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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 20 November 2018
Since the end of World War II more than one million citizens of the USSR have emigrated to the West in a unique and unprecedented movement today called the “Third Soviet Emigration.” In contrast to two earlier flights of refugees from the Revolution and from World War II, the Third Emigration is a voluntary, legally-sanctioned process involving mainly three nationalities—Jews, ethnic Germans, and Armenians. The origin of the exodus goes back to the early postwar years, but the vast majority of the emigrants have left since 1971, when the Soviet government relaxed its historic antipathy to free movement by its citizens.
This article is the author's last work prior to his death in March 1993. Sidney Heitman was a staunch supporter of Nationalities Papers and its goals since the journal's founding by Stephan Horak in 1972.
1. Many individuals and organizations provided invaluable assistance in preparing this article, but special appreciation is expressed here to the US Department of State; the Israeli Embassy and Greek Embassy in Washington, DC; the Internationale Gesellschaft for Menschenrechte in Frankfurt/M; Dr. Kent R. Hill, Executive Director of the Institute on Religion and Democracy; Serge Duss, World Relief; Dr. Stephen Rapaway, US Bureau of the Census; Dr. Martin Dewhirst, Glasgow University; Prof. William C. Fletcher, University of Kansas; and Prof. Evan C. Vlachos, Colorado State University. Responsibility for the article is the author's alone.Google Scholar
2. For a detailed account of Soviet emigration and an extensive bibliography on the subject, see my The Third Soviet Emigration: Jewish, German, and Armenian Emigration From the USSR Since World War II (Cologne: Bundesinstitut für ostwissenschaftliche und internationale Studien, 1987).Google Scholar
3. See Benjamin Pinkus, “The Emigration of National Minorities from the USSR in the Post-Stalin Era,” Soviet Jewish Affairs, Vol. 13, No. 1, 1983, 3–36; Eugene M. Kulischer, Europe on the Move; War and Population Changes, 1917–1947 (New York: Columbia University Press, 1948); and Z. Alexander, Immigration to Israel from the USSR (Tel Aviv: Tel Aviv University, 1977).Google Scholar
4. See the discussion of a pending new law on emigration further on in the article.Google Scholar
5. This section is based on information provided by the Greek Embassy in Washington, DC, and on the following published sources: “Greece prepares for Soviet migrants,” The Financial Times (London), Jan. 7, 1990, 2; “The Pontians are coming,” Athena (Athens), Feb.-Mar. 1990, 223; “The descent of tens of thousands,” ibid., 339–40; “Foreign Ministry, Red Cross on Pontian resettlement,” The Daily Bulletin (Athena News Agency), Mar. 10, 1990; “EC to consider aid for Pontian resettlement,” ibid., Apr. 5, 1990; “Council of Europe loans announced,” ibid., Apr. 6, 1990.Google Scholar
6. This section is based on information provided by Dr. Kent R. Hill, Executive Director of the Institute on Religion and Democracy, Serge Duss of World Relief; and Prof. William C. Fletcher, University of Kansas, and on W.C. Fletcher, Soviet Believers: The Religious Sector of the Population (Lawrence, Kans.: Regents Press of Kansas, 1981), and Soviet Charismatics (New York: P. Lang, 1985); Kent R. Hill, The Puzzle of the Soviet Church; An Inside Look at Christianity and Glasnost (Portland, Ore.: Multnomah Press, 1989); and Walter Sawatsky, Soviet Evangelicals Since World War II (Scottdale, Pa.: Herald Press, 1981).Google Scholar
7. This paragraph is based on information provided by the Israeli Embassy in Washington, DC, the Union of Councils for Soviet Jews, the National Conference on Soviet Jewry, informants active in Soviet Jewish affairs, and the following sources: Zvi Gitelman, Antisemitism in the Age of Perestroika (New York: Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, 1990); Wolf Moskovich, Rising to the Challenge; Israel and the Absorption of Soviet Jews (London: Institute of Jewish Affairs, 1990); “A Fear of Pogroms Haunts Soviet Jews,” The New York Times, Jan. 25, 1990, A23; “Soviet Emigrs to Israel Tell of Hate Back Home,” ibid., Feb. 4, 1990, Y6; “Survey in Moscow Sees a High Level of Anti-Jewish Feeling,” ibid., Mar. 30, 1990, A6; “We Russian Jews Fear for Our Lives,” ibid., May 5, 1990, Y15; “Rush of Soviet Jews to Israel Rises As Fears of Moscow Chaos Grow,” ibid., Dec. 22, 1990, 1; “Russians Against Jews,” Atlantic Magazine, Oct. 1990, 32–45; “Exodus, revised version,” The Economist, Dec. 21, 1989, 55–56; “Uzbekistan Rioters Turn on Jews,” Forward, May 25, 1990, 5; and “Moscow Jews Anticipating Crackdown,” ibid., Dec. 20, 1990, 1.Google Scholar
