Volga River
The Volga (; russian: Во́лга, a=Ru-Волга.ogg, p=ˈvoɫɡə) is the List of rivers of Europe#Rivers of Europe by length, longest river in Europe. Situated in Russia, it flows through Central Russia to Southern Russia and into the Cas ...
Saratov
Saratov (, ; rus, Сара́тов, a=Ru-Saratov.ogg, p=sɐˈratəf) is the largest city and administrative center of Saratov Oblast, Russia, and a major port on the Volga River upstream (north) of Volgograd. Saratov had a population of 901,36 ...
and to the south. Recruited as immigrants to Russia in the 18th century, they were allowed to maintain their German culture, language, traditions and churches (Lutheran, Reformed, Catholics, Moravians and
Mennonites
Mennonites are groups of Anabaptist Christian church communities of denominations. The name is derived from the founder of the movement, Menno Simons (1496–1561) of Friesland. Through his writings about Reformed Christianity during the Radic ...
). In the 19th and early 20th centuries, many Volga Germans emigrated to
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
,
Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...
,
Brazil
Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...
and
Argentina
Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...
.
During the
Great Purge
The Great Purge or the Great Terror (russian: Большой террор), also known as the Year of '37 (russian: 37-й год, translit=Tridtsat sedmoi god, label=none) and the Yezhovshchina ('period of Yezhov'), was Soviet General Secret ...
of 1936 to 1938, the Soviet government began targeting ethnic groups who were part of the intellectual class such as the Volga Germans, who were then subjected to forced deportation and extreme repression, some tens of thousands were also killed during the massacres in Belarus. They were
deported
Deportation is the expulsion of a person or group of people from a place or country. The term ''expulsion'' is often used as a synonym for deportation, though expulsion is more often used in the context of international law, while deportation ...
eastward, which caused many thousands of deaths. Finally, in 1941, by order of
Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili; – 5 March 1953) was a Georgian revolutionary and Soviet political leader who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953. He held power as General Secretar ...
gulag
The Gulag, an acronym for , , "chief administration of the camps". The original name given to the system of camps controlled by the GPU was the Main Administration of Corrective Labor Camps (, )., name=, group= was the government agency in ...
concentration camp
Internment is the imprisonment of people, commonly in large groups, without charges or intent to file charges. The term is especially used for the confinement "of enemy citizens in wartime or of terrorism suspects". Thus, while it can simply ...
s located in
Siberia
Siberia ( ; rus, Сибирь, r=Sibir', p=sʲɪˈbʲirʲ, a=Ru-Сибирь.ogg) is an extensive geographical region, constituting all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has been a part of ...
and other areas of Central Asia, leading to
genocide
Genocide is the intentional destruction of a people—usually defined as an ethnic, national, racial, or religious group—in whole or in part. Raphael Lemkin coined the term in 1944, combining the Greek word (, "race, people") with the Latin ...
. Later, with the opening of the borders after the
collapse of the Soviet Union
The dissolution of the Soviet Union, also negatively connoted as rus, Разва́л Сове́тского Сою́за, r=Razvál Sovétskogo Soyúza, ''Ruining of the Soviet Union''. was the process of internal disintegration within the Sov ...
, several survivors chose to emigrate to
Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
.
Currently, the only figures on the population of German descent are those published by the Russian government.
Invitation to Russia
In 1762,
Catherine II
, en, Catherine Alexeievna Romanova, link=yes
, house =
, father = Christian August, Prince of Anhalt-Zerbst
, mother = Joanna Elisabeth of Holstein-Gottorp
, birth_date =
, birth_name = Princess Sophie of Anha ...
, born a
German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany (of or related to)
** Germania (historical use)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law
**Ge ...
princess and a native of Stettin, Pomerania, deposed her husband Peter III, born a
German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany (of or related to)
** Germania (historical use)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law
**Ge ...
prince in
Kiel
Kiel () is the capital and most populous city in the northern Germany, German state of Schleswig-Holstein, with a population of 246,243 (2021).
Kiel lies approximately north of Hamburg. Due to its geographic location in the southeast of the J ...
, and took the
Russian imperial
The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. The ...
Balkans
The Balkans ( ), also known as the Balkan Peninsula, is a geographical area in southeastern Europe with various geographical and historical definitions. The region takes its name from the Balkan Mountains that stretch throughout the who ...
, Catherine the Great published manifestos in 1762 and 1763 inviting Europeans (except
Jews
Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...
) to immigrate and become Russian subjects and farm Russian lands while maintaining their language and culture. Although the first received little response, the second improved the benefits offered and was more successful in attracting colonists. People in other countries such as
France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...
and
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
were more inclined to migrate to the colonies in the Americas. Other countries, such as
Austria
Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...
, forbade emigration.
