American Historical Society

of Germans from Russia

Russland Deutch Frauen beim Gottesdienst im Lager Friedland

Work Paper No. 11 April 1973 Price $2.50

Table of Contents

President's Letter i

Soviet-German Citizens - Now You May Come Over From Der Spiegel Magazine.

Translated by Dr. LaVern Rippley 1

Arrival of Soviet Germans in Germany Emma Schwabenland Haynes 6

The Restoration of the Volga German Republic Emma Schwabenland Haynes 12

The Question of the Restoration of the Volga German Republic 13 Translation by Ann Sheehy

The German Colonies on the Volga Pastor Reltzer From California Vorwaerts Translated by Dr. Paul G. Reitzer 18

The German Colonies on the Volga Pastor M. Brunau, Translated by Arthur E. Flegel 23

The German Russians Harold Hamil, From Farmland News

American Gained When Germans Fled Russia I 33

They Brought Bloom to America’s Prairies II 36

Lesson for Others in Their Hard Work Heritage III 39

The Cathedral of the Plains David Dary, From Kansas City Star Magazine 43

Ellis County German Settlers on National TV 42

German-Russian Traditions, The Vow Lawrence Weigel From The Ellis County Star 42

Genealogy Report Gerda S. Walker 47 Passenger Lists by Gwen B. Pritzkau 49 Surname Exchange by Phil B. Legler 56 Questions and Answers 61

About the cover

Soviet-German Women at prayer at Frieland Camp. Photo courtesy Kulturpolitsche Korrespondenz Ostdeutsche Kulturrat Bonn, West Germany

American Historical Society of Germans from Russia I004A NINTH AVENUE . P.O. Box 1424 TELEPHONE

303.3B2-B467 GREELEY, COLORADO 80631

American Historical Society of Germans from Russia. 10041 Ninth Avenue. P.O. Box 1424 TELEPHONE 303-352-9467 GREELEY COLORADO 80631

OFFICERS AND DIRECTORS! H. J. Amen, Honorary President

601 D Street Lincoln, Nebraska 68502

Dr.Karl Stumpp, Honorary Chairman 74 Tuebingen Autenrietli Stra°sc 16

"Soviet-German Citizens, Now You May Come Over!"

A Translation of an article entitled "Deutsche Sowjetburger: Jetzt durft2 ihr ruber" which appeared in the Spiegel magazine, No. 50, 1972-a Time - like weekly. With Permission

By La Vern J. Rippley, Chairman Department of German, St. Olaf College Northfield, Minn. 55057

Last month, 1500 Soviet citizens of German nationality were able to emigrate to the German Federal Republic. 40,000 are still waiting for final approval. But nearly two million are living in the U.S.S.R. - and most of them prefer to stay there: Not only are they no longer being harassed but they are now looked upon favorably as being hard workers. Two Germans were honored as "Heroes of the Soviet Union", two have positions in the Supreme Soviet and three have held cabinet - level positions.

Accompanied by grandparents and a flock of children, loaded with wooden suitcases and stuffed duffel bags. they arrive at the old merchantile palace on Moscow's broad Grusin Street, number 17, the West Germany Embassy.

The official of the German border police seated at a reception desk already sees them coming on his monitor. The television camera is mounted on the guard house of the Soviet Police station and is directed at the main gate.

These Soviet citizens of German nationality - with their fur caps, head scarves and cotton - tufted coats - are allowed to pass: They are in possession of the blue slip of paper, an emigration visa in addition to Soviet passports, each of which has cost them legally 400 rubles (1600 Mark) ($500.00),

They have sold their log cabins, their cows and pigs. For, their application to the Red Cross (often made years ago) for permission to be reunited with their West German relatives has now been approved. They were permitted to exchange 90 rubles for 360 marks at the State bank,

Inside the Embassy, they receive a passport for West Germany: for the time being, practically the only Russian Germans permitted to emigrate are those, who, at some time, have been German citizens - usually as a result of being forced to switch citizenship during the German occupation or after resettlement from Bessarabia to the Warthe River Basin, (where they were again picked up by the Red Army).

They receive something to eat and sleeping accommodations in the cinema auditorium of the Embassy, or for six rubles per person, in the suburban hotel "Zarja" ("Morgenrot" or "Sunrise"). Four Red Cross nurses and a foreign office doctor look after them, an official sends their pension vouchers to West Germany and procures the train tickets. Three times each week at Moscow's Byelorussian Station, a special car is attached to the train for Berlin, where they transfer to reach their destination at Friedland. Lufthansa Airlines flies out the sick and the old.

In the official processing camp of Freidland they listen to orientations, sign for a receipt for 20 marks "transfer money" and 150 marks of "West German welcome money". Processing takes four to five days; they are then channeled into another transfer camp and finally they get settled in accommodations after about nine months.

The Ukraine - German Jakob Janzen, 57, had been expected by relatives in Westphalia. Through his tears Janzen expresses how happy he is,

His home was in Dnepropetrovsk, he was overrun by the German Army in 1941 - and drafted. In an attack near the end of the war in Aachen, he was captured by the Americans who handed prisoner - of - war Janzen over to the Russians in 1946.

He was deported to Novosibirsk, married a deportee from the Warthe River region and in the course of time earned as much as 900 Marks a month in an oleomargarine factory while his wife made about 700 Marks in a textile firm. His daughter also worked and his son went to college. Ten years ago, the Janzens bought themselves a log cabin for 16,000 Marks.

The family lived in security, nevertheless, Jakob Janzen never felt completely at home in the U.S.S.R. Since 1958 he had been making emigration visa applications, "like thousands of my countrymen in that area" (Janzen). At the government offices, they said: "You may go, but not all at once.'*

Janzen's sixth application was approved on October 30th. Two weeks later the family set out on the seven - day journey by train. Each train ticket from Novosibirsk to Braunschweig (West Germany) cost 90 rubles and 90 kopeks (363.60 Marks) for which the West German government reimburses them. The Janzens invested the rest of their cash in a gold necklace costing 800 marks - which Soviet customs officials confiscated.

Soviet-German Student Irma Urbach Only a few have studied Hotel “Sunrise” in the land of high rents.

Whether or not Janzen will be able to find a job so close to retirement age is uncertain; it will be easier for his wife who is younger. His daughter's chances for a profession have deteriorated because of her departure. After the last application for emigration, she was expelled from her course of study to become a surveyor. His son, 17, cannot continue his study of mathematics but must now repeat his Abitur (high school graduation examinations) in German schools. He is the only one in the family who barely speaks any German.

The Westphalians had advised their relatives in Siberia to bring along only their best clothes and to leave behind any native - costume style of clothing. According to Janzen, "so that we would not stick out so much in a respectable country."

Since 1957, about 26,000 have arrived. In 1970 there were 340, in the following year, 1150, until the beginning of this year, 1500 - and since the end of October, twice that many. On the 10th of October eastbound Bahr handed his counterpart, Breszhnev a letter from Brandt listing the priority of urgency for 481 families.

"You may now depart to join your family because the Russian Government and the Federal Republic of Germany are on good terms," reported the Police Chief in the Estonian city of Tallinin speaking to a German construction worker (and he handed him six passports for his whole family): "The better the relations are, the more who are permitted to depart."

There are still about 40,000 waiting for the blue slip who can be expected to come in the next five years. That accounts for about two percent of the nearly two million Germans who are living in the Soviet Union. Most of them, of course, have never had German citizenship, have no relatives in the Federal Republic - and do not want to migrate.

For them, life is just fine in the Soviet State. They are looked upon as good workers; most of them are in agriculture, construction or in factories and because they work over their quotas, they often earn more than their Russian colleagues, according to the report to Spiegel magazine by a Soviet German worker in Irkutsk, a tractor driver in middle Asian Bokhara and a female teacher in Omsk,

Often they live together in small settlements in Siberia or middle Asia, speak German among themselves and tend to marry within the community, carry on homey traditions and pay the necessary respect to the Moscow Government.

Only a few of them have studied for the professions which is the reason why only about ten German migrants were asked to reimburse the Soviet State for the cost of their education.

There are German colonies in the present - day Zelinograd territory which is in the frontier region of Kazakstan and in the Altai region; and on Lake Baikal, there is a German village which is shown off to West German tourists as a typical Russian "Dutch" colony. Spiegel reporters met a group of children out on a picnic in the steppes; a third of the little ones bore German names - and understood only Russian.

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The majority of the Russian Germans in the Soviet Union feel at home there - not just those who are descendents of the 27,000 settlers who in 1763 were promised tax - free status for ten years and freedom from military service "for all time" by Czaress Catherine the Great. In 1916 the Czar issued an order that all Volga Germans be deported but the Revolution intervened in the execution of the order.

