolshevik Revolution, was a political revolution and a part of the Russian Revolution of 1917...
and Civil War
Russian Civil War
The Russian Civil War was a multi-party war that occurred within the former Russian Empire after the Russian provisional government collapsed to the Soviets, under the domination of the Bolshevik party. Soviet forces first assumed power in Petrograd The Russian Civil War (1917–1923) was a...
, known collectively as the White émigré
White Emigre
A white émigré was a Russian who emigrated from Russia in the wake of the Russian Revolution and Russian Civil War, and who was in opposition to the contemporary Russian political climate....
s. It is also referred to as the "first wave," even though previous emigrations took place, as it is the first wave to have come in the wake of the communist revolution and it exhibited a heavily political character.
A smaller group of Russians, often referred to by Russians as the "second wave" of Russian emigration, left during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. They were refugees, eastern workers
OST-Arbeiter
OST-Arbeiter was a designation for slave workers gathered from Eastern Europe to do forced labor in Germany during World War II. The Ostarbeiters were mostly from the territory of Reichskommissariat Ukraine . Ukrainians made up the largest portion although many Belarusians, Russians, Poles and...
, or surviving veterans of the Russian Liberation Army
Russian Liberation Army
Russian Liberation Army was a group of predominantly Russian forces subordinated to the Nazi German high command during World War II....
and other anti-communist armed units who had served under the German command and evaded forced repatriation
Operation Keelhaul
Operation Keelhaul was carried out in Northern Italy by British and American forces to repatriate Soviet Armed Forces POWs of the Nazis to the Soviet Union between August 14, 1946 and May 9, 1947...
. In the immediate postwar period, the largest Russian communities in the emigration were to be found in Germany
Russians in Germany
There is a significant Russian population in Germany. The collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 triggered mass immigration to the West, with Germany being the top destination, mostly for economic and ethnic reasons...
, Canada, the U.S.
Russian American
Russian Americans are primarily Americans who traces their ancestry to Russia. The definition can be applied to recent Russian immigrants to the United States, as well as to settlers of 19th century Russian settlements in northwestern America which includes today's California, Alaska and...
, United Kingdom and Australia.
In the 1970s a number of Russian-speaking Soviet citizens (predominantly Jews) emigrated to Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
and the U.S. due to political and economic reasons, and also to escape antisemitism. Some Soviet dissidents
Soviet dissidents
Soviet dissidents were citizens of the Soviet Union who disagreed with the policies and actions of their government and actively protested against these actions through either violent or non-violent means...
were forced to emigrate by the KGB
KGB
The KGB was the commonly used acronym for the . It was the national security agency of the Soviet Union from 1954 until 1991, and was the premier internal security, intelligence, and secret police organization during that time.The State Security Agency of the Republic of Belarus currently uses the...
, which threatened them with arrest. This group is often called the "third wave" of Russian emigration.
Immediately before and after the dissolution of the Soviet Union
Dissolution of the Soviet Union
The dissolution of the Soviet Union was the disintegration of the federal political structures and central government of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , resulting in the independence of all fifteen republics of the Soviet Union between March 11, 1990 and December 25, 1991...
, significant emigration of citizens of the Russian Federation to various parts of the world has taken place, mostly for economic reasons. Israel and Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
have received the largest shares of Russian speaking immigrants (Israel, predominantly Jews; Germany, predominantly ethnic Germans
Germans
The Germans are a Germanic ethnic group native to Central Europe. The English term Germans has referred to the German-speaking population of the Holy Roman Empire since the Late Middle Ages....
and Jews) in the 1990s, because of incentives institutionalized by the governments of both countries.