Those who went to Russia had special rights under the terms of the manifesto. Some, such as being exempt from military service, were revoked in the latter part of the 19th century when the government needed more conscripts for the Russian army. The Plautdietsch-speaking
Mennonite
Mennonites are groups of Anabaptist Christian church communities of denominations. The name is derived from the founder of the movement, Menno Simons (1496–1561) of Friesland. Through his writings about Reformed Christianity during the Radic ...
communities were opposed to military service because of their pacifist beliefs, so many Mennonites emigrated to the
Americas
The Americas, which are sometimes collectively called America, are a landmass comprising the totality of North and South America. The Americas make up most of the land in Earth's Western Hemisphere and comprise the New World.
Along with th ...
instead.
19th century
At the end of the 19th century, the Russian empire began to apply an aggressive policy of
Russification
Russification (russian: русификация, rusifikatsiya), or Russianization, is a form of cultural assimilation in which non-Russians, whether involuntarily or voluntarily, give up their culture and language in favor of the Russian cultur ...
. Although they had been promised a degree of relative autonomy (including being exempt from
conscription
Conscription (also called the draft in the United States) is the state-mandated enlistment of people in a national service, mainly a military service. Conscription dates back to antiquity and it continues in some countries to the present day un ...
) when they settled in the Russian empire, the Russian monarchy gradually eroded their specific rights as time went on. The Germans began to suffer a considerable loss of autonomy. Conscription was eventually reinstated. That was not wanted and was especially harmful to the
Mennonites
Mennonites are groups of Anabaptist Christian church communities of denominations. The name is derived from the founder of the movement, Menno Simons (1496–1561) of Friesland. Through his writings about Reformed Christianity during the Radic ...
, who practice pacifism. Throughout the 19th century, pressure increased from the Russian government to culturally assimilate. Many Germans from Russia found it necessary to emigrate to avoid conscription and preserve their culture. This caused some Germans to organize themselves and send emissaries to some countries in the Americas in order to assess potential settlement destinations. The chosen destinations were Canada, United States, Brazil and Argentina. Most Volga Germans who settled in Latin America were
Catholic
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
. Many Catholic Volga Germans chose South America as their new homeland because the nations shared their religion.
North America
Germans from Russia were the most traditional of German-speaking arrivals to
North America
North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...
. In the United States, many settled primarily in
the Dakotas
The Dakotas is a collective term for the U.S. states of North Dakota and South Dakota. It has been used historically to describe the Dakota Territory, and is still used for the collective heritage, culture, geography, fauna, sociology, econo ...
,
Kansas
Kansas () is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its capital is Topeka, and its largest city is Wichita. Kansas is a landlocked state bordered by Nebraska to the north; Missouri to the east; Oklahoma to the south; and Colorado to the ...
, and
Nebraska
Nebraska () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by South Dakota to the north; Iowa to the east and Missouri to the southeast, both across the Missouri River; Kansas to the south; Colorado to the southwe ...
by 1900. The south-central part of
North Dakota
North Dakota () is a U.S. state in the Upper Midwest, named after the Native Americans in the United States, indigenous Dakota people, Dakota Sioux. North Dakota is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Saskatchewan and Manitoba to the north a ...
was known as "the German-Russian triangle" (that includes descendants of
Black Sea Germans
The Black Sea Germans (german: Schwarzmeerdeutsche; russian: черноморские немцы; uk, чорноморські німці) are ethnic Germans who left their homelands (starting in the late-18th century, but mainly in the e ...
). A smaller number moved farther west, finding employment as ranchers and cowboys. They also settled in
Iowa
Iowa () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States, bordered by the Mississippi River to the east and the Missouri River and Big Sioux River to the west. It is bordered by six states: Wisconsin to the northeast, Illinois to the ...
,
Michigan
Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and the ...
,
Minnesota
Minnesota () is a state in the upper midwestern region of the United States. It is the 12th largest U.S. state in area and the 22nd most populous, with over 5.75 million residents. Minnesota is home to western prairies, now given over to ...
,
Oregon
Oregon () is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of it ...
(especially in
Portland
Portland most commonly refers to:
* Portland, Oregon, the largest city in the state of Oregon, in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States
* Portland, Maine, the largest city in the state of Maine, in the New England region of the northeas ...
),
Washington
Washington commonly refers to:
* Washington (state), United States
* Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States
** A metonym for the federal government of the United States
** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...
,
Wisconsin
Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...
, and
Fresno County
Fresno County (), officially the County of Fresno, is a county located in the central portion of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 Census, the population was 1,008,654. The county seat is Fresno, the fifth-most populous city in Cali ...
in California's Central Valley. They often succeeded in dryland farming, which they had practiced in Russia. Many of the immigrants who arrived between 1870 and 1912 spent a period doing farm labor, especially in northeastern
Colorado
Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of t ...
and in
Montana
Montana () is a state in the Mountain West division of the Western United States. It is bordered by Idaho to the west, North Dakota and South Dakota to the east, Wyoming to the south, and the Canadian provinces of Alberta, British Columbi ...
along the lower
Yellowstone River
The Yellowstone River is a tributary of the Missouri River, approximately long, in the Western United States. Considered the principal tributary of upper Missouri, via its own tributaries it drains an area with headwaters across the mountains a ...
in sugar beet fields. Colonies kept in touch with each other through newspapers, especially '' Der Staats Anzeiger'', based in North Dakota. By author Richard Sallet's count, there were 118,493 descendants of Volga Germans of the first and second generation living in the United States according to the 1920 United States census.
