Journey Of Faith Opening The Refugee Door

About 5,000 Russian-speaking, religious refugees have come to Spokane in the last six years. They are mostly Baptist and Pentecostal Christians, able to leave the former Soviet Union because of a series of political and social changes that began with Mikhail Gorbachev’s rise to power in 1985. Between 1988 and 1994, about 300,000 refugees came to the United States, 80 percent Russian Jews, the rest Christians. Here are key events from 1986 to the present and the number of refugees coming to America. The map shows the hometowns of some of the refugees featured in this series.

1986 — Number of refugees: 787.

1986 — A trickle of immigrants, almost exclusively political defectors, makes it to the United States.

1986 — Glasnost and Perestroika. Gorbachev calls for glasnost (political openness) and perestroika (rebuilding of the economy).

1986 — Explosion at Chernobyl nuclear power plant.

1987 — Number of refugees: 3,694.

1987 — Gorbachev startles the world by announcing Soviet citizens can leave. Jewish immigration increases slightly.

1988 — Number of refugees: 20,421.

1988 — Flood of refugees begins in earnest, as evangelical Christians use Jewish paperwork to escape the Soviet Union.

1988 — Some refugees stuck in Rome as United States examines policy toward religious refugees.

1988 — Gorbachev assumes new post of Soviet president.

1989 — Number of refugees: 39,523.

1989 — U.S. begins interviewing refugees, acknowledges evangelicals were persecuted in Soviet system and allows them to emigrate as religious refugees.

1989 — Gorbachev announces “freedom of conscience” in Soviet Union, making religion legal. Emigration becomes legal for all Soviets.

1989 — United States sets limit of 50,000 Russian religious refugees per year.

1989 — Gorbachev announces “freedom of conscience” in Soviet Union, making religion legal. Emigration becomes legal for all Soviets.

1989 — Last Soviet troops leave Afghanistan.

1989 — First multi-candidate parliamentary election since 1917; Boris Yeltsin wins at-large seat.

1989 — Berlin Wall falls. East Germany, Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria, Romania reject communist domination.

1990 — Number of refugees: 50,716.

1990 — U.S. changes legal definition of refugee to allow more former Soviets in.

1990 — Communist Party gives up monopoly, allows competing parties in Soviet political system.

1990 — Yeltsin quits Communist Party.

1991 — Number of refugees: 38,661.

1991 — For first time, most Russians coming to U.S. are relatives of refugees already here.

1991 — Unrest in former Soviet Union slows pace of immigration.

1991 — Yeltsin elected president in Russia’s first popular election.

1991 — Attempted coup. Yeltsin suspends Community Party, emerges as nation’s most powerful leader after coup attempt on Gorbachev.

1991 — Yeltsin abolishes Soviet Union. Commonwealth of Independent States is formed; Gorbachev resigns.

1992 — Number of refugees: 61,298.

1992 — Peak number of refugees arrive in U.S.

1992 — Yeltsin lifts most price controls, causing prices to jump 350%; state bank tightens money supply; cash shortage develops.

1993 — Number of refugees: 48,627.

1993 — American restrictions limit incoming refugees to close relatives of those already in the U.S.

1994 — Number of refugees: 43,470.

1994 — An independent commission testifies before Congress that evangelicals and other religious minorities are still at a disadvantage in Russia.

1994 — Total of 1 million requests to leave former U.S.S.R. processed by U.S. government.

1994 — Russia battles for control of the oil-rich Muslim enclave of Chechnya.