Afro-Russians (), commonly known as Russian Negroes (), are

Russians Russians ( ) are an East Slavs, East Slavic ethnic group native to Eastern Europe. Their mother tongue is Russian language, Russian, the most spoken Slavic languages, Slavic language. The majority of Russians adhere to Eastern Orthodox Church ...

Sub-Saharan Africa Sub-Saharan Africa is the area and regions of the continent of Africa that lie south of the Sahara. These include Central Africa, East Africa, Southern Africa, and West Africa. Geopolitically, in addition to the list of sovereign states and ...

n (including Nubian) descent. The Metis Foundation estimates that there were about 30,000 Afro-Russians in 2013.

Terminology

Representatives of African peoples in the Russian language have been commonly called .;
Negr
// Dictionary of the Russian Language (Ozhegov): (first edition 1949, the reference to the edition of 1992 together with Natalia Shvedova). The word comes from (the color black in Spanish) through other European languages (, ).

History

Russian Empire

There was never an observable number of people of African descent in Russia, even after Western European colonization of the continent. For centuries Russia was too isolated to interact with Africa. Russia's non-involvement in the colonization of Africa or the

Atlantic slave trade The Atlantic slave trade or transatlantic slave trade involved the transportation by slave traders of Slavery in Africa, enslaved African people to the Americas. European slave ships regularly used the triangular trade route and its Middle Pass ...

prevented it from developing significant relationships with African tribes or colonies. Despite this, Abram Petrovich Gannibal, a Russian of princely African descent, became a general and nobleman in the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughl ...

. After being kidnapped from Logone (in contemporary

Cameroon Cameroon, officially the Republic of Cameroon, is a country in Central Africa. It shares boundaries with Nigeria to the west and north, Chad to the northeast, the Central African Republic to the east, and Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and the R ...

) by Ottoman forces as a boy, he was sold to Russian diplomat Fedor Golovin in 1704 and gifted to

Tsar Tsar (; also spelled ''czar'', ''tzar'', or ''csar''; ; ; sr-Cyrl-Latn, цар, car) is a title historically used by Slavic monarchs. The term is derived from the Latin word '' caesar'', which was intended to mean ''emperor'' in the Euro ...

Peter the Great Peter I (, ; – ), better known as Peter the Great, was the Sovereign, Tsar and Grand Prince of all Russia, Tsar of all Russia from 1682 and the first Emperor of Russia, Emperor of all Russia from 1721 until his death in 1725. He reigned j ...

, who freed and adopted him. As an adult, he rose to nobility, and served the Russian Empire in both civil and military capacities. He is also a maternal great-grandfather to the famed Russian poet

Alexander Pushkin Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin () was a Russian poet, playwright, and novelist of the Romantic era.Basker, Michael. Pushkin and Romanticism. In Ferber, Michael, ed., ''A Companion to European Romanticism''. Oxford: Blackwell, 2005. He is consid ...

Early Soviet period

After the revolution, several African-American families came to the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

under the auspices of the

Comintern The Communist International, abbreviated as Comintern and also known as the Third International, was a political international which existed from 1919 to 1943 and advocated world communism. Emerging from the collapse of the Second Internatio ...

. Among them were Oliver John Golden and his wife Bertha Bialek, bringing with them a group of 16 African-American experts in the cultivation of cotton; well-known African-American poet

Langston Hughes James Mercer Langston Hughes (February 1, 1901 – May 22, 1967) was an American poet, social activist, novelist, playwright, and columnist from Joplin, Missouri. An early innovator of jazz poetry, Hughes is best known as a leader of the Harl ...

with a group of 22 filmmakers;

Paul Robeson Paul Leroy Robeson ( ; April 9, 1898 – January 23, 1976) was an American bass-baritone concert artist, actor, professional American football, football player, and activist who became famous both for his cultural accomplishments and for h ...

with his family; and many others. Some of them stayed in Russia and their descendants still live there.

Post-War, the Festival Children

When African nations gained independence from colonialism, the Soviet Union offered scholarships to young people from these nations. About 400,000 Africans studied in the former Soviet Union between the late 1950s and 1990. The mixed race African descended children were called "festival children" because of their appearance and timing of their birth. Festival children is a household stereotype or cliché that appeared under the Soviet Union in the 1960s-1980s, implying that children were born to Soviet people and one of the parents could be a person from Africa, Latin America, or foreign Asia. Specifically, this phraseology refers to those born under the Soviet Union from different ethnicities or nations that are distant around the world. It is believed that the first significant arrival of Africans, mestizos and mulattoes was for the 6th World Festival of Youth and Students held in Moscow in 1957. Presumably, the combination of these words could have been influenced by the opening line of the festival's anthem: "Children of different nations, we live the dream of peace...". ("Hymn of Democratic Youth"). Many Africans also attended the

Peoples' Friendship University of Russia The Patrice Lumumba Peoples' Friendship University of Russia (Russian language, Russian: Российский университет дружбы народов имени Патриса Лумумбы), also known as RUDN University and until 1 ...

