The Volga Germans In Old Russian And In Western North America

Catherine the Great recruited thousands of colonists "to populate her lower Volga River frontier with dependable permanent settlers who not only would bring stability to this lawless, underdeveloped, and uncharted region, but also would reclaim the vast wasteland there"-an area larger than the state of Maryland. This recruitment program ended in 1766, after drawing a majority of the colonists (about 30,000) from west central Germany, particularly the Hessian states. Since 1874 many inhabitants of this overpopulated land island between Saratov and Volgograd (formerly Stalingrad) have emigrated to the Western world-to homesteads from the plains of western Canada to the pampas of Argentina, but chiefly in the U.S. By 1920 more than 300,000 Volga Germans were counted in the U.S., mostly in the private states but including 24,000 in the East and 30,000 on the West Coast. Meanwhile, the number of German-derived residents of the Soviet Union exceeded two million-the original Evangelical and Roman Catholic settlers having flourished, despite adversity, and having been joined by Mennonites in 1854. The author paints a vivid picture of the pioneering activities of the Germans on the Volga, meeting the challenges of a hostile environment and raids by brigands, and keeping their culture alive through an elaborate system of parochial schools. A century ago population pressure forced many Volga Germans westward to the Americas, or eastward to Turkestan and Siberia somewhat later. Although Lenin established a Volga German Autonomous Republic, Stalin abolished it in 1941 during the Nazi invasion and deported its population to Siberia and Central Asia. A 1964 Soviet decree retracted wholesale charges of disloyalty against the Volga Germans but denied restoration of their Republic. The story of the Volga Germans and their adventures in North and South America from 1874 to the present is a warm and vibrant one. Both laymen and scholars will find it rewarding.

This book covers the emigration of the "Catherine the Great" Germans into the Volga River area in the mid to late 1700's, the movement of the Volga German-Russians further east of the Volga River into Russia's Steppes, the western exodus of the Volga German-Russians to the United States, Canada, Germany, Brazil and Argentina in the late 1800's and early 1900's, the Stalin ordered deportation of all Volga German-Russians to Siberia in the 1940's, and their final emigrations back to Germany and their long gone Volga River Colonies. This is my fourth book on the history of the Volga Colonies. See all my books at my websites, www.Volga-Germans.com & www.DarrelKaiserBooks.com

From Privileged to Dispossessed is a social and economic history of the foreign settlers who emigrated to the Volga region in Russia in the eighteenth century. Concentrating on the years 1860 to 1917, a period of rapid change in Russia, it is at once a detailed look at life in the lower Volga valley and a vital chapter in theøhistory of the multinational Russian Empire, assessing as it does the impact of national policy in the outlying provinces. James W. Long's book shatters the prevailing view of the Volga Germans in Russia, showing them not untouched by time but remarkably adaptable to ever-changing circumstances. It reveals how numerous nineteenth-century government reforms and rapid economic development, and the subsequent restruc-turing of state and society, transformed their lives for good and ill. It also illustrates the striking continuity of a misguided nationality policy that alienated a loyal, productive minority group by means of rigorous Russification and expropriation of landholdings. From Privileged to Dispossessed makes extensive use of rare materials from major Soviet research libraries and of oral interviews with Volga German immigrants. The book will be of special interest not only to historians but to people of Volga German descent, whose ancestors had learned to survive in a foreign land a century before they came to the North American prairies in the 1870s.

Hardship to Homeland recounts Volga Germans’ unique story in a saga that stretches from Germany to Russia and across the Atlantic. Burdened by war and debt, life was extremely difficult for impoverished European peasants until a former German princess came to power. Seeking to increase borderland population, provide a buffer against Ottoman Empire incursions, and bring agricultural ingenuity to her country, Russian empress Catherine II issued a remarkable 1763 manifesto inviting Europeans to immigrate. Their passage paid, colonists would become Russian citizens, yet retain their language and culture. For the next four years, some 27,000 settlers came--mostly from Hesse and the Palatinate--founding 104 communities along both banks of the Volga River near Saratov and introducing numerous agricultural innovations. But the Russian Senate revoked the original settlement terms in 1871. Facing poor economic conditions and a forced Russian army draft, 100,000 Volga Germans joined other immigrant waves to the New World. After a decade of hardship in the Midwest, some began moving to the Pacific Northwest, and their westward movement was one of the region’s largest single ethnic group migrations. From outposts in Washington State they spread throughout the Columbia Basin, along the coast, and into northern Idaho, Oregon, British Columbia, and Alberta, transforming their new homelands into centers of western productivity and significantly influencing North American religion, politics, and social development. Hardship to Homeland is a revised and expanded reprint of The Volga Germans: Pioneers of the Northwest, published in 1985 and long out of print. This edition offers a new introduction as well as Volga German folk stories from the Pacific Northwest, collected and retold by Richard D. Scheuerman, with illustrations by Jim Gerlitz.

The Mueller family, descendants of the Germans who settled the Volga River area in Russia in the mid-1700s, turn to America to escape Russia's enforced military service. Told through the eyes of twelve year old Eva, the story chronicles the hardships of their travels by land and sea to America and their resettlement on the Kansas plains.