Statistics
| Continent/Country | Russian diaspora Population |
|---|---|
| Europe Europe Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting... |
11,564,754 |
 Ukraine |
8,334,000 |
 Belarus |
785,000 |
 Latvia |
616,840 |
 Estonia |
344,280 |
 United Kingdom |
300,000 |
 Lithuania |
220,000 |
 Moldova |
202,000 |
 Germany |
178,600 |
 Italy |
132,120 |
 Early Modern France |
115,000 |
 Georgia (country) |
67,671 |
 Spain |
52.832 |
 Finland |
51,683 |
 Belgium |
50,000 |
 Kingdom of Romania |
30,000 |
 Kingdom of Bulgaria |
15,595 |
 Norway |
13,914 |
 Greece |
13,635 |
 Poland |
10,244 |
 Sweden |
8,900 |
 Austria |
5,466 |
 Portugal |
5,114 (2007 cenus) |
 Czech Republic |
5,062 |
 Turkey |
3,514 (2002) |
 Serbia |
2,588 |
 Cyprus |
10,000 |
 Luxembourg |
943 |
| Asia Asia Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population... |
7,401,606 |
 Kazakhstan |
4,480,000 |
 Israel |
1,000,000 (immigrants allowed under Law of Return Law of Return The Law of Return is Israeli legislation, passed on 5 July 1950, that gives Jews the right of return and settlement in Israel and gain citizenship... with proven Russian Jewish roots or family members) |
 Uzbekistan |
620,000 |
 Kyrgyzstan |
604,000 |
 Turkmenistan |
314,000 |
 Azerbaijan |
144,000 |
 Tajikistan |
68,200 |
 United Arab Emirates |
56,600 |
 Lebanon |
40,000 |
 Mainland China |
15,600 |
 Armenia |
14,660 |
 North Korea and  South Korea |
9,622 |
 Japan |
6,000 |
 Syria |
4,811 |
 Mongolia |
4,100 |
 Jordan |
3,033 |
 Afghanistan |
1,500 |
 Pakistan |
680 |
 India |
140 |
| Americas Americas The Americas, or America , are lands in the Western hemisphere, also known as the New World. In English, the plural form the Americas is often used to refer to the landmasses of North America and South America with their associated islands and regions, while the singular form America is primarily... |
3,441,156 |
 United States |
2,652,214 |
 Canada |
500,600 |
 Brazil |
200,000 |
 Cuba |
50,000 |
 Argentina |
30,000 |
 Venezuela |
4,600 |
 Uruguay |
1,680 |
 Mexico |
1,293 |
 Chile |
500 |
 Puerto Rico |
269 |
| Oceania Oceania Oceania is a region centered on the islands of the tropical Pacific Ocean. Conceptions of what constitutes Oceania range from the coral atolls and volcanic islands of the South Pacific to the entire insular region between Asia and the Americas, including Australasia and the Malay Archipelago... |
77,785 |
 Australia |
67,550 |
 New Zealand |
10,235 |
| Africa Africa Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area... |
1,819 |
 South Africa |
1,300 |
 Nigeria |
950 |
 Ethiopia |
319 |
 Egypt |
200 |
| Total | 22,437,120 |
Statistics compiled using local country statistics or best available estimates. Note that the percentages may not add up due to varying census and estimate dates.
Former USSR
Today largest ethnic Russian diasporas outside of Russia live in former Soviet states
Post-Soviet states
The post-Soviet states, also commonly known as the Former Soviet Union or former Soviet republics, are the 15 independent states that split off from the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics in its dissolution in December 1991...
such as Ukraine
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...
(about 8 million), Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan , officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country in Central Asia and Eastern Europe. Ranked as the ninth largest country in the world, it is also the world's largest landlocked country; its territory of is greater than Western Europe...
(about 4.5 million), Belarus
Belarus
Belarus , officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe, bordered clockwise by Russia to the northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Its capital is Minsk; other major cities include Brest, Grodno , Gomel ,...
(about 1.2 million), Latvia
Latvia
Latvia , officially the Republic of Latvia , is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by Estonia , to the south by Lithuania , to the east by the Russian Federation , to the southeast by Belarus and shares maritime borders to the west with Sweden...
(about 620,000), Uzbekistan
Uzbekistan
Uzbekistan , officially the Republic of Uzbekistan is a doubly landlocked country in Central Asia and one of the six independent Turkic states. It shares borders with Kazakhstan to the west and to the north, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan to the east, and Afghanistan and Turkmenistan to the south....
