Russians in Germany: A new diaspora literature in the making

            Contemporary Russian literature in Germany is a result of the fourth wave of Russian emigration. This wave is Russian not so much in factual ethnic composition as in the cultural sense and includes mostly Russian Germans and Russian Jews. Naturally, many contemporary writers living in Germany have emerged from these two groups. Some of them have entered German-language literature, like for example, the ethnic Germans Lorena Dottai, Elvira Schik and a Jew, Wladimir Kaminer. And there are writers of different ethnic origin who write solely or predominantly in Russian, for example, the ethnic Germans Igor Hergenroether and Vladimir Shtele and the ethnic Jews - Boris Rublov (pen-name of Boris Rubenchik), Juri Kudlatch, Alexander Khurgin and Oleg Jurjew.

            A foremost motif, in immigrant fiction is the identity of the descendants of mixed families. A special bitterness is needed for maternal and paternal sides of a character to be perceived as mutually exclusive - for example, one is Jewish and the other is Ukrainian, or Jewish and German. Another frequent motif in Russian literature in Germany is the conflict between the ethos of the Great Patriotic War which is still very important for former Soviets, and the current immigration to Germany. Its representations are inherent in the works of Russian Germans and Russian Jews alike, even though they experienced different types of trauma.

            "Russians" of various ethnic origins have spread all over the world, and the Russian literature in Germany is a part of a Russian literary diaspora in the making.