Excerpts from a note published today 12/26/2018

About history of Germans of Russia

Source: (Text is in russian)

http://cdtnkfyf.ucoz.ru/index/nemcy_iz_rossii/0-35

Note: As this is a Google translation, some names can be misspeled

·       *  From 1764 to 1772 in the Volga region, some 8,000 German families moved from Germany, a total of about 27,000 souls, which formed 106 colonies in the Volga region. The most famous that later became known as Marx. It was founded in 1767 as a German colony by the Dutch Baron Cano de Beauregard and was named Baronsk in its title. Soon the colony was renamed in honor of the Russian empress Catherine II Alekseevny (1729-96) to Ekaterinenstadt - "the city of Catherine" ("German city"). Since 1918 it is a city. In 1920 renamed Marxstadt, after the name of the theoretical communist Karl Marx (1818-83). In 1941, during the campaign for the elimination of German names, the German element of the state was eliminated and the city became known as Marx. 

·      *   An extremely unusual colony in the Volga region is Sarepta, founded in 1765 by members of the religious community of Hernguter (Moravian brethren), 30 km from Tsaritsyn, at the confluence of the Sarpa River on the Volga. The main objective of the settlers was the missionary activity, that is, the conversion of unorthodox people (Kyrgyz, Kalmyks, Tatars) to Christianity. But they also devoted themselves to the economy, plants gradually appeared: manufacture of mustard butter (the first in Russia for the processing of mustard), manufacture of soap, candlestick, leather, sawing, textiles, mills. The settlers were also dedicated to the cultivation of tobacco, gardening and viticulture.

·  *      In the period between 1789 and 1815, the Mennonites of Prussia and Danzig organized two Mennonite districts: Khortitsky (of 18 colonies) and Molochansky (40 colonies). 
In Zaporozhye, near the county town of Aleksandrovsk, province of Yekaterinoslav, foreign settlers, mainly from East Prussia, formed several colonies. In 1790, three German Mennonite colonies were formed: Kichkas, Einlage and Kronsweide; in 1861 there were 266 people in them.In 1789, 288 German Mennonite families reached the natural limit of Khortytsya and founded eight settlements here. Then, from the end of the 18th century to the middle of the 19th century. - Beyond Khortitsa, on the right bank of the Dnieper, another 11 German colonies appeared. 

·    *     In the manifesto of February 13, 1798, the rights and privileges for foreigners were defined when resettling in the Crimea. They were allowed to choose a place of residence at their discretion, with the exception of Sevastopol as a military port. In the cities, parcels for buildings, and in the villages, parcels of free land were given to the property as nobility. Allowed to take the forest of the Crimean state cabins. Freedom of recruitment, permanence of slavery was granted. Foreign immigrants for 30 years were exempt from all state taxes and obligations, and from the tax to the polls, forever. 

·       *  The German settlers of Württemberg, Baden, the canton of Zurich in Switzerland, who were among the first in the Crimea, founded colonies in Sudak, Otuza (now Schebetovka, municipality of Theodosia), people from Alsace-Lorraine - Zurich not far from Feodosia. To the southeast of Dzhankoy, in good lands. In the district of Simferopol the volute of Neizatsky was formed. In 1805, the population of several colonies, which gave rise to large future settlements, had already been formed. Among them, Zurichtal (now Golden Field of the Kirovsky district), Weilbrun (Privetnoye) - in the district of Feodosia, Friedenthal, Neizats, Rosenthal (Kurortnoe, Krasnogorskoye), Aromatnoe euuuuuuuuuuuuuuu. , Kronental (Kolchugino of Simferopol region), Herzenberg (Pionerskoye of Feodosiya Town Hall). 

·       *  In 1811, another German colony, Kronental, appeared in the district of Simferopol, was founded by immigrants from Bavaria and Württemberg. 

