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VICTORIA MCGOWAN
such as Russians or Ukrainians, in any one rural area or township, they have
clustered together on the basis not only of shared language ties, but also shared
social and cultural ties.
Records that existed regarding death and emigration figures during the
period of the Russian Civil War can be considered spotty at best, but plausible
estimates indicated between 2 and 3.5 million civilians fled the former
Russian Empire seeking a better life.” A great many of the refugees who fled
came from the peasant background, which meant they had experience in
agriculture. As a result, rather than moving to urban, industrialized centres
such as Vancouver or Toronto, or more broadly eastern Canada, many of
these refugees ended up in the rural agricultural regions of the prairies. The
Russian Revolution had a marked impact on the makeup of those who were
immigrating to Canada. Immigration from Western Europe, and particularly
the British Isles, had been preferred for decades, and made up the largest
portion of non-native Canadians, as shown in the 1916 census. Even those
who were born Canadian could often trace their ancestry to these regions
in as little as one to two generations previously.’ By 1921, first generation
immigrants made up 22% of the Canadian population.” Eastern Europeans
were far less desirable as immigrants, and until the mass emigration
following the Russian Revolution, had made up very little of this 22%. These
racial prejudices against Eastern Europeans did not go away after the influx of
Russian, Ukrainian, Belorussian, and other related refugees. If anything, they
increased. Both rural and urban groups of such immigrants, often lumped in
together under the umbrella of “Ukrainian,” were subject to discrimination.
One report from 1937 stated that such people “in general, do not enjoy a
reputation as law-abiding citizens.” In addition to these general prejudices,
anyone who was easily identified as foreign, whether due to appearance, poor
English language skills, or heavy accents, was on the receiving end of far
more scrutiny from law officials and other administrative persons.** In many
ways, this replicated the strict ethnic hierarchies and communities that had
existed in the Russian Empire. These ethnic groups were not encouraged to
mingle with the existing, largely British-based population, and thus had yet
more reason to remain in specific ethnic and language similar kin groups,
and often faced official or unofficial challenges when they attempted to move
outside those groups.
10 Mawdsley, The Russian Civil War, 537.
* Monica Boyd —- Michael Vickers, 100 Years of Immigration in Canada, Canadian Social
Catalogue, Vol. 11, No. 8 (Autumn 2000), 4.
42 Ibid., 6.
#3 Gregory Robinson, Rougher Than Any Other Nationality? Ukrainian Canadians and Crime
in Alberta, 1915-1929, Journal of Ukrainian Studies, Vol. 16, No. 1-2 (Summer-Winter
1991), 147.
4 Tbid., 150.
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