In Canada, the largest groups settled mainly in the area of the
Great Plains
The Great Plains (french: Grandes Plaines), sometimes simply "the Plains", is a broad expanse of flatland in North America. It is located west of the Mississippi River and east of the Rocky Mountains, much of it covered in prairie, steppe, an ...
:
Alberta
Alberta ( ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is part of Western Canada and is one of the three prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to the west, Saskatchewan to the east, the Northwest Ter ...
,
Manitoba
Manitoba ( ) is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada at the Centre of Canada, longitudinal centre of the country. It is Canada's Population of Canada by province and territory, fifth-most populous province, with a population o ...
, and
Saskatchewan
Saskatchewan ( ; ) is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Western Canada, western Canada, bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, to the northeast by Nunavut, and on t ...
.
South America
Germans from Russia also settled in
Argentina
Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...
(see
German Argentine
German Argentines (german: Deutschargentinier, es, germano-argentinos) are Argentines of German ancestry as well as German citizens living in Argentina. They are descendants of Germans who immigrated to Argentina from Germany and elsewhere in E ...
s) and
Brazil
Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...
(see
German Brazilian
German Brazilians (German: ''Deutschbrasilianer'', Hunsrik: ''Deitschbrasiliooner'', pt, teuto-brasileiros) refers to Brazilians of full or partial German ancestry. German Brazilians live mostly in the country's South Region, with a smaller bu ...
s). Additionally, many of the Volga Germans who had previously settled in Brazil later also went to settle in Argentina, due to the difficulties of planting wheat in Brazil, among other reasons.
In Argentina, Volga Germans have founded many colonies or villages. For example, around the city of
Coronel Suárez
Coronel Suárez is a city in Buenos Aires Province, Argentina. It is the administrative centre for Coronel Suárez Partido. Its population is largely made up of Argentines of Volga German descent.
In its surroundings, within Coronel Suárez Parti ...
Entre Ríos Province
Entre Ríos (, "Between Rivers") is a central province of Argentina, located in the Mesopotamia region. It borders the provinces of Buenos Aires (south), Corrientes (north) and Santa Fe (west), and Uruguay in the east.
Its capital is Paraná ( ...
, along the East of La Pampa Province, etc. Every year, the community of Volga German descendants holds different celebrations in the country in which they keep their traditions alive. For example, the ''
Kerb
A curb (North American English), or kerb (Commonwealth English except Canada; see spelling differences), is the edge where a raised sidewalk or road median/central reservation meets a street or other roadway.
History
Although curbs have ...
'' (festival to honour the
patron saint
A patron saint, patroness saint, patron hallow or heavenly protector is a saint who in Catholicism, Anglicanism, or Eastern Orthodoxy is regarded as the heavenly advocate of a nation, place, craft, activity, class, clan, family, or perso ...
of a colony), the ''Kreppelfest'', the ''Strudelfest'', the ''Füllselfest'', the ''Schlachtfest'' (also promoted by its Spanish name ''Fiesta de la Carneada''), the ''Fiesta del Pirok'' (
Bierock
Bierock is a yeast dough pastry pocket sandwich with savory filling, originating in Prussia. The dish is common among the Volga German community in the United States and Argentina. It was brought to the United States in the 1870s by German Russia ...
festival), etc.
Today 8% of the Argentine population or 3.5 million Argentines claim German ancestry. Of those, more than 2.5 million claim Volga German descent, making them the majority of those having German ancestry in the country, and accounting for 5.7% of the total Argentinian population. Descendants of Volga Germans outnumber descendants of Germans from Germany, which number 1 million in Argentina (2.3% of the population).
20th century
Following the
Russian Revolution
The Russian Revolution was a period of Political revolution (Trotskyism), political and social revolution that took place in the former Russian Empire which began during the First World War. This period saw Russia abolish its monarchy and ad ...
, the
Volga German Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic
The Volga German Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (german: Autonome Sozialistische Sowjetrepublik der Wolgadeutschen; russian: Автономная Советская Социалистическая Республика Немцев По ...
(german: Autonome Sozialistische Sowjet-Republik der Wolga-Deutschen; russian: АССР Немцев Поволжья) was established in 1924, and it lasted until 1941. Its capital was
forced transfer
Forced displacement (also forced migration) is an involuntary or coerced movement of a person or people away from their home or home region. The UNHCR defines 'forced displacement' as follows: displaced "as a result of persecution, conflict, g ...
of the whole of the Volga German population from the
Volga German Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic
The Volga German Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (german: Autonome Sozialistische Sowjetrepublik der Wolgadeutschen; russian: Автономная Советская Социалистическая Республика Немцев По ...
to
Gulag
The Gulag, an acronym for , , "chief administration of the camps". The original name given to the system of camps controlled by the GPU was the Main Administration of Corrective Labor Camps (, )., name=, group= was the government agency in ...
