Decree of the Presidium of the USSR Supreme Soviet

Journal of the American Historical Society of Germans from Russia

Summer 2020 Volume 43, No. 2 Editor, Michael Brown Emeritus Professor, University of Wyoming

Editorial & Publications Coordinator, Allison Hunter-Frederick AHSGR Headquarters, Lincoln, Nebraska

EDITORIAL BOARD

Michael Brown Timothy J. Kloberdanz Emeritus Professor, University of Wyoming Professor Emeritus North Dakota State University, Laramie, WY Fargo, ND

Robert Chesney J. Otto Pohl Cedarburg, Wisconsin Laguna Woods, CA

Irmgard Hein Ellingson Dona Reeves Marquardt Bukovina Society, Ellis, KA Professor Emerita at Texas State University Austin, TX Velma Jesser Derby, Kansas Eric J. Schmaltz Northwestern Oklahoma State University William Keel Alva, OK Professor Emeritus University of Kansas, Lawrence, KA Jerome Siebert Moraga, California

Mission Statements The American Historical Society of Germans from Russia is an international organization whose mission is to discover, collect, perserve, and share the history, cultural heritage, and genealogical legacy of German settlers in the Russian Empire.

The International Foundation of American Historical Society of Germans from Russia is responsible for exercising financial stewardship to generate, manage, and allocate resources which advance the mission and assist in securing the future of AHSGR.

Cover Illustration The statue at the front of the AHSGR Headquarters Building in Lincoln, Nebraska, is sculpted from limestone and stands about seven feet high. It depicts a German Russian family who has just arrived in the new world to the United States, Canada, or South America. Contents

Niedermonjou By Dr. Olga Litzenberger...... 1

Drafting Settlers of the Colony of Peskovatka (Kolb) in 1874 – 1917 By Dr Elena Ananyan...... 9

Decree of the Presidium of the USSR Supreme Soviet “Concerning the Submission of Changes to the Decree of the Presidium of the USSR Supreme Soviet from August 28, 1941 ‘On the Resettle- ment of Germans Residing in the Volga Region’” (August 29, 1964)1 By Eric Schmaltz...... 13

After Collectivization: How Stalin’s Agricultural Policies Affected German Farming Settle- ments By Ulrich Merten...... 18

Renn Weilert’s Story By Renn Weilert...... 25 The Journal of the American Historical Society of Germans from Russia is published by AHSGR. The Journal welcomes the submission of articles, essays, family histories, anecdotes, folklore, book reviews, and items regarding all aspects of the lives of Germans in or from Russia. All submissions are subject to review by the Editorial Board. Manuscripts should be typed, double-spaced with endnotes. Submit an electronic copy of the article by email attachment or mail a compact disc or flash drive containing a copy of the computer file. We can accept IBM-compatible Microsoft Word™ files. Our style guide is The Chicago Manual of Style, 15th Edition (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2003), and translations follow the Transliteration Standards approved by the Library of Congress and the American Library Association, which can be reviewed on the Internet at http://lcweb.loc.gov/catdir/cpso/roman.html. Please indicate in your email or cover letter whether you have photos or illustrations to accompany your article. Photos or illustrations sent on disc should be in JPEG format. Unless you instruct us otherwise, submissions not published in the Journal will be added to the AHSGR Archives.

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631 D Street • Lincoln, NE 68502-1149 • Phone 402-474-3363 E-mail [email protected] • Website www.ahsgr.org

(Bobrovka, today BOBROVKA, Marx Rayon, Saratov Region)

Written by Dr. Olga Litzenberger English Translation by Alex Herzog with editorial assistance from Dr. Nancy Herzog

Geographical Location and Administrative Affili- part of the kanton Krasnoyastskiy of the Republic of ation During the 19th and 20th Century Volga Germans.

The German colony Niedermonjou was founded in Brief History of the Settlement the area on the left side of the Volga where the Liesel River enters the Volga. It lay 396 verst [ca. 245 miles] The German colony Niedermonjou was founded from Samara, 45 verst [ca. 30 miles] from Saratov, 80 on June 7, 1767, by the recruiter Baron Caneau de verst [ca. 53 miles] from the county seat Novousensk, Beauregard. It was established by 88 families (279 and 16 verst [ca. 11 miles] from the administrative dis- colonists). They came from Hesse, Saxony, Prussia, trict village of Krasniy Yar. From 1891 until October, Swabia, and other German regions. Before new colo- 1918, the village was part of the administrative district nies were established in 1789, around 120 families Krasnoyarskaya, county Novousenskiy, Gouverne- settled here. Each colonist received from the Welfare ment Samara. Commission office of Saratov two horses and one cow.

Bobrovka. Former Church School of the Parish. Today a school and kindergarten. Bobrovka. Former School and Schoolmaster’s Home. Photo: by the author. 2010.

After the establishment of the Workers’ Commune of Most of the initial colonist families were Lutherans. Volga Germans, Niedermonjou was the administrative 142 persons belonged to the Reformed branch of Prot- center for the village soviet [a Communist local coun- estantism. As in many other colonies, some Catholics cil] Nidermonshuskiy, kanton Marxstadtskiy. In 1926, also settled in Niedermonjou. They had joined in with the village soviet included the hamlets Metchetka, others on certain transport ships or had been sent to Susly, Erster Graben, Dritter Graben, Boxergraben, the colony. Three families (eight persons, consisting and Damm. From 1922 on, the village was part of the of Johann Christian Änster with wife and son, Mat- kanton Marxstadtskiy. Between 1935 and 1941, it was thias Hausner with wife and son, and Johann Hager

AHSGR Journal Summer 2020 1 with a son) were Catholic. Most of the “temporary” and cultivate the untouched steppe at a border region colonists were Protestants. of the country.

The name for the colony is derived from the word Among the initial 95 colonists, there were also four “nieder” [lower] and the family name of the second blacksmiths, three millers, three bakers, two tailors, director of the colony, Otto Friedrich von Monjou. and one each of paper maker, locksmith, potter, beer A decree dated February, 1786 confirmed the name brewer, saddle maker, and gardener, plus two masons, Niedermonjou. The Catholic counterpart colony was two carpenters, and two roofers. The latter two were Obermonjou [“Upper Monjou] (today Krivovskoye, especially needed for the infrastructure and for build- rayon Marxovskiy, Saratov region.) ing houses and community structures.

