History of Russians in Baltimore

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The history of Russians in Baltimore dates back to the mid-19th century. The Russian community is a growing population and constitutes a major source of new immigrants to the city. Historically the Russian community was centered in East Baltimore, but most Russians now live in Northwest Baltimore's Arlington neighborhood and in Baltimore's suburb of Pikesville. [1]

Contents

Demographics

In 1920, 4,632 foreign-born White people in Baltimore spoke the Russian language, many of them being Russian-speaking Jews. Russian was the second most widely spoken Slavic or Eastern European language in the city after the Polish language. [2]

In the 1930 United States Census, Russian-Americans were the largest foreign-born group in Baltimore. In that year 17,500 Russian-born immigrants lived in the city and more than 24,000 Baltimoreans were of Russian parentage. [3]

In 1940, 14,670 immigrants from the Soviet Union lived in Baltimore, many of whom were of Russian descent. These immigrants comprised 24.1% of the city's foreign-born white population. [4]

During the 1990s around 8,208 immigrants settled in Baltimore from Russia, Ukraine, and other countries of the former Soviet Union. [1]

The Russian community in the Baltimore metropolitan area numbered 35,763 as of 2000, making up 1.4% of the area's population. [5] In the same year Baltimore city's Russian population was 5,526, 0.8% of the city's population. [6] 19,430 Russians live in adjacent Baltimore County and in total 7.2% of the Baltimore metropolitan area's foreign-born population is Russian-American. [7]

According to the 2000 Census, the Russian language was spoken at home by 1,235 people in Baltimore. [8]

As of 2005, the Baltimore region had the 15th-largest Russian-speaking population in the United States. [9]

In 2013, an estimated 5,647 Russian-Americans resided in Baltimore city, 0.9% of the population. [10]

As of September 2014, immigrants from Russia were the twenty-sixth largest foreign-born population in Baltimore and the Russian language was the seventh most spoken language other than English. [11]

History

Shaarei Tfiloh Synagogue, in March 2012. Shaarei Tfiloh Baltimore.JPG
Shaarei Tfiloh Synagogue, in March 2012.
Holy Trinity Russian Orthodox Church, a Russian Orthodox church in Dunbar, Baltimore, February 2018. Holy Trinity Russian Orthodox Church 20.jpg
Holy Trinity Russian Orthodox Church, a Russian Orthodox church in Dunbar, Baltimore, February 2018.

Most Russian immigrants to Baltimore have been Russian Jews. In the 1930 United States Census there were 17,000 Russians living in the city, most of whom were Jewish. [12] In comparison to Baltimore's wealthy and assimilated German Jews, Russian Jews were largely poor and lived in slums with other Russians. The German-Russian divide among Baltimore's Jewry lead many Jews from Russia to associate more with the Russian community than the wider Jewish community. Baltimore's Russian community, including Russian Jews, was originally centered in Southeast Baltimore. [13] The largest wave of Russian-Jewish immigrants to Baltimore occurred during the 1880s. A second wave of Russian-Jewish immigrants came during the 1990s, following the collapse of the Soviet Union. [14]

During the 1920s, a number of Russians in Baltimore were involved in the Communist Party of Maryland. The Communist Party in Baltimore had a Russian branch. With the approval of the national Russian-language organization of the Communist Party USA, members of Baltimore's Russian Communist branch often attended the Independent Russian Orthodox Church in Baltimore. Prokope Suvorov, the leader of the Russian Communist branch, taught the Russian language at the church. Another Russian Communist staged the congregation's plays, while other members sold Communist literature at the church. The Russian-American Communist Alex Bail was concerned by the religiosity of Baltimore's Russian Christian Communists, but his concerns were somewhat abated due to the portrait of Vladimir Lenin hanging inside the Russian Orthodox church. [15]

During the 1930s, Russians were the largest foreign-born population in Baltimore. [16]

In the 1960 United States Census, Russian Jews comprised 18.2% of Baltimore's population. By 1940, Russian Jews were the majority in 13 of Baltimore's census tracts. [17]

Russian Jews helped establish several synagogues in Baltimore, including the B'nai Israel Synagogue [18] and the Shaarei Tfiloh Synagogue. [19]

While most people of Russian descent in Baltimore are Jewish, a significant minority are Christians, mostly from the Russian Orthodox Church. Ethnic Russians from Belarus established the Transfiguration of our Lord Russian Orthodox Church in 1963 in order to serve the needs of the Russian Orthodox community. Russian Orthodox Christians also established the Holy Trinity Russian Orthodox Church.

To facilitate the integration of Russian immigrants into American society, the Baltimore branch of the HIAS established a bilingual Russian-English newspaper titled The News Exchange in May, 1978. [20]

In the 1990 United States Census over 30,000 people of Russian descent lived in Baltimore and Baltimore County. At the time, over 400 Russian-speaking people settled in the Baltimore area each year. [21]

Ze Mean Bean Café in Fell's Point opened in 1995. It is a restaurant which offers Russian cuisine, as well as other Slavic and Eastern European fare. [22]

Culture

National Slavic Museum in Fell's Point, June 2014. SlavicMuseum1.JPG
National Slavic Museum in Fell's Point, June 2014.

