This book covers the emigration of the "Catherine the Great" Germans into the Volga River area in the mid to late 1700's, the movement of the Volga German-Russians further east of the Volga River into Russia's Steppes, the western exodus of the Volga German-Russians to the United States, Canada, Germany, Brazil and Argentina in the late 1800's and early 1900's, the Stalin ordered deportation of all Volga German-Russians to Siberia in the 1940's, and their final emigrations back to Germany and their long gone Volga River Colonies. This is my fourth book on the history of the Volga Colonies. See all my books at my websites, www.Volga-Germans.com & www.DarrelKaiserBooks.com
This book covers the emigration of the "Catherine the Great" Germans into the Volga River area in the mid to late 1700's, the movement of the Volga German-Russians further east of the Volga River into Russia's Steppes, the western exodus of the Volga German-Russians to the United States, Canada, Germany, Brazil and Argentina in the late 1800's and early 1900's, the Stalin ordered deportation of all Volga German-Russians to Siberia in the 1940's, and their final emigrations back to Germany and their long gone Volga River Colonies. This is my fourth book on the history of the Volga Colonies. See all my books at my website: www.DarrelKaiserBooks.com
From Privileged to Dispossessed is a social and economic history of the foreign settlers who emigrated to the Volga region in Russia in the eighteenth century. Concentrating on the years 1860 to 1917, a period of rapid change in Russia, it is at once a detailed look at life in the lower Volga valley and a vital chapter in theøhistory of the multinational Russian Empire, assessing as it does the impact of national policy in the outlying provinces. James W. Long's book shatters the prevailing view of the Volga Germans in Russia, showing them not untouched by time but remarkably adaptable to ever-changing circumstances. It reveals how numerous nineteenth-century government reforms and rapid economic development, and the subsequent restruc-turing of state and society, transformed their lives for good and ill. It also illustrates the striking continuity of a misguided nationality policy that alienated a loyal, productive minority group by means of rigorous Russification and expropriation of landholdings. From Privileged to Dispossessed makes extensive use of rare materials from major Soviet research libraries and of oral interviews with Volga German immigrants. The book will be of special interest not only to historians but to people of Volga German descent, whose ancestors had learned to survive in a foreign land a century before they came to the North American prairies in the 1870s.
The Volga Germans (German: Wolgadeutsche or Russlanddeutsche (a more generic term for all Russian Germans), Russian: поволжские немцы, romanized: povolzhskiye nemtsy) are ethnic Germans who colonized and historically lived along the Volga River in the region of southeastern European Russia around Saratov and to the south. Recruited as immigrants to Russia in the 18th century, they were allowed to maintain their German culture, language, traditions and churches (Lutheran, Reformed, Catholics, Moravians and Mennonites). This book identifies the hardships that our German-Russian ancestors endured and overcame in the Volga Colonies. The First Chapter covers their emigration to the Volga Colonies. The Second Chapter covers the Shock and Disappointment, Death Rate, Wild Weather, Sickness, and Food Shortages that they endured
Hardship to Homeland recounts Volga Germans’ unique story in a saga that stretches from Germany to Russia and across the Atlantic. Burdened by war and debt, life was extremely difficult for impoverished European peasants until a former German princess came to power. Seeking to increase borderland population, provide a buffer against Ottoman Empire incursions, and bring agricultural ingenuity to her country, Russian empress Catherine II issued a remarkable 1763 manifesto inviting Europeans to immigrate. Their passage paid, colonists would become Russian citizens, yet retain their language and culture. For the next four years, some 27,000 settlers came--mostly from Hesse and the Palatinate--founding 104 communities along both banks of the Volga River near Saratov and introducing numerous agricultural innovations. But the Russian Senate revoked the original settlement terms in 1871. Facing poor economic conditions and a forced Russian army draft, 100,000 Volga Germans joined other immigrant waves to the New World. After a decade of hardship in the Midwest, some began moving to the Pacific Northwest, and their westward movement was one of the region’s largest single ethnic group migrations. From outposts in Washington State they spread throughout the Columbia Basin, along the coast, and into northern Idaho, Oregon, British Columbia, and Alberta, transforming their new homelands into centers of western productivity and significantly influencing North American religion, politics, and social development. Hardship to Homeland is a revised and expanded reprint of The Volga Germans: Pioneers of the Northwest, published in 1985 and long out of print. This edition offers a new introduction as well as Volga German folk stories from the Pacific Northwest, collected and retold by Richard D. Scheuerman, with illustrations by Jim Gerlitz.
The Volga Germans (German: Wolgadeutsche or Russlanddeutsche (a more generic term for all Russian Germans), Russian: поволжские немцы, romanized: povolzhskiye nemtsy) are ethnic Germans who colonized and historically lived along the Volga River in the region of southeastern European Russia around Saratov and to the south. Recruited as immigrants to Russia in the 18th century, they were allowed to maintain their German culture, language, traditions and churches (Lutheran, Reformed, Catholics, Moravians and Mennonites). This book identifies the hardships that our German-Russian ancestors endured and overcame in the Volga Colonies. The First Chapter covers their emigration to the Volga Colonies. The Second Chapter covers the Shock and Disappointment, Death Rate, Wild Weather, Sickness, and Food Shortages that they endured
"This story deals with one of the largest migrations by a single ethnic group to the Pacific Northwest. It is the saga of the Volga Germans who settled in this region and has a scenario stretching from Germany and Russia. It explores their European origins in the eighteenth century and investigates the remarkable program of colonization in augurated in the 1760s under the Russian empress, Catherine II."--Preface, page 5.
