Russian genealogy

Russian genealogy: "
Digging up your Russian roots
If you have family roots in Russia, you are in good company. Between 1820 and 1992, according to data from the US Immigration and Naturalization Service, some 3,512,332 individuals emigrated from Russia to the United States, most of them around the turn of the century (2.5 million between 1897 and World War I)."

Russian archives: "It is very difficult for modern genealogists to understand the types of archival records created in the Russian Empire prior to 1917, which may serve specifically as sources for genealogical information today.
The most important factor for understanding lies in the existence of a class structure of the population formulated by Russian law. The population of the empire was divided into these several class groups:"

1. The Nobility
2. The Clergy

3. The Merchants. The right to belong to this class was limited to the most affluent and was determined by the size of their fortunes.

4. The Remaining Population. Comprising the basic majority of the population, this included two basic groups:

a.) townsmen, petty bourgeois merchants, craftsmen, and workers in urban areas, small towns and villages; and

b.) peasants in the rural areas of Russian Empire, representing more than 90% of the total population.

Each class had its own representative body such as the Noble Assembly and the Merchants and Tradesmen Councils, or a corresponding government institutions such as those for peasant affairs. In accordance with these classes, groups of records were also created by various state and class institutions.