Keeping to the Sober Truth: A Jewish Lutheran White Russian in San Francisco

Abstract

Intrepid Russian American journalist Nadia Shapiro (1897-1989) explored aspects of Russian identity in the interwar American context, and was particularly salient with respect to the acculturation processes facing Russian émigrés arriving in San Francisco from China from 1918 forward. This article explores Shapiro’s experiences, contributions and, specifically, her writings, which also addressed issues of ethnicity and race within the American nativist environment. Her observations, both about the émigré community, as well as the experiences of Russian Americans in Alaska and California, spoke to the processes of Eastern Europeans and Slavs attaining a “state of whiteness” within the American hierarchical racial paradigm.