Russians in Australia
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The first Russian citizen known to have become a permanent resident of Australia was John Potocki, a former Russian Army officer who landed in Hobart, Tasmania on 18 February 1804.
Between 1819 and 1821 two Russian ships, the Vostok (meaning 'East') and the Mirny (Peaceful) visited Port Jackson under the command of Captains Lazarev and Bellingshausen for provisions and repairs on several occasions during an expedition to explore Antarctica ordered by Tsar Alexander I. Until the middle of the 19th century, only a few dozen Russians, Ukrainians, Lithuanians, Latvians, Finns and other émigrés from the Czarist Russian empire were resident in Australia, which was still a part of the British Empire.
Russian ships visited Australia throughout the 19th century and a number of Russian seamen absconded from their ships to settle permanently in Australia. Religious sects, including the Mennonites and Doukhobors, made plans to send up to 40,000 settlers to Australia and New Guinea but after much debate in the Russian press, and 2,000 applications to emigrate, this mass emigration did not materialise.
The Russian Imperial Navy corvette Bogatyr visited Melbourne and Sydney in 1863. In 1882 three Russian Navy ships – the Africa, Vestink (Herald or Messenger) and Platon (Plato) – made port in Melbourne, sparking fears in the press of a Russian invasion. A brief mobilisation of defence forces ensued before the lack of aggressive intent was made clear. In 1885 concerned British colonists thought a Russian invasion was again imminent and built Bare Island Fort to protect 'Sydney's back door' in Botany Bay.
Nicholai Miklukho-Maklai, a famous Russian anthropologist and ethnologist, lived and worked in Sydney from 1878 to 1897, setting up the Marine Biological Centre, Australia's first institute of marine biology.
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[edit] Waves of Emigration
Up to 250,000 people a year emigrated from the Russian empire to countries such as the United States, Canada, Argentina and Brazil towards the end of the 19th century. Australia was a much less popular destination, with only 300 Russians leaving for Australia in 1890. According to the Census in 1891, the number of Russians living in Australia was 2881, comprising 2350 men and 531 women.
[edit] The first wave 1880-1905
The first major wave of Russian emigrants to Australia began in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, largely Jews from the Baltic and south west of Russia escaping anti-Semitism and a wave of pogroms which raged in the wake of Tsar Alexander II assassination on 1 March (old calendar) 1881.
By the time of the formation of the Australian Commonwealth in 1901, a total of 3,358 Russians were resident in the newly created country, comprising 1,262 in New South Wales, 954 in Victoria, 454 in Queensland, 251 in South Australia, 400 in Western Australia and 37 in Tasmania. Most emigrants had come via England at this time, but in the future many travelled via the newly opened Trans-Siberian railway and ports in the far east, which provided a quicker and cheaper route. Letters from Antipodean emigrants were commonly published in the Russian press and had the effect of encouraging potential emigrants to consider this exotic new land as a possible destination.
[edit] The second wave 1905-1917
A second wave occurred between the defeat of Russia in the Russian-Japanese War in 1905, the revolution of that year and the February Revolution in 1917. These comprised political opponents of the Czarist regime and defectors from compulsory military service in the Russian armed forces. According to Prince Abaza, the Russian General Consul in Australia in 1914, there were 12,000 people from the Russian empire in Australia out of a total population of 2.5 million. The lure of Australia's democracy and social mobility outweighed the hardships which many of the emigres suffered in their first years, often in labouring jobs due to their lack of English.
[edit] The third wave 1917-1939
The Australian Government placed an embargo on immigration from Russia between 1917 and 1922 due to the Russian revolution and subsequent Russian Civil War. After the lifting of this prohibition after the defeat of the white movement, a third wave of Russians migrated to Australia in the 1920s after the defeat of the White Army by the Bolshevik forces. These were known as the White emigres. Many of these refuges embarked from Manchuria, having been driven to Siberia by the rampant Red Army.
[edit] The fourth wave 1945-1960
A fourth wave of emigrants came to Australia after the Second World War, comprising Russian prisoners of war and displaced Russian citizens. These people faced persecution in Stalin's Soviet Union, being seen as collaborators or contaminated with dangerous western influences. Many Russians, fearing forced repatriation to the Soviet Union where they faced death in the Gulag, claimed to be Polish to escape Stalin's dictat that all Soviet citizens must return. There had been a large influx of Russian Orthodox refugees from China following the Japanese invasion of Manchuria in 1931 and more fled Mao Tse Tung's rise to power after the defeat of the Chinese Nationalist Army. The refuge in Australia for the Russian colony in China was negotiated by archbishop John of Shanghai. His success in negotiations with the Labor Government of Ben Chifley is sometimes seen as a miracle proving John's sainthood. Several Russian born emigrants to Australia have published accounts of their escapes from Soviet Russia and Communist China, including Alex Saranin's 'Child of the Kulaks' and 'The Tarasov Saga' by Igor Ivashkoff (Gary Nash).
