Preserving the Hierarchy Across the Atlantic: The Enduring Legacy of Tsarist Elites in the Modern Wage Distribution of Russian Emigrants to the US and Canada

Abstract

Individuals who, judging by their surnames, originate from Russia’s Tsarist elites, are still outperforming their Russian emigr ́e peers in the wage distri- bution of their country of arrival (US and Canada). The relative magnitudes of the wage premiums enjoyed by different types of Tsarist elites are similar in the US and Canada and closely related to their relative status at the end of the Russian Empire. Although the shocks of WWI, the Russian revolu- tion, the ensuing civil war and the eventual involuntary emigration subjected these Russian emigrants to near complete capital destruction (confiscation of properties by Soviet authorities) and deprived them from access to re- sources deriving from access to elite networks and positions of power, we demonstrate that elite status is surprisingly persistent even in the very long run. Despite being subject to severe rank-disturbing shocks, the centuries- old Tsarist social hierarchy has been preserved across the Atlantic.