Siberia
Siberia ( ; rus, Сибирь, r=Sibir', p=sʲɪˈbʲirʲ, a=Ru-Сибирь.ogg) is an extensive geographical region, constituting all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has been a part of ...
,
Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country located mainly in Central Asia and partly in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the north and west, China to the east, Kyrgyzstan to the southeast, Uzbeki ...
and even in arctic locations. These deportations, which also included the rest of the ethnic Germans from Russia, had been applied for several years before
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
and became particularly exhaustive on September 3, 1941, during the war.
Of all the ethnic German communities in the Soviet Union, the Volga Germans represented the single largest group expelled from their historical homeland. All their possessions were confiscated and they were deported only because of their ethnicity. Shortly after the German invasion, on June 22, 1941, Stalin sent
Beria
Lavrentiy Pavlovich Beria (; rus, Лавре́нтий Па́влович Бе́рия, Lavréntiy Pávlovich Bériya, p=ˈbʲerʲiə; ka, ლავრენტი ბერია, tr, ; – 23 December 1953) was a Georgian Bolshevik ...
and Molotov to the Volga German Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic to determine a course of action for its German inhabitants, as a way of carrying out collective revenge on the civilian population. On return, they recommended the deportation of the entire German population. Consequently, the
Central Committee of the Communist Party
Central committee is the common designation of a standing administrative body of communist parties, analogous to a board of directors, of both ruling and nonruling parties of former and existing socialist states. In such party organizations, the ...
issued a resolution on August 12, calling for the expulsion of the entire ethnic German population. With this authority, Beria on August 27 issued an order entitled "On Measures for Conducting the Operation of Resettling the Germans from the Volga German Republic, Saratov, and Stalingrad Oblasts", assigning the deputy head of the
NKVD
The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (russian: Наро́дный комиссариа́т вну́тренних дел, Naródnyy komissariát vnútrennikh del, ), abbreviated NKVD ( ), was the interior ministry of the Soviet Union.
...
, (secret police)
Ivan Serov
Ivan Alexandrovich Serov (russian: Ива́н Алекса́ндрович Серóв; 13 August 1905 – 1 July 1990) was a Russian Soviet intelligence officer who served as the head of the KGB between March 1954 and December 1958, as well as ...
, to command this operation. He also allocated NKVD and Red Army troops to carry out the transfer. The Germans were to be sent to various oblasts (provinces) in Siberia, Kazakhstan and others, beginning on September 3, and ending on September 20, 1941. On September 7, 1941, the Volga German Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic was officially abolished, clearly showing that the Soviets considered the expulsion of the Germans final.
On August 28, 1941, the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR approved and published a decree, which was the only official decree ever published by the Soviet Union concerning the deportation and exile of the German Russian community. The Soviet regime stated that the evacuation was a preventive measure so that the German population would not be misled into collaborating with the German Army rather than a punitive measure, and they did not reveal the sentence to the forced labor camps. Stalin allegedly gave the following "secret" order to the NKVD, produced in German controlled Latvia on September 20, 1941:
"After the house search, tell everyone who is scheduled to be deported that, according to the government's decision, they are being sent to other regions of the USSR. Transport the entire family in one car until the train station, but at the station, heads of families must be loaded into a separate train car prepared especially for them. Their families are deported for special settlements in the far away regions of the Union. amily membersmust not know about the forthcoming separation from the head of the family."
This above document may be a fabrication, as Latvia was under German occupation at that time. Nevertheless, the instructions were followed by the NKVD troops who directed the deportation.
The reason for separating the men is that they were all destined for forced labor camps, ''Trudarmee'' (NKVD labor army). The deported and enslaved Germans coined this phrase, whereas Soviet documents only referred to "labor obligations" or "labor regulations." Men between the ages of 15 and 55 and, later, women between the ages of 16 and 45 were forced to do labor in the forests and mines of Siberia and Central Asia under conditions similar to that prevalent in the Gulag forced labor camps, while other Germans were directly deported to Gulag forced labor camps.
The expulsion of the Volga Germans finished on schedule at the end of September 1941. According to the Soviet Union, the total number sent to forced internal exile was about 950,000. However, the actual estimated number of victims is much higher. It took 151 train convoys to accomplish the first transfers of the Volga German population, an astounding figure when one considers that the Soviet Union was heavily engaged fighting the advancing German army, and all railway stock was required to bring soldiers to the front. This operation also involved 1,550 NKVD and 3,250 police agents assisted by 12,150 soldiers of the Red Army.
In 1941, after the Nazi invasion, the
NKVD
The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (russian: Наро́дный комиссариа́т вну́тренних дел, Naródnyy komissariát vnútrennikh del, ), abbreviated NKVD ( ), was the interior ministry of the Soviet Union.
...
(via
Prikaz
A prikaz (russian: прика́з, ''prikaz''; , plural: ) was an administrative, judicial, territorial, or executive office functioning on behalf of palace, civil, military, or church authorities in Muscovy and in Russia from the 15th to the 1 ...
