The village Frank (5)

The Village Frank Newsletter
Volume 22, Number 3
Summer 1993
Sherrie Stahl, editor

FRANK--- A Village Community In Russia
By M. Magdalene Lebsack

(MY NOTES: As with previous entries, I wish to give special thanks to Sherrie Stahl for all her work in making this possible. She recognized the need to preserve our history early enough to capture valuable information while many of our ancestors from Brunnental were still living—that otherwise might have been lost forever.

This is an excellent description of Frank, continued from the previous post. Frank is the village from which most Brunnentalers originated. According to David Ehlenberger’s family bible, both his father, Jacob Oehlenberger, and his wife Katherine’s father, Johannes Wagner, were born in “Chrisdowou Buerack, Frank” also known as Medweditskij Krestowoj Bujerak.)

(Excerpts)
(Page 8)
When anyone wished to leave for America or any other country, it was necessary for him to go to Saratof for a permit. Upon receiving his permit, he bought a passport. He sold all his personal belongings, also his home, pocketed the money and his responsibilities to the community were ended.

This was not the case when a person moved out of the village into another village of Russia. He went to the Mayer and received a permit which permitted him to move. The Mayor made sure that this person had no debts to pay and if he had, he could not leave unless he had made some sort of an agreement for paying this debt. Even though the man did move to another village he still retained al the rights of a home citizen. He also paid his share of the taxes which was two or three Rubles. (One Ruble was worth forty-seven cents in American money, while Kopek was money which was numbered according to what is was worth).

When it was time for the village to redivide the land among the male citizens, those men who had moved out of the village came back for their share of land. If he had any boys who were born in the village to which he moved, he reported the number born to the council and these boys also received an equal share of land.

This redivision of land took place about every twelve years or sooner, but they were never made in less than five year intervals. When it was time to redivide the land, every able male met at the court house to draw lots. Each male in the village received an equal share of the land. If a baby boy was born the day before redistribution of the land, he received as much land as any other male, but the baby boy born the day after came a little too late for his share and was obliged to wait for the next redistribution.

The Mayor also submitted permits for those wishing to be married for those wishing to go to a big city such as Moscow. On the permit which allows the person to go to Moscow was written the following information: name, home village, destination, date of leaving village, expected date of return, reason for going to Moscow, and other personal data. This made it easier for the village when he finally got to Moscow. After he had showed the permit to the Mayor of the city, he was not looked upon with suspicion.

For each male in the village a certain amount of grain had to be put into the Magazien each year. This grain was then used in cases of emergency such as a famine or in case a very poor family needed food.

All the mail coming into the village or leaving the village went through the hands of the authorities at Saratof. The mailman, who was employed by the state, came to Frank about once a week. No one ever thought of sending a letter to a person living in the same village as he himself lived, since the news could be carried personally much sooner than by mail. There were also no newspapers. If there had been, they would have probably closed up within a month’s time since news was carried by mouth faster than any press could print on paper.

(To be continued...)