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Location: Volga > History
A Brief History of Volga Germans
Original Mother Colonies
In 1763, Catherine the Great issued a persuasive
manifesto
inviting foreigners to settle in Russia. Because of the impoverished
conditions in Europe due to the Seven Years War, and the aggressive
campaign of immigration agents, many Germans answered the call to "paradise."
During the four years from 1764 to 1767, Germans colonized 104 villages
in the desolate Volga Valley of Russia near the city of Saratov. Of
these, 44 were on the West side, the hilly side (Bergseite) of the Volga
River and 60 villages were on the East side, the meadow side (Wiesenseite).
The villages ranged in population from 225 to 250 people each. The emigrants
numbered a total of of more than seven thousand families, an estimated
25 thousand people. The majority came from Hesse Germany, with southwest
Germany well represented and less coming from other countries. Separate
religious affiliations were of primary importance and interdenominational
villages were extremely rare. With few exceptions, all of the villages
were Lutheran, Reformed or Catholic and later Mennonite.
German Isolationism
Divorced from their fatherland, the Germans turned inward to form an isolationist
attitude that would characterize their behavior for years to come. No farmer lived
isolated and alone on their farm but they resided in a village where they enjoyed
communal amenities in conjunction with the church and school. The church was the
center of community life. The Germans maintained their way of life and had minimal
interaction with the Russians. For the most part they only spoke German and did
not learn the Russian language except for essential government and business
dealings. They built German schools, practiced their German religion, Lutheran,
Reformed or Catholic, and only married other Germans, usually from their own village.
Early Hardships
The first problem for the immigrants was houses. The emigrants had
been promised that these would be ready upon their arrival, but in most
cases the newcomers found neither house nor lumber to build them. The
settlers were shown how to make themselves mud huts, Russian style,
in which they had to live sometimes for as long as two or three years
before their houses were ready. Other needs of the settlers were not
met. Domestic animals were in short supply; the farm implements furnished
were crude, the seed grain was always late. There were shortages of
clothing, so essential in the cold winters and even shortages of food.
Russian officials profiteered at the expense of the immigrants.
Nature was also against the newcomers. After the bitterly cold winters,
came the spring floods to wash away their mud huts and make them flee
to the hills. The summers were hot and dry and crop failure followed
crop failure. Ignorance of the qualities of the soil and the kind of
cultivation it required were difficulties that could only be overcome
with experience. Not until 1775 did the colonist harvest their first
good crop and finally became independent of government help.
More destructive than the thievery of local robber bands was the Pugachev
rebellion which broke out in the Volga region in 1773. Pugachev was
a Don Cossack who posed as Peter III who gathered an army of malcontents
with the purpose of unseating the empress. Even a few disgruntled Germans
joined his forces. In 1774 Saratov was captured and many of the German
villages on both sides of the Volga suffered extensive damage. Finally
in 1775 Pugachev was captured and executed.
The most fearful terror of all was the Kirghizs to the east. They resented
the German colonists on their grazing grounds. In 1771 the Kirghiz attacks
started on the east side of the Volga, particularly those on the Great
Karaman. These raiders robbed, destroyed and killed without mercy. They
carried off hundreds of captives to the slave market of the East. In
August 1774, the most destructive attacks occurred along the Karaman.
From Mariental alone 200-300 people were carried off into slavery. A
brave band of 150 colonists set off in pursuit of freeing the captives
but they were also captured and tortured. In early September 1774 a
force of 600 of the Russian army followed the Kirghiz eastward and managed
to liberate 811 of the captured colonists. Later raids occurred on villages
in the Tarlyk River region. Two villages, Keller and Leitsinger were
so devastated that no effort was made to rebuild. Villages in this region
had to become armed camps. As late as 1784 and 1785 there were more
attacks on villages along the Karaman. Two more villages, Caesarsfeld
and Chasselois were abandoned also.
In all, 5 of the 104 villages were abandoned in the early years, all on the
Wiesenseite: Bern, Leitsinger, Keller, Caesarfeld and Chasselois. Three
new villages were founded from 1772-1802 by re-settlement of some of the colonist,
bringing the total number of villages back to 102. Northwest of Saratov,
near Yagodnaya Polyana, the village of Pobochnoye was founded in 1772, and Neu-Straub
founded in 1802. Neu-Kolonie was founded in 1776 on the eastern shore of the Volga.
Following 20 years of extreme hardship and population decline, the
population of the Volga villages began to climb in 1785 and the situation
began to slowly turn around.
