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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. + 48 +
