A Russian Story in the USA: On the Identity of Post-Socialist Immigration

Abstract

Abstract This article presents the problem of identity construction among Eastern European immigrants to the USA after so-called “democratic changes.” It is based on the intercultural rather than multicultural approach which considers both the immigrants’ interactions with the host society and their individual choices in constructing identity and selecting a lifestyle. The article is a case study analyzing a “success story” of a person of Bulgarian–Russian origin who immigrated to the USA in the 1990s and built up his identity on the basis of a Russian national narrative. This narrative is rooted in Russian history, classic literature, and art, i.e., in high Russian culture. It serves as a framework for shaping the immigrant’s lifestyle as a whole and permeates the material culture of his home, reflecting the migrant’s perception of what is genuine Russianness. Family relations as well as friendships and relations with people frequenting his house are also aligned with ideas expressing the dominant motifs of the national narrative as it exists in the immigrant’s mind and imagination. Material for the chapter is drawn from fieldwork conducted by the author in 2015–2017 in New York and Long Island.