No. 35105) banned ethnic Germans from serving in the Soviet military. They sent tens of thousands of these soldiers to the ''Trudarmee''.
In 1942, nearly all the able-bodied German population was conscripted to the
NKVD labor columns In the Soviet Union of World War II, NKVD labor columns (russian: рабочие колонны НКВД) were militarized labor formations created from certain categories of population, both fully rightful Soviet citizens, as well as categories of ...
or had been sent to the Gulag forced labor camps. According to Stanford historian
Robert Conquest
George Robert Acworth Conquest (15 July 1917 – 3 August 2015) was a British historian and poet.
A long-time research fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution, Conquest was most notable for his work on the Soviet Union. His books ...
, during the first stage, about one-third did not survive the camps. The conditions imposed on ethnic Germans by the regime continued to be inhumane, ultimately leading to the genocide of Germans from Russia.
Recent years
The Volga Germans never returned to the Volga region in their old numbers. They were not allowed to settle in the area for decades. After World War II, many survivors remained in the
Ural Mountains
The Ural Mountains ( ; rus, Ура́льские го́ры, r=Uralskiye gory, p=ʊˈralʲskʲɪjə ˈɡorɨ; ba, Урал тауҙары) or simply the Urals, are a mountain range that runs approximately from north to south through western ...
,
Siberia
Siberia ( ; rus, Сибирь, r=Sibir', p=sʲɪˈbʲirʲ, a=Ru-Сибирь.ogg) is an extensive geographical region, constituting all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has been a part of ...
,
Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country located mainly in Central Asia and partly in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the north and west, China to the east, Kyrgyzstan to the southeast, Uzbeki ...
(1.4% of today's Kazakh population are recognized as Germans - around 200,000),
Kyrgyzstan
Kyrgyzstan,, pronounced or the Kyrgyz Republic, is a landlocked country in Central Asia. Kyrgyzstan is bordered by Kazakhstan to the north, Uzbekistan to the west, Tajikistan to the south, and the People's Republic of China to the east. ...
, and
Uzbekistan
Uzbekistan (, ; uz, Ozbekiston, italic=yes / , ; russian: Узбекистан), officially the Republic of Uzbekistan ( uz, Ozbekiston Respublikasi, italic=yes / ; russian: Республика Узбекистан), is a doubly landlocked cou ...
(about 16,000 or 0.064%). Decades after the war, some talked about resettling where the German Autonomous Republic used to be. But all their properties had been occupied by Russian communists. They met opposition from the new population there and did not persevere.
A proposal in June 1979 called for a new German Autonomous Republic within Kazakhstan, with a capital in
Ermentau
Yereymentau ( kk, Ерейментау, ''Ereimentau''; russian: Ерейментау) is a town in northern-central Kazakhstan. It is the seat of Yereymentau District in Akmola Region
Akmola Region ( kz, Ақмола облысы, translit=Aq ...
. The proposal was aimed at addressing the living conditions of the displaced Volga Germans. At the time, around 936,000 ethnic Germans were living in Kazakhstan, as the republic's third-largest ethnic group. On June 16, 1979, demonstrators in Tselinograd (
Astana
Astana, previously known as Akmolinsk, Tselinograd, Akmola, and most recently Nur-Sultan, is the capital city of Kazakhstan.
The city lies on the banks of the Ishim (river), Ishim River in the north-central part of Kazakhstan, within the Akmo ...
) protested this proposal. Fearing a negative reaction among the majority
Kazakhs
The Kazakhs (also spelled Qazaqs; Kazakh: , , , , , ; the English name is transliterated from Russian; russian: казахи) are a Turkic-speaking ethnic group native to northern parts of Central Asia, chiefly Kazakhstan, but also parts o ...
and calls for autonomy among local
Uyghurs
The Uyghurs; ; ; ; zh, s=, t=, p=Wéiwú'ěr, IPA: ( ), alternatively spelled Uighurs, Uygurs or Uigurs, are a Turkic ethnic group originating from and culturally affiliated with the general region of Central and East Asia. The Uyghur ...
, the ruling Communist Party scrapped the proposal for ethnic German autonomy within Kazakhstan.
Since the late 1980s and the fall of the
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...
, some ethnic Germans have returned in small numbers to
law of return
The Law of Return ( he, חֹוק הַשְׁבוּת, ''ḥok ha-shvūt'') is an Israeli law, passed on 5 July 1950, which gives Jews, people with one or more Jewish grandparent, and their spouses the right to relocate to Israel and acquire Isr ...
, a policy that grants citizenship to all those who can prove to be a refugee or expellee of German ethnic origin or as the spouse or descendant of such a person.
Since the
collapse of the Soviet Union
The dissolution of the Soviet Union, also negatively connoted as rus, Разва́л Сове́тского Сою́за, r=Razvál Sovétskogo Soyúza, ''Ruining of the Soviet Union''. was the process of internal disintegration within the Sov ...
in 1991 and the independence of the Baltic states, some Russian ethnic Germans began to return to the area of the
Kaliningrad Oblast
Kaliningrad Oblast (russian: Калинингра́дская о́бласть, translit=Kaliningradskaya oblast') is the westernmost federal subject of Russia. It is a semi-exclave situated on the Baltic Sea. The largest city and administr ...
