These were peasants and farmers who dreamed of new beginnings and greater things for the future over the seas. So, millions set out on the seas to the United States and Canada. Later on through the years, the emigrants also were running from civil wars which were breaking out throughout Russia in fear of their family's safety.



Once the Russian emigrants made a safe voyage to Canada and the United States, they would join together and form communities small in nature and would take any kind of work wherever and whenever it could be found to support their family or themselves. Many emigrants found themselves working in the industries which were flourishing at the time, sweat shops, mines and mills.

Some of the Russian emigrants only wanted too stay until they had saved enough money for their families and go back to their home of Russia.

Who are the Russian emigrants? Defectors from Russia in the 1970's included Joseph Brodsky, the poet who won a Nobel Prize, Mikhail Baryshnikov, talented well known dancer and Alexander Solzhenitsyn, who endured years of being a political Soviet prisoner, he was a critical, tell it like it is novelist.

Why do the Russian emigrants go to Canada? It all started after World War 1, communities of small Russian emigrants settled and started developing in Timmins, Victoria, Vancouver, Winnipeg, Montreal, Sydney, Windsor and Toronto Canada. These emigrants were mostly of the peasant farmers who had emigrated from Russia, because they strongly opposed the regime of the Czarists. In Canada, they found many jobs and bright opportunities available to them here in this industrial growing sector.

What juridical and psychological problems do Russian emigrants face in Canada? Russian emigrants face the same problems almost every other emigrant has. The red tape of trying to become a citizen of another Country, learning the foreign language of their new home lands, getting used to our customs as they differ from what they are used too, the Russian citizenship provisions are in the Citizenship Act of the 28th November, 1990 which was amended on 17th June, 1993 and on 6th February, 1995.

The Russian emigrants have many difficulties upon their emigration into Canada or the United States. Sometimes they become singled out by their new neighbors into a minority because they speak and look differently than those around them. They struggle to maintain positions of equality in this new place. Younger Russian emigrants have an easier time blending in and learning the new language and customs a lot better than the older Russian emigrants do. Some people look at them as aliens to their Country or intruders, when all they are trying to do is make a better life for themselves and their family.

Canada has seen an increase in Russian emigrants making this their new home in the past years. No matter where your neighbors are from, remember to greet them warmly and genuinely welcome them into their new home town. You probably have no idea of the hardships they went through just to get to this better future for them and their children.