In 1918, 200 German towns with 500,000 inhabitants united to form the first of the "Autonomous worker communes" (one of their founders was the released prisoner - of - war, Ernst Reuter, later the governing mayor West Berlin), which in 1924 reconstituted itself as the "Autonomous Socialist Soviet Republic of Volga Germans." In other areas of the Soviet Union there were in all seventeen other German "national districts."

On the 28th of August, 1941, soon after the German invasion of the U.S.S.R. Stalin had citizens of the German Soviet Republic (including all functionaries and party members) deported to Soviet Asia. The Soviet journalist, Robert Weber, reports today: "Who, in the final analysis, could guarantee that the Hitler people would not be successful in exploiting the Russian German population for their own purposes. In the Ukraine, they did succeed to some extent."

Twenty - three years and one day later, on the 29th of August, 1964, Kruschev proclaimed that Stalin's deportation order "is rescinded to the extent that it arbitrarily contained charges of guilt against the German population that was living in the Volga territory."

That part of the Stalin decree, however, which took the Soviet Republic away from the Volga Germans remained in force because "the German population has now established roots in their new place of abode while the territories of their former homes are now occupied . .."

Those who were affected held a different opinion. They sent a delegation to the man who was then chief of state, Mikoyan, and requested the right to return home to the Volga (See the Interview included here). Mikoyan declined their request.

He promised more rights of a cultural nature for minorities. Six weeks later the Committee on printing decided to publish more books in the German language and created a special department in the Publishing House "Kazakhstan" for that purpose. Since that time, too, the Russian Germans again are permitted to enter their German nationality on their Identification Cards as well as to seek employment on their own.

The right granted to other minorities in the U.S.S.R. to dwell in their own closed colonies was still denied, however, under Brezhnev, and a return to the Volga forbidden. Thanks to their willingness to work hard, the collective victims of Stalinism received good jobs - and they want to stay where they are, at least according to a German flower saleswoman in Alma - Ata who was evacuated from East Prussia at the end of the War and has married a Russian, and also according to a porter at the train station of Novosibirsk who stayed after being released from war prisoner status and has built himself a house there.

According to a questionnaire of the Soviet Academy of Sciences, two thirds of the Germans in the Novosibirsk area live in houses that were built since 1954; three quarters of them own their own houses, 11.9 percent have an apartment. Those with sub - standard accommodations amount to 1.7 percent. Nearly every second family has three or more children.

Although the Russian Germans are usually content with their blue collar jobs, their fellow countryman Alexander Frank has succeeded in becoming the head physician of a hospital. Alexander Eisenach is a business executive, Rosalinda Laut is an opera singer in Usbekistan and Axel Berg is a trained engineer and an Admiral and was from 1953 -1957 Under Secretary of Defense for the U.S.S.R. Today, Germans like Reinhold Leinweber are allowed to serve in the army of their Soviet Fatherland (Selective Service District Moscow) - though during the War this was denied them on account of security precautions.

The locomotive driver, Siegfried Dorn, received a decoration, the chicken farmer Alexandra Stensel and the farmer Karl Schrnidt are "Heroes of Socialist Work", a "Hero of the Soviet Union" is called Muller. A certain Heinrich Barzel is Director of Social Organizations in the village of Pavlovk and received the decoration "Order of the Red Workers Banner." The best milkmaid on the state farm "Afanasjevski" (2400 liters) is Mrs. Anna Brandt.

The Soviet minister for food is called Woldemar Lein, a German. In the Supreme Soviet, something like a parliament or congress, there is seated a tractor driver by the name of Alexander Bar and pig farmer, Sophie Eifeld. In the Supreme Soviet of the Russian State of RSFSR (Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic), the German, Friedrich Schneider, held a seat until the middle of last year.

Twelve men who write in German belong to the Soviet Writers' Union. Swjatoslav Richter is putting Soviet piano playing on the map. Only since the 1950's has he been permitted to play outside the country - his father was a victim of the Soviet Secret Police, his mother was able to flee to Germany during the war and died there. 3

Sowjetdeutscher soldat Leinweber Soviet-German Soldier

Leinweber in war, blameless conduct Neues Leben Published by Pravda

Several radio stations today transmit special broadcasts in the German language. The Moscow - based Pravda publishes a weekly magazine in German called "Neues Leben" and its editors also read the Spiegel. After an excerpt from their paper about the flight of German agricultural workers from a collective farm to the city appeared in the Spiegel (Nr. 20. 1972), the "Neues Leben" registered a complaint: "The Spiegel reported only the critical observations of the author, all the rest was suppressed." It said the charge of escape from the country had long since been suspended and that the ruined house of culture had been repaired.

Also appearing in German are the daily newspapers "Rote Fahne" in Slavgorod (.Altai region) land "Freundschaft" in Zelinograd which celebrated the Berlin Treaty of last year with a poem by the Soviet citizen, Rudi Riff:

(Twelve line poem omitted)

A German folklore group recently traveled the entire Soviet Union performing German folk dances and folk songs. To be sure the Russian Germans are still forbidden to have their own cultural organization - but the German minority, judging on the basis of 1970 statistics, is far larger, with its 1.8 million Soviet citizens, than other Soviet minorities who are allocated an autonomous territory.

According to the 1970 census, there are 840,000 of the Germans living in the middle Asian Soviet Republic of Kazakhstan ( in which the total population is 12.8 million) and they comprise the fourth largest ethnic group there, after the Russians, the Kazakhs and the Ukrainians and in the meantime they have probably moved into third position. Six German representatives sit in the Supreme Soviet of Kazakhstan, and the Kazakh minister for food provisions is a German by the name of Anatol Scheffer.

In the frontier Territory of Zelinograd, every eighth inhabitant is a German, in Karaganda, the former center of forced labor, it is every tenth one. Of course only two thirds of those enumerated who reported German as their nationality indicated that German is their mother tongue. The reason: nowhere in the Soviet Union is there a German school for their children. Only since 1970 and only if there are ten pupils in one school can they take German as a foreign language in specially arranged classes. !n Kazakhstan, 40,884 children in 343 schools avail themselves of this opportunity.

But there are hardly any text books and but a few teachers, therefore, according to the Undersecretary for Education in Kazakhstan, the German pupils have to make due "with what they have at hand." Even the paper "Neues Leben" found fault “that in the Soviet Union's Republics the appropriate ministers have not devoted the needed attention to these problems and also the central ministry of lower education in the U.S.S R, has in no way addressed itself to an evaluation and equalization of its collected data and information . 4

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Wartime German assembly camp Registration at Friedland

The older generation for the most part forgoes the educational opportunities of the official Soviet system. They make- use of the Bible. In Zelinograd, Pastor Bachmann preached every Sunday to more than a hundred of the faithful in a prayer hall erected by his congregation; at Christmas time - a feast that is not a holiday in the U.S.S.R. – the doors and windows were flung open for those who no longer found room inside.

Bachmann's colleagues were collectively arrested in 1941. In the thirties, already, a movement of the "Militant Godless" destroyed most of the German churches and cemeteries in the Volga Republic. Today, however, the German Baptists are even allowed to organize non - church related activities (something that is seriously punishable in the case of Russian Orthodox groups). Their congregations arrange courses in handicrafts and musical instruction.

"In Germany there are so many churches everywhere, but I have noticed that nearly all of them are empty, even during services. Back home there is only one and during services it is always full," complained Martha Weiss, 61, who came from the vicinity of Novokusnetsk.

In an environment that demands obedience and hard work from them but otherwise - at least recently -lets them alone, the Russian Germans are preserving a way of life (similar to the German minorities in Poland and Rumania) which has been lost in other places. "In Germany you can buy everything, but the rents are so high", contended Martha Weiss after a visit at her daughter's home in Hamburg.

This Soviet citizen returned to Siberia. "And then there is such heavy traffic on the streets that one is always scared," she recounted for a reporter of a lower Saxon church paper in the tram to Moscow. "But that is not so bad."

"The worst," according to Martha Weiss, "is that the people have no time to talk to you . . . perhaps a lot of things are just fine and better in Germany, but I would not live there. What good is it if I can buy everything but nobody will speak to me.”

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THE ARRIVAL OF SOVIET GERMANS IN GERMANY

Emma Schwabenland Haynes

The month of November 1972 will always stand out in the memory of many Soviet Germans. It was at this time that 1,500 of them received permission to emigrate to Western Germany. The majority of these people were of Black Sea origin and all had close relatives living in Germany.

In previous Work Papers the story has been told of how Germans from the Volga, the Crimea, and the Caucasus were deported to Siberia and Central Asia during World War II. It was only in the Ukraine and in certain sections of western Russia that the advancing German army repatriated approximately 350,000 Soviet Germans. About 70 percent of these people were later returned to the Soviet Union in accordance with the notorious "Operation Keelhaul", now being investigated by Julius Epstein, a former research assistant at the Hoover Institution in Stanford, California. The remaining 30 percent made their way into western Germany. As a result of the deportations and the confusion of the war years, husbands were separated from their wives, and children from their parents. Such separations became permanent for those people in Germany who had relatives behind the Iron Curtain.