8. This paragraph is based on information provided by the Internationale Gesellschaft für Menschenrechte in Frankfurt/M, the German Embassy in Washington, D.C., and German organizations involved in Soviet German affairs. The subject has also been widely reported in the German press.Google Scholar
9. This information on Armenian emigration was provided by American-Armenian informants who monitor the USSR.Google Scholar
10. See notes 7 and 8.Google Scholar
11. See my The Right to Leave; The New Soviet Draft Law on Emigration (Cologne: Bundesinstitut für ostwissenschaftliche und internationale Studien, 1990).Google Scholar
12. See, for example, G. Orlov, “Who Is Organizing the Brain Drain From the USSR?” Krasnaia Zvezda, Dec. 19, 1990, 3 (in English translation in Foreign Broadcast Information Service Bulletin “FBIS-SOV-91–005 [Washington, D.C.], 8 Jan., 1991,” 22–23).Google Scholar
13. See notes 7 and 8 above.Google Scholar
14. These events have been widely reported in the Western press. For representative news items, see “Israel Has Mixed View on Tide of Soviet Jews,” The New York Times, Jan. 18, 1990, A4; “A Stream of Soviet Emigrés Disturbs the Occupied Territories, ibid., Jan. 28, 1990, E3; “Arabs Growing Fearful of Influx of Soviet Jews,” ibid., Jan. 29, 1990, A4; “For New Israelis, Hope but Few Jobs,” ibid., May 16, 1990, A4; “Israel Retracts Pledge to US on East Jerusalem Housing, ibid., Oct. 10, 1990, A6; “Political Factions in Israel Pursue a Cure for Paralysis: Soviet Jews,” ibid., Dec. 9, 1990, 1, 10; Soviet Influx Has the Israelis Building, Fighting and in Awe,” ibid. Jan. 9, 1991, A1; “Housing Shortage in Israel Looms with Influx of Soviets,” AP dispatch of June 16, 1990; “Come One, Come All; Soviet emigrés continue to flood Israel, but many find themselves overqualified and under-housed,” Time, June 18, 1990, 58; “A Tide of Hope,” ibid., Jan. 14, 1991, 22–24; “True Grit Greets Request for New Exodus Funding; Jewish Agency Seeking $1.3 Billion for Soviet Olim,” Forward, Nov. 16, 1990, 1, 4; “Israel May Ax 60,000 Palestinian Jobs to Help Soviet Jews,” AP dispatch, Dec. 21, 1990; “Immigrants Find Little in Israel,” AP dispatch of Jan. 3, 1991; “Immigrants Get Army Tents as Temporary Homes,” Forward, Jan. 4, 1991, 3; “A Tide of Hope; As 1 million Soviet Jews head for their new homeland, they fulfill a Zionist dream but promise to transform the nation,” Time, Jan. 14, 1991, 22–24; and “3,700 Soviet Jews Reported Living in Territories Captured by Israelis,” AP dispatch, June 7, 1990.Google Scholar
15. This has been widely reported in the German press. See also note 8 above.Google Scholar
16. See for example, “Winter Wanderers; Europe braces for immigrants from a hungry and chaotic Soviet Union,” Newsweek, Dec. 15, 1990, 34–36; “Donations Gladly Accepted,” Time, Dec. 19, 1990, 59; “West Europe Braces for Migrant Wave From East,” The New York Times, Dec. 14, 1990, 6; “Moscow Predicts 1.5 Million Will Move East, ibid., Jan. 27, 1991, 4Y; “The Russians are coming,” The Economist, Oct. 20, 1990, 11–12; and Leon Aron, “The Russians Are Coming … And the West Needs an Immigration Policy That Makes Sense,” Washington Post, Jan. 27, 1991, C1.Google Scholar
17. See note 8 above.Google Scholar
18. See note 9 above.Google Scholar
19. According to the 1989 Soviet census, three million Soviet citizens are not indigenous to the USSR but descendants of earlier immigrants or annexed populations and have national homelands outside the Soviet Union. They include 1,126,000 Poles; 437,000 Koreans; 379,000 Bulgarians; 358,000 Pontian Greeks; 207,000 Turks; 172,000 Hungarians; 146,000 Rumanians; 57,000 Finns; 41,000 Iranians; 16,000 Czechs; 11,000 Chinese; 10,000 Slovaks; 9,000 Afghans; 4,000 Albanians; and 4,000 Mongols. Presumably, they also would be prospective emigrants when the new law is adopted, assuming their native countries will admit them.Google Scholar
