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The October 1917 Russian Revolution and the subsequent Civil War triggered a mass exodus from Russia. Thousands boarded ships heading for California. Before We Disappear into Oblivion chronicles the struggles of the Russian diaspora in San Francisco and northern California as they built communities and negotiated their acculturation into American society. Nina Bogdan challenges the stereotype of the White Russian émigré as an aristocrat in exile, revealing the diversity within California’s Russian communities in terms of social backgrounds, political affiliations, and geographic origins. Bogdan details the historic Russian presence in northern California, particularly Fort Ross, and examines how émigrés incorporated this presence into the strategies and tactics used to establish a foundation for community while developing their Russian American identity. Consulting Russian-language sources generated by the diaspora alongside American public discourse and thousands of government documents, Bogdan traces the divergent paths Russian émigrés took to become, or not become, middle-class white Americans, a century prior to the latest mass exodus of Russians from their homeland in 2022. Set against a backdrop of national and global events – the Great Depression, World War II, McCarthyism, and the Cold War – Before We Disappear into Oblivion explores the factors that shaped the Americanization of one ethnic group in an environment where cultural affiliation became submerged in favour of a constructed racial identity.

The October 1917 Russian Revolution and the subsequent Civil War triggered a mass exodus from Russia to the American west coast. Before We Disappear into Oblivion examines the efforts of newly arrived Russians in San Francisco as they built communities and negotiated their acculturation into American society.

Even before San Francisco was founded as a city, Russian visitors, explorers, and scientists sailed to the area and made contact with both the indigenous people and representatives of the Spanish government. Although the Russian commercial colony of Fort Ross closed in 1842, the Russian presence in San Francisco continued and the community expanded to include churches, societies, businesses, and newspapers. Some came seeking opportunity, while others were fleeing religious or political persecution. In the 1920s, San Franciscoas Russian population grew exponentially as refugees of the Russian Revolution and civil war arrived, and by the 1950s, a vibrant and culturally rich Russian A(c)migrA(c) community was thriving in San Francisco. Today the 75,000 Russian speakers who live in the San Francisco Bay Area continue to pass on their heritage to their children.

In accordance with Article 22 of the Protection against Discrimination Act (hereinafter: PADA), the Advocate of the Principle of Equality (hereinafter: Advocate) shall report to the National Assembly of the Republic of Slovenia (hereinafter: NA) about their work and findings on the existence of discrimination against individual groups of people with certain personal grounds in the framework of special reports. The PADA states in Article 1 that protection against discrimination is provided to individuals regardless of their personal grounds, including disability. Article 2 of the PADA initially lists all stakeholders bound to provide protection against discrimination or equal treatment in the public and private sectors, including state authorities, holders of public authority and legal entities. Furthermore, it is stated that protection against discrimination is provided in several areas of social life, including education. The purpose of this Special Report is to raise awareness on the importance of formulating, adopting and consistent implementation of regulations preventing any chance of discriminatory treatment of students with disabilities, specifically those with reduced mobility, and to facilitate the implementation of measures for the exercise of their equal right in access to education (and other rights). With this Special Report, the Advocate strives to draw attention to the important issue of the rights of students with reduced mobility, to their equal treatment and equal opportunities, as well as the right of full realisation of their potentials in the area of education and training and their constitutional right to education and training.