The Soviet Union is a member of the International Red Cross and on various occasions has signed agreements providing for the re-unification of separated families. A small trickle of people with relatives in Germany was allowed to leave the country after 1958, but most requests to emigrate were not granted. In the summer of 1972 there were 30,000 cases in which no action had been taken on the applications of native-born Soviet Germans to join their relatives in Germany. An additional 10,000 cases involved Germans who had been deported to Russia from Germany itself or from such countries as Romania and Jugoslavia.

On November 19, 1972, an important national election was held in Germany in which Chancellor Willy Brandt was fighting for the ratification of his "Ostpolitik" based upon friendlier cooperation with the countries of eastern Europe. In the three weeks preceding the election, a dramatic change occurred in the processing of previously ignored exit applications. Soviet Germans who had been trying vainly to leave the country for ten or fifteen years were suddenly told to be ready to depart in forty-eight hours. Mobs of people began converging on the German embassy in Moscow, bringing with them the precious passports for which they had waited so long. It soon became extremely difficult to find a hotel room anywhere. Some people slept on benches in the railroad stations, and others in the corridors and basement of the embassy. Red Cross nurses were flown to Moscow to give aid to the elderly and the ill. Special coaches were added to trains leaving for Berlin, and when these proved insufficient, groups of Germans were flown directly to the Frankfurt airport.

Throughout the month of November, German newspapers and radio stations carried almost .daily reports on the arrival of the Soviet Germans. Television programs also devoted time to the subject. On the evening of November 14, audiences in the Frankfurt area were able to see the arrival of fifty-two Soviet Germans at the Frankfurt airport. They were shown descending from the plane, claiming their luggage, being taken for refreshments at a Red Cross center in

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Frankfurt railroad station, and then proceeding by bus to the Friedland refugee camp for processing,

Both in Frankfurt and in Friedland, television interviews were held with Soviet Germans. Some of the men were asked about their plans for the future. No one seemed to think that he would have any problem finding work. In many cases relatives in Germany already had jobs waiting for them.

At the Frankfurt airport there had also been an interview with an elderly, sweet-faced grandmother wearing the traditional "Kopftuch" (head shawl) which our own Russian-German grandmothers formerly used. When she was asked why she had come to Germany, she answered that she hoped to spend the remainder of her life in peace and quiet and that she wanted "einmal wieder in die Kirche zu gehen" (to go to church once more).

During the following weeks photographs of the "returnees" appeared in many German newspapers. Two such pictures accompany this article. One shows the November 14 group enjoying afternoon coffee at the Frankfurt railroad station. The second bears the caption, "Russian-German Women at a religious Service in Camp Friedland". It is very possible that the devout elderly woman standing reverently with folded hands is the same grandmother who had expressed the wish to go to church once more.

The news of the arrival of the Soviet Germans was of such interest to Landsmannschaft officials that on November 10-11, 1972, Dr. Karl Stumpp spent two days at the camp. This was a particularly heart-warming experience for him because he was able to find two men from his native village of Alexanderhilf. One of them even had the family name Stumpp. The second man, who was not related, remembered Dr. Stumpp from the war years, and throwing his arms around him, addressed him as "Uncle Karl".

Dr. Stumpp's report on his visit to the camp, appears in the January 1973 issue of "Volk auf dem Weg". He points out that, in contrast to earlier years, the November exodus included not only elderly people, but also young married couples with small children. They had come from all sections of the Soviet Union: Siberia, Central Asia, the Baltic countries and Moldavia. The atmosphere of the camp reminded Dr. Stumpp of a beehive, with busses constantly bringing new immigrants and then departing for railroad stations to pick up more. Everywhere there was a babble of voices, with young children speaking to each other in Russian and with parents conversing in German.

Any Soviet citizen who attempts to emigrate to the West is subjected to considerable harassment and interrogation. He is regarded almost as a traitor to the Soviet Union, and he often loses, not only his job, but also the friendship of his neighbors and acquaintances who are afraid that they will suffer from his “defection". In addition, the financial cost of emigrating is exorbitant. Four different steps are involved. 1. The filing of a "vysov". No Soviet German is allowed to leave the country merely because he wants to

emigrate. A member of his immediate family must live in the West, and the initial move must be made by this relative who obtains the

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necessary form or "vysov" from his local German Red Cross office. On this document the family relationship of the people concerned must be given: husband and wife, parents and children, or brothers and sisters. No other relationship is considered valid, although exceptions are sometimes made. The "vysov" must be accompanied by a statement from Bonn saying that the German government has no objection to the immigration of the Soviet German relative, and a local official must certify that the initiator is a bona fide member of a West German community. The "vysov" is then sent to German Red Cross headquarters in Hamburg for translation into Russian and is thereupon returned to the sender who forwards it to his relative in the Soviet Union.

The relative in Russia carries the document to communist headquarters in his local community. It is necessary for him to pay 40 rubles for the registration of every person mentioned. Thus a married couple with two children would be charged 160 rubles (approximately $200.00) to have the "vysovs" put on file for one year. There is no assurance, of course, that the request to emigrate will be granted. If the answer is negative, the 160 rubles are lost. When the new "vysov" is presented on the following year an additional 160 rubles must be submitted.

2. Passport costs. In case a family is given permission to emigrate, each person, regardless of his age, must pay 400 rubles to have his name entered on a passport. Consequently, a family of four would need 1600 rubles (nearly $2,000) to leave the country.

3. Transportation costs. Most Soviet Germans live in Siberia or Central Asia. A seven-day train ride from Novosibirsk to Germany would cost a family of four about 364 rubles. On the other hand, a Soviet German widow, whom I visited in September 1972, was unable to obtain seats on the train from Moscow to Germany and was forced to buy airplane tickets for herself and her three children. Consequently, her transportation costs came to 734 rubles.

4. Education tax. In August 1972 the Soviet Union imposed an education tax on all emigrants who had ever attended an institution of higher learning or a technical school. The explanation given was that higher education is provided free in the Soviet Union, and that the graduates of such institutions should reimburse the state, at the rate of approximately 1200 rubles for one year of education, if they wished to emigrate. An immediate world-wide outcry arose against this decree, and early in January 1973 the Soviet Union announced that people who had reached retirement age (men over 60 and women over 55) need not pay the tax, and that it would be proportionately decreased according to the emigrant's years of service in his profession.

One could easily get the impression from American newspapers that the education tax is imposed only upon Soviet Jews. This is not the case. The Soviet Jews, as a highly educated ethnic group, are particularly affected by the tax, but it should be clearly understood that the decree applies to all citizens of the Soviet Union, whether they be Ukrainians, Armenians, Esthonians, Germans, or Russians. At the Friedland camp Dr. Stumpp talked to one father who had been forced to pay an education tax of 1500 rubles for his son who was still a student in a technical school. Dr. Stumpp also knows of other cases in which as much as 6000 rubles was paid. However, it is very true that in comparison with the Soviet Jews relatively few Germans need to pay the tax. In the prison camps and "closed settlements" where all Soviet Germans lived from 1941 until 1956, there was little opportunity to acquire a higher education.

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The amount of money needed to emigrate from the USSR seems especially exorbitant when one considers that the average factory or kolkhoz worker seldom earns more than $150.00 per month. In order to obtain the necessary money, families sell their little houses, their furniture, any poultry, pigs, or livestock which they may have acquired, and then, if necessary, turn to their Soviet relatives One man at Camp Friedland explained, "Wir haben es geschafft; die verwandten haben mitgeholfen". (We managed to do it; our relatives helped out.) In those few cases where any surplus money exists, it must be spent on clothing or something portable, because only 90 rubles can leave the country. Furthermore, no objects of gold may be taken out, with the exception of such single pieces of jewelry as a gold wedding ring or a wrist watch. In the German news magazine Der Spiegel (December 4, 1972) the story is told of an emigrant named Jakob Janzen who arrived in Germany from Novosibirsk with his wife and two children. Mr. Janzen had invested his final $250.00 in a gold necklace, but when he reached the Soviet borders, the necklace was taken away from him by custom officials. The German government has been extremely generous with all refugees from communist countries. Upon arriving in Camp Friedland, each adult is given 150 German marks ($47.00) for small incidental expenses, and everyone is furnished with a complete set of clothing from supplies donated by churches, charitable institutions and clothing factories. From the moment of their arrival Soviet Germans have all the rights and privileges of normal German citizens. Welfare payments are made to individuals who are sick or in need, old age pensions are given to men over 65 and women over 60, transportation costs to Germany are usually reimbursed, and additional payments are made for property lost in World War II (”Lastenausgleich") .

