Ukrainians in Russia

• 1. The Pereiaslav Migration

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  In 1654, the Treaty of Pereiaslav transformed Ukraine into a protectorate of the Tsardom of Russia. This political shift triggered a massive movement of people from Ukrainian lands to Russian territories. Thousands of Ukrainians traveled to Sloboda Ukraine and the Don lands shortly after the treaty was signed. Church activists, priests, and monks formed the first wave of this migration. They moved toward Moscow seeking new opportunities within the expanding empire. Twelve singers under the direction of Ternopolsky arrived in Moscow in 1652. Thirteen graduates of the Kyiv-Mohyla Collegium followed to teach the Moscow gentry. These early arrivals established a cultural bridge between two distinct regions. The influence of Ukrainian clergy grew significantly over the next century. In 1686, the Metropolia of Kyiv transferred from the Patriarch of Constantinople to the Patriarch of Moscow. This ecclesiastical change allowed Ukrainian church leaders to shape Russian Orthodoxy for decades. By 1750, over 125 schools and seminaries had opened across Russian eparchies. Their graduates controlled key posts within the Russian Orthodox hierarchy until the late 18th century. Stephen Yavorsky became Metropolitan of Moscow after Peter I abolished the Patriarch's chair. Feofan Prokopovich followed him as another influential Ukrainian leader. Five Ukrainians served as metropolitans while seventy out of 127 bishops were recent emigres from Kyiv. The Moscow court established a choir in 1713 with twenty-one singers from Ukraine. A Vedel conducted the group for a period of time. Maksym Berezovsky worked in St. Petersburg during this era. Forty-four men, thirty-three women, and fifty-five girls moved to St. Petersburg from Ukraine in 1741 to sing and entertain. Large numbers of Ukrainians settled around St. Petersburg after the Battle of Poltava in 1709. They helped build the new city under imperial orders. Some Ukrainians faced deportation by the Russian government for demonstrating anti-Russian sentiment. D. Mhohohrishny, Ivan Samoylovych, and Petro Doroshenko were among those exiled to Siberia or Arkhangelsk. Hetman Pavlo Polubotok remained imprisoned in exile for the rest of his life.

• 2. Census Data And Identity Shifts

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  The 1897 census recorded 22,380,551 Ukrainian speakers within the Russian Empire borders. Only 1,020,000 Ukrainians lived in European Russia according to that count. Another 209,000 resided in Asian Russia at the same time. The 1926 census showed nearly a million Ukrainians registered in the Kuban Okrug alone. That figure represented 62% of the total population in that region. Soviet authorities pursued policies of Decossackization during the 1920s. They opened seven hundred Ukrainian-language schools and created a Ukrainian department in the local university. A policy shift occurred by the mid-1930s when Ukrainization was halted and reversed. By the end of the 1930s many Cossacks' descendants chose to identify themselves as Russians. The Soviet Census of 1989 showed that a total of 251,198 people in Krasnodar Kray were born in the Ukrainian SSR. In the 2002 census, the number of people who identified as Ukrainians in the Kuban was recorded to be 151,788. Most descendants of Kuban Cossacks now identify themselves as Russian nationals despite their cultural origins. The 1937 census was discarded and begun again as the 1939 census due to political reasons. The 1939 census listed 3,359,184 Ukrainians representing 3.07% of the total population. This marked a significant drop from the 1926 figures. The 1959 census recorded 3,359,083 Ukrainians making up 2.86% of the population. By 1970 the count stood at 3,345,885 or 2.57%. The 1979 census brought the number back slightly to 3,657,647 which was 2.66%. The 1989 census showed 4,362,872 Ukrainians comprising 2.97% of the population. The 2002 census dropped sharply to 2,942,961 representing only 2.03%. In 2010 the figure fell further to 1,927,988 people who were 1.40% of the total. The Russian census identified that there were more than 5,864,000 Ukrainians living in Russia in 2015. This represented over 4.01% of the total population of the Russian Federation and made them the eighth-largest ethnic group.

