How the Russian community lives in Boston

Photo .bostonrussianchurch.org

“Boston has one of the largest Russian-speaking communities in America. Boys, girls, grandparents - don't count. Children mimic instantly, old people do not change. The Boston type of Russian emigrants, as a rule, is radically different from the New York type. In almost everything, except for one thing: in both Boston and New York, former Russians are most often Jews with a touch of something... Moscow-intelligent. This is Boston!

(from Tatyana Solomatina’s book “You never know what they say”)

According to US Census Bureau, for the year the growth of Russian-speaking people in Massachusetts was 4,2%, but the portrait of the Russian emigrant has changed noticeably. From an 40-year-old intellectual, the average immigrant has become a 25-year-old programmer.

As in any state of America, in Boston, the capital and largest city of Massachusetts, the Russian-speaking diaspora has its people in every industry: shops and pharmacies, studios and theaters, beauty salons and lawyers, doctors and realtors, kindergartens and restaurants with the prefix " Russian".

The 40-year-old writer Vladimir Nabokov, who arrived penniless in his pocket, survived all the hardships of adaptation in Massachusetts. The cult writer lived in Boston for about eight years, taught at Harvard, Wellesley College, and to pay for his son’s education, he worked part-time at the Museum of Comparative Zoology.

He was lucky, he came from an influential and very rich aristocratic family, he taught languages ​​from childhood and was fluent in English. That can not be said about the Russian-speaking immigrants who arrived in America in the 90-x and the beginning of the 2000-x.

The language did not know, without start-up capital, the laws did not understand, a completely different socio-cultural environment. And in order to somehow survive in this new world, through acquaintances of acquaintances, they were looking for “theirs”. The new arrivals tried as quickly as possible to integrate into the ethnic community, moved closer to the new Russian friends.

Not only regions, but also entire cities were populated by Russians, Ukrainians, and Belarusians. Russian business began to flourish - shops, restaurants, pharmacies, Russian-speaking doctors, lawyers and clairvoyants.

In Massachusetts, it is quite easy to find areas that were chosen by emigrants from all over the post-Soviet space: Newton, Allston, Brighton, Brooklyn, Chasten Hill, Lyn. In Newton, Russian speech can be heard everywhere: in Marshalls, in Walgreens, at the local school, and even from a neighboring car at a traffic light you can hear the familiar “And I’ll get in the convertible”... What can we say about Denisovka (the town of Dennis Port on Cape Cod) - a “dacha” village of Russian-speaking residents of New England.

The only Russian Orthodox parish in Boston is located in the Church of the Epiphany. It was built in the 70 of the last century by the design of the graduate of the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts, architect Pavlov.

Now the parish has several thousand people. This and the old immigrants from the USSR, who arrived in the country more than 30 years ago, and their children, and new immigrants who recently settled in Boston. There are quite a few Orthodox students and teachers at Harvard University, the oldest in the United States. Among the parishioners there are Americans who have accepted Orthodoxy. “We become immigrants in our own country,” they say. When the temple there is a Sunday school, where they study Russian.

The Epiphany Church in Boston for 60 for years has been the center of the religious and spiritual life of the Russian community. Photo: journalpp.ru

Bread sadness

There are 12 Russian grocery stores in Massachusetts that have been operating successfully for a long time, which means that our people miss Red October candies, buckwheat, condensed milk, sauerkraut and herring. And if there is demand, then there will be supply.

I come to one of these stores: the cashier line, withThe average age of visitors is 45-50 years old, but there are also young people. In the grocery basket there is Olivier, smoked mackerel.

“I decided to please my friends; they haven’t been to their homeland for more than two years,” Vasily explains his purchases. — We wanted to cook Olivier ourselves, but we didn’t have time. Fortunately, you can buy it here.”

According to Vasily, he rarely visits the Russian store. The only product that his family missed for a long time and could not find analogues was bread: “Мы My wife and I quickly adapted to the local food; we found analogues of our products in supermarkets, and if we don’t have something, we cook it ourselves - we make sauerkraut, make homemade cottage cheese, bake bread. A couple of years ago I often went to a Russian store specifically for bread - heavy, rye.».

Vasily shows an assortment of Russian shop. Photo author

New generation

The children of those immigrants who came here in 90 are not imbued with nostalgia for their parents' homeland, many do not even speak Russian. They do not dream about dumplings and are unlikely to cook Olivier for the New Year, they do not know what is brawn. A couple of days ago, a familiar American sent me a video where an 20-year-old guy tries Meat jello cooked by his Russian mom.

«The texture ... I thought I was going to die "“, - the young man concluded briefly but significantly.

