RUSSIAN COMMUNITY IN AUSTRALIA: THE HISTORY AND THE PRESENT Toropchin G.V. Department of Modern History and International Relations Department of Foreign Languages Faculty of History and International Relations Kemerovo State University In modern reality, under the circumstances of intensifying globalization, the study of migratory movement from Russia to Australia and the Russian community in the Commonwealth of Australia is quite actual. As for the present moment, Russian inhabitants of Australia wrestle with the problem of keeping their cultural traditions and their mother tongue as well. The topicality of the work also reflects lack of required investigation in the problem in native historiography. On the whole, the researchers paid their attention to some detached aspects of the life of the Russian community in Australia. In particular, Doctor of Philosophy, an authoress and historian Helena Govor [1], dwelling in Canberra meanwhile, made a study of history of migration from Russia to Australia in the pre-revolution period. Doctor of History from St. Petersburg A.Ya. Massov was engaged in research of the influence that Russian immigration exerted on the development of Russian-Australian connections. A Novosibirsk researcher S.A. Paichadze explored the role of the Russian community in the circulation of Russian journals and newspapers in the Land of the Golden Fleece before the Great October Socialist Revolution. The essay “The Russians in Australia” by K.M. Khotimskiy ought to be marked out as a factitive material in the exploration of the problem (it was written and published in Melbourne in 1957 and it is generally based on his personal archive). A.Yu. Rudnitskiy [2] studied the issue of the operating of the Russian émigrés on the political life of Australia at the beginning of the twentieth century. The evolution of the main migratory tendencies during the historical process is bound up with the geopolitical condition and social and political situation in Russia (the Soviet Union) and Australia. The peaks of the influx occurred in the mostly politically complicated periods of Russian history: the beginning of the twentieth century (up to the end of Civil War), 1990s (in connection with the dissolution of the USSR). Appearance and location. The first ethnically Russian migrants in Australia were the exiles, who had infringed the laws of the British Empire on its territory: K. Milkov, D. Dyatlov-Vorontsov. The analysis of the statistical data [3], including the quantity of the Russian migrants in respective historical intervals in different Australian states, allows to make the next conclusion. The nature of formation of the Russian agglomerations on the territory of Commonwealth of Australia was determined by the geographical position of the states having so-called emplacements of compact inhabitance of the Russian minority, as it was much easier to move to Queensland and New South Wales (the most urbanized states) from the Far East via Harbin (China). The migration of the Russians to Australia had 3 waves: 1) XIX - the beginning of XX centuries. Mostly political exiles and fugitive convicts. 2) 1910s - 1920s. Migrants, escaped from the Civil War, and oppositionists to the Bolshevik authority. 3) The end of XX century. “New wave” of migration: diversification of social, age and gender characteristics of the migrants. Adjusting to the new society, the Russians played an important role in the day-to-day life of “the fifth continent”. They were participating in different frames of reference (politics, business, culture), integrating into Australian society. Politics. Quite a few Russian emigrants were in the left wing of Labour Party in the middle of the twentieth century. Some Russian migrants (in general, these were fugitive convicts, sentenced in the Russian Empire because of their radical political judgements and activity, often usage of extremist methods) played a key role in the creation of Communist Party (among them there were: F.A. Sergeev (Artyom), P.I. Podzakhodnikov, P. Clark, V. Greshner).