Johann Gottlieb Georgi of German ancestry, ethnogra- pher and traveling researcher, wrote as follows about the German colonist villages: “Each such village is comprised of twenty-five to a hundred families. Unlike the homes of Russians, which are built with wooden beams and covered with wooden planks, the German village homes are made of carpenter-prepared wood, and the walls are painted. They are good to look at and sit in rows along streets that are drawn straight as an arrow.”1

Bobrovka. Former Church Parish School. Photo by the author. 2010.

Only by 1915, during the phase when anti-German sentiment was rampant across the entire country, the village was given the name Bobrovka, which had been used by Russian residents as early as the second half of the 19th Century. The hostile attitude against the Germans arose after war had broken out in 1914, and because Germany was the principal war enemy. A series of laws were passed that discriminated against the German population of Russia. In 1914, German Typical German House of a Volga German, cross-section. Draw- publishers and clubs were shut down. Use of the Ger- ing by E, Siehlke, 2001. man language in public and even in private was banned in many parts of the country. An August 18, 1916, The colonists grew wheat, rye, potatoes, and millet decree banned the teaching of the German language and, with less success, barley and peas. According in all institutions of learning in Russia. Many German to a census of 1834, each soul listed received 15 de- villages were renamed at the time. Niedermonjou be- syatines [just less than 40 acres] of land. According came Bobrovka. Subsequent to the establishment of to a tenth census of 1857, 827 male colonists owned the so-called Workers’ Commune of Volga Germans, an average of 5.9 desyatines [ca. 15 acres] per listed the villages were given back their original names. soul. Increasing dearth of farming and forest land often led to squabbles among the German colonists. For Most of the original settlers were experienced dirt example, in 1809, colonists from Niedermonjou, in a farmers, a fact that fully corresponded to Russia’s collective writing to the Welfare Committee Office, basic intention to attract colonists in order to open up complained about the residents of Tonkoshurovka and

2 AHSGR Journal Summer 2020 Otrogovka, who had mowed grass on meadowland Niedermonjou experienced several anti-Soviet ac- that had been assigned to the Niedermonjou village.2 tions. For example, a 1934 pre-election village cam- paign meeting by the Soviets could not be carried out During the early years, one of the main sources of due to high drunkenness of the voters and the leader income was raw tobacco. The Welfare Office desired of the village soviet. It was alleged that the kulaks to assist the settlers in starting entire tobacco planta- had made them drunk.6 Dozens of residents were tions. The Office carefully controlled contracts for subjected to repressions because of creating a counter- acquiring uncured tobacco. It guaranteed the colonists revolutionary organization. In September 1941, all payment for tobacco they would deliver. In 1780, the ethnic Germans of the village were deported. From colonists of Niedermonjou acquired 526 pud [nearly 1942, the village was once again called Bobrovka. 19,000 pounds] of raw tobacco.3 School and Instructions Data from the Central Statistics Committee shows that the village had one tile factory and ten windmills. The Statistics Committee of the Gouvernement Saratov listed 349 farmsteads in the colony.

During the years 1920-1923, a famine broke out in the Volga colonies, the extent of which had never before been experienced in the entire history of the colonies. By January 1, 1922, the morbidity rate in Niedermonjou was 3.8 times the birth rate.4

During the outbreak of uprisings against the Soviet power—essentially a revolt because of the famine—in 1921, the German settlements and large parts of the Autonomous Region of Volga Germans lay in the Bobrovka. Former School and a German House. Early in the 20th hands of the rebels, so an uprising in Niedermonjou Century; photo by the author, 2010. itself was largely avoided. In the village, a security and observation post were established and Red troops Arriving with the first colonists in Niedermonjou were stationed, who subsequently attacked the rebels was the teacher Thomas Bert. He came from Berlin in neighboring villages. and was a member of the Reformed Church. Arriving with him in Russia were his wife and mother-in-law. In 1920, the village had a cooperative store, an agri- At first, he instructed the children in his house. After cultural credit association, and a reading room. During some of the temporary residents moved on from Nie- the collectivization phase, the following kolkhozi were dermonjou, the village residents constructed their own established: “Eifer [Enthusiasm],” “Held [Hero],” and school during the winter of 1767-1768. Before the “Budyonniy,” plus a so-called storm brigade with its construction of a church in 1828, services and school local leader, a villager by the name of Leu. The bri- classes were held in the existing school building. At- gade was rather successful in delivering the required tendance at school was compulsory for children seven amount of grain [to the government]. to 15 years of age.

Literature shows that many village soviets [local During the 1870’s, a so-called semstvo school [con- Communist councils] were “subjected to repressions trolled by the state instead of the community] was and removal from the Party, because of their failure established. It had only a single track of three grades, to deliver sufficient grains.”5 but the village community was obliged to provide space for this school. Classes for both schools were held in church space. Grades had children of different ages and they were taught by a qualified teacher.

AHSGR Journal Summer 2020 3 The distribution of teaching materials was exemplary. It was only by the middle of the 19th Century that Mandatory subjects were The Law of God, reading, parishes, all of which were affiliates of Lutheran par- writing, arithmetic and singing. The teachers prepared ishes, began to construct their own church structures, lesson plans on their own and created complementary which then replaced school and prayer houses. At courses. They were allowed to target teaching materi- the time, the church in Niedermonjou was one of the als to the respective grade levels. first and most significant Houses of God constructed in parish branches. It was completed in 1828.8 Other Regional superintendent J. Erbes for the area on the churches in parish branches did not come about until left side of the Volga kept data regarding the state of considerably later. Houses of God were not only indis- the German schools in the Volga colonies. In 1906, pensable for Lutheran divine services, but in addition of the 4,000 village residents [Niedermonjou, pre- they became a true ornament and a national shrine in sumably], there were 535 children, seven to 15 years every German settlement. of age, required to attend school. Actual attendance was below 100%. Nearly 200 children did not go to school. In 1906, the semstvo school had two teachers7 instructing 99 boys and 16 girls. The church school was attended by 94 boys and 126 girls, and it employed two teachers. Both schools were supported by the church community. By Soviet time, the church and the semstvo schools were closed and replaced by a separate public elementary school.

