Russia

AHSGR, Work Paper No. 5, February 1971

(Excerpts)

Page 25 - 26:
Already Czar Ivan IV, the Terrible (1533 - 1584), had called craftsmen, merchants and officers from Germany and settled them near Moscow in a village called "Nyemetzkaya Sloboda." Czar Peter I had also invited many Germans when he built his new capital St. Petersburg. But it was the Empress Catherine II, whowith her manifest of July 22, 1763, brought about a great exodus from Germany to Russia. Not only Germans were invited to come and settle in her domain but Western Europeans in General.

The unsatisfactory conditions in Germany favored her inviation. In fact the population suffered mimmensely under the steady wars. There were the three Silesian wars between Austria and Prussia; 1740-1742; 1742-1745; and 1756-1763. Interwoven with them were the Austrian Succession war 1741-1748; adn the Bavarian Succession war 1778-1779. Finally the French Revolution came in 1789 (12) midst [sic] the general poverty and misery the call to Russia came for many as a relief or last resort.

Of most importance among the provisions of the manifesto, are the first 10 sections. Essentially they promise and grant to the settlers the following:

1. Freedom of Religion.
2. Exemption from taxes for a period of ten to thirty years.
3. Loans for the acquisision of necessary tols.
4. Thirty to sixty hectars [sic] of land.
5. Exempton from military service for "all the time of their residence in Russia."
6. Self-rule in church and school.

Item number seven, which deals with the freeing from military ervice, reads thus:
"Paseliwschiesya w Rassii innostrannye wa wso wremya prebywanyia swayewo, ni w wayennuyu, ni w graschdanskuyu sluschbu protiwu woli ich apredeleny ne budut."

In English:
"The foreigners which have settled in Russia shall during all the time o heir living there not be put into military or civil service agains their will."

Government agents spread copies of the edict translated into different languages in Germany, France, Swtzerland, Holland, Austria and Prussia. About 25,000 persons were recruited and directed to the sea ports of Luebeck,Rosslau and also some Hollandish ports including Kronstadt. (13) Some of the emigrants were settled around St. Petersburg in 13 villages, but the great majority was sent to the Volga over Novgorod, Tver, Moscow, Ryavan and Pensa. They landed in Saratov and were placed under the direction of a "Board of Guardians." This board settled the newcomers on both sides of the Volga river. Forty-four villages were founded on the so-called hillside and 60 on the meadowside. Some to the north-east and some to the south of Sarotov [sic]. (14) (MY NOTES: Brunnentahl is just Southeast of Saratov.)

The emigration to Russia went on till 1768, when the German states place a prohibition on further emigration. This was not, however, until Germany in Russia had beome the largest colonist group. Before the First World War it counted 554,000 persons. (16)

In spite of the measures of the western states, the emigration to Russia continued. In the years from 1765-1789 a number of Protestant and Catholic colonies were founded in the provinces of Chersn, Voronezch, Tschernigov and Ekaterinoslav. (17)


NOTES:
(12) Stumpp, K. Dr. Die deutsche Auswanderung nach Russland 1763-1862. Page VI.
(13) Bonwetsch, Gehardt Dr. Geschichte der deutschen Kolonien an der Wolga pp. 30-31.
(14) Stumpp, K. Dr. The German Russians p. 12.
(16) Mortitz, Andreas. Aus der russlanddeutschen Forschung. Deutsche Post aus dem Osten 1940. p. 14.
(17) Stumpp, Karl Dr. Die Russlanddeutschen. p. 13.