In 1995 a biweekly Russian language newspaper titled Kaskad (Cascade) was founded by a Russian-speaking Jewish immigrant from Belarus. [9] [21]

As of 1995, the Baltimore area was home to several Russian grocery stores, a Russian language magazine, and a Russian language radio program. [21]

An annual Russian Festival is held at the Holy Trinity Russian Orthodox Church in October. The festival celebrates Russian heritage, history, and cuisine. [23]

The National Slavic Museum opened in 2012. The museum focuses on the Slavic history of Baltimore, including Baltimore's Russian history. [24]

The Lemko House, an apartment complex on South Ann Street, provides housing for Eastern European immigrants. Founded in 1983 by Ivan Dornic, an Eastern Rite priest, the complex is named after Dornic's ethnic group, the Lemkos. The Lemkos are a Rusyn ethnic group inhabiting Lemkivshchyna, a part of Transcarpathia that spans parts of Slovakia, Poland, and Ukraine. Lemko House has opened its doors to low-income residents of any ethnicity, but is still home to many Slavic and Eastern European immigrants, including Russians. [16]

Notable Russian-Americans from Baltimore

Ben Cardin, a Democratic politician serving as the senior United States senator from Maryland, first elected to that seat in 2006. He previously was the U.S. representative for Maryland's 3rd congressional district from 1987 to 2007, Maryland delegate from 1967 to 1987, and as Speaker of the Maryland House of Delegates from 1979 to 1987. Ben Cardin official Senate portrait.jpg
Ben Cardin, a Democratic politician serving as the senior United States senator from Maryland, first elected to that seat in 2006. He previously was the U.S. representative for Maryland's 3rd congressional district from 1987 to 2007, Maryland delegate from 1967 to 1987, and as Speaker of the Maryland House of Delegates from 1979 to 1987.

See also

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Ethnic groups in Baltimore

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History of Hispanics and Latinos in Baltimore

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History of African Americans in Baltimore

The history of African Americans in Baltimore dates back to the 17th century when the first African slaves were being brought to the Province of Maryland. Majority white for most of its history, Baltimore transitioned to having a black majority in the 1970s. As of the 2010 Census, African Americans are the majority population of Baltimore at 63% of the population. As a majority black city for the last several decades with the 5th largest population of African Americans of any city in the United States, African Americans have had an enormous impact on the culture, dialect, history, politics, and music of the city. Unlike many other Northern cities whose African-American populations first became well-established during the Great Migration, Baltimore has a deeply rooted African-American heritage, being home to the largest population of free black people half a century before the Emancipation Proclamation. The migrations of Southern and Appalachian African Americans between 1910 and 1970 brought thousands of African Americans to Baltimore, transforming the city into the second northernmost majority-black city in the United States after Detroit. The city's African-American community is centered in West Baltimore and East Baltimore. The distribution of African Americans on both the West and the East sides of Baltimore is sometimes called "The Black Butterfly", while the distribution of white Americans in Central and Southeast Baltimore is called "The White L."

History of White Americans in Baltimore

The history of White Americans in Baltimore dates back to the 17th century when the first white European colonists came to what is now Maryland and established the Province of Maryland on what was then Native American land. White Americans in Baltimore are Baltimoreans "having origins in any of the original peoples of Europe, the Middle East or North Africa." Majority white for most of its history, Baltimore no longer had a white majority by the 1970s. As of the 2010 Census, white Americans are a minority population of Baltimore at 29.6% of the population. White Americans have played a substantial impact on the culture, dialect, ethnic heritage, history, politics, and music of the city. Since the earliest English settlers arrived on the shores of the Chesapeake Bay, Baltimore's white population has been sustained by substantial immigration from all over Europe, particularly Central Europe, Eastern Europe, and Southern Europe, as well as a large out-migration of White Southerners from Appalachia. Numerous white immigrants from Europe and the European diaspora have immigrated to Baltimore from the United Kingdom, Germany, Ireland, Poland, Italy, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Lithuania, Russia, Ukraine, Spain, France, Canada, and other countries, particularly during the late 1800s and early 1900s. Smaller numbers of white people have immigrated from Latin America, the Caribbean, the Middle East, North Africa, and other non-European regions. Baltimore also has a prominent population of white Jews of European descent, mostly with roots in Central and Eastern Europe. There is a smaller population of white Middle Easterners and white North Africans, most of whom are Arab, Persian, Israeli, or Turkish. The distribution of White Americans in Central and Southeast Baltimore is sometimes called "The White L", while the distribution of African Americans in East and West Baltimore is called "The Black Butterfly."