Faith Affiliation of the Residents and Certain of its Features

The colonists belonged to the Evangelical-Lutheran Bobrovka. Wooden building of the onetime Evangelical-Lutheran denomination. church. Photo: Je. Moschkow. 2010.

The Extended Parish The Niedermonjou church had been constructed from wood and covered with wooden boards. Its form was Until 1905, the Niedermonjou community was part of that of an elongated square with rectangular windows the extended parish Katharinenstadt South, founded and an upper level. The spire was very high. The build- in 1768. From 1905 on, it belonged to the parish ing had an expansive vestibule. At the ground level Paulskoye, founded September 19, 1905. The parish of the church, 446 faithful could be seated. Travelers comprised the villages Niedermonjou, Paulskoye, at the time who had observed a rather small number Telyause, and Boregard. of churches in the Volga region deemed the church to be “monumental.” Contemporary witnesses said Date of Completion of Church Construction and that its bell tower with the solid cross were visible as its Architectural Features. far away as the trade route Nikolayevsk-Saratov in the steppe. Even today, the church in Niedermonjou During the first few months after the village was remains an interesting example of early colonist settle- founded, parish members gathered for prayer and ment architecture. ceremonial healings in private homes. After the “temporary” residents moved on, services—despite At the time, the outer and inner format of German availability of a school and prayer house—were held churches was rather uniform throughout the Volga in a larger room that was also used as a classroom region. Specifically, the area’s church construction and prayer room. methods called for a rectangular apse [nave? – Tr.] and a vestibule with a flat ceiling. The interior of the

4 AHSGR Journal Summer 2020 church was divided into sections via rows of columns. The population numbers of the Volga colonies were Walls were decorated with statues of prominent saints. decreased by the famine during the early 1920s. Dur- This specific church architecture, also called basilica ing 1921, the village recorded 160 births and 603 style, remained the only one in the Volga region until deaths.10 Data from the Statistical Regional Admin- at least 1860. As church architecture developed, so did istration of the autonomous regions of the Volga Ger- the attitudes toward it. The financial potential of the mans, Niedermonjou on January 1, 1922, had 2,148 colonists began to transform the church exteriors. The persons, and in 1923 it had 2,100. The All-Russia rather simple basilica style was replaced by a richer, census of 1926 indicates that in 1926 there were 476 close-to classical style called “Kontor Style.” (473 of them German) households in the village total- ing 2,732 persons (1,354 men and 1,378 women) and Parish members were always reluctant to build new 2,652 were Germans.11 In 1931, some 3,640 persons church structures in their villages. Thus, the structure lived in Niedermonjou, of whom 3,630 were German. built in 1828 would be renovated regularly and thor- oughly cleaned. Adjacent to the church there were the bell tower and housing for the Küster [sexton].

Bobrovka. Partial ruins of a former church building. Photo: Je. Moschkow. 2010. From the History of the Church Community and Bobrovka. Wooden structure of the onetime Evangelical-Lutheran the Parish church. Author’s photo. 2010.] Digging deeply into the history of Niedermonjou, a Population Data person cannot get past a specific archive document, namely, the file regarding the former leader (Martin In 1767, Niedermonjou had 279 “foreign” colonists; Karl) of the Niedermonjou colony, and about vinicul- 349 in 1773; 295 in 1788; 362 in 1798; 597 in 1816; ture, plus a defamatory pamphlet directed at Pastor 1,007 in 1834; 1,405 in 1850; 1,480 in 1859; 2,449 in Walberg.12 Production and marketing of alcoholic 1883, 2,702 in 1889. According to a census of 1897, products was exclusively the province of the state. Niedermonjou had 2,915 residents, of whom 2,902 Article 34 of the September 16, 1800 “Instruction were German. By 1904, the count was 3,868 residents, Regarding Internal Order and Administration, in the 9 and in 1910 it was 4,216 persons. Volga Colonies”13 read as follows: “From requests and complaints, the Kontor is familiar with ... that Due to the Bolshevik policies, from 1917 on, popula- some colonists are selling alcoholic drinks from tion numbers decreased steadily, engendered by the their own homes. Village authorities must watch this famines in the 1920s and 1930s, the de-kulakization strictly ... that colonists do not sell drinks from their policy, repressions, and emigration. Information from homes ... because the selling of drinks in taverns and the All-Russia census of 1920, the population of Nie- stores in the colonies can occur only by designation dermonjou was 3,798 persons. of the owner’s place as a point of sale of drinks.” Ap- parently, the erroneous notice was directed against

AHSGR Journal Summer 2020 5 Pastor Walberg because the latter intended to address 1798-1820 Johann Heinrich Buck the unlawful actions of the local chairman and to 1821-1877 Karl Friedrich Wahlberg make him accountable. One known case concerns an elected officer in Krasnyi Yar who operated his own 1861-1862 Pastoral Assistant Karl Erik Wahlberg liquor factory, and his subsequent punishment of being 1878-1903 Gotthilf Heinrich Keller whipped “mercilessly.”

While the task of a pastor prior to the 1917 Revolu- List of Pastors of the Parish Paulskoye, Nieder- tion was to see to the proper morality of the colonists, monjou Community after the Soviets grabbed power, it became a task of trying to maintain the faith life. In 1931, the Presidium 1907-1909 Karl Kramer of the Central Executive Committee of the ASSR of 1911-1920 Karl Zimmer Volga Germans received from the regional Commis- sion for Religious Matters a secret notice that the 1918-1927 Johann Seidlitz village church had not yet been closed. The church 1928-1935 Ernst Albrecht Böse community had 1,339 members, including 39 whose civil and political rights had been revoked.14 The Village Today. Current Condition of the Church and Other German Architecture.

Bobrovka today, Rayon Marxovskiy, Saratov Region

The former church building of 1828 presents a significant architectural witness. It is still standing. Current local residents are barely cognizant that today’s village library was once a Lutheran church.

