Antony Blinken — sec of state with roots in the Russian Empire
Antony Blinken served as U.S. Secretary of State under President Biden from 2021 to 2025, shaping American foreign policy through crises in Ukraine, Gaza, and the Indo-Pacific. A longtime diplomat and policy architect, he previously served as Deputy Secretary of State and Deputy National Security Advisor.
"Meir Blinken emigrated from Kyiv, Russian Empire, to the United States in the early 20th century."
Migration storyTracing the roots — Kyiv
Blinken's great-grandfather Meir Blinken emigrated from Kyiv, then part of the Russian Empire, bringing a legacy of Jewish intellectual life that shaped the family's transatlantic identity. That ancestral displacement from Eastern Europe lends a personal dimension to Blinken's stewardship of U.S. policy toward Ukraine.
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Kyiv. At the time, this region lay within the Russian Empire, which spanned from Poland to the Pacific.