Those Soviet Germans who were deported to Russia in 1945 after having been “eingebergert'' -made citizens of the German Reich - receive special compensation. The widow whom I visited last September was a Volga German woman born in the colony of Straub. She had never been in Germany before and was not entitled to this particular compensation, but her three children received additional money because their deceased Black Sea father had been declared a German citizen before being deported by the Russians.

In addition to financial help, the German government provides "make-up schools" in which children from communist countries receive special instruction in the German language before being enrolled in the German public school system.

Throughout the month of November, I was very curious whether American newspapers were giving coverage to the exodus of the Soviet Germans. The first person to send me a clipping on the subject was Victor Leiker of Atlantic Highlands, New Jersey, who forwarded an article from the New York Times of November 17, 1972. It bore the heading, "Many Ethnic Germans Being Permitted to Emigrate From the Soviet Union". Shortly thereafter, Mrs. Raynold Schmick of Saginaw, Michigan, sent a clipping from the Detroit Free Press (November 20, 1972). Then came two extremely interesting articles from the Fresno Bee dated December 3, 1972 and January 15, 1973. These were sent to me by Mr. Henry Madden, Chief Librarian of California State University in Fresno, California.

Lawrence A. Weigel of Hays, Kansas also wrote to say that information on the arrival of the Soviet Germans had appeared in parochial publications. He added 9

that a local priest, identified as Father Tom, "was deeply concerned what we here in Hays might do to help these German-Russians who will be coming to Germany". My rather lengthy reply to Mr. Weigel, along with an introductory letter from him, was thereupon printed on the front page of the January 19, 1973 issue 4 of the Northwestern Kansas Register, published by the Salinas diocese of Kansas. Six days later, the same two letters appeared in the Ellis County Star of Hays, Kansas. Meanwhile church bulletins in Hays indicated that efforts were in progress to send contributions to Camp Friedland, From the very beginning of the increased Soviet German exodus, cynics had suspected that the Soviet Union's more humanitarian policy was simply a temporary measure to influence the coming German election. Unfortunately, the cynics seem to have been correct. Immediately after the election, the wave of emigration began to decrease. These are the latest Red Cross figures. (Slight variations may later develop in dividing the total number of arrivals between the two groups indicated.) Native Soviet Germans Other Ethnic Germans Total Nov. 1972 1,340 268 1,588 Dec. 1972 240 103 343 Jan. 1973 110 34 144

At this point it is still too early to prophesy what the future holds. One can only hope that the year 1973 will not fall to the level of 1971 when only 871 native Soviet Germans were given permission to settle in West Germany, as compared with 2,920 who came in 1972.

One further comment must be made with respect to newspaper stories of the November exodus. Both in the United States and in Germany the phrase "Volga German" rather than "Soviet German" was almost always used. The explanation of this error undoubtedly lies in the fact that the Volga German colonies were the oldest and most compact group of German settlements in Russia. It was only here that a separate German republic was established on January 6, 1924. Furthermore the deportation of the Volga Germans in 1941 attracted far more attention in the western press than did the deportation of other Russian-Germans. The mistaken assumption that all Soviet Germans come from the Volga was particularly erroneous in the November newspaper stories. During World War II, itt was primarily Black Sea Germans who were able to work their way into Germany. Consequently, it is primarily Black Sea Germans who are now sending "vysovs" to their relatives in the Soviet Union. Volga Germans are in a definite minority.

It is possible that individual members of AHSGR may wish to forward financial contributions to Camp Friedland. Such donations could be sent either to the Catholic Caritas organization or to the "Evangelische Hilfswerk" at

Durchgangslager Friedland bei Goettingen, Niedersachsen West Germany

However, it would be impossible to designate such gifts for a particular religious or ethnic group. Camp Friedland is the entry point for Germans from

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all the communist countries. Last December I mentioned this fact to Mr. Weigel and then added, "Does it really matter?" Most of these "Heimkehrer" are tired and bewildered and in need of sympathy and understanding. It

would be a generous gesture to come to their aid. Money is especially needed to replenish the clothing supplies which were distributed last November.

ADDENDUM

The American dollar has been recently devalued by ten percent and is now unstable. Consequently, references to the dollar value of the German marks and Russian rubles quoted previously are no longer valid. For example/ the 150 marks which a returnee receives at Camp Friedland represents not $47.00 but $51.OO or more at the present rate of exchange.

A final explanation might be given regarding statistics on the emigrating Soviet Germans. In addition to those people who receive permission to immigrate to West Germany, a very small number - perhaps seven percent of the previous group - ask to settle in Communist East Germany. The reader should also be warned that Landsmannschaft officials usually use the term "Soviet German" as applying only to such native-born Soviet citizens as those from the Black Sea and the Volga areas. On the other hand. Soviet census takers and Red Cross officials apply the term to all German-speaking inhabitants of the Soviet Union. They include in their figures Germans deported from the German Reich and from eastern European countries, as well as Germans from Bessarabia, Memel, and the Baltic countries who had been given legal permission to re-settle in Germany during the halcyon days of the Stalin-Hitler Pact.

The following statistics on all of the 1,931 Germans who arrived in Friedland during the months of November and December 1972 were very kindly sent to me by Dr. Stumpp.

Place of departure from the Soviet Union: Asiatic sections of the USSR, 46.8%; Baltic countries, 26.8%; other European sections of the USSR, especially Moldavia, 26.4%. Religious Background: Protestant 1,077; Roman Catholic, 687; Baptist, 73;

Mennonite. 64; misc., 30.

Occupations: Positions requiring a higher education, 40; blue collar workers, 863; students at high schools and institutions of higher learning, 85; elementary schoolchildren, 452; people on pensions 178; housewives, 119. (Children of pre-school age are not included)

Age of Returnees: 1-20 years, 43%; 21-60 years, 47%; over 60 years, 10%.

Most popular places of settlement in Germany; In descending order: Baden-Wuerttemberg, North Rhine-Westphalia, and Lower Saxony.

Dr. Stumpp points out that among the returnees listed above, approximately 80% (1,560 out of 1,931)

belonged to the native-born Soviet German category. That is in contrast to earlier years when just the opposite was the case.

11

THE RESTORATION OF THE VOLGA GERMAN REPUBLIC

Emma Schwabenland Haynes

During World War II, Stalin wiped out seven separate Soviet nationalities and deported their inhabitants to Siberia and Central Asia on the charge that they were in sympathy with the Nazis. In January 1957, five of the deported groups were given permission to return to their homeland. The other two were the Crimean Tatars and the Volga Germans. Both still live in exile, even though the Volga Germans were rehabilitated in 1964 and the Crimean Tatars in 1967. In the intervening years frequent reports have reached the West of the persistent efforts of the Crimean Tatars to obtain permission to restore their former republic, but a pall of silence has hung over the Volga Germans.

In March 1972 I received from Miss Ann Sheeny of the Minority Rights Group in London a zerox copy of a secretly circulated document which had reached the West from the Soviet Union. It contained the speeches of seven German delegates who had met with Anastas Ivanovich Mikoyan on June 7, 1965 to discuss with him the desire of the Soviet Germans to have their own republic. I found the document so interesting that I was tempted to send it to Greeley for inclusion in one of our Work Papers, but I refrained from doing so out of fear that its publication might cause harm to the people concerned. Then, on December 4, 1972 the paper was printed in the German news magazine Spiegel, which is comparable to Time both in appearance and in popularity. Since the names of the delegates were thus revealed, there is no longer any need to keep the material secret.

My interest in the document was increased recently when I met a 1969 "Heimkehrer" who had played an active role in the movement. According to this informant, agitation for a new Volga German republic began in the fall of 1964 when petitions were circulated and money gathered to pay for the expenses of an initial group of thirteen delegates who were sent to Moscow. Upon their arrival, a Soviet official told them that they had not brought enough signatures. To this comment one of the leaders responded, "How many signatures do you want? 100,000? We'll get them for you!"

During the following months a period of intensive activity began all over the Soviet Union. Meetings were held and petitions signed for the reestablishment of a Volga German republic. Organizers told Soviet German citizens who expressed no desire to move to the Volga that they could remain in their present homes if they so wished, but that it was necessary to establish a German republic so that the Soviet Germans would have the same political and cultural privileges that other ethnic groups had.

Late in May 1965, 35 delegates gathered in Moscow. They were received by Mikoyan on June 7, 1965. What happened next is told in the following document which has been translated from Russian to English by Miss Ann Sheehy.