The witnesses to German construction skills in “Volga- land” are diminishing. Of the hundreds of former Lutheran wooden churches, only six remained as of Bobrovka. Wooden Structure, of the former Evangelical-Lutheran 1996. Three were situated on the left bank of the Volga, Church. Photo by the author. 2010. that is, in Bobrovka, Vorotayevk (formerly Bettinger), and Svonaryovka (formerly Stahl, Svonaryov Kut) in According to information from the Commission for the rayon Marxovskiy and region Saratov. The other Cultural Matters of the Office of the Presidium of the three were on the right bank of the Volga, namely, in ASSR of Volga Germans, on June 1, 1934, the church Sosnovka (formerly Schilling), Sadovoye (formerly was still the property of the community, even though Anton, Sevastyanovka), and Podtchinnoye (formerly many churches in the canton Marxstadt had been Kratzke). Subsequent to the churches in Svonarovka closed by then.15 But by order of the Presidium of the and Vorotayevk burning down to the foundation and ASSR of Volga Germans, the Niedermonjou church the church in Sosnovka having been torn down by was finally closed on April 21, 1935.16 the locals to be used for building materials, (some of the hundred-year-old boards and planks still use- List of Pastors of the Parish Katharinenstadt ful for building something!), three wooden churches South, Niedermonjou Community7 remained in the Volga region in Bobrovka, in the former colony Kratzke of today’s Volgograd, (that 1768-1776 Ludiwg Balthasar Wern(m)borner building not being made use of), and in Sadovoye, 1778-1798 Gottlieb May rayon Krasnoarmeiskoye, region Saratov (now being used as a village cultural house).

6 AHSGR Journal Summer 2020 The former church in Bobrovka is still missing its State Archive of the Saratov (Saratow) Region, 637 grandiose church steeple. The vestibule, disgraced items, collection of church books of the Gouvernement with trash and discards, presents a sad scene with Saratov (1884-1902), index 22, document 103, register a foundation that is partially crumbling. The build- of the Evangelical-Lutheran Church in Niedermonjou ing itself, however, continues to provide memories (1884-1902), index 2, documents 673 (1862-1884), of the German Lutherans. The preserved exterior of 674 (1864-1875), and 1830 (1912). the building and its initially unattractive and unique architecture, still draws fans of German Russian his- An Interesting Archival Document tory to Bobrovka. Concerning the lost documents of the Saratov Kontor Not far from the former church building, as ever, for Foreign Settlers, the State Archive of the Saratov there stands the two-story school building (today Region contains a “Document regarding the sale of accommodating the public elementary school and low-grade tobacco to the colonist Beidnitz of Nieder- the kindergarten “Ryabinushka”) and the adjacent monjou” in the year 1830.19 schoolmaster’s house (a private home now) with its arched brick entryway. As of 2010, the public school Tobacco growing in Russia has a long history. It ranges of Bobrovka had 19 pupils and four teachers. With between a ban to active support for its cultivation. Ac- little difficulty, it is easy to locate the formerzemstvo cording to laws from 1649, known users of tobacco school building, the teachers’ quarters, and other were punished by whipping, banishment, or cutting wood-structure homes erected toward the end of the off the sides of their nose. In 1769 [1669 ?], Peter I al- 19th Century or in the early 20th Century—all main- lowed the sale of tobacco, with the proviso that duties tained in the original condition. had to be paid. Via a July 31, 1762 edict by Tsarina Catherine II, the duty was canceled. Until 1839, the tobacco industry was able to market its wares without taxes. The order “Verordnung über Akzise auf Tabak [Ordnance Establishing Excise Tax for Tobacco]” of March 31, 1838, led to a tobacco tax, but canceled all limits on tobacco growing and permitted anyone, without regard to status, large enterprise or individual, to trade in tobacco products.

For the Volga Germans, tobacco growing was common, though not a major crop. Even before spring, the colonists would plant seedlings which they later transferred to larger plantings. Since the seeds are small, to guarantee a decent final seeding, the seed- Bobrovka. Former Zemstvo School. Photo: Je. Moschkow. 2010. lings had to be mixed with an equal amount of ashes or they were planted along seed-coated twine. Before Archival Sources the final seeding, the field was prepared with great care. During the fall, it was plowed two or three times. State Historical Archive of the Volga Germans (Engels, Tobacco was grown in separate plantings or alongside Saratov region), 234 items, Evangelisch-Lutherische other plants. That way, the large tobacco leaves could Kirche in Bobrovka [Evangelical-Lutheran Church in provide shade for the ground. Care had to be taken Bobrovka] (Niedermonjou). Administrative District during the summer. It included watering, frequent Krasnoyarskaya, Novousenskiy County, Samara Gou- hoeing of the surrounding ground, and picking insects vernement (1795-1864). The items include a catalog, and removing weeds. a register of births (1795-1821, 1834-1863), and a death register (1854-1864).18 In order to increase the quality and yield of tobacco, colonists broke off the plant tips. Before blooming,

AHSGR Journal Summer 2020 7 side growths were removed by hand. Very important 14. GIANP. F. 849. V. I. A. 834. BI. 81. for tobacco quality was the timing of the harvest. After 15. GIANP. F. 849. V. I. A. 890. BI. 36. harvest, the tobacco leaves were dried atop switches 16. GIANP. F. 849. V. I. A. 890. BI.20. 17. This list of the pastors is taken from the work of E. Amburger and or even on strings. The subsequent fermentation phase later refinements. Amburger, E. Die Pastoren der evangelischen was also very labor-intensive requiring expertise and Kirchen Riusslands vom Ende des 16. Jahrhunderts bis 1937. expertise. During this phase, up to 30% of the harvest Ein bibliographisches Lexikon. [Pastors of Evangelical-Lutheran might spoil if the pressed-down leaves were not ware- Churches in Russia, from the end of the 16th Century to 1937. A housed at moderate temperatures for a long enough Bibliographical Lexicon.]. Martin-Luther-Verlag. 1988. time. Following fermentation, tobacco leaves were 18. Information on the contents and personal data registers kept in sorted, moistened, rinsed in lye, and then the veins the State Historical Archive of Volga Germans were provided for this article by employees of the Archive. in the leaves were removed, rolled, and put through 19. GASO. B. 180. V. 1. A. 14809. sieves, and finally they were packed up. Tobacco users 20. Tabak, rastenie iz semeystva paslyonovvh // Yenciklopedicheskiy smoked it, used it as snuff, or chewed it. slovar’ Brokgauza i Evfrona: V 86 tomah. T. 57. SPb., 1890-1907.