(formerly part of
East Prussia
East Prussia ; german: Ostpreißen, label=Low Prussian; pl, Prusy Wschodnie; lt, Rytų Prūsija was a province of the Kingdom of Prussia from 1773 to 1829 and again from 1878 (with the Kingdom itself being part of the German Empire from 187 ...
), especially Volga Germans from other parts of Russia and Kazakhstan, as well as to the Volga Germans' old territory in southern Russia near
Volgograd
Volgograd ( rus, Волгогра́д, a=ru-Volgograd.ogg, p=vəɫɡɐˈɡrat), geographical renaming, formerly Tsaritsyn (russian: Цари́цын, Tsarítsyn, label=none; ) (1589–1925), and Stalingrad (russian: Сталингра́д, Stal ...
. This tempo increased after Germany stopped granting the free right of return to ethnic Germans from the former Soviet Union. As of the 2002 Russian census, 8,340 Germans (or 0.87% of the population) were listed in the Kaliningrad Oblast, dropping to 7,349 in 2010 due to deaths.
Volgograd Oblast
Volgograd Oblast (russian: Волгогра́дская о́бласть, ''Volgogradskaya oblast'') is a federal subject (an oblast) of Russia, located in the Volga region of Southern Russia. Its administrative center is Volgograd. The populat ...
counted 10,102 Germans in the 2010 Census. However, almost none of the pre-World War II German population remains in the Kaliningrad Oblast, with the vast majority of the current population recent Russian-speaking migrants. Due to the new restrictions by the German government, the flow of ethnic Germans to Germany has greatly slowed if not ceased, while the remaining Germans in Central Asia continue to emigrate, but to Russia instead of Germany.
Notable people of Volga German descent
* Philip Anschutz (born 1939), American billionaire businessman.
*
Harold W. Bauer
Harold William "Joe" Bauer (November 20, 1908 – November 14, 1942) was a United States Marine Corps air group commander, fighter pilot and flying ace credited with destroying 11 Japanese aircraft during World War II. He was posthumously awa ...
(1908–1942), American
USMC
The United States Marine Corps (USMC), also referred to as the United States Marines, is the maritime land force service branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for conducting expeditionary and amphibious operations through co ...
fighter pilot.
* Tom Daschle (born 1947), American politician.
*
Sergio Denis
Héctor Omar Hoffmann Fenzel, better known as Sergio Denis (16 March 1949 – 15 May 2020) was an Argentine singer-songwriter and occasional actor.
Biography
Héctor Omar Hoffmann Fenzel was born in a family of descendants from Volga Germans ...
(1949–2020), Argentine singer-songwriter
*
Jean Bethke Elshtain
Jean Paulette Bethke Elshtain (1941–2013) was an American ethicist, political philosopher, and public intellectual. She was the Laura Spelman Rockefeller Professor of Social and Political Ethics in the University of Chicago Divinity School with ...
(1941–2013), American political philosopher and academic.
*
Joe Exotic
Joseph Allen Maldonado-Passage ( né Schreibvogel; born March 5, 1963), known professionally as Joe Exotic and nicknamed "The Tiger King," is an American media personality, businessman, and convicted felon who operated the Greater Wynnewood Ex ...
(born 1963), American former Zoo owner.
*
Helene Fischer
Helene Fischer ( /heˈleːnə ˈfɪʃɚ/; German: eˈleːnə ˈfɪʃɐ born Jelena Petrovna Fischer, 5 August 1984) is a Russian-born German singer. Since her debut in 2005, she has won numerous awards, including 17 Echo awards, four "Die Kron ...
(born 1984), German singer, dancer and entertainer.
*
Tim Gaines
Tim Gaines (born Timothy Hagelganz; December 15, 1962) is an American bass guitarist best-known as the long-time bassist for the Christian metal band Stryper until his departure in 2017.
Biography
Early life
Gaines was born in Portland, Or ...
(born 1962), American musician.
*Sir Andre Geim (born 1958), Russian-born Dutch-British
physicist
A physicist is a scientist who specializes in the field of physics, which encompasses the interactions of matter and energy at all length and time scales in the physical universe.
Physicists generally are interested in the root or ultimate caus ...
Jim Geringer
James Edward Geringer (born April 24, 1944) is an American politician who was the 30th Governor of Wyoming, serving from 1995 to 2003.
Early life and education
Geringer was born and raised on a farm in Wheatland, Wyoming. His father, Gottlieb Ge ...
Sonja Graf
Susanna "Sonja" Graf (December 16, 1908 – March 6, 1965) was a German and American chess player. She was a women's world championship runner-up and a two-time U.S. women's champion. In 2016, she was inducted into the World Chess Hall of Fame.
E ...
(1908–1965), German chess player who became woman's champion of the US.
