© Photo: BGNES

The first larger groups of Russian immigrants arrived in the Bulgarian lands in 18 c. fleeing church reform in Russia. Those were the so-called Old Believers or Old Ritualists. Today their descendants live in the village of Tataritsa, Silistra region in Northeastern Bulgaria. Following Bulgaria’s liberation from five centuries of Turkish rule in 1878, new immigration waves followed and they all have their strict specifics.
The list of ethnic Russians who have immigrated to Bulgaria and have left a bright vestige, is quite long. We shall mention only few of them. Anatolii Medvedev (1863-1921) led the first course in biochemistry (with the name physiological chemistry) in this country – at the Sofia Faculty of Medicine. Nickolay Masalitinov (1880-1961) was the chief state-director of the National Theater from 1925 to 1944 г. In 1925 he opened a studio at the theatre that trained a few generations of Bulgarian actors. Vadim Lazarkevich (1895-1963) was one of the founders of the Bulgarian school of book illustration for children.
More about the waves of Russian immigration to Bulgaria in the aftermath of the 1877-1878 Russo-Turkish War, from Anna Krasteva, migration expert.
“The first one started with the inception of the modern Bulgarian state after the Liberation. Russia waged a war that resulted in Liberation, so members of its economic and political elite contributed to the development of the new Bulgarian institutions. The migration to Bulgaria that followed is identified as the inception wave. The second wave was much more numerous and it was political occurring in the wake of the Bolshevik revolution. It was mostly made of members of the White Movement banished by the communist regime in Russia. Part of this large wave reached Bulgaria. Immigrants were predominantly male and military, from the White Army. The Whites integrated fully in Bulgaria society, as for them there was no going back to the motherland.”

The Russian emigration to Bulgaria is very diverse and this shows in its new wave that arrived after World War 2, when the communist regime took over in this country. Immigrants were mostly women and they came voluntarily with their key motivation being … love and family, Anna Krasteva says. Famous Bulgarian fashion designer Irina Sardareva, a Ukrainian who moved to Bulgaria during the time of the Soviet regime, calls this wave ‘amorous”.
The pattern was as follows: young Bulgarian men would be sent to the Soviet Union to either study in Russian universities or specialize there. Most of them later married Russian women that they brought over to Bulgaria. Anna Krasteva explains that this wave would quite smoothly integrate in Bulgarian society, as it represented well-educated women. They work in science, education, the media, in private business and in the administration.

Following the democratic changes in 1989, the profile of Russian immigrants in Bulgaria has changed anew.
“As we can see, every major political change results in a new immigration wave that differs substantially from the preceding ones”, Mrs Krasteva says further. “In the aftermath of 1989 migration assumed a profile that was adequate to the new situation. This was time of transition to both democracy and a market economy. Over the recent years we have seen an interesting trend of migration changing into circulation”, the migration expert explains. “The new wave are people who buy real properties in Bulgaria. Unlike other foreigners such as the Brits for instance who buy cheap real properties in small towns and villages, Russian buyers prefer costlier locations.”

There are some interesting figures provided by the National Statistical Institute. The 2001 population census reported 9427 Russian citizens permanently residing in Bulgaria and 2933 for whom Russian citizenship is second. The 2011 census found 11,991 Russian citizens permanently residing in Bulgaria, and 5257 for whom Russian citizenship is second. In a bid to see behind figures we talked to Alexander Anisimov from the Association of the Russian real Property Owners in Bulgaria:
“In the recent years many Russian-speaking citizens from either Russia or from the former Soviet republics, have shown interest in Bulgaria’s real estate market. Some buy vacation properties, others choose to move to Bulgaria permanently to benefit from the fine climate, the good attitude to Russians and from Bulgaria’s balanced foreign policy. Let me point to two main regions that the Russian-speaking take interest in: the southern Black Sea coats from Sveti Vlaso to Ahtopol, and secondly, the region of Southwestern Bulgaria near the border with Greece. The region where the great clairvoyant Vanga lived, has grown into a resort and attraction owning to the mountains, the clean air and the mineral springs in the vicinity of the town of Sandanski.

As a counterpoint to the large numbers of Bulgarians who are looking for career opportunities abroad, migrants such as the Russians who move to this country are a compliment of a kind to Bulgaria. We are living in an increasingly open and intercultural society. Being a European today implies recognition of diversity not only in Europe but in your home country as well, concludes Anna Krasteva.

Translated by Daniela Konstantinova