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My grandmother prayed in German, and I heard my grandparents talk about the “old country”. What I didn’t know, was that the “old country” was Russia, not Germany. My ancestors had not seen Germany since the reign of Catherine the Great, tsarina of Russia from 1762 to 1796.
Catherine the Great, born Sophia Augusta Frederika of Anhalt-Zerbst on April 2, 1729, was actually German, not Russian. When Catherine declared herself Empress and was crowned on Sept. 22, 1762, she was stunned to find that Russia was financially and socially very backward to her German mind. The Russians were ignorant, superstitious and almost barbaric. She decided to work to increase Russian finances. She started on the land; bringing in Germans to help both with farming the land, and raising animals. She actually advertised in foreign newspapers, inviting the people to come to Russia and promising land and other compensation. Thousands responded to the offer.
Catherine the Great had issued a “Manifesto” on July 22, 1763 which stated that the Russian government would “permit all foreigners to come into Our Empire, in order to settle in all the gouvernements, (sic) just as each one may desire.” Basically, Catherine promised the foreigners, among whom were hundreds of Germans; travel expenses, if needed, “free, productive land in colonies and rural areas”, and the freedom to practice their own religion. They would not be required to pay “the slightest taxes to Our treasury” for thirty years, nor would they have to serve in the armed forces. The Russian government also offered to loan money to the foreigners to help them build farms, factories, buy livestock or tools. They were to be given free housing for six month, also.
As often happens with governments, things were not as promised. When the Germans arrived, there was no housing for them in the Volga River area. However, it had been promised that each family, which by 1773 totaled 5,549 families, or 30,930 person, land equal to 30 desyatines or 2.471 acres. The foreign settlers were housed in army-constructed army barracks until they could build their own “wattle-and-mud” huts which were like the ones inhabited by the Russian peasants, due to the shortage of lumber.
The first German settlement was established in 1764 along the meagerly settled areas of the Lower Volga River. Settlements such as this were called Mutterkolonien or mother colonies. The Volga Germans, who referred to themselves as Unsere Leute or Our People, are only one of several German-speaking groups who settled in Russia during this period. It is from the Volga Germans or the German-Russians that my father is descended.
The Germans settled on both sides of the Volga River, the western side (Bergseite or the hill side) and the eastern side (Wiesenseite or the meadow side). Different crops were grown on either side of the river, although animals were a part of every farm. While the Germans kept more or less to themselves, they were influenced by some of the Russian culture. Some of the clothing--long sheepskins coats, heavy felt boots and fringed babushkas were of Russian origin, as were some of the foods, especially the borscht (beet soup), and blini which is a thin pancake made with several eggs. These blini are very similar to crepes, which of course, are French in origin.
Over the years the promises of Catherine the Great were countermand by her heirs, if indeed Catherine herself ever really lived up to her own promises and eventually they were forgotten altogether. It is my understanding the for years after the “manifesto”, Catherine herself began to regulate every aspect of the lives of the Germans, just as she did her own people.
By 1897 there were 1,790,439 Germans in Russia. Seventy-six percent of these were Lutherans, the church or choice of my own ancestors. The church was the center of their village life, and largely because of this, the Germans retained their own language, morals, and ethnic culture. The German-Russian communities were what has been characterized as “folk communities”, and were in reality large tightly knit family groups, much like the Amish communities in the United States today. Because of this, the Germans were looked down upon by the Russians, and subjected to ridicule and torment by them.
When Tsar Alexander II took the throne in Russia many German-Russians began to immigrate to the Americas. The main threat was the fear of military conscription, and there was a great shortage of land and many other problems. Many Volga Germans stayed on in Russia and had to endure severe drought in the 1890’s and many economic difficulties.
By the early 1900’s, many more Volga Germans were looking to the Americas for an opportunity to settle in a new land and possibly prosper. My father’s paternal grandfather gathered his family in 1906 and made their way to Argentina, where they stayed for six years. After six years, grandpa decided the family did not have enough money and they moved back to Russia for a year.
At this time, the world was on the verge of a world war, and when war was declared by Germany in 1914, hostility against the Germans living in Russia escalated. The Russian government actually wrote up law called “The Laws of Liquidation” which would have destroyed all the Germans. These laws were never enacted, but because of the threat, many Germans began to leave Russia. My father’s mother’s side of the family left Russia about this time, I believe.
In July of 1915 Germans began to be relocated to the East of Russia and by the time Russia came under Bolshevik rule, the Volga-Germans were so severely persecuted that many more fled Russia. In the 1940's Stalin came into control and began to persecute the Germans again. Many were sent to the labor camps in Siberia, and many more left Russia for the United States, and other countries.
Today the descendents of the Volga-Germans are trying to return to Russia and to Germany.
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