USA

505 profiles with fame based in USA

Americans with Russian and Soviet roots

The United States is home to the largest and most influential branch of the Russian civilizational diaspora outside the former Soviet space. From the great waves of Jewish emigration that fled the Russian Empire’s pogroms between 1881 and 1914, to the Soviet refuseniks of the 1970s and the post-1991 exodus of scientists and entrepreneurs, millions of people carrying roots in the Empire, the USSR, and modern Russia helped shape American life.

Their imprint is everywhere. Hollywood itself was largely built by immigrants from the Russian Empire — the founders of MGM, Warner Bros., Paramount, and Universal. Google was co-founded by Moscow-born Sergey Brin; Wikipedia’s culture of free knowledge, the polio and hepatitis vaccines, the theory of the transistor, and the music of Irving Berlin and George Gershwin all trace back to this heritage. This page documents notable Americans — actors, scientists, founders, athletes, and artists — whose family stories begin in the Russian world.