[edit] The Russian Orthodox Church in Australia
The first Russian Orthodox parish was founded in Australia in 1922. An Australian Diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia (ROCOR, also know as the Russian Church Abroad (ROCA), or the Synod) was formed and now has about 22 centres in Australia and New Zealand. There is a Russian Orthodox convent in Kentlyn, near Sydney, and the Holy Transfiguration Monastery in Bombala, NSW. These communities are not in communion with the Russian Orthodox Church, nor with most Local Orthodox Churches throughout the world with the exception of the Serbian and Jerusalem Patriarchates, and are thus considered to be non-canonical by a number of Orthodox Churches. Russian churches set up Russian schools to preserve Russian language and customs.
There are parishes of the Russian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate) in Glen Iris, Victoria (celebrating in English) and in Blacktown, NSW, (celebrating in Slavonic). There is a small Belarusian Orthodox community in Bankstown, NSW, that is administered by the Moscow Patriarchate. The Russian Orthodox congregation in South Yarra, Melbourne, is under the jurisdiction of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese and celebrates services in English. There are also some parishes of Lipovan Orthodox Old-Rite Church which represent the tradition of Russian Old Believers.
[edit] Russian Entrepreneurs
The Myer shopping chain, still a dominant power in the Australian retail sector, was founded by early Russian speaking Jewish immigrant Sidney Myer in Melbourne, his first store set up as the 'Myer Emporium'. He supported new Russian emigres to Melbourne for as long as he lived.
[edit] Russian Arts in Australia
The mine engineer Ilya Repin (1888-1949), after settling in Sydney in 1925, helped create a Russian Orthodox Church in Sydney on Robertson Road in the 1930s. First holding services in his own cottage, he founded the Church of Saint Vladimir on this site, a 'khram' which exists to this day. There is a long history of Russian cultural and artistic visits to Australia. In 1913, the Russian Imperial Ballet toured Australia, the first and only performances of Russian actors before the First World War. In 1926 the famous Russian ballerina Anna Pavlova danced in Melbourne and Sydney, giving a great boost to the embryonic Australian ballet of its day and in the same year, famed opera singer Feodor Shalyapin made an Australian concert tour. Renowned ballerina Irina Baronova toured Australia before the Second World War and now lives in Byron Bay. She is a vice-president of the Royal Academy of Dance and a patron of the Australian Ballet, and has recently published her memoirs.
Pianists Alexander Sverzhizki and Phillip Shovk and painter Danila Vassiliev worked in Australia and boosted the local development of their arts while art historian Nina Kristesen established the Department of Russian Language and Literature at Melbourne University in 1946.
Russian Arts festivals and events are popular in Australia. The 150th anniversary of Pushkin's death was commemorated with Poetry festivals in 1987 and a range of Russian cultural and social organisations are active in the major cities of Melbourne and Sydney. The Russian Connection provides an independent and comprehensive guide to cultural events and occasions with a Russian flavour in Australia. The organisation promotes Russian cultural activities such as art exhibitions, ballet, classical music, concerts, festivals, kids' events, movies, musicals, lectures, opera, and theatre. The Russian Connection is continually expanding with the recent addition of a catalogue of new Russian literature and Russian language movies available from various public libraries.
[edit] The fifth wave - Russians in Australia today
Australia now has a Russian speaking population of over 30,000, a community which has grown quickly since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. The majority of these refugees were Jews but in recent years this trend has been reversed and Orthodox Russians are leading the emigration. Notable Russian emigres include boxer Kostya Tszyu and pole vault champion Tatiana Grigorieva, who won a silver medal in the 2000 Sydney Olympics. Sydney's Bondi Beach is a popular area for Russian expats, with several restaurants and specialist shops catering to their needs. The community is served by Russian language radio broadcasts by Australia's Special Broadcasting Service in Melbourne and Sydney. There has been continued emigration from Russia to Australia in recent years and is expected to reach at least 100,000 by 2010.
[edit] Australians in Russia
The Russian connections in Australia are mostly composed by Russian-borns moving to or visiting Australia. The most notable representative of the Australians moving to Russia is the famous physisit Aleksandr Mikhailovich Prokhorov. He was born to a family of Russian immigrants in Atherton, Queensland, Australia to a family of Russian immigrants in 1916. He and his parents relocated to the Soviet Union in 1923. In 1964 he received the Nobel Prize in Physics, for his work on lasers and masers. He was also the chief editor of the Great Soviet Encyclopedia since 1969.