* The world events of 1805-1815 gave rise to religious reasons for going to Russia, but before that there were none (except missionaries, as in Sarepta).Many Christians called Napoleon the apocalyptic "beast of the abyss". The interpretation of the German theologians Bengel (1687-1752) and the Pietist Jung Stilling (1740-1817) about the time of the coming of the thousand-year kingdom and the Second Coming of Christ for the Church was added to this. The "prophets" and the "prophetesses" appeared, pointing to the east, the desert, where the "wife who hides from the wrath of the dragon" must be saved. Most considered that such a place was an empty place in southern Russia, where free access was open. In the strongest form, the spirit of such prophecies was reflected in the extreme pioneers of Württemberg (southern Germany). They were called separatists (isolated).A large part of the Pietists (including Pietist separatists) began to move in large numbers to other countries, mainly in the northern Black Sea region, forming their colonies. Thus the colonies of Rohrbach, Worms, Neigoffung and others were formed. 

·       *  In 1818, the first German settlers arrived in northern Azerbaijan from Württemberg. By order of the Emperor Alexander I, 100 thousand rubles of the Treasury of the State were assigned for their settlement in the Caucasus. Silver Elenendorf (now the city of Khanlar) is the first German colony in the area, named after the Grand Duchess Elena Pavlovna, there were 118 families of settlers.The second appeared in 1819 and was named Annenfeld (Shamkir) in honor of the Grand Duchess Anna Pavlovna, Queen of the Netherlands. There, 67 families settled. The missionaries of the Evangelical Society of Basel settled in the city of Shusha and in the province of Karabakh. 

·       *  In the 1860s in Russia there were 505 foreign colonies, mostly German. Settlers settled in Russia in small compact groups throughout the strip with indigenous peoples. The tsarist government granted settlements to the settlers on the basis of the single inheritance, because the German families were large. As a result, settlements began to emerge: subsidiary colonies. 

·    *     In 1861-1863, part of the Volga Germans moved to the Terek region.They founded a colony: Mikhailovsky on the outskirts of Vladikavkaz. In 1867 it was transferred to 9 verstes to the north, where the Potemkin post was located. And in the same year, at the request of the settlers and with permission "to call this colony the name of His Highness, Mikhailovsky." The second German settlement appeared in 1862 in the lands of the landowner M. Kunduhov. After the resettlement in Turkey, their lands were received by Major General Eglau. He, in turn, leased them to the Germans of the Kuban and Saratov regions. Eglau placed them in his possession. This colony was called Emmaus.

·    *     By 1865, according to the Central Statistical Committee of the Ministry of the Interior, in Crimea there were 45 places with German population: colonies, proprietary and public villages, a breech village and a village. Half of them were in the district of Feodosia, the rest in the counties of Perekopsky, Evpatoria and Simferopol.
In the old district of Rostov and its neighboring districts of Cherkassy and Miussky (Taganrog). The settlement area of ​​Don German was more than 100, appeared in the last third of the 19th century. Settlers penetrated here mainly from the western regions of the Russian Empire, from Bessarabia and the Dnieper right bank region. Part of the settlers came here from the central provinces, from the Volga region, and also from the province of Poltava. Part of the settlers bought the land, settled down and were not covered by the appropriate civil and police power.

·    *     The third colony in the North Caucasus was formed in 1887. Its inhabitants received land for rent from the landlords of the Dudarov, around 300 acres. They were German peasants from Bessarabia, Tauride province and Stavropol.They founded the Zanhot-Lars farm. It existed until 1918, at the same time that its inhabitants were resettled in the village of Mikhaylovskoye, and the village of Novy Batakayurt emerged from the village of the old Batakyurt defeated by the White Guard. 

·      *   In the 1860-70-s. The government decided again to invite the Germans for the development of the land, which the Crimean Tatars left in 1856-1862. (Again, why the Germans?) From now on, the second phase of the Germans arriving in the Crimea, coming from Germany and mainly from the mainland of the province of Tauride, begins. 

·   *      At the end of the 1870s.The Prussian Mennonites sent a petition to the governor of Tauride expressing their desire to settle in the free lands of the Crimean peninsula. In 1870 they were allowed to take Russian citizenship and settle on the lands they would buy in the Crimea. 

