From: The Karaite Encyclopedia by Nathan Schur (Frankfurt, 1995)

No Karaites lived in the territories under the Tsar till near the end of the eighteenth century. But as a result of the partitions of Poland (1772, 1793, 1795) and the occupation of the Crimea (1783), suddenly most of the Karaites of Eastern Europe came under the Russian crown. Their social position was favourable, especially in the Crimea: they were growers of tobacco and cucumbers, owned tanneries and salt mines, and met the authorities on an equal basis. They had a good reputation. Bonar and McCheyne reported in 1839 that "they are the most respectable of all Jews, men of character and intelligence, very cleanly and industrious in their habits, and much favoured in by the government." Hence the marked improvement in their political and administrative position in the nineteenth century, for which see National Karaite Movement, till they obtained in 1863 the same rights as those of the Christian population.

As a result many Karaites moved away from such old centers as Briai in Lithuania, Chufut­Kale in the Crimea, and several towns in Galicia and Volhynia and instead settled in the capital, St Petersburg, in Moscow, or in such Ukrainian towns as Odessa, Kharkov, Nikolaev, Yekaterinoslav and Kherson. They moved also into new occupations, and used increasingly the Russian language. Their numbers increased slowly, from 4,000 to 5,000 in the Crimea and 1,800 in Lithuania in 1839, to 9,725 in all of Russia in 1879, 12,894 in 1897 and 12,907 in 1910. In 1897 only 166 Karaites were left in the Russian part of Volhynia.

Some of their outstanding leaders in the nineteenth century were Benjamin ben Samuel Aga, Isaac ben Solomon, Simha ben Solomon Babovich, Joseph Solomon Luzki, Abraham Luzki, David Kukizow, Judah Kukizow, Mordecai Sultansky, Solomon Bein, Salomon Krym, and, of course, Abraham Firkovich.

After World War I some Russian farmers wanted to become Karaites, but were not allowed to do so by the Soviet authorities. Starting with World War I the western borders of Russia changed repeatedly and with them the allegiance of the local Karaites: Lithuania and Poland became independent in 1918, but were reoccupied by the Russians in 1939 and 1940. In 1941 they were conquered for a few years by the Germans, only to return again under Russian rule in 1944. The Soviet government seems to have resettled many Karaites after the war in Troki and others escaped to the West. Since 1990 most of those who had remained behind came under Ukrainian and Lithuanian rule.

In 1991 M. El­Kodsi found 280 Karaites in Lithuania and over 150 in Poland. In Ukrainian Galicia only 15 are mentioned by him in Halicz. In the Crimea (for the time being, controlled by Ukraine) he heard about 800 Karaites. In Russia proper he found 100 in Moscow and a few in St Petersburg. The Russian Karaites, in spite of their small numbers, are mentally alert, produce literature in Russian, but also poems in Karaimsk. Mostly they are still guided by Firkovich's theories that they are not Jews, but a few are looking for new religious roots.