Russian Americans

Russian Americans are Americans of full or partial Russian ancestry. The term can apply to recent Russian immigrants to the United States, as well as to Russian settlers and their descendants in the 19th-century Russian possessions in what is now Alaska. Russian Americans comprise the largest Eastern European and East Slavic population in the U.S., the second-largest Slavic population after Polish Americans, the nineteenth-largest ancestry group overall, and the eleventh largest from Europe.

In the mid-19th century, Russian immigrants fleeing religious persecution settled in the U.S., including Russian Jews and Spiritual Christians. During the broader wave of European immigration to the U.S. that occurred from 1880 to 1917, a large number of Russians immigrated primarily for economic opportunities; these groups mainly settled in coastal cities, including Brooklyn (New York City) on the East Coast; Los Angeles, San Francisco, Portland, and various cities in Alaska on the West Coast; and Chicago and Cleveland in the Great Lakes region.

After the Russian Revolution and subsequent Russian Civil War from 1917 to 1922, many White émigrés also arrived, especially in New York, Philadelphia, and New England. Emigration from Russia subsequently became very restricted during the Soviet era (1917–1991). However, after the dissolution of the Soviet Union at the end of the Cold War, immigration to the United States increased considerably.

In several major U.S. cities, many Jewish Americans who trace their heritage back to Russia and other Americans of East Slavic origin, such as Belarusian Americans and Rusyn Americans, sometimes identify as Russian Americans. Additionally, certain non-Slavic groups from the post-Soviet space, such as Armenian Americans, Georgian Americans, and Moldovan Americans, have a longstanding historical association with the Russian American community.