A characteristic trait among the Volga Germans was EDITOR’S NOTE: This continues the series of articles from Olga Lit- that up to 50% women and up to 10% children were zenberger’s History of the Volga German Settlements. Thanks to Alex part of the workers involved in producing tobacco. and Nancy Herzog for the translation, and Olga Litzenberger for provision of the photographs. The relationship of German Russians to tobacco is described in the [dictionaries] Brockhaus and Efron as follows: “Tobacco subject to taxation is a necessary component of the current budget. Tobacco itself is not a necessary part of food, rather it is a product to enjoy, and it is present in all layers of society. Abstinence from tobacco does no harm to one’s health.”20

ENDNOTES 1. Georgi, I. Opisanie vseh, obitaiusXXih v Rossiyskom gosu- darstve narodov. SPb.,1799. Ch. 4.5.65. 2. GAS0. F. 180. V. 5, A. 1. 3. Vins, O.V.Smertnost’ aseleniya AONP ot goloda v 1921-1922 gg. // Kul’tura eussjkiy I nemcev v Povolszhskom regione. Sara- tov, 1993. p. 67. 4. German, A.A. Nemeckaya avtonomiya na Volge. M. 2007. P. 99. 5. German, A.A. Istoriya Respubliki nemcev Povolzh’ya v sobytiyah, Bobrovka. The house of shulmasters. Photo by E. Moshkov. 2010 faktah, dokumentah, M., 2000, p. 192 6. German, A.A. Nemeckaya avtonomiya na Volga. 1918-1941. Chast’ II. Avtonomnaya respublika. 1924-1941. Saratov, 1994. p.174. 7. GIAMP. B. 1831. V. 1. A. 299. Bl. 21. 8. Knyazeva, E.E., Solov’yova, G.F. :Lyuteranskie serkvi I prihody XVIII-XX vv. Istoricheskiy spravochnik SPb., 2001. Chast’ I. p. 203. 9. Nemeckie naselyonnye punkty v Rossiyskoy Imperii. Geografiya i naselenie. Spravochnik / Sost. V.F. Dizendorf, M., 2002, p. 115. 10. In reference to numbers of births and deaths for 1921 cited here and hereafter in this article, cf. Nemcy Rossil : naselynonnye pinkty i mesta poseleniya; yensiklopedicheskiy slovar’ / Sost.: V.F. DIzendorf, M., 2006. 11. Predvaritel’nye itogi Vsesoyuzsnoy perepisi naelenyua1926 goda po ASSR nemcev Pvolzh’ya. Pokrovsk, 1927. pp. 28-83. 12. GASO. B. 180. V. I. A. 12831. 13. PSSRI. Sobr. 1. T. XYYI. SPb. , 1932. pp. 299-313.

8 AHSGR Journal Summer 2020 Drafting Settlers of the Colony of Peskovatka (Kolb) in 1874 – 1917 (based on the materials of the State Historical Archive of Volgogradskaya Oblast)

By Dr Elena Ananyan Translated by Yulia Tsymbal

The following article by Dr Elena Ananyan is the eligible for the military service were to be included in second in a series of three articles summarizing the general conscription lists. Recruits were to report the research results of the Military Draft Project, a to a recruiting station at uyezd military boards. A list successful collaboration between two AHSGR Board of Saratov gubernia recruiting stations was discovered of Directors Committees and three enthusiastic at the State Archive of Volgograd Oblast (GAVO). Russian historians. This document shows that German recruiting stations were set up in areas with dense German population, In accordance with Catherine II Manifesto, Germans for example, in Yagodnaya Polyana, Goly Karamysh living in Russia were exempt from serving in the Rus- (Balzer), Verkhnaya Gryaznukha (Kraft), Linevo sian army for nearly two centuries. Then a decree of Ozero (Hussenbach), etc. German-speaking special- 4 June 1871 abolished the special status of foreign ists were employed at these stations which made the settlers. Former colonists became settlers-proprietors; whole process much easier. Judging by archival docu- their freedom from the military duty was confirmed ments, the number of German recruiting stations grew but only for ten more years. During this ten-year over time. Thus, in documents of the first decade of grace period, former colonists had the right to revoke the twentieth century, the Krestovy Buerak (Mueller) Russian citizenship and leave Russia without paying recruiting station is mentioned more than once. tax on their assets. With the end of the grace period, German colonists were subject to general laws on the When the work of recruiting boards was over, recruits “revoking of the Russian citizenship.” However, a went home to finish their tasks. On a designated day law passed on 1 January 1874 made the military duty they gathered again at the recruiting stations and later obligatory for fit males of all the backgrounds when were transported to where they were stationed. they reached twenty years of age. In accordance with the new service regulations, Germans living in Russia There were three categories of exemptions from the were conscripted for the first time in 1874. Those who military service on the grounds of the family situation. wanted to take advantage of the grace period and leave The first class exemption was applied in the follow- Russia were to notify the authorities no later than 1 ing cases: September of the year they were to be drafted. Those • An only able-bodied son supporting a disabled who failed to do so were prosecuted for violating the father or widowed mother; law on the military duty. Those who did not leave in • An only able-bodied brother supporting one or time were subjected to the same punishment. Those several orphaned siblings; who were selected, but did not show up for the medical • An only able-bodied grandson supporting grand- examination without good reason were also penalized. parents in the absence of an able-bodied son; All the above mentioned categories of recruits were • An only son in the family even with an able-bodied imprisoned for up to three months by a court decision. father.

