A Russian Diaspora?

The concept of diaspora seems suitable to grasp the Post-Soviet emigrants in Germany (cf. Darieva 2004). Living in a host country they have a common origin, the former Soviet Union. They also have common points of reference like language (Russian), socialization and Soviet popular culture. Furthermore, they not only maintain transnational contacts with friends and family back in the former Soviet Union, but also with people dispersed across the globe⁴⁷³.

Diasporas challenge national boundaries, something that Gurzhy’s opening quote demonstrates: The music promoted at the Russendisko comes from a transnational network of residents in and emigrants from the former Soviet Union.

At the first look the concept of diaspora seems apt to grasp this network of (primarily) Russian-speaking inhabitants in Germany. The term, especially when applied from outside the community, hides the fact that this group is not homogenous. It consists of both different ethnicities as well as religions.

Tölölyan argues that the notion of diasporas only emerging from homogenous groups

«emphasizes the preservation and/or non-discontinuous evolution of a single, previously available identity, and tends to overlook the possibility that quite loosely related populations possessed of many different, locally circumscribed identities in their homelands, but regarded as ‘one’ in the hostland, can be turned into a diaspora by the gaze of that hostland». (Tölölyan 1996, 13)

In our case this homogenizing identity is die Russen used both by the emigrants as well as by people living in Germany:

«Schum is a radio show about ‘Russian’ music [...]. ‘Russian’ in quotation marks since for most Germans (and often for the Russians themselves) all russophone people are ‘the Russians’. And so we also play Ukrainian, Moldavian, Belorussian, Jewish music and collect them under the term ‘Russian’»⁴⁷⁴. (Schum n.d.)

This quote is taken from the website of the now defunct monthly radio show Schum (Noise) based in Halle. It reflects the overarching use of the term «Russian» to designate the russophone immigrant community.

The quote also points out that the group of emigrants from the former Soviet Union is not homogenous. It can be split into 3 groups (cf. Dietz 2000, 642ff) – something that makes Germany special in terms of Post-Soviet migration:⁴⁷⁵

• Ethnic Germans⁴⁷⁶ who tend to be protestant. They come primarily from Kazakhstan, Russia, Kirgistan and other central Asian states. In German they are referred to as Spätaussiedler, Russlanddeutsche and Wolgadeutsche. Their return is guaranteed in the German constitution⁴⁷⁷ and in the Federal Expellees Act.⁴⁷⁸ With their repatriation certificate these immigrants receive the German citizenship (Federal Ministry of the Interior 2005, 80). In the period 1991 to 2005 1 931 083 ethnic Germans moved to Germany (Kiss and Lederer 2006, 65).

• Jews⁴⁷⁹ who primarily come from the urban centers in the European part of the former USSR. They were accepted through the Quota Refugee Act, originally established 1980 to admit refuges from South-East Asia as humanitarian refuges (e.g. Vietnamese Boat People) (Dietz 2000; Ostow 2003). They can apply for citizenship once they become eligible (normally after 8 years of residence in Germany) (Federal Ministry of the Interior 2005, 56f). By December 31st, 2005 205 645 Jews from the former Soviet Union had emigrated⁴⁸⁰.

• Ethnic Russians (Ukrainians etc.) who are primarily Russian-Orthodox. These consist of asylum seekers, professionals, students and marriage migrants. About 185 931 Russian, 130 674 Ukrainian and 18 037 Belorussian citizens, to name a few Post-Soviet nationalities, were residing in Germany in 2005. The problem with these numbers is that they include Jewish emigrants, since they – as mentioned – do not automatically receive the German citizenship on arrival (Statistisches Bundesamt 2006, 39).

Thus, based on these numbers and a conservative estimation there are at least 2.6 Million Russian speaking migrants in Germany at the moment. Putting this into context, there were 7.256 Million registered foreign citizens residing in Germany 2006 (in 2011 there were 7.370 Million). This is about 8,81% of the total population of 82.315 Million (in 2011: 81.831 Million – Statistisches Bundesamt 2012).

According to both Germans and emigrants I talked to the community in Berlin, where I conducted my research, is fractured. The migrants frequent different cultural institutions and to some extent also live in different regions of the city⁴⁸¹.

At the first glance this segregation seems logical based on the emigrants’ ethnic backgrounds. The European ethnologist Darieva (2004, 77ff) argues, however, that the categories ethnic German and Jewish are primarily imposed by the host country, Germany. These ethnic categories which in Germany are linked to different expectations and institutions (Jewish community, organizations for ethnic Germans) were for the majority almost void of meaning in the Soviet Union. Thus Darieva argues that the German state creates an artificial split, which she labels re-tribalisations. This was reflected in answers I got from musicians who were uncomfortable in using the official labels in the interviews.

Darieva (2004, 262ff) argues that the language «Russian» is used as a super-ethnic collective identity category in Russian language print media in Berlin and London. While this is primarily seen from the print media’s perspective and not the individuals’ a language based approach can be used here as well:

The local discotheques and youth clubs catering to ethnic Germans and Jews focus on Russian-language popular music like Russian pop/estrada, hip hop and house. On the other hand, the Russendisko caters primarily to a German speaking audience. Thus, a more useful distinction when discussing the musical production of the Post-Soviet community is target groups: a Russian-speaking and a non-Russian speaking audience. Here a clear difference can be heard in the music played (cf. Wickström 2011 for a discussion of the German speaking audience).

One organization catering towards the Russian-speaking audience is the organization Pi-Rok. Providing a platform for promoting music the organization targets emmigrants singing in Russian. The music hosted on the organization’s website ranges from what is perceived as Pop to Rock. Furthermore, the organization regularly hosts festivals. While the organization was weak in Berlin there were some bands registered with them which I contacted during my fieldwork in 2009.

While it is hard to generalize their musical style, there are some interesting observations to be made. Most bands are made up of amateurs who play as a hobby. Besides the language (primarily Russian) the music does not seem to differ from popular music produced by their non-migrant peers. If one listens closely, however, there are some interesting observations to be made which links the music with the musicians’ former country of origin.