Land Division and Daughter Colonies
As the population grew, the original farm land was divided equally among
the men every 10 years. A consequence of this subdividing was that each
male's portion grew smaller and smaller until it sank below the level
of subsistence. Russia set aside new land for the Germans in 1797 and
1840. In 1834 the population of the Volga had risen to 108,000.
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The land grant of 1840 was predominately south east of the Volga settlements.
People moved to new villages for new farm land. The first Wiesenseite
daughter colonies (colonies derived from Wiesenseite villages) were
founded in 1848 and by 1860 there were 25 or more. The first ten Bergseite
daughter colonies were founded in the years 1852-1853 in the Kamysin
region. Then from 1855-1861 25 more colonies were established along
the Jersulan River area. The last 3 colonies of the 1849 land grant
occurred in 1863. Altogether the Volga colonists founded 68 daughter
colonies in the years 1848 to 1863.
By the 1860's, when the last of
the daughter colonies was being established, the population was double
that of 1834 (216,000). By 1865 there were 170 German Volga villages.
Single families and small groups moved out into the steppes east of
the Volga, where they bought or rented land from Russian landowners,
dotting the whole region with German family farms and small hamlets.
Ten small Mennonite colonies were founded from 1854 to 1875 by immigrants
who came directly from Prussia.
Broken Promises
A century after the first Germans had settled in the Volga region, Russia
passed legislation that revoked many of the privileges promised to them
by Catherine the Great. The sentiment in Russia became decidedly anti-German.
Russia first made changes to the German local government. Then in 1874, a new
military law decreed that all male Russian subjects, when they reached the age
of 20, were eligible to serve in the military for 6 years.
These Volga German men fought in the Russian-Turkish war
of 1877-1878. One of these men died in the war.
For the German
colonists, this law represented a breach of faith. In the 1880s the Russia
began a subtle attack on the German schools.
Emigration
Just when Russia was abridging the privileges granted to the Germans in a an earlier
era, several nations in the Americas were attempting to attract settlers
by offering inducements reminiscent of those of Catherine the Great.
Soon after the military service bill became law, both Protestant and Catholic
Volga Germans gathered and choose delegations to journey across the Atlantic to
examine settlement conditions in the United States. In following years the
same occurred in Brazil, Argentina and Canada.
So in the 1870's small groups of Volga Germans immigrated to the United States
and Canada in North America. In South
America they settled primarily in Brazil and Argentina. In their new
homes overseas, the Volga Germans initially continued their pattern
of introverted closed German communities. The people of individual villages
tended to travel together and settle together in their new homeland.
It was not uncommon to find hundreds of Volga Germans from one village
in one location in the new world: Norka in Portland,OR; Yagodnaya Polyana
in Endicott, WA; Bangert, Stahl, Kukkus, Laube, Jost and Laub in Fresno;
Norka, Beideck, Dobrinka in Globeville, CO; and Reinwald and Schaefer
in Sheboygan, WI. There was also immigration to North Caucasus in Russia
where a number of colonies were established. In the 1890's when land
became scarce there, migration was diverted eastward to Siberia. In
spite of the large emigration, the Volga German population increased
to 345,000 by 1897 and to over 500,000 by 1914.
Source: From Catherine to Khrushchev by Adam Giesinger. Members of
the German Volga mail list.
Communist Rule
Following WWI and the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917, Russia experienced mass
starvation from 1920 to 1924 caused largely by a
government policy of forced grain requisition. When the Volga Germans resisted,
they were completely stripped of all grain and mass executions were carried out.
More than thirty percent of the Volga German population was deliberately
starved before relief was permitted. Starting in 1921, the
Volga Relief Society
in America, raised money and bought supplies for the starving Volga Germans.
In 1922 John Hermann returned to Sheboygan,
Wisconsin and told his story of survival and
escape from Russia. His story was published in the Sheboygan Press.
Read his story.
For a more recent history of all Germans from Russia go to
A People on the Move: Germans in Russia and in the Former Soviet Union: 1763 - 1997.
Published by the Landsmannschaft der Deutschen aus Russland e.V.,
Kulturrat der Deutschen aus Russland e.V., Stuttgart, Germany, 1997.
A 7 part series of articles,
Wanderings:
The Germans from Russia Today
discussing the Germans from Russia and their travels
from Germany to Russia and back to Germany and America is provided by
NDSU on the GRHC website.
There are two international website on Germans from Russia. The
Russian Germans in Siberia
is in 3 languages except home page. So click on any link and you will find English, German and
Russian on most of the pages. The other one is the
History
of Russian Germans. Click on the large map image to go to the first section. The website
will eventually have 4 sections, but currently only section 1 is available, in both English
and German. There is also an extensive German book list published about the Germans from
Russia.
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