Mysterious Russian Soul….

California is a blessed home to many different nationalities, living in peace and mutual respect under the Sun.

We came here to be happy, successful, learn from others and share with others.

Russians are famous for living their lives in a moment, forgiving with ease, capable for genuine feelings of love, compassion and committed friendship.

Russians uphold conservative family values, believing in parental authority, giving plenty of loving attention to their children, respecting their ancestors.

Russians are pragmatic but optimistic; they never give up in a fight and have limitless endurance. They are famous for being street-smart, resourceful, hands-on problem solvers.

Russians are passive when they don’t see how work can improve their lives, but they are the hardest workers on Earth, when they are working towards a better future.

Slavic people are honest, reliable, law-abiding. Contrary to a hostile image created by Hollywood, Slavic community is peaceful and law – obedient. (With about 1 million Slavic people living in California, how many times have you really heard of any crimes in our community?)

Russians love to party and celebrate life, express hospitality. Their drinking habits are usually exaggerated, though it is true that Tsars drunk intensively, perhaps as a royal hobby.

Russians are genuine people, capable of expressing profound feeling. We are spiritual and believe in God.

Russian women are indeed the most beautiful – visit our office to figure that to yourself.

Russians in California

Historic facts:

Today every 30 Californian speaks Russian.   But the history of Russian exploration of California started with a heartbreaking love story, just as many other chapters in Russian history.

In April, 1806 Nikolai Resanov, a proprietor of Russian-American Company decided to sail southward to Spanish California in hopes of obtaining relief supplies for the beleaguered Alaskan colony. On April 5, he and his scurvy stricken crew passed through the Golden Gate. Rezanov knew that foreign ships were not allowed to trade in California, but he sailed his ship, the Juno, boldly past the Spanish guns at the harbor mouth. For the next six weeks, the Juno lay at anchor in San Francisco Bay while a battle of wits went on between the Russians and the Spanish. The impasse was broken when Rezanov proposed to marry Concepcion Arguello, the teen-age daughter of the Spanish commander at San Francisco. The Juno was soon being loaded with grain for the starving settlement to the north, and on May 21 passed again through the Golden Gate.

It is said, that profound feelings arose between two young people who spend many days riding horses on spring time fields of the Bay Area. Rezanov proposed to Concepcion and noted the response: "My proposal shocked her parents, raised in fanaticism - the difference in religion and the future separation from their daughter were like a thunder clap to them." The Arguellos warmed up to the idea, but the religious differences worried them. It was agreed that Rezanov would head back to St. Petersburg in order to gain consent from the Russian emperor and the Pope for the mixed Russian Orthodox and Roman Catholic wedding.

In his attempt to reach St. Petersburg, Rezanov got badly ill with pneumonia. He didn’t give up traveling under dare health conditions. On March 1, 1807 in Krasnoyarsk, ill with a fever, he fell from his horse and died. It was not until five years later that Concepcion learned from an officer of Rezanov's, "He is dead…His last words were of you." This young officer returned the locket that Concepcion had given to Rezanov prior to his trip. With this, Concepcion turned to the care of others for consolation. She looked after her parents, and became involved in charity work throughout California and even Guadalajara. Her family encouraged her to get married and it is rumored she had many suitors. She dedicated herself to religion and God instead, joining the Dominican sisterhood in Benicia, California until her death in 1857.

As the story of Russian immigration to California goes, by 1840, Russians had spread their settlements accorss Northern California, having  Fort Ross in Bodega Bay as a stronghold. Russians engaged in hunting, agriculture and fur trade. However, the colony was deemed to be economically unviable and too distant from the Russian mainland. In December 1841, they reached an agreement with John Sutter of Sutter's Fort in the Sacramento Valley for the sale of Fort Ross.  Unfortunately, John Sutter didn’t fulfill his part of agreement to pay Russians the agreed amounts, which Russians never seemed to care about, as they are known to easy forgive and forget the wrong.

In 1917 the imperial government of Russia was overthrown by socialist revolutionaries called Bolsheviks, and all the lands of the Empire were convulsed by four years of civil war. As the Russian Empire died and the communist Soviet Union came into being, tens of millions of people were caught up in anarchy, bloodshed, and widespread property destruction, and more than 2 million fled the country. More than 30,000 made their way to the United States.

These new Russian immigrants had mostly been prominent citizens of the Empire—aristocrats, professionals, and former imperial officials—and were called “White Russians” because of their opposition to the “red” Soviet state. The White Russians were welcomed by the U.S. government, which was concerned about the spread of socialism, and quickly formed organizations to provide aid to their homeland. In the meanwhile, though, they had to find ways to support themselves in America. Many took up manual labor for the first time in their lives, and tales spread of former princes working as headwaiters and generals driving taxis. At the same time, they had to learn to live with the older generation of Russian immigrants. Many of these farmers and laborers had suffered terribly at the hands of the imperial aristocracy, and the White Russians did not always find a warm welcome when they asked the Russian American community for help.

The next wave of Russian immigration started in Brejnev’s regime of Soviet Union. The defectors of the 1970s included a number of world-renowned artists, such as the dancer Mikhail Baryshnikov and the Nobel Prize-winning poet Joseph Brodsky. Many joined the sizable group of Russian Americans who had long agitated against abuses of the Soviet system, most notably the fiercely critical novelist Alexander Solzhenitsyn, a survivor of many years as a Soviet political prisoner. In the late 1980s, as the U.S.S.R. entered its death throes, these activists saw their efforts come to fruition. Before it finally collapsed in 1990, the Soviet Union threw open its gates to all emigrants, and hundreds of thousands of Russians began to find their way to the U.S.

From 1980s to 1990s, Sacramento and San Francisco became homes of tens of thousands of Russians, who were prosecuted for religious and political motives in Soviet Union.

Today, over 200,000 Russian – speaking immigrants live in Northern California, primarily in Sacramento, San Francisco and Bay Area. Most families already raise second generation settlers– true Californians, who see America as their homeland and live in harmony with their ethnic and language roots.

Russian-American Media is proud to serve our Slavic community and provide a bridge between two cultures.