By a Senate decree of 10 June 1874 to Saratov Gu- bernia administration, German settlers-proprietors

AHSGR Journal Summer 2020 9 The second class exemption was applied to families usually sent to non-effective service and worked as with only one able-bodied son, an able-bodied father blacksmiths, shoemakers, hospital attendants, bat- and brothers younger than 18 years old. men. For this reason, the recruiting boards tried to draft those Volga German recruits who were skillful Under the third class (article 45 of the Regulations in some trade. Some colonists sent their sons to live on the Military Service), males close in age to their with Russian families to help them learn Russian in older brothers who either were serving in the army preparation for the military service. Consequently, or had been killed were exempted from military duty. by the end of the Russo-Japanese War, about 32% of For a long time this last exemption, in violation of the colonists serving in the army spoke Russian. But this Regulations, was not applied to the Volga Germans, as was considered not enough by the Russian govern- their complaints show. Unlike Russian village com- ment. Article 3 of the “Collection of the Principal State munes, German colonists’ communes tried not to take Laws” published in 1908 declared Russian to become advantage of the exemptions that released German re- the state language, to be used mandatory in the Army, cruits from the active military duty. However, we came Navy, and all the government and public institutions. across a resolution of Peskovatka village Assembly of In September of 1916, in the midst of the World War 1875 on granting recruits exemption from the military I, this statute signed by Prince Shirinsky-Shachmatov service (according to article 45 of the Regulations on was circulated in the Volga German colonies, includ- the Military Service): the first class exemption to seven ing Peskovatka. persons, the second class exemption to five persons, and the third class exemption to one person. The term of the military service was six years, but initially many German colonists served just three According to article 53 of the Regulations, the term years. This became possible because the Military of the military service was reduced for graduates of Department was granted the right to transfer person- different kinds of educational institutions, but the nel to the reserve before the end of their service term. provision on reducing service terms depending on the This move had a positive psychological effect on the education level was not applied to Russia Germans Volga German community: it created an impression for fairly long time. Most of recruits from the Volga that the state was caring about its citizens. In reality, German colonies graduated from Catholic or Lutheran this measure was directed at curbing the Volga Ger- parish schools, but these schools were not included man immigration to America the beginning of which into the list of educational institutions mentioned in coincided with the introduction of the universal draft. article 53 of the Regulations. After multiple com- As a result of the policy, immigration considerably plaints by the Volga Germans and interference of the slowed down at the end of the 1870s which allowed the Chairman of Kamyshin Uezd Military Duty Board, a government to start gradually increasing the military special Decree was issued on 27 October 1876 by an service term for German recruits. In 1880, it was four Interior Affairs Ministry executive order. According to years, and by the end of the grace period for Germans the Decree, graduates of Catholic and Lutheran parish to leave Russia it reached six years (as for all Russian schools in Saratov gubernia German colonies received subjects). After 1881, to prevent further immigration, the same status as graduates of primary schools and only the following categories of males were allowed their term of service was reduced to four years. to apply for passport for temporary absence: males younger than 15 years old, those who had fulfilled their The Regulations on the Military Service required non- military duty, and those who were exempt from the Russian military personnel to be able to read fluently service. But the government overlooked the fact that and with comprehension and write clearly in Russian. immigrants of the first wave who had already settled Military service for the Volga Germans who did not in America started to invite their relatives to come speak Russian was much harder. It is known that dur- over. Violating the laws, German settlers were leaving ing the first decade of the universal military draft, not Russia without passports. In many cases, children fled more than 15% of German recruits could communicate by themselves. in Russian. Those who had poor Russian skills were

10 AHSGR Journal Summer 2020 On the other hand, among documents for Medvedits- for reservists, including horses, harnesses, carts, boots, kaya volost we found evidence that at the end of the clothes, etc. 1870s some emigrants were returning from America (we did not find Peskovatka colonists among them). German Reservists were mobilized into 225 Reserve In this connection we might want to mention that battalion, then transported to the Far East and assigned there is no record of Peskovatka settlers immigration to different regiments. prior to 1878. A document of 1880 mentions Franz Koch’s petition to leave Peskovatka commune and After the first failures of the Russian army at the front, revoke Russian citizenship. We learn from the same the Volga Germans negative perception of the war be- document Franz Koch changed his mind in 1880 and came obvious. Starting in 1905, evasion of the military decided to stay in his commune and retain Rusian service among the Volga Germans was steadily rising. citizenship. Thanks to the fact that his initial petition By 1912, in some German uyezds, 30% of the eligible had not been addressed, Franz Koch was allowed to young men avoided the conscription compared to 4% stay in Peskovatka. among the Volga area Russian population.

The gubernia administration encouraged village com- After the end of the Russo-Japanese War, drafting of munes to take back emigrants who returned from the Volga Germans increased significantly. The analy- abroad, but local authorities not always granted their sis of Peskovatka conscription lists for 1902 – 1917 former fellow-villagers’ wishes. “Case of Valentin clearly shows this tendency. Miller” for 1884-1886 is an example of this kind. The citizenship status of Valentin Miller was considered The rise in the number of recruits, mobilization of by Saratov Accounting Board. After lengthy com- reservists, and rumors of the impeding war with munication between Medveditskoye volost Adminis- Germany caused another wave of the Volga German tration and Peskovatka village Authority, a decision immigration. Many Russia Germans started to claim was passed to deny Valentin Miller, a citizen of the German citizenship and declare intention to return to United States of America, reinstatement in the Russian the country of their origin. However, the majority of citizenship, decline his petition to join Peskovatka them immigrated to America, in many cases illegally. commune and evict him to a neighboring khutor. The deterioration of relations with Germany at the It is worth mentioning that for 30 years after the uni- beginning of the XX century escalated the anti- versal draft introduction, low rank reservists were not German sentiment in Russia: the theory that Russia called in for the active service. With the beginning of Germans could side with the enemy was mentioned the Russo-Japanese War in 1904, the first mass mobi- more and more often. As a consequence of the sus- lization of reservists was carried out. Thus on 31 May picion towards the German population of Russia, all 1904 Peskovatka village elder received the following the enlisted Russia Germans, including the Volga order from Volost chairman F. Getman: Germans, were posted to the Southern Caucasus and 1. To circulate information about the general mobi- found themselves at the Turkish front. But even there lization of the reservists. they were not trusted with arms, considered to be in 2. To take register of all the reservists and make a list the same category as prisoners-of-war and used as of those reservists who have not reported. unskilled laborers. 3. To assess all the horses available and prepare suit- able horses for transportation to the front. Despite all this, Germans continued to be drafted. 4. To dispatch the reservists to get to Krestovy There were casualties among the Volga Germans at Buerak by the designated time and date. the beginning of the World War I. Deaths of three Peskovatka colonists in 1914 are documented: Fried- Unlike recruits, reservists were did not get uniform rich Horst, Peter Manz, and Alexander Vogel (died 10 or supplies from the government. Among archival December 1914 at Field Hospital #335). documents are lists of items that colonists collected

