American Dream

'I feel myself at home here'
The region's thousands of Russian immigrants are thriving.

By Kelly Brewington
Sun Staff

August 23, 2005

Quotes:

Slava Drakh moved to New York from Moscow but four years ago ended
up in Baltimore, where he operates an eclectic restaurant that turns into a techno-thumping disco on weekends, a favorite of the area's thriving Russian community.

"Everybody knows about Baltimore," said Drakh, 35, who operates the Art Gallery Cafe in Pikesville, which serves Russian, Italian and
French cuisine as varied as borscht, veal marsala and duck salad.

Many of Baltimore's Russian immigrants began life in the United States as cabdrivers, manicurists and grocery owners selling the familiar tastes of home. As the region's community matured and prospered, the immigrants branched out and now own a variety of businesses including nightclubs, law firms and dental offices.

"They are quite successful, pragmatic and highly educated," said Steve Gold, a professor of sociology at Michigan State University who has written about Jewish emigration from the former Soviet Union.

Russians have made Baltimore a destination for more than a century, but the recent influx of mostly Jewish immigrants such as Drakh from the former Soviet Union has transformed parts of Baltimore and Baltimore County. They began arriving as refugees in the early 1980s, turning places such as the Millbrook Park Apartments in Pikesville into little Moscows.

Drakh's restaurant, with its smoky interior and jumbo televisions showing Russian pop performances, is a hit with Russian immigrants in their 20s.

Drakh became a publisher last year, adding the monthly
Russian Kaleidoscope to the area's Russian-oriented periodicals. For many Russian immigrants, Baltimore has offered opportunity in a more manageable setting than a bigger metropolitan area would have.

The Baltimore region has the 15th-largest Russian-speaking population in the country, behind such cities as New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco, according to an analysis from the Migration Policy Institute, a Washington think tank focusing on demographic issues.

Russian immigrants in Baltimore region

A snapshot of the Baltimore region's Russian immigrant community:

- 10,477: Number of foreign-born immigrants from Russia and the
former Soviet republics.

- 15th: Baltimore's nationwide rank in Russian immigrant population.

- 72.5: The percentage of the area's Russian immigrants who have
arrived in the United States since 1990.

- 30: The percentage of the region's Russian immigrants age
25 and older with bachelor's degrees.

- 15.6: The percentage of the area's Russian immigrants age 25
and older with master's degrees.

- 41.8: The percentage of the area's Russian immigrants
without U.S. citizenship.

Source: analysis of 2000 U.S. Census Bureau data from the
Migration Policy Institute

Copyright © 2005, The Baltimore Sun

[Click title above for full story]