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THE QUESTION OF THE RESTORATION OF THE VOLGA GERMAN REPUBLIC (from a conversation between A.I. Mikoyan and a delegation of Volga Germans on 7 June 1965)

Schessler F.G. We have appealed many times to the Central Committee and Presidium of the Supreme Soviet for the restoration of our republic, but there have been no concrete answers. Now the accusations have been lifted from us but the punishment remains. Our former territory was opened up in 1764. Our forefathers paid a ransom of four million rubles for it. We fought alongside the Russian people in the civil war for Soviet power and the deeds of the land were handed over to us. And now our former territory the country areas are only 25--30 percent inhabited. The majority of the villages are in ruins. Our only real rehabilitation will be the restoration of the republic on the Volga. Only this step will rid us of shame and distrust.

Bornemann. I came from Kotovo village, Volgograd oblast. Seventy Germans live in our village today. We have come to obtain the restoration of our legally abolished republic and the annulment of the decrees. It is true that the 24 August 1964 decree partially annulled the 28 August 1941 decree but why did it not annul the other decrees? Rehabilitation means not only the restoration of one's honour but also the restoration of the previous position i.e. the republic on the Volga and national equality of rights ought to be restored. The decree states that the Germans "have put down roots," receive their autonomy again, while the Germans who worked hard and "put down roots/" are forbidden to return to their native parts. Our people is dissatisfied that the decree was not published in the Russian newspapers. We want people to know the truth about Soviet Germans.

Wormsbecher, G.G. Before the war the Volga German republic was one of the advanced republics, both economically and culturally. And what have we got now? We have only two newspapers. There is not a single German school. Even in Tsarist Russia our position was not so bad. All the peoples of the USSR have their statehood. Only the Soviet Germans do not have it. The question naturally arises: are we a Soviet people?

Kaiser, G.F. Under the 29 August 1964 decree all the grave accusations were lifted from the Soviet Volga Germans and annulled but the grave penalties against them have not been annulled: (a) the deportation of the Volga Germans (b) the decree of 26 November 1948 on the resettlement in perpetuity of Soviet Germans from various parts with a penalty of up to 20 years hard labour for leaving the place of resettlement; (c) the decree of 13 December 1955 forbidding the Soviet Germans to return to their native parts from which they were deported without cause and confiscation of their public and private property. Thus the 29 August 1964 decree changed nothing in a national sense. Elementary logic dictates that one should not punish the innocent. The assertion in the second part of the decree that the Germans have put down roots in their new place of

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residence and that they have allegedly found their second homeland there does not correspond to reality. People do not put down roots through forcible exile. And the creation of a new autonomous republic for Soviet Germans somewhere in their new place of residence would not be rehabilitation but perpetual exile for all of us and our descendents. As a result of the deliberate scattering of the Soviet Germans in small groups in various oblasts of the USSR they are deprived of their national statehood and cannot have their deputies in the Council of Nationalities and in the Council of the Union of the USSR. The territory for the restoration of the Volga republic on the Volga exists. It was reclaimed by our forefathers by centuries of heavy toil, and it was given to us by the Great October Revolution that where the Germans had established Soviet power and where Lenin by a decree of 19 October 1918 set up the first German autonomous republic in the USSR.

Welz, K.D. We lived on our territory for 200 years. We had all the attributes of a nation. We had 11 deputies in the Council of Nationalities and three deputies in the Council of the Union. We had five higher education establishments, 400 secondary and primary schools, a national theatre, a publishing house, and five republican and. 20 rayon newspapers and magazines, and now we do not have a single school. Now we have only one newspaper in Moscow, but no Germans work on it - they are not trusted. Although we were not even allowed to fight the Fascists, among those Germans who managed to get to the front we have two heroes of the Soviet Union. There are Soviet German families which have been resettled six to eight times

Bersch It is not just some insignificant group of Germans who wants the restoration of the republic. If we could collect signatures, then we would get a million (there are two million Germans in all). In spite of every kind of persecution we have not lost faith in the Party and government. There are few inhabitants on the left bank of the Volga and many villages are in ruins. There is a resettlement agency in Volgograd. But those who come there soon leave. If that is how the economy is to be put on its feet again, it will take another 100 years. We would revive it all in a few years. But to this day Germans are still not being allowed to live on the Volga.

Khrompva, T. The few promises that were made in the 29 August 1964 decree are not being implemented locally and we are accused of nationalism. But the nationalist is not the one who is forced to demand his national rights, but the one who takes them from us and does not give them to us.

Mikoyan I think enough statements have been made. The Soviet Germans behaved well during and after the war and behave well today. They work well. It is impossible to run the economy in the Virgin Lands today without the Germans. You have a deputy in the Supreme Soviet, Becker. Their number will now be increased. The Germans have been completely rehabilitated. You raise the question of the restoration of the republic. We fully understand that that would be the best solution of the

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question. But it is impossible as it would mean taking half a million people and resettling them. One cannot think that the Germans cannot live without a republic. After all, before the war two-thirds of the Germans lived outside the republic. We cannot restore the republic now. It would cause great difficulties. Not all the mistakes of history can be put right. No one confuses you with the West Germans. You are Soviet citizens and have the right to newspapers, schools. … We cannot undertake the restoration of the republic under existing conditions since it would entail enormous economic expenditure, but we will meet you halfway on your cultural requirements. As for individual injustices, there are people in the apparatus who act incorrectly. If you have cases of bad treatment, there is a comrade sitting here to whom you can pass them on. We will intervene. We think that you will help us on these cultural measures. I wish you success. Goodbye.

Excerpts from a letter wttten by the German delegation to Mikoyan and Shelepin after this meeting.

...We are not in any way satisfied by the results of the meeting. Our people sent to the government not to obtain amateur dramatic groups but to seek the complete rehabilitation of our two million people, the establishment of their equality of rights with other citizens of the USSR, and the restoration of their statehood. .. The Soviet Germans are treated from a consumer standpoint, and their national longings are ignored. The Leninist nationalities policy is not applied to the Soviet Germans since it "might damage the economy." ….The Germans who resided outside the republic prospered only because there was such a republic, because they had their statehood, which looked after every aspect of their welfare, helping them in questions of culture, education, and economic development.

The Volga German republic was the place where the cadres for the remaining German districts were forged. We are Soviet people, Communists, and not members of the Bund. What we need is not cultural-national autonomy but statehood. … While the USSR has lavished every attention and care on the DDR* since it very inception, the Soviet Germans are still trying to escape from the moral legacy of the war. One might think that the Fascists had not been in Germany but among the Soviet Germans. All the peoples groundlessly accused and repressed during the Great Fatherland war were fully rehabilitated by the XX Congress. Why then do the Soviet Germans still remain pariahs? ….To what would you have devoted your life, Anastas Invanovich, if Beria had disbanded Armenia on one of the black days of his sway? **

* DDR - Communist East Germany ** Mikoyan is an Armenian

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...Who can agree with your statement that not all the mistakes of history can be put right? Certainly, as regards the dead, those senselessly destroyed, the mistakes are irreversible, but Soviet power lives and will live on! And while a people which has been unjustly treated lives, the mistakes made can and must be put right.

-------------------- According to my "Heimkehrer" informant, Mikoyan's attitude was so negative that some Soviet

Germans gave up all hope for the reestablishment of a republic; others redoubled their efforts. Three people in the latter group were: F.G. Shessler (head of the defense department of the former Volga Republic) who decided to remain in Moscow to continue working on the project: Bornemann, who returned to his Bergseite home in Kovotno, which lay at the southern boundary of the former Volga Republic; and Mrs. Khromova, who was born in the Ukraine of German parents, but was at this time living in the Urals. My informant was a schoolteacher in a kolkhoz south of Tashkent in Central Asia. For the remainder of 1965 and throughout 1966 he called meetings and brought in speakers to talk to the Soviet Germans of his neighborhood on the necessity of working for the goal of statehood.

All of these people, as well as anyone else agitating for the establishment of a separate state, were subjected to constant threats and harassment by the Soviet police. A woman in Alma Ata and a schoolteacher in one of the German villages on the Volga were dismissed from their jobs; the father of a woman in Frunze was told to warn his daughter to give up the project; and my acquaintance was twice interrogated by the police. He reports that he always tried to remain calm and to answer all questions with quotations from the writings of Lenin on the rights of minority ethnic groups.

By the summer of 1966, an additional 8,123 signatures had been gathered, and a third delegation set out for Moscow by train. One man in the group was recognized by the police and arrested, but the other delegates reached Moscow safely. Eventually they were received by a minor official at the Presidium (parliament) of the Supreme Soviet. Their petitions were accepted, but they were unable to talk to anyone of importance.

The man telling me this story was the father of three children. He was most anxious to have these children grow up in a German environment and not be assimilated into the surrounding Russian culture. If a German republic had been established in the Soviet Union, he would undoubtedly have remained there, but by the end of 1966 he had given up all hope that this would take place. He himself was a Black Sea German with relatives living in the West. He now wrote to his relatives asking them to send him a "vysov" requesting that he come to Germany. After two unsuccessful attempts, he finally received permission to leave the Soviet Union.

