A Day Commemorating the Deportation of the Russian-Germans
|Alexander Wormsbecher, Omsk, Siberia,
Gedenktag an die Deportation der Russlanddeutschen
Fefyolova, T. "A Day Commemorating the Deportation of the Russian-Germans." Rundschau, 28 August 2001, no. 34: 431.
Translation from German to English by Alex Herzog, Boulder,
The August 22, 2001 issue of the Rundschau ("The only Russian-German
Newspaper for all of Russia"), under the large heading:
presents two brief, front-page articles, one in contrast with
the other, just as a heading over a picture on the same page indicates
the contrasting phases of german presence in Russia: "Erst
gerufen, dann verbannt," or "First [we were] invited,
then banished." The first article, black print on white,
may not be very new to folks familiar with Russian-german history,
but it is a nice summary of how the invitation of Catherine II
and the various privileges she promised to the settlers who followed
her invitation gave strong impetus to a huge wave of immigration
lasting over a hundred years. The second, white print on black,
with an accompanying picture of Joseph Stalin, summarizes the
infamous ukase/edict of 1941 ordering the deportation or, effectively,
the banishment and death of many thousands of Volga Germans and
a portrait of Catherine II is the following caption:
"Tsarina Katharina II (1762 - 1796), nee Princess Sophie
Auguste Friederike von Anhalt-Zerbst. During her reign, the landmass
of Russia was vastly expanded, at the expense of Ottoman Empire
and of Poland. Her manifesto of invitation in the year 1763 set
off the German farmers' colonization of Russia."
Then and now, there have been Germans in Russia. Early Russian
Tsars demonstrated great interest in German technicians, scientists,
military people, merchants, and so on. But the wave of settlers,
well-planned and directed from the highest levels, did not take
materialize until the reign of Katharina II (1762 - 1796). After
her first manifesto of DEC. 4, 1762, by which she formally invited
immigration to Russia, failed to elicit a real response -- it
should be remembered that the Seven-Year War (1756 - 1763) was
still raging in Germany -- she issued a second, detailed manifesto
that met with great success. On March 19 further regulations were
promulgated that dealt with ownership of land, named specific
areas for settlement, and designated the amount of land to be
allocated to each immigrant farmer. The most significant regulations
read as follows:
1. The right to unrestricted exercise of religious freedom
2. Temporary exemption from taxes, set for 10 - 30 years in rural
areas, for 30 years in the cities
3. Interest-free loans for any and all acquisitions
4. Exemption from military service "in perpetuity"
5. Self-government at the community and school level
6. 30 - 80 desyatins of land granted gratis by the Crown to every
Under Katharina II, the hold of the Turks was finally broken
as they were being driven out of the Black Sea region. In 1763
Russia acquired the Crimean Peninsula. In 1788 the fortress of
Ochakov was captured, and in the 1792 the "Peace of Jassy"
forced the Turks to cede to Russia the area stretching from Ochakov
to the Dnyestr River. And via the "Peace Bucharest"
in 1812, Russia was awarded Bessarabia.
This constituted the very onset of the development of the region,
demonstrated especially in the actions of the the war's hero,
Potyomkin. He founded the cities of Cherson, Mariupol, Sevastopol,
Yekaterinoslav, Nikolayev, Tiraspol, and Odessa, the "Queen
of all Black Sea Cities."
All of these cities would later be of great importance to the
colonists, who played a substantial role in their development.
Since the new areas were only sparsely populated, and the new
lands were yet to be opened up, there was a great need for able
and diligent workers, especially farmers.
Following the invitation by the Tsarina, around 8,000 families
(or about 27,000 persons) emigrated to the Volga region between
1763 and 1767. On the mountainous as well as the grassy shore
of the river, families such as the Kleins and the Bauers, the
Heckmanns and the Eurichs began, from about 1764, established
colonies such as Anton, Fischer, Schilling, Rosenhein or Hussaren,
and also places that commemorated the names of the colonists'
origins, such as Schaffhausen, Zurich, and Holstein. The first
colonists had come from Hesse. In the Marian Church at Buedingen,
about 400 new couples were registered in the period 1764/65 alone.
At their weddings, they were already being called "Russian
Rapidly, the Hessians were followed by families from Alsace,
the Palatinate, Switzerland, Bavaria-Schwabia, Northern Germany,
and Western Prussia.
The immensity of the geographical expansion of Russia that stemmed
from lands taken from Turks and Crimean Tatars was equaled by
the extensiveness of the wave of immigration to the East.
Lands that had been allocated to the colonist families would
turn into untouchable and hereditary possessions in the colonist
communities. Furthermore, the colonists had been granted the right
to communal self-government without interference in their internal
affairs from any Russian authorities. They were even allowed to
acquire servants and subject any "member of Muslim peoples"
to their service. Finally, also of great significance was the
fact that the colonists were allowed to leave the Tsarist Empire
at any time, without impediment.
These were the privileges that formed the impetus for a powerful
wave of immigration that lasted around 100 years. They attracted
German colonists not only to the Volga, but also to South Ukraine,
to Crimea, to Bessarabia and even to the Caucasus.
Note: Above this article, there is a replica of a painting by
Alexander Wormsbecher of Omsk entitled "We, 1941" and
picturing a multitude of people, and superimpsoed, the outlines
of a document with the Russian title of "Ukas". Accompanying
the article is a photo of Joseph Stalin with the caption, "Photo
taken during the final years of his life; in the USSR, printing
of his picture was prohibited during his lifetime." Translation
of the article follows.
A decree [i.e, ukase of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, tr.]
issued on August 28, 1941 ordered the dissolution of the Volkga
Republic and the deportation of its entire German population to
Siberia and Central Asia. Between 1941 and 1946, as many as 1,200,000
Germans were deported, and at least 300,000 lost their lives as
a result. To justify the dissolution of the Volga Republic, the
decree cited the following claim: "According to accurate
information received by military authorities, the German population
residing in the Volga Rayon is harboring thousands upon thousands
of subversives and spies who -- given only a signal from Germany
-- will cause explosions to take place in the region inhabited
by Volga-Germans. Yet, not a single German residing in the Volga
Rayon has informed Soviet authorities of the presence among Volga-Germansof
these subversives and spies [*] ... In order to prevent undesirable
occurrences of this kind and to avoid bloodshed, the Presidium
of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR has found it necessary to resettle
the entire German population of the Volga region into other areas."
The absurdity of this claim becomes clear when one considers,
among other facts, that actual deportation of Germans residing
in the region had begun as early as July, 1941; and that, as of
September/October of 1941 men who had been in active military
service were being removed from front areas and dispersed into
[*] Translator's note: In another German text of the ukase the
sentence ending here with the ellipsis (...) also includes the
following italicized words where the asterisk is placed: "
... therefore concealing enemies of the Soviet people and of Soviet
might. Also, in place of the phrase "thousands upon thousands"
that particular printing reads "a large number."
Our appreciation is extended to Alex Herzog for translation
of this article.
Note: See the following website pages:
Catherine the Great: library.ndsu.edu/grhc/history_culture/history/catherine.html