Five waves of Russian emigration: how the exodus from Russia has changed

The first wave: the "white exodus" after the revolution

The first and most symbolic wave of Russian emigration began after the 1917 revolution and the Civil War. After the defeat of the White movement, hundreds of thousands of people faced a choice: to stay in the country under Bolshevik rule or to leave Russia. Those who left were White Army officers, the nobility, entrepreneurs, officials of the Russian Empire, members of the intelligentsia, the clergy, scholars and cultural figures.

According to various estimates, over a few years between one and one and a half million people left Russia. The main centres of Russian emigration became Paris, Berlin, Belgrade, Sofia and Harbin — this was when the phenomenon of "Russian Paris" emerged, a huge community of emigrants trying to preserve their language, culture and familiar way of life outside their homeland. Many emigrants of the first wave did not see their departure as final and lived in the hope of one day returning.

The second wave: emigration after the Second World War

The second major wave is linked to the events of the Second World War. It included Soviet citizens who found themselves in Europe during the war: prisoners of war, residents of occupied territories deported for forced labour, refugees and displaced persons. After the war ended, some of them refused to return to the USSR — some feared repression for having been in German captivity, others did not want to live in the Soviet system again.

Official figures put the number at around 130,000 people, but many researchers believe the real scale was considerably higher — up to 500,000–700,000. The main centre of the second wave was Germany, especially Munich, where Russian émigré publishing houses, organisations and anti-Soviet media began to take shape.

The third wave: the late USSR and the emigration of the intelligentsia

The third wave began in the 1960s–1970s and continued until the late 1980s. It differed greatly from the previous ones: it was no longer about fleeing war but about legal departure from the USSR with the authorities' permission. Most emigrants were Jews and their families, who gained the opportunity to leave after a partial softening of Soviet policy — many moved to Israel, the USA and Germany.

It was in this period that emigration also became intellectual: writers, scholars, artists, musicians, journalists and dissidents began to leave the USSR. The era was symbolised by high-profile cases of citizenship being stripped and the effective exile of well-known cultural figures — among the best-known names are Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Joseph Brodsky and Mikhail Baryshnikov. According to researchers' estimates, the third wave numbered around half a million people.

The fourth wave: emigration of the 1990s

After the collapse of the USSR, emigration took on a completely different character. Whereas leaving the country had previously been a complex political process, after the abolition of exit visas emigration became a mass socio-economic phenomenon: people left because of poverty, instability, the collapse of the economy and a lack of prospects.

The ethnic factor also played an important role: ethnic Germans moved to Germany, Jews to Israel, Greeks to Greece. According to official figures, from 1989 to the early 2000s alone around 1.2 million people left Russia. It was then that emigration was, for the first time, seen by many as a way to improve their quality of life, and not only as a political decision.

The fifth wave: emigration after 2022

The modern wave of emigration has become the largest and at the same time the most unusual in Russian history. Some researchers believe it began back in the 2000s, when IT specialists, entrepreneurs, scholars and people from the creative industries gradually started to leave the country. But the turning point was 2022: after the start of the war in Ukraine and the announcement of mobilisation, hundreds of thousands of people left Russia. According to various estimates, the scale of emigration ranged from 400,000 to more than a million people.

The main difference of the fifth wave is its make-up. Whereas previous waves often included the poorest or most vulnerable sections of the population, modern emigration largely consists of young, educated and economically active people aged between 25 and 40. Among them are especially many:

• IT specialists;
• entrepreneurs;
• marketers;
• designers;
• engineers;
• finance professionals;
• employees of international companies;
• people in creative professions.

Studies of recent years show that a significant part of the new emigration has higher education and an above-average income for Russia. Many emigrants continued to work remotely after moving, keeping Russian or international sources of income — this is one of the main features of the new wave: modern emigrants often leave not in search of physical survival but for safety, predictability and quality of life.

Why the new emigration differs from the previous ones

Modern emigration is far more mobile than all previous waves. Whereas emigrants of the early 20th century often lost their property and connection with their homeland forever, today the internet, remote work and the global market make it possible to keep professional and social ties even after moving.

The geography of emigration has also changed. Besides Europe and the USA, important destinations have become Serbia, Georgia, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Turkey, Montenegro and the countries of southern Europe. Moreover, modern emigration is considerably less ideological — for many it is no longer a political gesture but an attempt to build a more stable and safe life.

A history that continues

Russian emigration has never been a single process — each wave had its own causes, psychology and social structure. But they all show one important thing: the mass departure of people almost always becomes a society's reaction to deep internal changes within the country. And judging by the scale of recent years, the history of Russian emigration waves is still far from over.

If you are considering a move as part of this new wave, it makes sense to start by understanding the practical side of the question — where legal status begins, what housing to look for and how everyday life is arranged: read the article on moving to Slovenia.