How does the Russian community live in San Francisco

The Russian Center of San Francisco organizes an active cultural life for the Russian-speaking community of the city.

About how there are dance classes, told the publication Lenta.ru.

In 2019, the Russian Center will celebrate the 80 anniversary of its work. It was founded in the 30 of the last century by immigrants from Russia. Russian in California settled in the middle of the last century. In San Francisco there is still a Russian Hill, Russian hill - at the beginning of the twentieth century, religious refugees from Russia settled there, in particular the Molokan community. (Moving the Molokans to California, by the way, was partly sponsored by Leo Tolstoy and Maxim Gorky.)

From 1899, statistics on migrants appeared in the United States, and it turned out that the Russians of those years came to America literally beggars - only 1910% of people from Russia had 1914 dollars with them in 5,3-50 years. Even before the powerful wave of “white emigration”, which brought overseas orders, family photo albums, ball gowns, icons and nostalgia, there were more than one and a half million immigrants from the Russian Empire to the USA (as of 1910 per year).

An employee of the center speaks with pride of the local Russian community that it is the oldest and largest in the USA and in general one of the largest Russian communities abroad.

Those Russian immigrants who come to California now are mostly young programmers, techies who live in the present, not in the memory of the past, so a center that preserves old-fashioned ideals does not attract them. In addition, the history that the “White Guard” communities that formed in the United States after the revolution cherish is not family history for modern Russians. This is not their story at all, for that matter - it is the story of those whom their ancestors once defeated in the Civil War and kicked out of the country. And now, 100 years later, the descendants of both meet in San Francisco and nothing happens - these different “Russies” have little contact with each other.

The bright building with a large inscription on the facade of the Russian Center on Sutter Street is immediately noticeable. Inside there are several halls for sports and dance classes, higher up the stairs - a museum and office rooms.

The newspaper Russkaya Zhizn, located in the Russian Center, became famous for having interviewed Russian Culture Minister Vladimir Medinsky in October 2012, the very one in which he announced to the whole world that Russians have an “extra chromosome”.

The museum is undergoing a period of reorganization: too many exhibits have accumulated. While they are practically piled up in several small halls. All this looks amateurish, but the museum does not pretend to be academic, it works at the expense of enthusiasts. All exhibits are family. The first Russian historical society, which stood at the origins of the museum, was created in 1937 year and immediately began to collect various items of the outgoing Russian life. After World War II, in 1948, a group of immigrants organized a Museum of Russian Culture and included exhibits collected by the Russian Historical Society.

“Today, the descendants of old immigrants are Americans in the third or fourth generation. They do not need these things and are incomprehensible, but they do not want them to disappear, ”the museum employee explained.

In a small hall on the first floor there are photos of the leaders of the first organizations that united the local Russian youth. In 1923, the Russian football team was created, winning the silver cup in the very first season, and the Russian Sports Club Mercury was founded (1924 year). At the beginning of the 50-ies appeared sports society "Russian Falcon". Children were called "falcons", boys - brothers, girls - sisters.

The Russian center in San Francisco keeps the memory of the tragedies that are absent in the minds of the modern Russian. For example, about “like a criminal red regime tore apart innocent Cossack scouts near the town of Verny, now Alma-Ata”. On the forced repatriation of the Cossacks in Lienz - the Allies extradited the Cossacks to Stalin's emissaries: “May the heroic death of the unconquered Cossacks for all time remind future generations of the atrocities of communism and the betrayal of the occupation authorities in Austria. The genocide of Lienz is the grief and pain of millions of people. We cannot allow their martyrdom to be forgotten! ”

The Russian Falcon Society in San Francisco holds an annual “Falcon Brothers and Sisters” meeting. The program of the meeting includes “a prayer for the living, lithium for the departed,” an exchange of views on the table “carefully arranged by our sisters,” reports from the board and current affairs.

The rest of the Russian Center in San Francisco is similar to the classic House of Culture with circles for children, which are in all cities of Russia. Here children are taught to dance and sing, festivals take place in the winter and autumn. Choreography classes are classical, nothing changes here either because of revolutions or because of emigration.

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