·      *   In the autumn of 1880, 71 families (420 people) of the so-called Fraternal Mennonites of the Crimea and the Volga region decided to go to Turkestan. This was due to the "revelation", according to which Central Asia would become a refuge for "the people of God".The sudden death of the Governor General of Turkestan Kaufman, who personally invited them to the permanent residence, led to the fact that some decided to stay in the Russian Turkestan, others, for the amount of 30 richer families (about 200 people), came to seek asylum in the Bukhara Khanate, and then seek asylum from Khiva Khan Said-Muhammad Rahim. There they moved from one place to another for a time, then they were assigned a plot of about 50 hectares in the village of Ak Mosque (15 km east of Khiva). The first four years the community was exempt from all duties. In the future, she began to give part of her income to the Khan treasury. For almost 20 years, the settlers continued to be subjects of the Russian Empire. The first major wave of German transfers to Uzbekistan was in 1879-1880. One of the first to come here was that of the German Mennonites. In 1881-1883, the first families of a German-Mennonite ethno-confessional group of about 200 people arrived south of Khorezm. 

·   *      At the end of the 19th century there were already around 3,800 Germans in the region, and at the end of the second decade of the 20th century. its number in Central Asia increased to 8500 people. More than half of them were citizens.
In 1885, the land part of the Main Directorate of the Altai Mining District received a request from several German Lutheran families who were living at that time in the neighboring province of Tobolsk. In May of the same year, officials allowed the Lutheran peasants to move to Altai. 

·   *      In 1888, the third colony on the territory of Azerbaijan, Georgsfeld (now the village of Chinarly, district of Shamkir) was founded on the right bank of the Shamkhorchay River. 

·   *      The 1889 law "On the voluntary resettlement of rural inhabitants and settlers to state lands and on the procedure for transferring individuals to designated farms that moved in the past", and also putting the Trans-Siberian railway into operation made Siberian lands available for migration. The Germans from the colonies emigrated there. Volga, Ukraine, the North Caucasus, in the Crimea and other regions of European Russia.

·      *   In Siberia, it was possible to receive 15 acres of land per male soul, and on a larger scale, to buy or rent. The land in western Siberia was owned by the state, the Cabinet (Altai district), the Siberian Cossack army and private owners. The most common form of settling of the German settlers were resettlement villages on government and Cabinet lands. In addition, the German settlers voluntarily rented or acquired ownership of the land, first of all, from the Siberian Cossack Army, as well as private owners and the state. I will not list the villages where they settled, the materials about the German colonization of Siberia can be found on the net. 

·     *    This is how the century ends.
In 1897, the first population census of all Russia was recorded in Crimea 30027 Germans - rural residents (5.5% of the total population). Approximately 80% were middle peasants and wealthy peasant owners, 17% landless peasants and approximately 35 large landowners. They were among the settlers and the German workers.

·     *    By 1906, there were three main settlement areas of German settlers in Altai: two of them were in the northern and southern parts of the Kulunda steppe, the third in the south of the Altai district. By then, around 4,000 German settlers were already living in Altai.

·     *    In 1904, the German community in the village of Ak-Mosque, with almost 30 families, took the citizenship of Khiva. In the same year, the colony was replenished with a new group of immigrants from Lauzan (or Klauzan) from the Volga region, which consists of 24 families. Later, families from Russia (Volga region) and Kyrgyzstan arrived here. In general, Mennonite Germans were easy to climb.When some Kyrgyz settlers found it difficult to get used to the unknown landscape and climate in Khorezm, they returned to their "native lands". In 1911, the settlement of Khiva (Gogendorf) was formed in Kyrgyzstan. Several members of the community went to the United States and Canada. 

·    *     In the early twentieth century, the German colonies of Alekseyevka and Greenfeld (district of Agstafa, 1902), Eigenfeld (Shamkir region, 1906), Traubenfeld (Tovuz region, 1912), Elizavetinka (district of Agstafa, 1914) were founded in the north of Azerbaijan. .), in the early years of Soviet power, the subsidiary colonies of Marxovka and Kirovka (district of Agstafa).

·      *   In September 1906, the highest decree followed the transfer of part of the lands of Caban to the formation of resettlement areas. The peak of the German relocation to Altai fell in 1907-1911. The main reason for the resettlement at this time was the shortage of land in the metropolitan countries, and first, in the Volga region. 

