More than a quarter of my lineage can be traced to Russia in Eastern Europe. Life in Russia between 1860 and 1880 was extremely challenging. During this time people experienced severe widespread disease from the highly contagious cholera. This disease was due to food and water being contaminated by fecal matter from lack of proper sanitation equipment. The disease was spread by contaminated water and was responsible for thousands of deaths of people that experienced severe diarrhea and ultimately died due to dehydration. The Russian people blamed the government for how they handled the outbreak and for their lack of action to fix the problem. Instead of trying to solve the problem the government installed quarantines and used armed guards which led to riots and instability in the area. This outbreak was one of the push factors that led Russian’s to migrate to America
Another reason that Russian’s were pushed to America was famine. Peasants were forced to work on lands and were treated somewhat like slaves. They were not allowed to freely move within Russia and were denied the ability to migrate to a new country. This changed in the 1861 when the Emancipation Manifesto was created which granted peasants the ability to …show more content…
Russian Jews were not treated as equals. They were treated as second class citizens until Tsar Alexander II decided to pass reforms that created equality. Unfortunately he was assassinated shortly after passing reforms. His assassination led to riots as hate groups blamed the Jews for his murder. The riots were bad for both Russians and for Jews as their homes were destroyed and farms were burned to the ground. This pushed many Russian Jews to flee to America in search of a more stable and peaceful living experience. This is the reason my early ancestors left Russia to immigrate to America. In the 1890’s they left Russia and began their new life in Camden, New
Another reason that Russian’s were pushed to America was famine. Peasants were forced to work on lands and were treated somewhat like slaves. They were not allowed to freely move within Russia and were denied the ability to migrate to a new country. This changed in the 1861 when the Emancipation Manifesto was created which granted peasants the ability to …show more content…
Russian Jews were not treated as equals. They were treated as second class citizens until Tsar Alexander II decided to pass reforms that created equality. Unfortunately he was assassinated shortly after passing reforms. His assassination led to riots as hate groups blamed the Jews for his murder. The riots were bad for both Russians and for Jews as their homes were destroyed and farms were burned to the ground. This pushed many Russian Jews to flee to America in search of a more stable and peaceful living experience. This is the reason my early ancestors left Russia to immigrate to America. In the 1890’s they left Russia and began their new life in Camden, New