The city of Baltimore, Maryland includes a small Syrian population. The Syrian-American community is centered in East Baltimore. While Syrian-Americans have had a presence in Baltimore for over a century, most Syrians in Baltimore are recent immigrants and refugees who have fled the Syrian Civil War.

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Belarusian Americans in New York City

The city of New York includes a sizeable Belarusian population. The New York metropolitan area has one of the largest concentrations of Belarusians in the United States. Many Belarusians live in Brighton Beach and elsewhere in South Brooklyn, along with other ex-Soviet immigrants including Russians and Ukrainians. Around 55,000 people of Belarusian descent live in the New York City metropolitan area, with estimates ranging from 50,000 to 75,000.

References

  1. 1 2 "Foreign Immigration". Maryland Department of Planning. Archived from the original on 2016-03-03. Retrieved 2014-07-09.
  2. ↑ Carpenter, Niles (1927). Immigrants and their children, 1920. A study based on census statistics relative to the foreign born and the native white of foreign or mixed parentage. Washington, D.C.: United States Government Printing Office. p. 380. Retrieved 2014-11-25.
  3. ↑ "Moscow Nights: Getting Down With Baltimore's Burgeoning Eastern Bloc". Baltimore City Paper . Retrieved 2014-11-03.
  4. ↑ Durr, Kenneth D. (1998). "Why we are troubled": white working-class politics in Baltimore, 1940-1980. Washington, D.C.: American University. p. 23. Retrieved 2015-05-31.
  5. ↑ "Table DP-1. Profile of General Demographic Characteristics: 2000" (PDF). 2000 United States Census . Retrieved 2014-02-13.
  6. ↑ "Social Statistics Baltimore, Maryland". Infoplease . Retrieved 2014-12-05.
  7. ↑ "'I feel myself at home here': The region's thousands of Russian immigrants are thriving". The Baltimore Sun . Retrieved 2014-02-13.
  8. ↑ "Immigration and the 2010 Census Governor's 2010 CensusOutreach Initiatives" (PDF). Maryland State Data Center. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2014-04-07. Retrieved 2014-03-31.
  9. 1 2 "I feel myself at home here". The Baltimore Sun . Retrieved 2014-07-09.
  10. ↑ "2013 American Community Survey 1-Year Estimates". American FactFinder. Archived from the original on 2020-02-12. Retrieved 2015-03-17.
  11. ↑ "The Role of Immigrants in Growing Baltimore: Recommendations to Retain and Attract New Americans" (PDF). WBAL-TV. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2014-10-30. Retrieved 2014-10-31.
  12. ↑ American Guide Series (1940). Maryland: A Guide to the Old Line State. United States: Federal Writers' Project. OCLC   814094.
  13. ↑ Hill, Jayme Rae (2008). From the Brothel to the Block: Politics and Prostitution in Baltimore During the Progressive Era. Baltimore, Maryland: University of Maryland, Baltimore County. pp. 33–4. ISBN   9780549684848. OCLC   434829400 . Retrieved February 13, 2014.
  14. ↑ "DiverCity: From Russian With Love". Baltimore Magazine. Archived from the original on 2014-02-22.
  15. ↑ Vernon L. Pedersen The Communist Party in Maryland, 1919-1957 (2001) p 34
  16. 1 2 "Searching for traces of Eastern Europe on a walking tour of Baltimore". The Calvert Journal . Retrieved 2020-08-25.
  17. ↑ Durr, Kenneth D. (2003). Behind the Backlash: White Working-Class Politics in Baltimore, 1940-1980. Chapel Hill, North Carolina: University of North Carolina Press. p. 225. ISBN   0-8078-2764-9 . Retrieved February 13, 2014.
  18. ↑ Fred Shoken. "A History of the B'nai Israel Congregation of Baltimore City". Archived from the original on February 21, 2014. Retrieved February 13, 2014.
  19. ↑ "Maryland Historical Trust". Shaarei Tfiloh Synagogue, Baltimore City. Maryland Historical Trust. 2014-02-13.
  20. ↑ Waxman, Chaim Isaac (1983). America's Jews in Transition. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Temple University Press. p. 194. ISBN   0-877-22321-1 . Retrieved February 14, 2014.
  21. 1 2 3 "A Way To 'Defend Our Culture'". The Baltimore Sun . Retrieved 2014-07-09.
  22. ↑ "Baltimore's Favorite Old World Restaurant Debuts Hot New Look Inspired by Three Generations of Family-Owned Ze Mean Bean Café". Marketwired . Retrieved 2014-08-12.
  23. ↑ "Best Russian Foods In Baltimore". CBS Baltimore . Retrieved 2014-07-09.
  24. ↑ Pamela Wood (June 16, 2013). "Slavic heritage celebrated at museum dedication". The Baltimore Sun . Retrieved 2014-10-31.
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