·     *    In 1911, the government of Pyotr Stolypin introduced into the State Duma a bill restricting agricultural rights, including German settlers from three provinces of the European part of Russia. The bill was not approved, but the Germans began to move more actively. In 1913 several new large settlements appeared in the south of the Kulunda steppe and in the south of Altai.

·     *    At the beginning of the First World War, in the Altai part of the province of Tomsk, there were already more than 140 settlements (resettlement villages, villages, loans, etc.), in which at least 75,000 German settlers lived. These villages were located in the following administrative units: Khortitskaya, Oryol, Novo-Romanovskaya, Podsosnovskaya, Troitskaya, Razumovskaya, Zlatopolinskaya, Lenkovskaya volosts of Barnaul district; Assumption, Loktevskaya, Zmeinogorsk district of the parish of Alexandrovsky. 

·      *  In 1918, the Autonomous Region (Labor Community) of the Volga Germans was created, which was transformed in 1924 into the Autonomous Republic.
In 1925, 56 councils of German villages and 30 mixed ones were created in the Siberian region. In mid-1925, they began to talk about the possible creation of national regions, particularly German ones. 

·       *  On July 4, 1927, the Central Executive Committee decided: "To allocate the German District in the Slavgorod District with the center in the village of Galbstadt," the area was 1,068 square meters. km, the population of 12,795 people, of which 96% were Germans.

·     *    In 1929, on the basis of 52 German private farms in Ak-Mosque (Uzbekistan), the only German collective farm was created in Uzbekistan, which is distinguished by productivity and profitability, among others. The settlers generally did not participate in the labor duties organized by the district authorities, but were used for these purposes by hired labor from among the indigenous population.
But in the German district of Altai, collectivization caused obstinate resistance, there were armed demonstrations (for example, in Galbstadt on July 2, 1930, after the suppression of discourse and research, only 20 participants out of the 500 survived), emigration began. However, in 1934 the collectivization was carried out .In 1934, the population of the district was 15,700 people living in 48 settlements, united in 12 village councils. In 1934 the repression began. In 1938, the decision "On the liquidation of the German district". 

·    *     After the adoption of the Constitution of the USSR in 1936, the Mennonite community of Ak-Mosque did not want to obey its individual laws, it still did not agree to donate surplus income from the economy of collective farms to the state. As a result, on one of the winter nights of 1937, members of the community were deported. The main part was deported to the Vakhsh valley. Some families moved to Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan.

·     *    Resolution SNK number 776-120SS "On the eviction of the Ukrainian SSR and the economic system in Kazakhstan SSR 15 000 Polish and German farms" (GARF, R-9479, op.1, d.641, 1. 363 ) was adopted in 1936. 

·     *    By letter of the NKVD of the USSR No. 2514 / B to the Central Committee of the CPSU (b) with the provision of a draft resolution of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR and the Central Committee of the CPSU (b) on the procedure for the resettlement of Volga Germans of the Republic, the Saratov and the Stalingrad regions of August 25, 19 The eastern regions of the Kazakh SSR, the territories of Krasnoyarsk and Altai, the regions of Omsk and Novosibirsk were subject to 479,841 people. The areas of detailed settlement were established. The resettlement was carried out by collective farms complete with resettlement in existing collective and state farms. The resolution of the Council of People's Commissaries and the Central Committee of the CPSU (b) No. 2060-935ss "On the resettlement of Volga Germans in Kazakhstan" is found in GASPI, f. 17, op. 3, d. 1042, l. 20.