*
Gabriel Heinze
Gabriel Iván Heinze (; born 19 April 1978) is an Argentine football coach and former player who is currently the manager of Newell's Old Boys. As a player, he operated as a defender, either as a left-back or a centre-back.
Nicknamed ''Gringo'' ...
(born 1978), Argentine football player.
*
Óscar Ibáñez
Óscar Manuel Ibáñez Holzmann (born 8 August 1967 in Roque Sáenz Peña, Argentina) is a Peruvian football goalkeeper, who made his debut for the national team on 18 April 1998. Since then he obtained 50 caps, with the last match being on 30 Ma ...
(born 1967), Argentine-born Peruvian football player.
*
Viktor Kress
Viktor Melkhiorovich Kress (russian: Виктор Мельхиорович Кресс; born 16 November 1948) is a Russian politician. He is best known for serving five terms as governor of Tomsk Oblast, Russia from 1991 to 2012.
Biography
K ...
(born 1948), Russian politician, governor of
Tomsk Oblast
Tomsk Oblast (russian: То́мская о́бласть, ''Tomskaya oblast'') is a federal subject of Russia (an oblast). It lies in the southeastern West Siberian Plain, in the southwest of the Siberian Federal District. Its administrative ...
, Russia.
* Randy Meisner (born 1946), American musician, original bassist with the
Eagles
Eagle is the common name for many large birds of prey of the family Accipitridae. Eagles belong to several groups of genera, some of which are closely related. Most of the 68 species of eagle are from Eurasia and Africa. Outside this area, jus ...
.
* Roman Neustädter (born 1988), Russian-German football player.
* Peter Neustädter (born 1966), Kazakhstani-born German football player and coach.
* Boris Rauschenbach, (1915–2001), scientist, physicist in Russia.Russian: Раушенбах, Б.В., "Пристрастие", М, Аграф, 1997, . Available onlin www.pravbeseda.ru /ref>
*
Eduard Rossel
Eduard Ergartovich Rossel (russian: Эдуард Эргартович Россель; born 8 October 1937) is a Russian politician, who was the governor (1995–2009) of Sverdlovsk Oblast, an oblast in Russia. He returned into office in 1995. ...
(born 1937), Russian politician.
*
Cher Scarlett
Cher Scarlett (born ) is an American software engineer and writer. She is a workers' rights activist and has organized staff at Apple, Activision Blizzard, and Starbucks.
Scarlett, who has bipolar disorder, experienced struggles in her early l ...
(born 1984 or 1985), American software engineer and labor activist.
*
Alfred Schnittke
Alfred Garrievich Schnittke (russian: Альфре́д Га́рриевич Шни́тке, link=no, Alfred Garriyevich Shnitke; 24 November 1934 – 3 August 1998) was a Russian composer of Jewish-German descent. Among the most performed and re ...
(1934–1998), Russian composer.
*
Kendall Schmidt
Kendall Francis Schmidt (born November 2, 1990) is an American singer, songwriter, dancer, music producer, and actor. He played Kendall Knight in ''Big Time Rush'', and is a current member of the boyband with the same name, and has had small rol ...
(born 1990), American singer of ''Big Time Rush''.
*
Robert Shwartzman
Robert Mikhailovich Shwartzman ( rus, Ро́берт Миха́йлович Шва́рцман, p=ˈrobʲɪrt mʲɪˈxajləvʲɪtɕ ˈʂvartsmɐn, he, רוברט מיכאילוביץ' שוורצמן; born 16 September 1999) is a Russian-Israeli ...
(born 1999), Russian racing driver.
*
Alvina Shpady
Alvina Andreevna Shpady (January 31, 1935 – June 22, 2019; ) was an artist and art restorer in Uzbekistan. As a longtime restorer at the Nukus Museum of Art, she worked to preserve the museum's holdings as well as to promote traditional Karaka ...
(1935–2019), Uzbek artist and art restorer.
*
Afu Thomas
Thomas Derksen (born 26 October 1988 German version/ref>), known as "Afu" Thomas (), is a German internet celebrity active in China.
Biography
Afu was born as Thomas Derksen, on 26 October 1988, into a Aussiedler family in Gummersbach, Germany, ...
(born 1988), German Internet celebrity active in China.
*
Mitch Unrein
Mitch Unrein (born March 25, 1987) is a former American football defensive tackle. He was signed by the Houston Texans as an undrafted free agent in 2010. He played college football at Wyoming.
Professional career
Denver Broncos
In a game a ...
(born 1987), American football player.
* Sergio Unrein (born 1991), Argentine football player.
*
Lawrence Welk
Lawrence Welk (March 11, 1903 – May 17, 1992) was an American accordionist, bandleader, and television impresario, who hosted the '' The Lawrence Welk Show'' from 1951 to 1982. His style came to be known as "champagne music" to his radio, te ...
(1903–1992), American entertainer.
Language
The greatest number of Volga Germans emigrated from
Hesse
Hesse (, , ) or Hessia (, ; german: Hessen ), officially the State of Hessen (german: links=no, Land Hessen), is a state in Germany. Its capital city is Wiesbaden, and the largest urban area is Frankfurt. Two other major historic cities are Dar ...
