Essay On 19th Century Russian Immigration

In 1917 the Russian revolution had began, this was the biggest factor in the fall of the Romanov dynasty. The white Russians arrested the tsarist and abdicated him from his throne putting Nicholas and his family on house arrest and he was no longer known as the Tsar, replacing him with a Bolshevik government. The red Russians had captured Nicholas and his family causing a civil war between the white and red Russians. In July 1918 Lenin and his red Russian squad had won the civil war, and shot Nicholas and his family, leaving Russia a communist country until the 1990’s.

Russia struggled to provide food for its populations. Citizens took control into their own hands, Ludovic Naudeau wrote in October 1917, “One morning recently I was awakened by the cries of my neighbor in the next room. His boots had been stolen. The same day the manager of a newspaper office told me that he had been robbed six of pairs of pantaloons, … “Four hundred thefts every night!” he cried; that is the average for the last two weeks,”(One Aspect of Bolshevist Liberty). Russia could not even uphold itself because the economy was not successful compared to other countries. This led people to desire a change in the government; therefore this led to the Russian Revolution. People went to different maters to get what they wanted such as stealing since they were not getting the aid that they needed and they needed financial support. This caused them to protest against their government because many people from the lower class could not take care of their families. This cause led to a greater impact compared to Tsarist weak authority.

Russia's overthrows and shortage caused revolutionary upheaval and massive inflation, which led to deprived infrastructure. During World War I, Russian society naturally caused great dissatisfaction among the serfs. As the revolution wore on, numerous reform and Tsar Nicholas II, a ruler, tried to change Russia's social structure and government. Among the masses, there was discontentment with Russia's social system and living conditions. Laborers worked and lived in horrendous conditions, which played a crucial role in aggravating the condition of workers and peasants. As a result, peasants starved and Russia’s armies were overpowered on the battlefield because much of its terrain was occupied by enemies. Hence, Imperial Russia was a

Americans were unsettled by the overwhelming amount of new immigrants. The new immigrants came in such massive quantities that in 1900 immigrants from Southern and Eastern Europe made up as much as 70 percent of all immigrants. This is a dramatic increase considering that in midcentury these immigrants only made up 1 percent of the immigrant population. This overhaul of new immigrants led to severe hostility, bias, and nativism. Nativism is the belief that native-born white Americans were superior to newcomers. Competition for jobs and housing had never been higher in the late 19th century. America was in an economic recession and most immigrants were willing to work for much lower wages than natural born citizens which as a result put them out of work and ultimately housing. This however was only one problem, religion was another. American Protestants were suspicious of Catholicism which was the religion of many new immigrants including the Irish, German, Italian, and Polish. The majority of white Protestants would not hire, vote for, or even work with Catholics or Jewish people. In severe cases Americans would even sign contracts agreeing not to

Between 1870 and the 1990s, over 11 million immigrants came to America in search of a better a life, coming from Southern and Eastern Europe such as Germany, France, Ireland, and immigrants from China as well. People came to America seeking sanctuary from their home land that did not allow them to be free, such as the Jewish people of Russia, who came to America because the Russian government was anti-Semitic. Jewish people were not allowed to have much property or security in Russia, simply because of their religion. In addition, the draft in Russia would take people away and force them to fight for 25 years, in wars that were pointless due to outdated weapons as well as the brutal discipline they were treated with when drafted. America was a place that allowed freedom of religion, something that was not common and many other countries, making America the ideal place to move and settle down, allowing immigrants to express their religion freely, without the consequences they faced back home. Immigrants also came to America in search of jobs that were scarce in Europe. Many small farmers were put out of jobs in Europe due to large scale mechanized

In the late 1800s , America became the land of new opportunities and new beginnings and New York City became the first landmark for immigrants. New York City was home to Ellis Island, the area in which migrants were to be handed for freedom to enter the nation. Living in New York City gave work and availability to ports. In time the city gave the chance to outsider's to construct groups with individuals from their nation , they were classified as new and old settlers. Old outsiders included Germans, Irish and, English. The new outsiders incorporated those from Italy, Russia, Poland and Austria-Hungary. In 1875, the New York City populace was a little 1 million individuals contrasted with the 3,5 million it held when the new century

The reforms Stolypin introduced did have an immediate impact. 15% of the peasantry took on new opportunities. In fact by 1914 10% had consolidated their holdings and 25% had left the communes However after their initial rush, the significance and success decreased quite considerably. Moreover black earth regions were still very backward. As well, it made the Marxist unhappy. Making the Peasant content meant no revolution. Subsequently there was only a certain extent that Russia could be stable to.