(about 650, 000) and Kyrgyzstan
Kyrgyzstan
Kyrgyzstan , officially the Kyrgyz Republic is one of the world's six independent Turkic states . Located in Central Asia, landlocked and mountainous, Kyrgyzstan is bordered by Kazakhstan to the north, Uzbekistan to the west, Tajikistan to the southwest and China to the east...
(about 600,000).
Their situation varied widely, from no perceivable change in status, as in Belarus
Belarus
Belarus , officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe, bordered clockwise by Russia to the northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Its capital is Minsk; other major cities include Brest, Grodno , Gomel ,...
, to becoming foreigners or non-citizens as in Estonia
Estonia
Estonia , officially the Republic of Estonia , is a state in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland, to the west by the Baltic Sea, to the south by Latvia , and to the east by Lake Peipsi and the Russian Federation . Across the Baltic Sea lies...
and Latvia
Latvia
Latvia , officially the Republic of Latvia , is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by Estonia , to the south by Lithuania , to the east by the Russian Federation , to the southeast by Belarus and shares maritime borders to the west with Sweden...
if none of their ancestors had been a citizen of these countries before Soviet occupation and if they did not request Russian Federation citizenship during the period it was available.
East Asia
Russians (eluosizu)Ethnic Russians in China
Ethnic Russians form one of the 56 ethnic groups officially recognized by the People's Republic of China, according to the ethnicity classification as applied in mainland China...
are one of the 56 ethnic groups officially recognized by the People's Republic of China
People's Republic of China
China , officially the People's Republic of China , is the most populous country in the world, with over 1.3 billion citizens. Located in East Asia, the country covers approximately 9.6 million square kilometres...
. There are approximately 15,600, living mostly in northern Xinjiang
Xinjiang
Xinjiang is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China. It is the largest Chinese administrative division and spans over 1.6 million km2...
, and also in Inner Mongolia
Inner Mongolia
Inner Mongolia is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China, located in the northern region of the country. Inner Mongolia shares an international border with the countries of Mongolia and the Russian Federation...
and Heilongjiang
Heilongjiang
For the river known in Mandarin as Heilong Jiang, see Amur River' is a province of the People's Republic of China located in the northeastern part of the country. "Heilongjiang" literally means Black Dragon River, which is the Chinese name for the Amur. The one-character abbreviation is 黑...
. In the 1920s Harbin
Harbin
Harbin ; Manchu language: , Harbin; Russian: Харби́н Kharbin ), is the capital and largest city of Heilongjiang Province in Northeast China, lying on the southern bank of the Songhua River...
was flooded with 100,000 to 200,000 Russian White émigrés fleeing from Russia. Some Harbin Russians
Harbin Russians
The term Harbin Russians or Russian Harbinites refers to several generations of Russians who lived in the city of Harbin, a major junction city on the Chinese Eastern Railway , from approximately 1898 to the mid-1960s....
moved to other cities such as Shanghai
Shanghai
Shanghai is the largest city by population in China and the largest city proper in the world. It is one of the four province-level municipalities in the People's Republic of China, with a total population of over 23 million as of 2010...
, Beijing
Beijing
Beijing , also known as Peking , is the capital of the People's Republic of China and one of the most populous cities in the world, with a population of 19,612,368 as of 2010. The city is the country's political, cultural, and educational center, and home to the headquarters for most of China's...
, and Tianjin
Tianjin
' is a metropolis in northern China and one of the five national central cities of the People's Republic of China. It is governed as a direct-controlled municipality, one of four such designations, and is, thus, under direct administration of the central government...
. By the 1930s, Shanghai's Russian community
Shanghai Russians
The Shanghai Russians were a sizable Russian diaspora that flourished in Shanghai, China between the World Wars. By 1937 it is estimated that there were as many as 25,000 anti-Bolshevik Russians living in the city, the largest European group by far...
had grown to more than 25,000.