• 3. Organizations And Cultural Centers

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  The Ukrainian cultural renaissance in Russia began at the end of the 1980s with the formation of the Slavutych Society in Moscow. A Ukrainian Cultural Centre named after T. Shevchenko opened in Leningrad now known as Saint Petersburg. In 1991 an organized conference took place in Kyiv with delegates from various new Ukrainian community organizations of the Eastern Diaspora. By 1991 over twenty such organizations existed across the former Soviet space. By 1992 six hundred organizations were registered in Russia alone. Regional congresses began to take place from 1992 onwards organized by Ukrainian organizations of Prymoria Tyumen Oblast Siberia and the Far East. The Union of Ukrainian organizations in Moscow was founded in March 1992. The Union of Ukrainians in Russia was established in May 1992. The term Eastern Diaspora has been used since 1992 to describe Ukrainians living in the former USSR. It replaced Western Ukrainian Diaspora which described all Ukrainian diaspora outside the Union until that time. The Eastern Diaspora is estimated to number approximately 6.8 million people while the Western Diaspora numbers approximately 5 million. In February 2009 about 3.5 million Ukrainian citizens were estimated to be working in the Russian Federation particularly in Moscow and in the construction industry. Volodymyr Yelchenko served as Ambassador of Ukraine to the Russian Federation. He stated there were no state schools in Russia with a program for teaching school subjects in the Ukrainian language as of August 2010. He considered correcting this situation one of his top priorities. As of 2007 the number of Ukrainian illegal immigrants in Russia has been estimated as being between 3 and 11 million. A 2011 poll found that 49% of Ukrainians said they had relatives living in Russia.

• 4. War And Refugee Flows

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  During the Russo-Ukrainian War that began in 2014 some Ukrainians living in Russia complained of being labelled a Banderite follower of Stepan Bandera even when they are from parts of Ukraine where Stephan Bandera has no considerable support. Starting from 2014 a number of Ukrainian activists and organisations were prosecuted in Russia based on political grounds. The case of Oleg Sentsov was described by Amnesty International as a Stalinist era trial. A Ukrainian library in Moscow closed its doors and staff members faced prosecution. A ban of Ukrainian organisations in Russia followed including the Ukrainian World Congress. In February 2014 there were 2.6 million Ukrainian citizens in the territory of Russia two-thirds of them labour migrants. After Russia annexed Crimea and started the war in Donbas the number was estimated to have risen to 4.5 million. About 400,000 had applied for refugee status and almost 300,000 had asked for temporary residence status. Another 600,000 were considered to be in breach of migration rules. By November 2017 there were 427,240 applicant asylum-seekers and refugees from Ukraine registered in Russia. Over 185,000 of them received temporary asylum while fewer than 590 held refugee status. Most refugees came from territories of Donetsk People's Republic and Luhansk People's Republics taken over by pro-Russian separatists since the Russo-Ukrainian War. Major destinations for Ukrainian migrants included Karelia Vorkuta Magadan Oblast oblasts such as Magadan and Yakutia which are destinations of a government relocation program. During the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine an estimated 2.8 million Ukrainians had arrived in Russia as of September 2022. The UN Human Rights Office stated there have been credible allegations of forced transfers of unaccompanied children to Russian occupied territory or to the Russian Federation itself. In February 2022 there were roughly 3 million Ukrainians who fled to Russia as refugees. Most of them identified as ethnic Russians. The number kept increasing throughout the war. Estimates for Ukrainians fleeing towards Russia range from 3 to 10 million.

