Religion in the Slavic Community

Religion in the Slavic Community

Kelci J. Mueller
Portland State University

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Religion in the Slavic Community

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Kelci Mueller
Professor Lo
Race & Social Justice
February 29th, 2016

Question
What role does religion play within the Slavic community in Portland, Oregon? This
question will address what religion means to them, why they are so invested in religion,
and how did the immigration change the role of religion in the Portland community. I
started to research the Slavics as a whole community in Portland. I then realized that this
was a too broad of a subject so I switched to individual groups within the community
such as Russian, Ukrainian, Polish, etc. I discovered that all these groups had a few
things in common. The first thing they all have in common is they all immigrated from
the former Soviet Union (USSR). The next thing they have in common is that they moved
to Portland for job opportunities. And lastly they were all very religious and they had
religious ties to churches in Portland that accepted them as refugees. This brought me to
the question: Does religion still play a major role here in Portland and if so what role
does it play? I am curious if these religious ties still stand to this day and how does this
affect the Portland community as a whole? I am interested in this topic because this isnt
the first time a large population has immigrated to the United States because of religious

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persecution. And that leads me to wonder how well did these refugees integrate into part
of the community. This is significant to address because it changed Portland as a whole
and it also affected the lives of the refugees moving into a strange place because of a
religion.

Intro
To answer the question of what role does religion play in the Slavic community in
Portland we have to first look at where the Slavic community came from and why did
they flee to Portland in the first place. Next, we will cover where they live in Portland
and look into why it is significant. Then we can look at what different types of religion is
present within the community. Lastly, this will all answer the overarching question of
what the role of religion is within the Slavic community. This paper will not only cover
the Slavics in Portland, but where else they live in the United States, and where all of
these people came from. It will cover the history of the former Soviet Union. It will
display the geographical ranges of the Slavics living within Portland, Oregon. Not only
will we look at why they left the Soviet Union, but what made them want to move to
areas such as Portland, Vancouver, and the Willamette Valley. This will all lead to what
do their lives consist of today and is religion still a key factor?

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The Former Soviet Union

The Soviet Union was made up of countries such as Russia, Ukraine, Uzbekistan,
Turkistan, etc. It was first established in 1917 and it fell after the Cold War in 1991. It
was a Marxist socialistic state with its first leading being Vladimir Lenin and then taken
over (after Lenins death) by Joseph Stalin and Leon Trotsky. Stalin then started to lead
the country more towards communism. People who practiced religion were being
persecuted severely. In schools, antireligious propaganda (The Columbia Encyclopedia,
2016) was taking place by the mid-1930s. There were very hostile relations with anyone
that had any association with the Jews or the Roman Catholic Church.

Moving to the United States

Many people fled from the Soviet Union during World War II because of religious
persecution and ethnic cleansing. There were many labor and concentration camps in the
Soviet Union that many people were being sent to because of their religious beliefs.
America opened up to refugees from the Soviet Union. Over a million Slavics moved
into the United States, and one of the reasons behind that move was religious ties within
the United States. Eastern Orthodox Church isnt the only religion that was being
persecuted. Others included Catholics, Jews, Protestants, and Islamic. The Soviet Union
had a ban on all religions and they were teaching atheism within their schools. The

Religion in the Slavic Community

Pacific Northwest wasnt the only place the refugees settles, the largest group settled in
New York City. Other important centers of immigration have included Philadelphia,
Miami, Chicago, San Francisco, and Los Angeles. (Radzilowski, Former Soviet Union
Immigrants 2015), all these cities had major refugee immigration but the Pacific
Northwest had a major pull because of all the diversity already beginning to form there,
and because of the huge religious ties. Once the Soviet allowed people to leave to
practice their religions, millions of people left the country. That caused them to become
stricter on the laws to leave, but the people who did make it out now reside in many
places in the United States.
Slavs within Portland, Oregon

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As the chart showcases above, Russian and Ukrainian refugees tend to live close to
churches within the Portland/Vancouver area. This is due to the fact that a lot of Slavics
moved to Portland because of religious ties to the Eastern Orthodox Church. Because of
the ban on religion in the Soviet Union, people who wanted to practice religion freely
came to the United States. According to Susan W. Hardwick & James E. Meachams
article Heterolocalism, Networks of Ethnicity, and Refugee Communities in the Pacific
Northwest: The Portland Story (2008) There are currently at least 60,000 Russians and
Ukrainians living in the Portland-Vancouver metropolitan area. Portland seemed to be a
very large attraction towards the Slavic refugees and it was most likely due to the ties to
the churches. This pattern spreads from Vancouver all the way south of Eugene. The
Slavic community is the largest refugee and race living in the Portland area other than
whites. This race includes ethnicities such as Russian, Polish, Ukrainian, and Siberian.

The Role Religion Plays within the Slavic Community

Religion played and still plays a major role within the Slavic Community in the PortlandVancouver area. The graph in the previous section shows that this influences where they
live in Portland, where they work, where they go to school; this is all based on where
their church resides. The Slavs escaped the Soviet Union because of religious persecution
and they still stay with their religions to this day. This influences almost every decision
they make because they have to keep a schedule and live close to a church.

