Atlanta’s public housing is home to a dwindling Soviet immigrant community

This is an interesting story about an immigrant community we don't even think about. The older people still in these apartments keep to themselves, but the younger people have spread out and have assimilated. - - Donna Poisl

By Bill Torpy, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Nearly 60 years ago, Alexander Vitebsky was a young Soviet officer stationed in Siberia, part of a massive force assembled to try to fulfill Joseph Stalin’s dream of invading Alaska.

“It was very secretive,” said Vitebsky, who, for decades afterward, also carried a secret — he dreamed of coming to America. “We didn’t buy what we were told about America.”

In 1990, as the Soviet Union began to disintegrate, Vitebsky finally realized his dreams. He and his wife and son were granted visas and made their way to Atlanta as part of a Jewish resettlement program. To Comrade Vitebsky’s surprise, there was a Russian community waiting for him, much of it in Atlanta public housing.
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