I'm from Belarus, which shares pretty much all circumstances of Russia (life, culture, language for the most part). People there are only starting to get icons and they have maybe 2-3 icons for entire apartment (not many have houses still except villages of course where there would be one icon typically in kitchen/dining area). Many people still don't have any icons at all. Many of my relatives have 1 somewhere on one of the bookshelves. Ludmilla, you probably mean Russian Americans? Or the old Russia. The new Russia is still learning all this, or re-learning I should say.
Really stupid question: why is the bathroom an exception? Of course, I have a guess but then.. We wear a cross all the time no matter what we do where, is bathroom considered unclean because of what people do there? But it's all natural - God made us that way. People put magazines in the bathroom, why can't there be an icon to have something to reflect upon? I'm just entertaining thoughts 
Sorry if this would gross someone out, but I actually wondered this since a while ago. Or, are we supposed to take off the cross when we go into the bathroom? I never take off mine. Ever. What are the rules here?
Again, sorry if this is offensive.