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Village Center of Frank - as it looks today.

In the illegally circulated document previously quoted, two of the delegates told that the majority of the Volga colonies lay in ruins. This statement is substantiated by the picture shown above of the village square in Frank where the beautiful Protestant church formerly stood. The photograph was taken in the year 1938 by a "Heimkehrer" who taught in the Frank high school from 1938 to 1941. He reported that the church had burned under mysterious circumstances shortly before his arrival. (One version was that the fire had been deliberately set in order to prevent having the church used as a theatre or communist club house.) The photograph is especially interesting when compared with the one on the cover of Work Paper No. 6 for May 1971. The large two-story building in the 1938 picture also appears on the cover of the Work Paper although the four pillars which formerly adorned the building have been removed.

Several months ago I met another "Heimkehrer" who, in 1965 and in 1968, had made trips to Frank to visit friends there. When I showed him the photograph he stated that the main square still looks exactly as it appears in the 1938 picture. The two-story building is now used as a school; a Russian family occupies the first house in the right background; and a German family (with relatives in Michigan who belong to AHSGR) lives in the second house. However, most of the homes in outlying streets either lie in ruins or stand empty. About 100 German families now live in Frank even though this is technically forbidden, and smaller numbers can be found in most of the Bergseite colonies.

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THE GERMAN COLONIES ON THEVOLGA

Pastor Reitzer, Flint, Michigan

—An article in California Vorwaerts

May 12, 1932

(Translated by Dr. Paul G. Reitzer)

The Russian Empress Catherine II, a German princess by birth, ruled from 1762 to 1796, and sought to have industrious German farmers immigrate and settle the vast Steppes along the Volga. Therefore, she issued her famous declaration on July 22, 1763, calling on all Western European people - with the exception of Jews who were denied emigration - to come and settle in Russia. The emigrants were promised travel costs, religious freedom, 30 years of tax exemption, exemption from military service, and interest-free loans to build houses and equipment needed for work. She concentrated on Germany and realized her hoped-for wish,

At the time the Seven-Year's War had just ended, leaving the German people destitute. Many hoped, therefore, to better their lot by emigrating. Consequently, thousands upon thousands, from all walks of life and from all-German states, responded to the call of the Russian empress and migrated during the years from 1764 to 1767 to Russia. Approximately 6,000 families, totaling 27,000 individuals, settled along both shores of the lower Volga which was under the governorship of Saratov at that time. Undoubtedly, many more people would have emigrated if the German Counts, fearing the loss of numerous subjects had not forbidden it. In all, there were 103 German villages and one French colony founded between 1764 and 1767 on the mountainous and plain sides of the lower Volga. The French settlement gradually became German after a few years, for the French were not productive as farmers and gradually abandoned their work and the area. The oldest colony is Rischnaja Dobrinka on the mountainous side and was founded on July 28, 1764. In the same year the villages of Beidek, Galka, Schilling, and Anton were also founded; all others followed in the next three years. Seventy-eight families settled in the city of Saratov.

Saratov, then already claiming 10,000 inhabitants, was designated as the main city of the principality. Each village had a representative and several villages formed into a district with a chief administrator at the head. These administrators were "Clerks of the Chancery for Foreigners", a subdivision of the chancery in Petersburg.

The German villages of the Volga were named after their first congregational moderators. The government had allowed the colonies to adopt their own names. The people, though, had to identify their villages to the pastor at the time of baptisms, weddings, and funerals. To differentiate between them the people named them after the moderator. Thus the names Kukkus, Balzer, Anton, Huck, Relnwald, Stahl, Doenhoff, etc., emerged. Even though the villages were later renamed by the Russian government, the people still referred to them by their German names.

The settlers endured chaotic times during the first 20 years. For the first two to three years they lived in earthen (mud) huts. Timber had to be brought from great distances. Sickness among humans and animals took a large

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toll. In one village at Tarlyk by B., 26 of the 157 inhabitants died within 4 months of typhus. Then came crop failures. Between 1769 and 1775 they did not harvest enough to replace the seed. The government had to give them food on loan causing the people to incur huge debts. In addition, the villages were often attacked by bands of robbers such as the Pugatschew rebels and the plundering nomadic tribes of Kolmuecken, Kirgisen, and Baschkirem. Particularly gruesome were the acts of plunder and murder of Kirgisens in the villages along the Karaman, a tributary of the Volga. About 1200 German colonists - men, women, and children - were enslaved and sold while about the same number were killed. Four villages - Shasselois, Casarenfeld, Keller, and Leitsingen -were completely destroyed by these hoards and were never rebuilt. The government had to send troops to help. The atrocities did not end until the Empress finally established a line of fortifications extending from Orenburg in the Urals to Astrachan on the Volga and manned by Cossacks.

Small wonder that under these circumstances the colonists became homesick and longed to go back to their old homeland. The government, though, wouldn't allow It. Even so, 2000 were successful in moving away.

It wasn't until 1800 that things became better, and the population increased rapidly also. Soon the villages became overcrowded and new settlements were started as outposts of the mother colonies. Sixty-six new settlements were begun between 1848 and 1867. In 1910 there were 192 German villages in the lower Volga with a population of 552,207, and 20,442 who lived in the cities of Saratov, Samara, and others.

When in I874 the Russian government abolished the exemption from military duty, many young people began leaving for North and South America. Especially large was the emigration in the years from 1905 to 1914.

World War I, the subsequent rule of the Bolsheviks, and the severe famine of 1920-22 brought hard times to the Volga colonies. After the Hindenburg victory the German-Russian soldiers were withdrawn from the western front and taken to the Turkish front in the Caucasus. There they were formed into a so-called workers brigade to carry out the hardest and most dangerous tasks. They had to work like slaves. In addition they were given insufficient nourishment. It wasn't long before hunger typhus swept many thousands to their death.

The hatred toward the German colonists mounted and they were feared even more by the Russian newspapers. On February 2, 1915, the Russian government passed a land reform law causing three million Germans in all of Russia to lose their land and to be driven from house and home. Hundreds of thousands of Germans in Wolhynia, Poland, Bessarabia, the Caucasus, etc., were plunged into suffering and death while their villages were taken over by Galizians and Russians. Many were driven to cold Siberia while others were sent to hot middle Asia. By sudden unloading along the way mothers were separated from children and men separated from their wives, never to find each other again. The toll of lives caused by travel fatigue, hunger, and exposure to weather conditions cannot be measured.

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The Volga colony, the oldest and most secluded of the colonial provinces, escaped the full

impact of the decree. But in February 1917 the new land reform law was to divide this land also. Yet the March 1917 revolution of Kerensky disrupted the original plan. Everyone began to breathe again. Then the October 1917 revolution by the Bolsheviks broke out over Russia with its "Red scare". The rich colonies were quickly reduced to poverty.

Conditions were such that the "White Guard" forced itself into the Volga territory and forced the

farmers to fight the "Reds'* under the threat of death. Then, when the Bolsheviks won, they extracted a bloody revenge from the colonists. Countless men and boys were shot to death, often after demonic torture. Women and girls were raped, thousands imprisoned and the villages destroyed. As a result of the senseless land redistribution and the crop failure of 1920, the severest famine broke out taking a large toll of lives. If it had not been for the American aid program, all would have perished.

The Volga colonies were, however, formed into an independent German republic by the Bolsheviks composed of 14 cantons with Pokrowsk as principle city; but they were left destitute. Freedom of speech and the press was once and for all eliminated. Only "Red" newspapers and periodicals were allowed to be published. Woe unto him who spoke critically of the Red oppressors; only genuine Bolsheviks were placed in positions of responsibility. The schools became anti-Christian and the teachers had to declare that they did not believe in the existence of God; those who didn't do this lost their jobs. The school children were raised in Godlessness and filled with Red ideas. All those 18 years and above were obligated to serve in active military duty, Military exercises, once per week, began already at age 12 and 14. All men and boys of draft age were not allowed to emigrate elsewhere.

The wrath of the Bolsheviks was directed against all that was considered Godly. The believers were shipped, tortured, burned and many killed. Churches and prayer houses were damaged, pictures of Christ mutilated or torn to shreds; communion wafers thrown to the dogs and pigs; crosses removed from many churches and replaced by Red Flags; churches and parsonages turned into state buildings. The congregations had to rent their church buildings at outrageous prices. Young people were not allowed to receive religious instruction until after 18 years of age. In order to carry out their calling, pastors had to pay unreasonably high quarterly taxes. If the congregations could not meet the taxes the churches were taken from them.