A couple of years ago, the message boards were full of invitations to work for Russian-speaking nannies, where the emphasis was placed on “Russian-speaking”, as parents did not want their children to forget their native language. Now, such announcements, according to old-timers, are becoming increasingly rare.

The reason is quite clear: nThe new wave of Russian speakers are H1B workers (those who come to Massachusetts on a work visa) and students. They are young, educated, fluent in English, raised on Coca-Cola, MTV and McDonald's.

They work for IBM, study at MIT, Boston University and skillfully turn their hobby into a thriving business. They don’t need Russian stores; they eat modern and fashionable food: granola, smoothies, organic vegetables. They don’t need Russian bookstores—everything can be ordered online.

They don’t need Russian doctors and dentists—the insurance is paid for by their work, and they can freely explain to any doctor where it hurts and what it hurts. They are looking for an apartment closer to the office. Their assimilation takes place in a very short period.

Russian store in Boston. Photo author

Boston pillar

There still exists that pillar, that intelligentsia, on which the Russian community of Massachusetts rests. Such people gather for poetic evenings, classical music concerts with Russian performers, go to meetings of visiting publicists. Russian-speaking Boston writers and poets unite, hold presentations of their collections at Boston University. A pAbout the exit center of attraction for all lovers of Russian culture in Massachusetts is the scene on the roof of a building in the Nidam area.

Many have heard about the Theater on the Roof, it is unique in its own way, all performances are staged exclusively in Russian. For English-speaking viewers, several productions come with subtitles.

Rooftop Theater troupe

For Russian-speaking residents of Boston, “Theater on the Roof” is an outlet; for English-speaking people, it is a way to understand the mysterious Russian soul, says the theater’s founder and director Lyudmila Starobinets: “This is a repertory theater with a permanent troupe. We do not work according to the American style, where the actors play one play several times and disperse, we keep the performance in the repertoire of the 2-3 of the year, and we play it 25-35 once. ”

Founder and director of the “Theater on the Roof” Lyudmila Starobinets. Photo: from personal archive

True connoisseurs of Russian culture and the Russian language is becoming less and less, notes with regret Lyudmila Starobinets. She is also the director and creative director of the Lukomorye Science and Aesthetics Center.

The center opened its doors in 1996, at first it was a small class in the house of Lyudmila, where she taught Russian language, literature and the basics of artistry, then he grew up to the Center "Lukomorye". The Russian-speaking children of Boston had the opportunity to learn the language, play in the theater, practice drawing, chess, mathematics, and speech therapy.

— Unfortunately, the influx of Russian speakers is significantly decreasing, - divided Lyudmila, — 98% of children who attend the Center “Lukomorye” were born here, many of their parents are not even native speakers of the Russian language, they do not remember it. But they want the children to learn the language, learn the culture. TThese, however, are getting smaller. Many parents simply do not want to bother themselves.

According to the interlocutor, if previously there was a need to teach children the Russian language so that they could communicate with grandparents, now many people of the age themselves are already integrated into American society.

“The need for language is reduced. Now, unfortunately, not many people see the point of investing in the spiritual development of a child ”, - summed up Lyudmila. It may be too early to call it the collapse of the Russian community, but the beginnings of this phenomenon can be traced quite clearly.

Helping hand

In the age of modern technology, the activity of the Russian-speaking community can be traced in social networks. As noted by the administrator of the group on Facebook Russian Speaking In Boston Albert, the Russian-speaking residents of Boston are quite active on social networks and always try to help those who seek advice. They share their experiences, answer questions, discuss the latest news - the virtual life of Russian speakers in Boston is in full swing.

Albert and I tried to figure out whether the phenomenon of the “collapse of the Russian community” can be traced in the networks, and is it obvious that the children of immigrants do not learn Russian, and the newcomers have no nostalgia for their homeland?

“It's quite difficult to answer this question. I think it all depends on the parents, and on how they raise their children, - admitted Albert. — There is no trend towards a decrease in the activity of Russian speakers on social networks. But modern rhythm of life makes its own adjustments in the life of the Russian-speaking community in Boston. Meetings and personal contacts are left behind, and communicating using social networks is the easiest today. ”

By the way, it was on the social network that we found the answer to the question of how to adapt to an immigrant in Boston, when the first problems associated with the move are over. Writes Andrey Evseev, forum member Russian Speaking In Boston: “As soon as this is done, the most important thing is to urgently eat lobster, drink samuel adamsvisit with children Science Museum, Fine Arts Museumlie on the lawn in Public garden and - exhale. You're in Massachusetts."

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