These effects however were more severe under Lenin and Stalin as they sought to increase grain production by coercion. While Lenin under War communism used grain requisitioning to forcefully collect peasant surpluses from them Stalin used collectivisation to force peasants to collaborate to produce as much food as possible. Similarly in both cases the peasants refused to conform; knowing that any surplus would be confiscated the peasant produced the barest minimum to feed themselves and their family and even less food was available for Russia. One of the greatest impacts were the famines that occurred in 1921 under Lenin where the grain harvest produced less than half the amount gathered in 1931 and Russia had international help from countries such as the USA. However these impacts were the greatest under Stalin. The amount of bread produced fell from 250.4 (kilograms per head) in 1928 to 214.6 in 1932. The impacts of collectivisation were at its worst in 1932-32 when occurred what many people describe as a self-made national famine. Stalin’s ‘’official silence’’ of the situation meant it wasn’t addressed and thus collectivisation killed between 10-15 million peasants and failed to increase agricultural output. Though a similar devastating famine occurred under

From 1880-1924, in order to escape persecution from Alexander the II’s reign and anti-Semitism, Russian Jews emigrated to America to escape a wave of religious persecution, a chance at a new life spurred on by the economic turmoil caused by industrialization, and for economic reasons. They arrived during, "The New Immigration" the wave of immigration that lasted from 1880-1924. A vast majority of the Jews settled on the East coast in places such as Manhattan, Boston, and Philadelphia. They also settled in other larger more industrialized and urbanized cities such as Chicago, Seattle and Detroit. The jobs Russian Jews held were mostly low skilled trades such as tailors and butchers or even worked in the early sweatshops.

America fever brought more immigrants from new parts of Europe. The Japanese immigrants turned east some ended up in Hawaii and the US where most worked as agricultural laborers and Mexican immigrants, they fled north as agricultural workers. As for the eastern European Jews they traveled to America because religious persecution. Their own home lands were not as safe as America. Due to the over populated state the vast number of “new” immigrants and their especially “foreign” origins created a backlash against them. Nativism climaxed quickly. Issues about immigrants being a problem made native-born Americans either

Russia was a country rich in raw materials that had been undisturbed by modern extraction and refining techniques until then, however, the majority of the countries resource rich areas were nowhere near any railways, with the bulk of the heavy materials such as steel, iron, coal and copper being in the Urals, almost 1,000km away from the nearest railway system in 1860. Oil, another key ingredient in industrialisation was almost 1,500km away to the south, in the Caucasus area3. This lack of transportation in a period when steam powered machines were producing the goods and steam powered trains were delivering them and leading the industrialisation in other countries like Britain, the USA and a future foe in Germany is an indicator of the distance that Russia was behind its rivals under the leadership of the Tsar. So the Tsar’s Russia was largely an agrarian one, but even in the agricultural sector Russia was lagging far behind the rest of the West in terms of the methods employed by farmers, little fertiliser was used and the labour saving machines used in countries with enormous agricultural output like the US were nowhere near as widespread in Russia. The weaknesses of the Tsar’s management of the agricultural sector were highlighted in 1891 when famine hit. Due to the heavy tax on consumer goods, peasants had been forced to sell more of their

Jews and other similarly oppressed groups sought safe haven from political or ideological persecution and wished to find a place where they could practice their religions or express their beliefs without the incumbent threat of violence. However, these "Open Door" sentiments soon began to fade. People started feeling angry towards these 'new ' immigrants because they were often poor, illiterate, or came from different cultural or religious backgrounds. The trauma of the First World War and the fear of Communism during the Red Scare of the late 1910s also worried many Americans. As a result, Congress passed laws restricting the flow of immigration because the government did not believe that the new immigrants enriched the life and culture of the USA (History.com Staff). In addition to the fear of immigrants, xenophobia and racial persecution set the stage for today 's world of restrictive immigration propositions.

Another major hardship that was faced by most immigrants was the way that they were treated. Often times they were treated like second-class citizens and were thought to be inferior to the natural born citizens. They also seemed to only be able to hold jobs that no one else really wanted to do, for very low wages. Most of the time people would

“Between 1900 and 1915, more than 15 million immigrants arrived in the United States. That was about equal to the number of immigrants who had arrived in the previous 40 years combined.” States the Library of Congress. By 1910, almost three-fourths of New York City was populated by immigrants from other countries, especially Eastern and Southern Europe. This was a great opportunity for many immigrants that came from across the globe, but some Americans had trouble adjusting to it.

Immigration has always and will always play an important role in America’s history, along with the United States having the most open immigration policy in the world to this date. American history began with flocks of immigrants competing for lands to start a life, bringing over their vast traditions and values. Some brought nothing but determination. It’s disgusting to see our congress and lawmakers make these higher-end laws to keep foreigners out, yet our country is built off immigrants. Since the 19th century, America has been the leading destination unlike no other for immigrants to reside. No other country has such a wide range of races and population like America. Diversity is indeed, what makes this country so unique. America has always