Русские в Австралии: история и расселение.

Russian Australians comprise Australian citizens who have full or partial Russian heritage or people who emigrated from Russia and reside in Australia.

In 1807 the sloop Neva sailed to Port Jackson, under the command of Captain lieutenant Ludwig von Hagemeister, where it loaded provisions on its way to Russian America. As this was the first Russian vessel to travel to the Australian mainland, this is occasionally considered the start of relations between Australian colonies and Russia. Contacts continued in 1820 when the Russian ships Vostok (meaning 'East'), and the Mirny (Peaceful), under the command of captains Mikhail Lazarev and Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen, visited Port Jackson. They sought provisions and repairs on several occasions during an expedition to explore Antarctica that Tsar Alexander I had promoted. Until the middle of the 19th century, only a few dozen Russians, Ukrainians, Lithuanians, Latvians, Finns and other émigrés from the Russian empire were resident in Australia, which was still a part of the British Empire. Russian ships visited Australia throughout the 19th century and a number of Russian seamen absconded from their ships to settle permanently in Australia. Religious sects, including the Mennonites and Doukhobors, made plans to send up to 40,000 settlers to Australia and New Guinea but after much debate in the Russian press, and 2,000 applications to emigrate, this mass emigration did not materialise. The Russian Imperial Navy corvette Bogatyr made a friendly visit to Melbourne and Sydney in 1863. Information from Polish deserters pointed to Russian plans to attack Australia in support of the Union cause. (See Australia and the American Civil War: Imperial Russian Navy) In 1882 three Russian Navy ships – the Africa, Vestnik (Herald or Messenger) and Plastun – made port in Melbourne, sparking renewed fears in the press of a Russian invasion. A brief mobilisation of defence forces ensued before the lack of aggressive intent was made clear. In 1885 concerned British colonists thought a Russian invasion was again imminent and built Bare Island Fort to protect "Sydney's back door" in Botany Bay

Up to 250,000 people a year emigrated from the Russian Empire to countries such as the United States, Canada, Argentina and Brazil towards the end of the 19th century. Australia was a much less popular destination, with only 300 Russians leaving for Australia in 1890. According to the Census in 1891, the number of Russians living in Australia was 2881, comprising 2350 men and 531 women.

A second wave occurred between the defeat of Russia in the Russian Japanese War in 1905, the revolution of that year and the February Revolution in 1917. These migrants comprised political opponents of the Czarist regime and defectors from compulsory military service in the Russian armed forces. According to Alexander Nikolayevich Abaza, the Russian General Consul in Australia in 1914, there were 12,000 people from the Russian empire in Australia out of a total population of 4.5 million. The lure of Australia's democracy and social mobility outweighed the hardships which many of the emigres suffered in their first years, often in labouring jobs due to their lack of English. During the World War I no less than one quarter of all the Russian males living in Australia served in the Australian Army. By percentage it was more than for the general Australian population.

The 2006 Census revealed Australia had a Russian born population of 15,354. Most Russian born residents live in Melbourne (5,407) or Sydney (5,367). A significant portion of Russian born residents are women (62%), and most (69%) had arrived in Australia no earlier than 1990. Also at the 2006 Census 67,055 Australian residents declared that they had Russian ancestry, either alone or in combination with one other ancestry.

The first Russian Orthodox parish in Australia was founded in Brisbane in 1925. The parish church of St Nicholas there (now St Nicholas Russian Orthodox Cathedral) was intended to be a monument to the Tsar martyr Nicholas II. The mine engineer Ilya Repin (1888–1949), after settling in Sydney in 1925, helped create a Russian Orthodox Church in Sydney on Robertson Road in the 1930s. First holding services in his own cottage, he founded the Church of Saint Vladimir on this site, a 'khram' which exists to this day. There is a long history of Russian cultural and artistic visits to Australia. In 1913, the Russian Imperial Ballet toured Australia, the first and only performances of Russian actors before the First World War. In 1926 the famous Russian ballerina Anna Pavlova danced in Melbourne and Sydney, giving a great boost to the embryonic Australian ballet of its day and in the same year, famed opera singer Feodor Chaliapin made an Australian concert tour. Renowned ballerina Irina Baronova toured Australia before the Second World War and lived in Byron Bay, New South Wales from 2000 until her death in 2008. She was a vice president of the Royal Academy of Dance and a patron of The Australian Ballet, and published her memoirs in 2005. Kira Bousloff (Abricossova) (1914–2001) is best known as the founder of the oldest ballet company in Australia – the WA State Ballet Co. Born in Monte Carlo to Russian parents, she came to Australia as a member of the Covent Garden Russian Ballet company in 1938 and remained in Australia after the tour ended in 1939. She moved to Perth with her husband composer James Penberthy and established the Western Australian State Ballet Company in 1952. Pianists Alexander Sverjensky and Phillip Shovk and painter Danila Vassilieff worked in Australia and boosted the local development of their arts, while art historian Nina Kristesen established the Department of Russian Language and Literature at Melbourne University in 1946. Russian arts festivals and events are popular in Australia. The 150th anniversary of Alexander Pushkin's death was commemorated with poetry festivals in 1987 and a range of Russian cultural and social organisations are active in the major cities of Melbourne and Sydney. The Russian Connection provides an independent and comprehensive guide to cultural events and occasions with a Russian flavour in Australia. The organisation promotes Russian cultural activities such as art exhibitions, ballet, classical music, concerts, festivals, children's events, movies, musicals, lectures, opera, and theatre. The Russian Connection is continually expanding with the recent addition of a catalogue of new Russian literature and Russian language movies available from various public libraries. Prince Michael Andreevich of Russia. Adam Byrnes: Immigration lawyer and former Rugby Union player. Daria Gavrilova: Tennis player. Greg Jeloudev: Rugby Union player. Peter Mengede: Guitarist and founding member of the American bands Helmet and Handsome. Vladimir Mikhaylovich Petrov: Diplomat. Evdokia Petrova: Russian spy in Australia. Costa Ronin: Actor.

The Russian connections in Australia are mostly composed by Russian borns moving to or visiting Australia. The most notable representative of the Australians moving to Russia is the famous physicist Aleksandr Mikhailovich Prokhorov. He was born in Atherton, Queensland, Australia, to a family of Russian immigrants in 1916. He and his parents relocated to the Soviet Union in 1923. In 1964 he received the Nobel Prize in Physics for his work on lasers and masers. He was also the chief editor of the Great Soviet Encyclopedia from 1969.