AHSGR Journal Summer 2020 11 Propaganda played an important role during the war. was obliged to provide. In addition, a revision of the Published by the Military Department in August 1914 amount of grain, number of cows, horses, and pigs for the first time,The War Chronicle was supposed to of each household was carried out in preparation for “diffuse the right point of view on the present Patriotic partial requisitioning. War” among lower rank personnel and was approved by the Supreme-Commander-in-Chief headquarters On 24 April 1916, the government changed the and His Imperial Majesty. The objective of this easy- military duty exemption system: only the first class to-read publication was to “clarify great goals of the exemption was kept. A young man was not drafted present Great War, describe what was going on at the only if he was: fronts, depict soldiers as Russian epic worriers and • an only son in the family elicit important events in Russian political life that • an only able-bodied son supporting a widowed can ensure Russia’s victory and the war end.” The War mother or a disabled father and a brother younger Chronicle often mentioned His Imperial Majesty’s than 16 or in the active service tireless efforts on leading the country in the war and • an only able-bodied brother supporting one or the Imperial family’s constant caring about the army, several orphaned siblings the wounded and the needs caused by the war. • an only able-bodied grandson supporting grandparents in the absence of an able-bodied son; A war tax was introduced to cover expenses of the • an illegitimate son supporting a mother or an army. There is a list of 22 Peskovatka settlers who unmarried sister or brother younger than 16 or in paid the war tax in 2016. the active service

The war time needs were covered partially by issuing Finally, the early 1918 draft was declared in 1916. government bonds. The Army and Navy Order of 31 Under this law, the following categories were con- December 1915 appealed to the public:”Subscribe to scripted: 2nd class home guards of 1901—1916 the new loan ... buy securities of the new war loan, military drafts, 1st class home guards of 1893—1916 oppose the enemy. Soldiers will fight with guns, and military drafts, Mennonites of both classes, 2nd class we with rubles!” home guards of 1906—1916 who were discharged for health reasons, 1st class home guards of 44 years Peskovatka village assembly on 14 December 1915 old and younger, 1st class sea guards who served in made a decision to donate 2000 rubles from the in- 1900—1902, home guards from 1894, physically unfit come of the volost credit bank for running the volost to be assigned to the Home Guard. Lists of Peskovatka hospital. recruits of the early 1918 conscription have survived: 27 Germans received 15 rub 12 kopeks allowance each In some of archival documents we found accounts on 22 January 1916 when they were enlisted. of private donations. The most generous benefactor was the owner of Saratov stationery and writing ac- cessories store V.I. Milovidov who supplied paper, pencils, pens, razors, ink, notebooks, abacuses, etc. to Peskovatka volost administration.

Many documents of 1916 indirectly reveal disastrous conditions in the Russian army and demonstrate tough- ening of the drafting procedure. On 28 March 1916 at an emergency meeting of the volost administration a decision was made to supply cattle for the Army. In reality, it meant introducing requisitions. A list of homeowners was made with the indication of how much grain, provisions, and forage each household

12 AHSGR Journal Summer 2020 Decree of the Presidium of the USSR Supreme Soviet “Concerning the Submission of Changes to the Decree of the Presidium of the USSR Supreme Soviet from August 28, 1941 ‘On the Resettlement of Germans Residing in the Volga Region’” (August 29, 1964)1 Translated and edited by Dr. Eric J. Schmaltz

On August 29, 1964, the Presidium of the USSR Su- are turning up as deputies in the Supreme and regional preme Soviet rescinded Stalin’s August 28, 1941 de- Soviets, working in the RSFSR [Russian], Ukrainian, portation order concerning the Volga Germans—and Kazakh, Uzbek, Kyrgyz, and other Union Republics. in effect made it applicable to all ethnic Germans in They are also turning up in leading official posts in the country. The Chairman of USSR Supreme Soviet, industries and the rural economy [agriculture] and A. I. Mikoyan, and the Secretary of the Presidium of in the Soviet State and Party apparatus. Thousands the USSR Supreme Soviet, M. Georgadze, signed this of Soviet German citizens have been rewarded with decree into law: decorations and medals of the USSR, and are held in high esteem by the Union republics. In the districts In the Decree of the Presidium of the USSR Supreme of several regions, territories, and republics with a Soviet from August 28, 1941, “On the Resettlement of German population, there are primary and secondary Germans Residing in the Volga Region” with respect schools, where instruction is conducted in the German to the majority of the group of Germans who are Soviet language, and other cultural measures are conducted citizens and who were accused of actively assisting for the German population. the German-fascist aggressors: The Presidium of the USSR Supreme Soviet resolves: Experience showed that these indiscriminate ac- 1. To repeal the Decree of the Presidium of the USSR cusations were unfounded and appeared as a result Supreme Soviet from August 28, 1941, “On the of arbitrariness under the conditions of the cult of Resettlement of Germans Residing in the Volga Stalin’s personality. In reality, during the years of the Region” (Protocol Meeting of the Presidium of Great Patriotic War [World War II], the overwhelming the USSR Supreme Soviet, 1941, No. 9, p. 256), majority of the German nationality group, together in the part containing the unfounded accusation with our entire Soviet people, contributed to the Soviet with respect to the German population residing in Union’s hard-fought victory over fascist Germany, and the districts of the Volga Region. in the postwar years, actively took part in the Com- 2. Considering that the German population estab- munist construction [of Soviet society]. lished itself in new places of residence in the territories of several localities, regions, and republics, Thanks to the great help of the Communist Party and and that its previous place of residence is now the Soviet State, the German population in recent occupied [populated], in the goal of the future de- years has firmly taken root [established itself] in the velopment of regions with the German population, new places of residence and has taken advantage of to entrust henceforth the Soviet Ministers of the all the rights as citizens of the USSR. Soviet citizens of Union Republics with the rendering of assistance German nationality conscientiously work in factories, in economic life and cultural construction to the state farms, collective farms, institutions, and actively German population residing in the territories of participate in social and political life. Many of them

