Serbs in Russia


Serbs in Russia are Russian citizens and residents of ethnic Serb descent or and/or Serbia-born persons living in Russia. According to the data from the 2020 census, there were 2,151 people that declared Serb ethnicity.

History

Middle Ages

After the Ottoman invasion of Serbia in the 14th century, Serbian refugees found refuge in Russia. Lazar the Serb and Pachomius the Serb were some of the notable Serbs in Russian medieval history. Elena Glinskaya, the mother of Russian emperor Ivan the Terrible, was maternally Serbian. The veneration of Saint Sava was established in Russia in the 16th century.

Russian Empire

In the 1750s, in a re-settlement initiated by Austrian Colonel Ivan Horvat, a vast number of Orthodox Serbs, mostly from territories controlled by the Habsburg monarchy, settled in Russia's military frontier region of New Serbia, as well as in Slavo-Serbia. In 1764, both territorial entities were incorporated in Russia's Novorossiya Governorate. Serbs continued to settle in Russian lands, and many, such as Sava Vladislavich, Nikolay Depreradovich, and Peter Tekeli, became high ranking generals and imperial nobility. As of 1890, there were approximately 9,500 ethnic Serb citizens in the Russian Empire.
During the Napoleonic Wars, many Russian generals were either Serbian-born or of Serbian descent, including Georgi Emmanuel, Peter Ivelich, Nikolay Vuich, Ivan Shevich, and multiple others. The most esteemed Serb in the service of the Russian Empire at the time of the Napoleonic Wars was Count Mikhail Miloradovich, a leading commander during the French invasion of Russia and governor-general of Saint Petersburg.
Other prominent Serbs in the imperial era included Fedor Mirkovich, who served as Governor-General of Lithuania, Alexander Knyazhevich, who served as Minister of Finance, and Vasily Karazin, the founder of Imperial Kharkov University, which now bears his name.

Soviet Union

Throughout the existence of the Soviet Union, many Serbs in Russia continued to play prominent roles in society. Notable figures at the time include and renowned sculptor and Hero of Socialist Labour Yevgeny Vuchetich, who designed primarily The Motherland Calls, the largest statue in the world at the time of its construction.

Notable people