The Russian Invasion

It has been said that a successful invasion is the one that goes unnoticed until it is too late to resist.

The Russian Invasion of America is in full swing.

It started in the first third of the last century, when millions of Russians fled persecution and civil war and landed on US shores. These emigrants subsequently made many contributions to their adopted country, from television (invented by Vladimir Zvorykin), to the development of synthetic rubber (Ivan Ostromyshlensky), high octane gasoline (Vladimir Ipatiev) and helicopters (Igor Sikorsky), to say nothing of their myriad contributions to music, literature and art. And, of course, there was vodka, brought to the US by descendants of Pyotr Smirnoff. Today, eight decades later (talk about a slow, silent invasion) vodka is the top-selling distilled spirit in the US. (And the centerpiece of our Annual International Vodka Taste-Off, see this year’s results on page 37).

A second prong of the Russian Invasion has been a quiet expansion of Russian-related cultural events. Ten years ago, after the wall came down, there would occasionally be a visiting Romanov exhibit here, or a Bolshoi ballet tour there. But today the trend has mushroomed. Our growing events calendar (page 12) now has three pages packed with nearly 100 listings of Russian-related events going on all over the US—from Fabergé exhibits to Russian orchestras to ice ballets. And this is just in the coming 3-4 months!

Third, there is the people-to-people “infiltration.” Twenty years ago, Russian-American marriages were held hostage to Cold War politics. Now, Russian dating services are doing a hot business. And Russian-born orphans are the largest source of foreign adoptions by American families.

(Of course, not all of the Russian Invasion has been so benign or welcome. The FBI has called Russian organized crime in America one of the greatest threats to our democracy as we know it. More on that depressing note another time.)

And yet, all of these aspects of the Russian Invasion might have been predicted. But a Russian Invasion of country music certainly did not appear on anyone’s radar screen. Which is why we thought it made such a great story (page 19). But the fact is that we probably got the headline on our cover wrong.

“The Russians are Coming!” is of course an allusion to the hilarious 1966 film of the same name. “The Russians are Here!” would have been more appropriate.

For the Russian Invasion truly is in full swing.

Resistance is futile.

Pass the vodka, please.

Paul Richardson

Publisher & Editor

P.S. You will note that many stories in this issue are sandwiched inside a special section—Russian Flavors. We have combined several articles on Russian cuisine in this “magazine within a magazine.” Please let us know what you think!