In the spring of 1922 conditions grew worse for the church. The Abendschule (German periodical in America) wrote in the June 20, 1929, issue:

"Presently in Russia there is a general campaign against all religious organizations. According to a new decree all religious organizations without exception are declared dissolved. In the event they still want to exist they must register. This registration is greatly complicated with obstacles. The congregations must submit detailed reports on their history, social condition, party affiliation, etc. None can be a part of their membership who is in government service. Thus the state can make it more difficult for the churches to exist. Likewise, the authority of the churches is curtailed drastically. They are not allowed to

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own property, to collect dues, or to support any schools. They do not even own their own church buildings, the buildings must be rented from the state and may be closed at any time or taken away from them. Another article (Friedensbote of June 9, 1929) shares several letters from Russia. A teacher writes: "My teaching pension has been taken away from me, and while I serve as sexton ... I was asked to give up this work, but didn't . . . therefore they took my property away from me ... I am a carpenter from way back, and on the side I serve as sexton for a very nominal fee . . . thus they have taken away my altar. My wife and my daughter weep daily . . . Oh, it is so difficult . . . one must stand firm in his faith . . ." Another teacher reports: "Our farmers had their productive land taken away from then and given wasteland instead. City B. took the pastor's land; the village S. took the sexton's land. The fruit trees were practically all chopped down . . , the railing around the old pastor's grave was taken away . . .all monuments broken up ... everything has turned to wilderness. Our dear church already has been robbed three times .. in taxes I must pay more than I earn, so one must sell the little we still own. The pastor wants to leave us--neither he nor the congregation can raise the necessary operating taxes, they are too high . . ." From X (name not given): "Our pastor has just been sentenced to twenty years of hard labor for not stopping a woman of his parish from holding choir practice with children in her home."

According to Brueder Botschafter, The Bolshevik government in Leningrad (St. Petersburg) closed all Evangelical Christian churches, with the exception of one, and imprisoned nearly every one. of the leaders, In Poltawa the believers were terrorized by searching their houses, confiscating all Christian literature and burning it. The Christian believers were afraid to show themselves in public and believe the last days are at hand; they pray that God will give them strength and grace to endure this terrible time of tribulation.

Before closing, a few more items concerning the condition of the churches. By profession most of the Volga-German people were Evangelical (Lutheran and Reformed). In 1910 there were 154 evangelical villages with a population of 435,667 and 38 Catholic villages with 112,076. In 1810 the Evangelical Church formed a union of the Lutheran and Reformed congregations, while each retained separate dogmas and rituals. In 1910 it (Evangelical Church) consisted of 31 parishes, 12 on the mountain side and 19 on the plain side (of the Volga). Added to this were the city congregations of Saratov, Zarizyn, Kamyschin, and Samara with 25,910 members.

Upon the instigation of Superintendent Dr. Fessler from Saratov, a combined hymnal for Evangelical Churches of the Volga was distributed in 1820 which is still in use today. It was composed of selections from hymnals brought from Germany, primarily from the Marburg and Herrnhut hymnals.

In the formative years of settling, there were 8 Protestant pastors in service: Pastor Herwig of Norka, Pastor Janet of Anton, Pastor Saeger of Beideck, Pastor Tarnov of Grimm. Pastor Mittelstaedt of Frank, Pastor Brauns of Stephan, Pastor Wernbucher of Katharinenstadt, and Pastor Altbaum, whose church can no longer be identified. Of these pastors the Reformed Pastor Janet, a Swiss, was praised highly for his great piety. He angered many in the

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Herrnhuter colony of Sarepta and challenged the brethren in his parish to come and hold congregational sessions (for prayer and Bible study). With his death in 1803, this all fell apart again. The Lutheran Pastor Wernbucher from Katharinenstadt was not only a pious man, but also a courageous man. When in the spring of 1776 the Catholic colony of Marlenthal was overrun by the Kirgisens who enslaved both Father Johannes and many of the Inhabitants, Wernbucher gathered 150 men and pursued them. Unfortunately, the Kirgisens overpowered and slaughtered them to the last man. Among these first servants, Pastor Catanes, a Swiss, will also be mentioned with praise. He arrived several years after the colonies were founded and in 1784 became the successor to Pastor Herwig in Norka. He was a stern man and kept discipline and order in his parish. Dr. Bonwetsch reports: "When, as it then occurred frequently, quarreling couples appeared before him seeking divorce, he would allow each to present his complaints, and then, since usually both were partially at fault, give them both a whipping. Therewith the case was usually ended. Nevertheless, the stick of the pastor of Norka served to greatly reduce the number of divorces and as a warning to others." Pastor Catanes was also a good counselor to his children in all situations. His medical ability was known far and wide. Colonists and Kirgisens came from afar to seek his help. It is reported that he successfully performed 16 amputations and 27 cancer operations.

Today there are many pastorates vacant. Foreign pastors are not allowed into the country by the Bolsheviks. After 3 years the Lutheran consistory In Moscow was successful in obtaining permission to start a seminary. Thus hope exists that the Evangelical churches soon will have a supply of preachers. No other vocation in Russia is so despised and dangerous as that of a pastor. Therefore, only those young and older men, who are prepared to suffer and die will offer themselves to this vocation.

May God grant the dear Volga-German people, who have had to endure such hardships, a blessed future; above all, one that will follow in the way of the Good Shepherd.

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THE GERMAN COLONIES ON THE VOLGA

(Translated by Arthur E. Flegel) PASTOR M. BRUNAU

During the 18th Century regions under control of the Hohenzollerns were colonizers of newly developing lands. Earlier, Frederick Wilhelm I, had resettled some 20,000 Evangelical Protestant religious refugees from Salzburg in the Prussian and Latvian districts which had been decimated of population by reason of the "black death" (Bubonic Plague). His son, Frederick the Great, invited and resettled immigrants from the Palatinate (Pfalz), Rhine Hesse, Odenwald, Swabia (Schwaben), Saxony (Sachsen) and Bohemia (Bohmen). Thus, Germans, Poles, and Austrian mountaineers were settled in the areas of Mark Brandenburg and Pomerania shortly before the Seven Years War. It is calculated that some 300,000 persons immigrated into Prussia during his 46 years of rule.

This example established by Frederick the Great was followed by Czarina Catherine II of Russia, a German princess, who through marriage had assumed the throne of Russia. She continued the work begun under Peter the Great, to colonize Russia with settlers from western Europe, and proceeded therefore to create a Manifesto inviting western Europeans into her country.

Russia, a huge kingdom, with broad unpopulated Steppe regions could conveniently supply living area for hundreds of thousands of people. Along the Volga near Saratov lay many miles of undeveloped land. Though under control of the Russian Crown, it was sparsely populated by Nomadic tribes of Kirghis, Kalmuks, and Bashkirs who were in constant conflict with one another. Roving robber-bands preyed on hapless victims. Many excommunicated members of the Orthodox Church had been exiled to this region and here were forced to eke out an existence.

Czarina Catherine II determined to bring settlers into this Volga region who would not only cultivate the virgin soil and make it fruitful but also act as a buffer against the nomadic tribes who would periodically attack the Russian citizenry.

Therefore, on December 4, 1762, Catherine signed a Manifesto which was distributed throughout Western Europe inviting all nationalities to immigrate into the Steppe regions of Russia. This original document was unsuccessful primarily because it lacked definitive provisions regarding the welfare of the settlers. Consequently, on July 22, 1763, a second manifesto was issued which contained numerous guarantees and which brought desired results. The guarantees were as follows:

1. Unqualified Religious Freedom

2. Freedom from taxation and licenses for 30 years for rural settlers and five to ten years for city dwellers.

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3. Government support in the development of lands and industry by supplying interest free loans with repayment delayed for ten years.

4. A guarantee of self-rule within the colonies.

5. Permission to bring any personal possessions into the country duty free.

6. Absolvement from military service for all settlers and their descendants.

7. Free transportation to the area of resettlement as well as monetary stipend paid from date of registration until eventual arrival at destination.

This document was promoted by Russian agents principally within the countries of Germany, France and Switzerland, and to a lesser degree in other European nations.

At this time, the Seven Years War, which had brought disaster to many German territories and poverty to the population, came to an end. Following the war, many discharged soldiers arriving home, found only a disorganized life and frustrating existence. As this Manifesto became known it elicited a wide response. From North and South-West Germany, Switzerland, Holland and France, people of all classes and positions expressed their interest. Even a Count Doenhoff and a Lord von Halstein were among those involved. Only a very small number were farmers and of these mostly the very poor.

The general gathering location was Lubeck, on the Baltic Sea. During the years 1763 to 1766 more than 6,000 families, numbering some 24,000 individuals, congregated here for emigration. Individual groups came by land while others from the Alsace, Switzerland and South Germany carried their possessions down the Rhine to Rotterdam from where they came by ship to Lubeck.