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In the Russian and Ukrainian case study, then, migration streams and the
settlement decisions of migrants are shaped by shared networks of ethnicity. These
networks are held together by the glue of religious beliefs and membership in
church congregations in predeparture towns and cities. (Hardwick and Meacham
2008, pg. 550)
One thing that is needed to be remembered here is that 1988 is not a very long time ago
and those people who came here seeking refuge are still most likely still alive today, even
if they are not, they are survived by their children or grandchildren. Hardwick and
Meacham state that they are not only held together by ethnicity or where they are from,
they are held together by religious beliefs. These refugees often lived next to each other
and because of that, they had Slavic shops, jobs, and other things of importance in a
really close range. And even if it wasnt really close the transportation is set up so they
would be able to get to most of the places within the Portland-Vancouver area. Not only
were they the same ethnicities, sometimes they were entire villages moving together into
the same neighborhoods or apartment buildings. The first few years were tough because
they didnt speak English and there wasnt a ton of job opportunities, but they were able
to stick and band together in order to get back on their feet after all the persecution they
faced in the former Soviet Union. Although they stick and band together, they were still
being racially discriminated here because they looked white but they were not considered
white. They had a very tough persona (I mean who wouldnt, after all, the challenges and

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mistrust with the government) and they were called gangsters or mobsters. This still
didnt stop them though from practicing their religion and from getting jobs.

Conclusion
Although the information on this topic was very scarce (that is partly due to the short
amount of time they have been here in Portland and partly due to the fact they are
considered white) it was very clear of the role religion plays. The role religion plays is
deeply ingrained with them because not only were they fighting for religious freedom,
they are now in a very new place practicing religion with strangers. Religion was the key
decider of where the worked, where they lived, where their kids went to school and lastly,
who they associated themselves with. The Eastern Orthodox Church was one of the main
reasons they moved to Portland and that is one of the main reasons they are still here
today. The church offered them food, shelter, religious freedom, and jobs. They also
connected them with the rest of the community and welcomed them with open arms.
Connecting with the rest of the community also helped them start to learn English and
that helped them start to get jobs within the community. Religion was a very strong factor
in their everyday lives and I believe it still is today.

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Work Cited
Hardwick, S. W., & Meacham, J. E. (2005). Heterolocalism, Networks of
Ethnicity, and Refugee Communities in the Pacific Northwest: The Portland
Story*. The Professional Geographer, 57(4), 539-557. Retrieved February 17,
2016.
In this journal by Susan Hardwick and James Meacham, they talk about the
refugees that moved from the former Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR
or the Soviet Union) to the Portland Metropolitan area, and areas surrounding it.
From the early 1990s to mid-2000s, refugees were moving in large numbers to
Portland/Vancouver area making it one of the most diverse cities in America. The
article goes over topics such as the recession that happened in the early 2000s and
how that affected the refugees living there. It also covers how this move has
affected Portland and its surrounding areas. The ethnicities covered in this journal
are Russian, Ukrainian, and Vietnamese. This journal provides a very informative
look at the former USSR refugees, how they are living in Portland, Oregon, and
what effect they have had on the city.
Hume, S. E., & Hardwick, S. W. (2005). African, Russian, and Ukrainian
Refugee Resettlement in Portland, Oregon. Geographical Review, 95(2), 189209. Retrieved February 17, 2016.
This journal entry covers a variety of refugees moving into Portland, Oregon
dating back from as early as the 1850s to present day (2005). Susan Hume and
Susan Hardwick talk about the reasons behind the migration of refugees such as
religious ties or job opportunities. It covers the places within Portland these

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refugees live within the very white population of Portland. Not only refugees from
other countries (due to persecution) move into Portland, immigrants from other
states such as Colorado, California, Montana and Idaho escaped to Portland due to
racial tensions and also some forms of persecution.

Arnold, K. R. (2015). Contemporary Immigration in America: A State-by-State

Encyclopedia.
In this excerpt from Contemporary Immigration in America: A State-by-State
Encyclopedia Kathleen Arnold gives us a look inside why immigrants moved to
areas within Oregon, especially in Portland. She gives us a list of laws that were
set in place from 1923 all the way up until 2011 about immigration in the state of
Oregon. She also showcases what happened to these immigrants within Portland
and how they are adjusting to living in the mostly-white metropolitan area. Not
only does she cover former Soviet Union refugees, she looks into African
refugees, Latino, Asian and many more. Religion and job opportunities are a very
important role as to why these refugees chose Portland.

Radzilowski, J. (2015). Former Soviet Union immigrants. Retrieved

February 17, 2016, from http://immigrationtounitedstates.org/507-formersoviet-union-immigrants.html
John Radzilowski gives us background information on the immigrants from the
former Soviet Union migrating to the United States. He tells us why they were

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being prosecuted and why they wanted out. He also covers Jews emigrating from
Russia after World War II when the Nazi party collapsed. He tells us where they
are from and where they reside today and when they immigrated to the United
States. Radzilowski not only covers all the positive things that came from
emigration and immigration of these refugees, he covers the negative things like
crime.
"Union of Soviet Socialist Republics." The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed..
2015. Retrieved March 14, 2016, from
Encyclopedia.com:http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1E1-UnionSov.html