·     *    The order of the NKVD No. 001158 "On the arrangements for carrying out the expulsion operation of the Germans of the Republic of the Volga Germans, the Regions of Saratov and Stalingrad", announcing the instructions, is kept in the GARF, f . P-9401, op. 2, d. 1, l. 415-425.Order of number 001175 of the NKVD "On the arrangements for the resettlement operation of the Germans and Finns of the Leningrad region in the Kazakh SSR" GARF, f. P-9401, op. 2, d. 1, l. 426-427. There is also the PSCO bbssb "On the resettlement of Germans from the city of Moscow and the Moscow region and the Rostov Region." (GASPI, f.644, op.1, d.8, pp. 171-172) , Pr. EIS No. 35105 on the withdrawal of the SC from military personnel of German nationality, Pr.Number of NKVD 001237 "About the operation to resettle the Germans from Moscow and the Moscow region." With the announcement of the instructions, PSNK and the Central Committee of the CPSU (b) No. 2060-935SS "On the resettlement of Volga Germans in Kazakhstan", PSCO No. 698ss "On the resettlement of Germans from Krasnodar, Ordzhonikidze regions , Tula region, KB and SB ASSR ", PSPC number 702ss" On the resettlement of Germans from the Zaporozhye, Stalin and Voroshilovgrad regions. ", Etc. op. 2, d. 1, l. 426-427. There is also the PSCO bbssb "On the resettlement of Germans from the city of Moscow and the Moscow region and the Rostov Region." (GASPI, f.644, op.1, d.8, pp. 171-172) , Pr.EIS No. 35105 on the withdrawal of the SC from military personnel of German nationality, Pr. Number of NKVD 001237 "On the operation to resettle the Germans from Moscow and the Moscow region." With the announcement of the instructions, PSNK and the Central Committee of the CPSU (b) No. 2060-935SS "On the resettlement of Volga Germans in Kazakhstan", PSCO No. 698ss "On the resettlement of Germans from Krasnodar, Ordzhonikidze regions , Tula region, KB and SB ASSR ", PSPC number 702ss" On the resettlement of Germans from the Zaporozhye, Stalin and Voroshilovgrad regions. ", Etc. op. 2, d. 1, l. 426-427. There is also the PSCO bbssb "On the resettlement of Germans from the city of Moscow and the Moscow region.and the Rostov Region. "(GASPI, 644, op.1, d.8, p.171-172), EIS Pr. No. 35105 on the withdrawal of the SC from military personnel of German nationality, Pr. Number of NKVD 001237" On the operation to resettle the Germans from Moscow and the Moscow region. " With the announcement of the instructions, PSNK and the Central Committee of the CPSU (b) No. 2060-935SS "On the resettlement of Volga Germans in Kazakhstan", PSCO No. 698ss "On the resettlement of Germans from Krasnodar, Ordzhonikidze regions , Tula region., KB and SB ASSR ", PSPC number 702ss" On the resettlement of Germans from the Zaporozhye, Stalin and Voroshilovgrad region. ", Etc. EIS No. 35105 on the withdrawal of the SC from military personnel of German nationality, Pr .Number of NKVD 001237 "About the operation to resettle the Germans from Moscow and the Moscow region." With the announcement of the instructions, PSNK and the Central Committee of the CPSU (b) No. 2060-935SS "On the resettlement of Volga Germans in Kazakhstan", PSCO No. 698ss "On the resettlement of Germans from Krasnodar, Ordzhonikidze regions , Tula region., KB and SB ASSR ", PSPC number 702ss" On the resettlement of Germans from the Zaporozhye, Stalin and Voroshilovgrad region. ", Etc. EIS No. 35105 on the withdrawal of the SC from military personnel of German nationality, Pr .Number of NKVD 001237 "About the operation to resettle the Germans from Moscow and the Moscow region." With the announcement of the instructions, PSNK and the Central Committee of the CPSU (b) No. 2060-935SS "On the resettlement of Volga Germans in Kazakhstan", PSCO No. 698ss "On the resettlement of Germans from Krasnodar, Ordzhonikidze regions , Tula region, KB and SB ASSR ", PSPC number 702ss" On the resettlement of Germans from the Zaporozhye region, Stalin and Voroshilovgrad. “

·    *     In 1955, the Decree "On the lifting of restrictions on the Germans in the special settlement. A decree on the rehabilitation of the Germans was issued only in 1964. Only in 1972 the restriction was lifted in the choice of residence was issued. 

* In Ossetia, the Germans began to return in the summer of 1956. And the Germans who had previously lived in Ukraine and the Volga region also arrived there.
And here they were relocated, they moved from one place to another and they never stopped. During the period from 1987 to 1990, the USSR left 1056 thousand Germans. By the way, many immigrants and during all these centuries, being unhappy, sometimes return to their country of origin, so there are many Germans from Russia, Germans from Russia, Russlanddeutsche.