False Promises

AHSGR, Work Paper No. 6, May 1971

The Pacific Northwesterner
Volume 8
Fall, 1964
Number 4

Inland Empire Russia Germans
By Harm H. Schlomer

(Excerpts)
(Page 53)
Since the middle of the 18th century, however, Russia was not in a position to colonize the empty steppes. The bad situation of the peasants, the hard fetters of serfdom, their entire economic and cultural condition made them useless for profitable colonization. In order to realize the colonization of the steppes, therefore, Russia turned her attention over her borders to western Europe. With this a new epoch in the “Europeanizing” of Russia was opened which had already begun under Peter the Great.

(Page 54)…Now the goal was, to establish whole German settlements on the open land. So it was the obvious thing to do for Catherine II, herself a German, to turn to colonizing with Germans in a big way. Her manifesto of July 22, 1763, was the cornerstone of Russian colonization policy during her reign and in later times. In this document the colonists were promised the right to settle in any part of Russia, payment of traveling expenses, freedom of religion, freedom from taxes for thirty years, freedom from military service, and internal self-government.

…Countless copies of the Czarina’s (Catherine II) appeal were distributed in Germany. All of the ministers and representatives at the numerous courts of divided Germany spread a net of assembly points over the German “Laender.” Through all kinds of lures and inducements the Russian agents sought to get emigrants. Numerous lies and tricks were practiced by the Russian agents in their attempts to gain large numbers of colonists. The Germans were told that the country along the Volga was very much like the one in which they were living. They were told that the climate was extremely mild, the ground fertile, and the entire region a veritable paradise. In this way 25,000 people were enlisted for the colonization of the Volga region…

The German colonists were deceived the moment they set foot on Russian soil. In imagination the Germans saw a new paradise awaiting them at the end of the journey. What they found was a no-man’s land. No sooner had colonies been established than nomadic raiders descended upon the settlers to steal, plunder, rob and burn, especially on the east side of the Volga, the plains side (Wiesenseite) (MY NOTES: Brunnentahl is on the east side.). The newly acquired land on the Volga was either very light and sandy in parts or very rich. It gradually dawned on the stolid Germans that they were to be used to tame the nomadic hordes, (wild Mongolian tribes called Kalmucks, Bashkirs, Kirghiz, etc.) and to cultivate the virgin soil.