Russian sailing vessels were to transport the immigrants from this point to St. Petersburg. Some of the ships made the trip in ten days. Others took eleven weeks. One ship was wrecked. Fortunately all passengers were saved.

It was no small undertaking to transport this large number of people. Besides, this was not entirely the cream of the populace. Since, in those times, people were generally of more primitive nature, sizeable numbers of this group could be considered little more than rabble, who, during the long and wearisome journey, tended to become quite unruly and difficult to manage. Two Evangelical Pastors who had joined with the immigrant assemblage experienced very limited success in an attempt to maintain order within the group.

At St. Petersburg, the immigrants were reassembled and provisioned with food, clothing and money by the Russian government. All preparations and needs for the establishment of the colonies at the Volga had been pre-arranged here. The caravans were organized into three individual groups. Mostly, they were

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taken by ship up the Neva River to the Wolchov and then across to the Volga River for the long trip around Moscow and eventually to the destination, Saratov.

We should not visualize these immigrants as being Psalm singing pilgrims. Often, they were a source of terror to the regions through which they passed. At Twer*, during the purchase of livestock for butchering, a physical combat developed with the local citizenry. They overpowered the Russians, stormed the town-hall, and bodily threw the city fathers out of the windows into the streets. All this came about, because certain of the townspeople had presumably acted irresponsibly in fulfilling stipulated sales agreements in the purchase of the cattle. Later accounts of this incident were not without added humorous content, telling how the men, following this escapade, calmly and unmolested returned to the ships to proceed undisturbed on their way.

At Torzhok, 70 Wersts (45 miles) from Twer, they were overtaken by the Russian winters and were quartered with the local inhabitants where they were able to learn some Russian.

In the spring of 1767, as the Volga became free of ice, the caravans merrily continued on their way, by water, and in some instances by land. One group actually separated itself at the Province Woronesch to establish the colony Ribensdorf which has kept its German tradition to the present day.

During the summer, they finally arrived at Saratov. The region to be settled stretched from Saratov to Tzaritsin—a distance of 250 Wersts (160 miles) from North to South, and 100 Wersts (65 miles) from East to West on both sides of the Volga River. On the right side, known as the hilly side (Bergseite) the terrain was rolling and covered with forests. The left or the prairie side (Wiesenseite) was a grass covered plain.

The Colonist Acts of the 19th of March, 1764, precisely detailed the creation of settlements. The immigrants were to be settled in areas sufficient for the needs of approximately 1,000 families. Each family was to be given 30 dessiatines (80 acres) of land. For later expansion of the colonies, additional land was to be kept in reserve. Each family was assigned certain acreages for its private use and inheritance, but the assignee could neither sell nor mortgage the property. It was to remain under the ownership of the entire community (Gemeinde).

Thus the traditional Russian "Mir System" of land use and ownership was initiated. This became a very important factor in the later development of the exclusively German communities. Subsequently, through the years until 1816, the village officials in complying with the tenets of the Mir System, subdivided the property in an orderly prescribed manner among every man and male child regardless of age.

The government had prepared for the development of no less than 102 farm villages. Arrangement had been made for the provision of plows, wagons, tools,

* "Twer" present day Kalinin

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seed and food until the first harvest. In addition, 200,000 rubles was guaranteed as a yearly stipend for as long a time as necessary until the settlements would become self-supporting. Even though great amounts of these funds found their way into the pockets of the local government officials, it must never-the-less be recognized that the Czarist Government was attempting its best to help the immigrants become established and to prosper.

By 1768, when the last of the immigrants had arrived, and the migrations had ceased, the families totaled some 8,000 and included approximately 27,000 individuals. For their support, the Russian government had budgeted 5,300,000 rubles. For supervision of the colonies, a Welfare Department which was to hold the position of a Government Ministry, was created at Petersburg in 1763. At its direction, a local supervision office called "Guardianship Office" was established at Saratov.

in spite of all these preparations, the period to follow was to become a very difficult and trying time for the settlers. They found themselves located in a strange land with unfamiliar climatic conditions. Typhoid and Malaria epidemics subjected them to serious losses among their numbers.

This region was extremely unsafe due to wild nomadic tribes and robber-bands which inhabited the area. No one dared venture from the village alone. Only well armed groups of five to ten men felt safe in going any distance to the fields.

Many settlers were totally unaccustomed to farm labor. Since they had been under government support from the time of departure from their homeland in Germany, others were now quite content to leave it so, and made little effort to improve their individual lot. Often, these less industrious ones used government supplied grains for the production of alcoholic beverages and alcoholism became a serious problem. For these reasons, plus the graft, the local Guardianship Committee refrained from supplying certain funds which had been promised and set aside for the Colonists by the Czarist government.

Cultivation methods were quite foreign from those which they had known in Germany. Until they learned how to cope with these problems, crop failures tended to follow year upon year.

During the years 1772-1775, the rebel Pugatcheff, a Don Cossack, passed himself off as Czar Peter IV. Gathering an army of 15,000 men, he proceeded to plunder the Volga region and perpetrated the most vicious atrocities. Barely had his rebellious forces been quelled, when the Kirghiz determined to re-invade their erstwhile homelands. They proceeded to wreak even greater havoc than Pugatcheff's bandits. Many of the Colonists were forcibly taken captive and sold as slaves into distant Asia.

It is recorded that a certain German pastor lost his life during one such encounter. It seems that one man who was exceptionally large of stature and of equally strong personality, gathered all the able-bodied men of Katherinenstadt to pursue after the marauding Kirghiz in an effort to recover the captive men, women and children. However, the Kirghiz, well armed and mounted on fleet horses,

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turned on their pursuers and attacked with ferocious shouting and screaming. The poorly equipped-farmers were quickly overpowered and were forced to scatter for their lives. The pastor, while trying his utmost to reunite them into a fighting unit, was intercepted. A looped rope was thrown about him, dragging him off his horse, and he was thus dragged behind the Kirghiz’ galloping horses until his body was lifeless.

Such occurrences seemed to require that the settlers make a necessary choice. Two alternatives prevailed—either attempt to return to their homelands or find a more safe location for their existence. They had heard of the beautiful peninsula of the Crimea, the fertile valley of the Terek in the Caucusus, as well as the plains of Azov and Taganrog. In these districts, they had heard, conditions were much better. However, no family ever arrived at its desired destination, and only a meager few eventually found their return to the Volga. In most instances they either lost their lives while on the trek or were captured and sold into slavery. By 1775 a mere 23,000 souls were in existence in the colonies where over 27,000 had been originality settled.

Not-with-standing, these multitudinous hardships the pioneers gradually established solid roots, became adjusted and acclimated, and learned how to cope with the land assuring its expanding development. Great need demanded great effort. This eliminated the earlier restlessness and lack of discipline. During the first ten year period, capable ministers, mostly from Switzerland, came to the settlements and taught not only culture in the form of religious education, but economic principles as well.

Eventually the young settlements began to blossom. The Colonists became more efficient farmers and cattle breeders. In addition to existing crops, they initiated tobacco cultivation. Gradually wind-mills, steam driven mills for grinding grain, tanneries, weaving mills and dye works came into existence. Various trades also found fertile ground in the larger villages. As a result, the population, now healthy and independent, began to show a marked birth rate increase.

The land which had originally been so ample became insufficient for the increasing population. By 1840, the acreage per individual had decreased to 40 acres. Consequently, a new district was opened for expansion within the Government (Province) Samara which lay on the prairie side (Weisenseite) of the Volga. Here they were given the use of 260,000 dessiatines (700,000 acres) upon which 61 daughter colonies (tochter Kolonien) were established.

The population continued to grow rapidly. By 1910 census reports, 138 Evangelical colonies existed with a population of 435,667. At the same time 38 Catholic colonies boasted 112,676 inhabitants. Added to this number, was the Hutterite (Moravian Bretheren) Colony at Sarepta with its 33,907 settlers, so that the grand total now stood at some 582,540 descendants of the original immigrants. Other authorities (Dass Deutschtum im Ausland 1918 Heft 38) indicate the total population of the Volga German colonies was nearer 750,000—an increase which is truly amazing.

As a result, most of the available lands were again overpopulated, causing emigration to the North and South Americas. Thousands turned to industrial areas in the greater Russian cities. Many became migratory workers in the

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Ukraine. Other thousands established new colonies near Omsk and Akmulinsk in Siberia as well as the Northern Caucasus. Many returned to Germany prior to World War I, where the newly formed Welfare Organization was able to subsidize their resettlement. Never-the-less, a large over-population continued to exist in the Volga Region, creating considerable poverty in spite of the numerous successful business men, land holders and industrialists.

The older villages advanced to populations of some 10,000 to 13,000 inhabitants. The majority existed by home industry, weaving and small garden farming. The individual acreage had now been reduced to 16.2 acre