Introducing the Slavic Community in Multnomah County
The Slavic community is officially counted as White, and its experience is fully subsumed in all measures
of the White community so far in our research reports. Disaggregating the Slavic experience from the
rest of the White community is the focus of this report. Despite this “official” recognition as White, the
experiences of the Slavic community are best understood through a lens of racism and thus, from our
understanding, it is a community of color.
The Slavic community is defined as people from the former Soviet Union, mostly who fled religious and
political persecution and came to Oregon in several waves. The first is at the turn of the 20th century,
when members of the Russian Orthodox faith moved to the area. Sustaining their identity was deeply
challenging and the community lost its foundation. Resurgence occurred at the close of the Russian
Revolution in 1922.5 The third and most significant wave occurred as the Soviet Union began to unravel.
In 1988, then President Mikhail Gorbachev allowed some religious minorities to leave the country.
Numbers grew when in 1989, the USA eased immigration laws to permit Soviet immigrants. With the
demise of the Soviet Union in 1991, the Slavic community arrived in large numbers.
The former Soviet Union is comprised of the following countries: Russia, the Baltic states (Estonia,
Latvia, and Lithuania), Ukraine, Belarus, Moldovia, Azerbaijan, Armenia, and Georgia, and the Central
Asian states (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan). Russian is the language
spoken predominantly within the Slavic community.

оригинал (стр.7) https://www.portlandoregon.gov/oehr/article/713232