Village Names

AHSGR, Work Paper No. 23, Spring 1977

Present-Day Names of Former German Volga Colonies
By Emma Schwabenland Haynes

(Excerpts)
(Page 1)
Officially, no Soviet Germans are allowed to reside in the colonies from which they were deported in 1941, and as time passes on, the present-day Russian inhabitants have a tendency to forget that these villages were founded by German-speaking people. On the other hand, the descendants of emigrants from Russia, now living in the New World, who have always heard these villages referred to by their German names, would have trouble finding their position on a modern map of Russia. For that reason, Dr. Stumpp has undertaken the tremendous task of trying to determine the names by which the former German colonies are now known. In order to do this, he acquired modern Russian maps of the various regions (oblastj) in which the Germans used to live. Then he compared these maps with those showing German names before 1941. He recently sent to me the results of his work as far as the colonies on the Volga are concerned, but is continuing his research on the Black Sea and other German groups. These findings will eventually be printed in some publication of the Landsmannschaft der Deutschen aus Russland.

After the Volga colonies were founded (1764-1776), the inhabitants formed the habit of referring to their villages by the name of the first mayor. Eventually Russian names were assigned, but the people had become accustomed to the German terms and used the Russian nomenclatures only in official documents. The only exceptions to this rule can be found in the colonies of Jagodnaja Poljana, Kamenka, Krasnojar, Norka, Orlowskoje, Paulskoje, Semenowka, and Schtscherbakowka. In the same way the Black Sea colonies also had Russian names in addition to the German ones.

(Page 2)
…In ten cases, the Russian name is different from the one used before 1941 but still bears a noticeable resemblance. These can be found in the colonies of Bettinger, Boiroux, Frank, Kolb, Krasnojar, Kukkus, Oberweditskij Krestowoj Bujerak. Today it is simply known as Medweditza.

…But, since information about the former colonies is practically non-existent, it is possible that some of these places are neighboring Russian villages. For that reason, Dr. Stumpp requests that anyone having exact information about the present name of these sixteen German villages should let him know.

(MY NOTES: This is in no way a complete list. The following contains only village names which may pertain to known relatives. I will expand this list later on, need be.).
GERMAN VOLGA MOTHER COLONIES
German Name:
Frank



Russian Name Before 1941:
Medweditskij Krestowoj Bujerak
(MY NOTES: David lists this official name in his family bible as the birthplace of his father.)

Russian Name After 1941:
Medweditza

PARTIAL LIST OF VOLGA DAUGHTER COLONIES
German Name:
Brunnental

Russian Name Before 1941:
Kriwojar

Russian Name After 1941:
Kriwojar