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.

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.