The revolution that New York's Russian community has spent so much time talking about finally took place in the wee hours of June 22. An amendment to the election law in relation to providing voting materials in Russian language was passed by a vote of 107 to 32. These materials have long been available in Spanish, Chinese, and Korean.

Russian community organizations and individual voters have spent years bombarding their elected officials with requests that voting materials, including ballots, be printed in Russian. But this work proved futile because legislators are extremely conservative when it comes to changing election laws. In the end, though, reality won.

As described in the legislation’s justification, there are 320,000 registered voters who were born in Russia and other former Soviet republics in the greater New York area. These voters are part of a community of over one million Russian speakers. The number of Russian-speaking residents in some districts exceeds 20 percent, "but many of them are shut out of the voting process unfairly because of their language. Voting and registration materials are printed in many languages other than English, but Russian has long been ignored.” Therefore, the justification continues; if the State of New York intends to represent all of its residents equally, it must provide the Russian-speaking immigrant community with the same voting capabilities that it offers other large communities.

The Russian community was able to bring about this momentous achievement by establishing itself here, proving its economic and cultural competence, and earning credibility. Alec Brook-Krasny, the first Russian-speaking legislator, joined William Colton (D-47th District), Helene Weinstein (D-41st District), and Alan Maisel (D-59th District) in sponsoring this legislation.