Palatine
A palatine or palatinus (in Latin; plural ''palatini''; cf. derivative spellings below) is a high-level official attached to imperial or royal courts in Europe since Roman times.
Rhine Franconian dialects
__NOTOC__
Rhenish Franconian or Rhine Franconian (german: Rheinfränkisch ) is a dialect chain of West Central German. It comprises the varieties of German spoken across the western regions of the states of Saarland, Rhineland-Palatinate, north ...
Fred C. Koch, ''The Volga Germans: In Russia and the Americas, from 1763 to the Present'' (1977, )''Germany and the Americas: O-Z'' (2005, ) to which the colonists from other regions, and even from other countries like Sweden, assimilated. Some Volga German dialects are very similar to
Pennsylvania German language
Pennsylvania Dutch (, or ), referred to as Pennsylvania German in scholarly literature, is a variety of Palatine German, also known as Palatine Dutch, spoken by the Old Order Amish, Old Order Mennonites, Fancy Dutch, and other descendants of ...
, another Palatine Rhine Franconian language; in either dialect, one could say:
* ''(spelled according to standard German pronunciation rules:)'' Mehr volla mohl gaern in die sche gehl Kaerrich geha.
* ''(in German:)'' Wir wollen einmal gern in die schöne gelbe Kirche gehen.
* ''(in English:)'' We would like to go into the beautiful yellow church.
Some other common words::de:Georg Dinges, ''Über unsere Mundarten'', ( /wolgadeutsche.net/history/Ueber_unsere_Mundarten.htm online copy
The above list only attempts to reproduce the pronunciation and does not represent how the Volga Germans wrote. The dialects of the Germans of Russia mainly presented differences in pronunciation, as occurs in the diversity of the English language. However, Volga Germans wrote and kept their records in Standard German.
Volga Germans only borrowed a few but anecdotal Russian words, like ''Erbus'' ("watermelon" from Russian ''арбуз'' "watermelon"), which they carried with them on their subsequent moves to North America and Argentina.''Veröffentlichungen des Instituts für Volkskunde der Universität Wien'', volume 4 (Verlag A. Schendl), page 49: "Grün wie Schnee / Weiß wie Klee / Rot wie Blut / Schmeckt sehr gut. (''Erbus'', so nannten die Rußlanddeutschen die ''Wassermelone'', Teresa Hardt,
Urdinarrain
Urdinarrain is a city in the center-south of the province of Entre Ríos, Argentina, 240 km southeast from the provincial capital Paraná and 40 km west from Gualeguaychú, on Provincial Route 20. It has 8,986 inhabitants as per the .
...
)"
See also
*
Kazakhstan Germans
The Germans of Kazakhstan or German Kazakhstanis (german: Kasachstandeutsche, Deutsch-Kasachen) are a minority in Kazakhstan, and make up a small percentage of the population. Today they live mostly in the northeastern part of the country between ...
*
History of Germans in Russia and the Soviet Union
The German minority population in Russia, Ukraine, and the Soviet Union stemmed from several sources and arrived in several waves. Since the second half of the 19th century, as a consequence of the Russification policies and compulsory militar ...
*
Volga German Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic
The Volga German Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (german: Autonome Sozialistische Sowjetrepublik der Wolgadeutschen; russian: Автономная Советская Социалистическая Республика Немцев По ...
*
Volhynia
Volhynia (also spelled Volynia) ( ; uk, Воли́нь, Volyn' pl, Wołyń, russian: Волы́нь, Volýnʹ, ), is a historic region in Central and Eastern Europe, between south-eastern Poland, south-western Belarus, and western Ukraine. Th ...
*
Russian Mennonite
The Russian Mennonites (german: Russlandmennoniten it. "Russia Mennonites", i.e., Mennonites of or from the Russian Empire occasionally Ukrainian Mennonites) are a group of Mennonites who are descendants of Dutch Anabaptists who settled for abo ...
s
*
Baltic Germans
Baltic Germans (german: Deutsch-Balten or , later ) were ethnic German inhabitants of the eastern shores of the Baltic Sea, in what today are Estonia and Latvia. Since their coerced resettlement in 1939, Baltic Germans have markedly declin ...
References
Bibliography
*
Further reading
* Koch, Fred C. ''The Volga Germans: in Russia and the Americas, from 1763 to the present'' (Penn State Press, 2010).
* Mukhina, Irina. ''The Germans of the Soviet Union'' (Routledge, 2007).
* Salitan, Laurie P. "Soviet Germans: A Brief History and an Introduction to Their Emigration." in ''Politics and Nationality in Contemporary Soviet-Jewish Emigration, 1968–89'' ( Palgrave Macmillan UK, 1992) pp 72–83.
* Waters, Tony. "Towards a theory of ethnic identity and migration: the formation of ethnic enclaves by migrant Germans in Russia and North America." ''International Migration Review'' (1995): 515-544.