Notable Afro-Russians

Abram Gannibal Abram Petrovich Gannibal, also Hannibal or Ganibal, or Abram Hannibal or Abram Petrov (; c. 1696 – 14 May 1781), was a Russian Chief Military Engineer, General-in-Chief, and nobleman of African origin. As a child, Gannibal was captured by Ott ...

(1696–1781) – statesman, military leader, and politician, great-grandfather of

. * Ivan Gannibal (1735–1801) – military leader, the son of Abram Gannibal. *

(1799-1837) - was a Russian poet, playwright, and novelist of the

Romantic era Romanticism (also known as the Romantic movement or Romantic era) was an artistic and intellectual movement that originated in Europe towards the end of the 18th century. The purpose of the movement was to advocate for the importance of subjec ...

. He is considered by many to be the greatest Russian poet, as well as the founder of modern

Russian literature Russian literature refers to the literature of Russia, its Russian diaspora, émigrés, and to Russian language, Russian-language literature. Major contributors to Russian literature, as well as English for instance, are authors of different e ...

, great-grandson of

. * Lyukman Adams (born 1988) – half-Nigerian triple jumper *

Aleksandr Alumona Aleksandr Silvestrovich Alumona (; born 18 December 1983) is a Russian football official and a former player who played as a forward. He works as an administrator with Peresvet Podolsk. Club career Aleksandr Alumona was a member of the Chekh ...

(born 1983) – half-Nigerian footballer * Jacques Anthony (born 1992) – rapper * Coretti Arle-Titz (1881–1951) – black American born actress and singer * Allan Dugblei (born 1985) – half-Ghanaian footballer *

Alice Edun Alice Edun, known professionally as Edun, is a Nigerian-Russian singer of Dance music, dance and Gospel music, gospel music. She lives in Milan, Italy and is signed to Eurodance label Off-Limits, and licensed to Robbins Entertainment in the Unite ...

– half-Nigerian singer * Nkeirouka Ezekh (born 1983) – half-Nigerian Olympic curler * Brian Idowu (born 1992) – three quarters-Nigerian

Russian Premier League The Russian Premier League (RPL; , ''Rossiyskaya premyer-liga''; РПЛ), also written as Russian Premier Liga, is a professional association football league in Russia and the highest level of the Russian football league system. It was establis ...

footballer * Victor Keyru (born 1984) – Sierra Leonian-Russian basketball player * Yelena Khanga (born 1962) – Russian journalist and TV anchor of Zanzibari-American descent * Stanislav Lebamba (born 1988) – half-Congolese footballer * Cyrille Makanda (born 1980) – half-Cameroonian basketball player * Avua-Siav Leo Nelson (born 1980) – half-Ghanaian footballer * Peter Odemwingie (born 1981) – half-Nigerian footballer * Adessoye Oyewole (born 1982) – half-Nigerian footballer * James Lloydovich Patterson (born 1933) – Russian child actor, naval officer, and poet of African-American and Russian descent * Jean Sagbo (1959-2024) – Beninese-Russian politician. Elected councilman of the town of Novozavidovo * Jerry-Christian Tchuissé (born 1975) – Cameroonian-Russian footballer * Emiliya Turey (born 1984) – part-Sierra Leonean handball player *

Grigory Siyatvinda Grigory Davidovich Siyatvinda (; born 26 April 1970) is a Russian stage and film actor. He has been awarded the Merited Artist of the Russian Federation in 2006 and the State Prize of the Russian Federation laureate in 2004.

(born 1973) – half-Angolan businesswoman * Epiphanny Prince (born 1988) – Russian-American basketball player * Greta Onieogou (born 1991) – half Nigerian half Russian Canadian actress * Zhosselina Maiga – half Malian basketball player * Artyom Ntumba (born 2003) – half Congolese, half Russian footballer * Victor Cole (born 1968) – half Sierra Leonean, half Russian Major League Baseball player * Pierre Narcisse (1977-2022) – Cameroonian-born Russian singer

Social movements

Afro-Russian social movements have emerged in recent years as a response to the discrimination and marginalization experienced by people of Russian-African descent. The Sputnik Association is a social movement founded in London, UK in 2006 by a group of Russian emigrants and Afro-Russian people. The association was created to provide a platform for Russian emigrants and mixed-race Russian people living abroad to connect and celebrate their shared cultural heritage.

References

External links

Funmetis a Foundation for Afro-Russian Children
*
Article "Afro-Russians"
from ''

Rossiyskaya Gazeta ' () is a Russian newspaper published by the Government of Russia. History ''Rossiyskaya Gazeta'' was founded in 1990 by the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR, Supreme Soviet of the Russian SFSR during the ''glasnost'' reforms in Soviet Union, shortl ...

'' *
Article "Black Man"
from ''Online Vremya''
Василий из "Чернобыля". История реального ликвидатора [ENG SUBS]
{{Authority control African diaspora in Europe Ethnic groups in Russia