Communism's Other: White Russian Refugees and US Immigration Policy, 1917–1934

Abstract In 1921, the Soviet Union denationalized 1.5 million citizens of the former Russian Empire and declared those who emigrated after the Bolshevik Revolution without Soviet permission “class enemies.” This article examines how, despite its restrictive immigration policies, the United States accepted twenty thousand stateless Russian refugees between the world wars. Russian refugees and their supporters in private charitable organizations issued sympathetic appeals to raise funds and promote the entrance of anti-Bolshevik Russians fleeing war and revolution. Their advocacy, which cast refugees as victims of a communist state that would destroy morality and the patriarchal family, resonated with American conservatives who feared the growth of state power. In the 1920s, American officials manipulated policy on White Russians’ behalf because of their perceived whiteness and opposition to communist challenges to social order, including traditional gender roles. Congress passed the White Russian Act in 1934, which prevented the deportation of unauthorized Russian refugees after the United States recognized the Soviet Union by maintaining that saving Russian Anti-Communists preserved the family and, in turn, American democratic values. For their conservative supporters, stateless White Russians’ suffering under communism and categorization as class enemies differentiated them from other refugees, proving their morality and solidifying their belonging in American democratic society.