• 5. Green Grey And Yellow Settlements

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  Green Ukraine is often referred to as Zeleny Klyn. This area of land settled by Ukrainians is part of Far Eastern Siberia located on the Amur River and the Pacific Ocean. It was named by Ukrainian settlers. The territory consists of over one hundred thousand square kilometers and had a population of 3.1 million in 1958. Ukrainians made up 26% of the population in 1926. In the last Russian census 94,058 people in Primorsky Krai claimed Ukrainian ethnicity making Ukrainians the second-largest ethnic group and largest ethnic minority. The Ukrainian settlement of Grey Ukraine or Siry Klyn developed around the city of Omsk in western Siberia. M. Bondarenko an emigrant from Poltava province wrote before World War I that the city of Omsk looks like a typical Moscovite city but the bazaar and markets speak Ukrainian. All around the city of Omsk stood Ukrainian villages. The settlement of people beyond the Ural mountains began in the 1860s. There were attempts to form an autonomous Ukrainian region in 1917, 1920. Altogether 1,604,873 emigrants from Ukraine settled the area before 1914. According to the 2010 Russian census 77,884 people of the Omsk region identified themselves as Ukrainians making Ukrainians the third-largest ethnic group there after Russians and Kazakhs. The settlement of Yellow Ukraine or Zholty Klyn was founded soon after the Treaty of Pereyaslav of 1659 as the eastern border of the second Zasechnaya Cherta. Named after the yellow steppes on the middle and lower Volga the colony co-existed with the Volga Cossacks. Colonists primarily settled around the city of Saratov. In addition to Ukrainians Volga Germans and Mordovians migrated to Zholty Klyn in large numbers. Most of the population is integrated throughout the region though a few culturally Ukrainian villages remain.

• 6. Artists And Political Figures

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  Nikolai Gogol wrote influential works that shaped Russian literature while Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky composed music that remains globally celebrated today. Nikolai Ostrovsky authored socialist realist novels including How the Steel Was Tempered. Korney Chukovsky became a renowned poet for children. Yevgeny Yevtushenko emerged as a leading Soviet poet during the Cold War era. Sergei Bondarchuk directed epic films like War and Peace which won an Academy Award. Natalya Bondarchuk worked as both actress and film director alongside her husband. Fyodor Bondchenko continues the family legacy as a film director. Alexander Dovzhenko created groundbreaking cinema in Ukraine before moving to Moscow. Leonid Gaidai directed popular comedies that defined Soviet humor for generations. Anna Politkovskiana journalist and writer documented human rights abuses until her assassination. Vladimir Korolenko wrote extensively about social justice issues. Mikhail Zoshchenko produced satirical short stories critiquing Soviet society. Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko co-founded the Moscow Art Theatre with Konstantin Stanislavski. Vasily Avseenko served as literary critic and journalist from 1842 to 1913. Grigory Skovoroda was a philosopher whose writings influenced Ukrainian thought deeply. Ivan Vasilenko wrote historical novels set against turbulent times. Galina Pisarenko performed as a Soviet-born Russian soprano of international renown. Arkady Averchenko wrote plays and satire targeting political corruption. Larisa Shepitko directed films exploring complex moral dilemmas. David Burliuk described himself as the father of Russian Futurism while Wladimir Burliuk became a Cubo-futurist painter. Theophan Prokopovich served as theologian poet mathematician and philosopher within the Russian Imperial Orthodox Church. Amvrosy Metlinsky combined poetry ethnography folklorism and panslavism in his work. Dmitry Levitsky painted portraits capturing the essence of Russian aristocracy. Boris Vladimirski created Socialist Realism school paintings depicting industrial progress. Nikolai Pimonenco worked as a painter focusing on historical themes. Alexander Litovchenko contributed to neoclassical sculpture revival efforts. Ivan Martos helped awaken Russian interest in Neoclassical sculpture through teaching. Alexander Vertinsky performed as artist poet singer composer cabaret artist and actor. Serhii Vasylkivsky designed posters and illustrations for theatrical productions. Vasili Gogol-Yanovsky authored numerous theater pieces blending comedy with social commentary. Panteleimon Kulish translated works and wrote poems reflecting Ukrainian rural life. Yevgeny Titarenko composed music for operas and ballets throughout the 20th century. Eduard Butenko acted in theatre and film before passing away in 2006. Nikolai Gritsenko appeared in stage productions and films during the Soviet era. Vladimir Sakhnenko painted landscapes and portraits capturing everyday life scenes. Elena Kostenko created realist paintings depicting Soviet society struggles. Vasili Eroshenko wrote anarchist literature while also studying esperanto linguistics and teaching. Nikolay Shcherbina composed poetry exploring national identity themes. Sergei Skripka conducted state symphony cinema orchestras earning People's Artist status. Klym Polishchuk combined journalism poetry and writing into his public career. Yuri Koval authored artworks and screenplays alongside painting. Aleksei Bibik became one of the first working-class novelists in Russia. Valentin Pikul wrote historical novels satirizing provincial mores similar to 18th-century picaresque traditions.