There are also smaller numbers of Russians in Japan
Russians in Japan
The first recorded landing of Russians in Japan was in 1739 in Kamogawa, Chiba during the times of Japanese seclusion of the Edo period, not counting landings in Hokkaidō, which was not under Japanese administration at these times.- Russian missions :...
and in Korea
Russians in Korea
Russians in Korea do not form a very large population, but they have a history going back to the era of the Korean Empire. The community of Russian subjects/citizens in Korea has historically included not just ethnic Russians, but members of minority groups of Russia as well, such as Tatars, Poles,...
. The Japanese government disputes Russia's claim to the Kuril Islands
Kuril Islands
The Kuril Islands , in Russia's Sakhalin Oblast region, form a volcanic archipelago that stretches approximately northeast from Hokkaidō, Japan, to Kamchatka, Russia, separating the Sea of Okhotsk from the North Pacific Ocean. There are 56 islands and many more minor rocks. It consists of Greater...
, which were annexed by the USSR in 1945 after Japan's surrender in World War II. The Red Army expelled all Japanese from the island chain, which was resettled by Russians and other Soviet nationalities. A few Russians also settled in the Korean peninsula in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The population of Russians in Singapore was estimated at no more than a thousand by the local Russian embassy in 2008; they are a largely professional and business-oriented expatriate community, and count among their numbers more than a hundred company owners or local heads of branches of large Russian multinationals.
Americas
See also: Russian AmericanRussian American
Russian Americans are primarily Americans who traces their ancestry to Russia. The definition can be applied to recent Russian immigrants to the United States, as well as to settlers of 19th century Russian settlements in northwestern America which includes today's California, Alaska and...
Russian settlement
Russians in Mexico
There is a small Russian diaspora population in Mexico. According to the 2000 Mexican census, 1,293 Russian citizens were resident in Mexico.-Migration history:...
settlement in Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
was minimal but well documented in the 19th and early 20th centuries. A breakaway sect of Old Believers
Old Believers
In the context of Russian Orthodox church history, the Old Believers separated after 1666 from the official Russian Orthodox Church as a protest against church reforms introduced by Patriarch Nikon between 1652–66...
of the Russian Orthodox Church
Russian Orthodox Church
The Russian Orthodox Church or, alternatively, the Moscow Patriarchate The ROC is often said to be the largest of the Eastern Orthodox churches in the world; including all the autocephalous churches under its umbrella, its adherents number over 150 million worldwide—about half of the 300 million...
, the Molokans arrived in Baja California
Baja California
Baja California officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Baja California is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is both the northernmost and westernmost state of Mexico. Before becoming a state in 1953, the area was known as the North...
in the 1880s-1920s to escape persecution from Tsarist Russia. The Molokans received a land grant in the Guadalupe Valley
Guadalupe, Baja California
Valle de Guadalupe , or Francisco Zarco is a village located in the municipio of Ensenada, Baja California, Mexico, 20 km north of the city of Ensenada...
south of Ensenada
Ensenada, Baja California
Ensenada is a coastal city in Mexico and the third-largest city in Baja California. It is located south of San Diego on the Baja California Peninsula. The city is locally referred to as La Cenicienta del Pacífico, or, The Cinderella of the Pacific...
to establish a few villages and held onto a Russian culture for a few decades before they were abandoned; cemeteries bearing Cyrillic letters remain. Dissenters of the official Soviet Communist party like the Trotskyites along with leader Leon Trotsky
Leon Trotsky
Leon Trotsky , born Lev Davidovich Bronshtein, was a Russian Marxist revolutionary and theorist, Soviet politician, and the founder and first leader of the Red Army....
found refuge in Mexico in the 1920s, where Trotsky himself was assassinated by Soviet agents in 1940.
Other
There are also small Russian communities in Eastern and Central European nations such as GermanyGermany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
and in the Balkans
Balkans
The Balkans is a geopolitical and cultural region of southeastern Europe...
. These communities may identify themselves either as Russians or citizens of these countries, or both, to varying degrees.