AHSGR Journal Summer 2020 13 the republics, in consideration of its special na- with Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev’s February tional features and interests. 1956 “Secret Speech,” in which he also assigned the regime’s crimes to Stalin in person but not to the In some respects, the “rehabilitation” decree picked Communist Party of the Soviet Union as a whole or up where the December 13, 1955 “amnesty” left off, to the Soviet system itself. introducing improvements in the ethnic Germans’ legal status as Soviet citizens. In other ways, however, Though acknowledging in rather broad terms the it maintained previous travel restrictions in order ethnic group’s wartime contributions and its assis- to prevent members of the group from returning to tance with the country’s postwar reconstruction, the native homelands and villages, becoming in effect a authorities did not mention the fact that, until 1947, “partial rehabilitation,” as some ethnic activists and hundreds of thousands had to endure the harsh condi- critics later called it. tions of the Labor Army (trudarmiia). In November 1948, Germans and other deported nationalities also At this time, the regime declared that the ethnic Ger- had faced formal banishment “for all time” to Soviet mans had proved themselves capable in rebuilding Siberia’s and Central Asia’s remote “special settle- postwar Soviet society. It withdrew Stalin’s “indis- ment” (spetsposelenie). Thus, during times of war and criminate” and “unfounded accusations” of collective early postwar reconstruction, indeed until late 1955, treason made against the ethnic Germans. “In reality,” the group essentially had to live in closely guarded it stated, “during the years of the Great Patriotic War, settlements in isolated or segregated regions. Not until the overwhelming majority of the German nationality the late 1980s and early 1990s did the Soviet govern- group, together with our entire Soviet people, contrib- ment even begin to address formal legal steps that uted to the Soviet Union’s hard-fought victory over would give Labor Army survivors official recognition fascist Germany, and in the post-war years, actively as wartime veterans and reward the survivors and their took part in Communist construction [of Soviet so- dependents with specific monetary compensation and ciety].” In short, the 1964 document blamed Stalin’s pensions for time served in the forced labor battalions.

The Soviet government might have formally erased the ethnic Germans’ guilt from the public record but not from public sentiment. This task remained a difficult one, even if Moscow took all the necessary steps to combat the issue. Understandably, anti-German feel- ings ran strong in the years immediately following the terrible war, and the Cold War only heightened concerns about West Germany and its Western allies. For public enlightenment, the effort would have demanded time, but it remained essential for authorities to make widely public the news of the “rehabilitated” status of its large German minority. For decades to come, the ethnic Germans time and again raised this concern with the Kremlin. Yet the regime exerted almost no Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev’s first meeting with newly elected U.S. effort to do so in the weeks, months, years, and even President John F. Kennedy in June 1961 at the Vienna Summit. About decades after the decree’s release. A number of mo- two months after the August 1964 decree’s release, an increasingly tivations contributed to the government’s reluctance isolated Khrushchev lost power to his protégé Leonid Brezhnev and more hardline Communist Party officials. Public domain. to make the decree too public—the fear of public opposition to this resolution, the possibility of inflaming “cult of personality” and “arbitrariness” or “despo- national sentiments among the other deported peoples, tism” for the deportation order. Attributing the blame and the refusal to confront fully the Stalinist past. to Stalin’s 1930s and 1940s “excesses” was consistent

14 AHSGR Journal Summer 2020 Though the 1964 decree lacked significant public- According to the 1964 document, three primary mo- ity inside the USSR, the decree was almost imme- tivations led to the Kremlin’s decision to keep the diately known abroad. As happened with the 1955 Germans in the places to which they had been exiled. “amnesty” declaration, foreign policy considerations In subsequent years, the regime made a point of reit- and propaganda for the West had determined the new erating such reasons for not restoring the group’s na- “rehabilitation” decree’s carefully timed release. Hop- tional statehood (pre-1941 status). First, non-Germans ing to continue improving diplomatic relations with now populated the group’s former settlements in the West Germany, Moscow announced it in anticipation Volga Region—and elsewhere, for that matter. The oc- of Khrushchev’s planned visit to Bonn in late 1964. cupation of the villages by locals was only partly true, His trip, however, was canceled because of his abrupt however, as whole villages were also left abandoned October dismissal from office.2 along the Volga and other places. Second, Moscow believed that the ethnic Germans would have found Like the earlier “amnesty,” the 1964 decree catered it difficult to move from their new homes, the reason more to Western consumption and remained a virtual given that “[t]hanks to the great help of the Communist secret from the general Russian population.3 The Russian-language version of the decree was published in the December 28, 1964 issue of the Bulletin of the USSR Supreme Soviet (Vedomost’ Verkhovnogo Soveta SSSR, No. 52, page 931), a relatively obscure government journal. As in 1955, even the ethnic Germans did not receive a timely verification of this significant policy change. In the days and weeks following August 29, 1964, no more than a handful of ethnic Germans with access to governmental channels learned of the groundbreaking news. A few others only received word by reading East Germany’s Communist newspaper Neues Deutschland (New Germany)— again, the foreign press and governments were already Members of the second delegation of Soviet Germans demanding the informed of policy changes. restoration of the Volga German Republic, June 1965, Moscow. The first delegation sent to Moscow had petitioned the Soviet government for restored autonomy rights along the Volga in January 1965, only Among the dispersed ethnic German communities, several months following the release of the August 1964 “rehabilita- the news about the decree often spread by word of tion” decree. A third but smaller delegation sent to Moscow in July mouth. After the first German delegation of autonomy 1967 tried the same, also without success. Later on, inspired by Soviet activists convened in Moscow in early January 1965, leader Mikhail Gorbachev’s reform agenda, ethnic and political activ- ism across the USSR experienced a revival in the public sphere, and the ethnic Germans were finally permitted to publish renewed Volga autonomy efforts led by Soviet German delegations in German the landmark decree in their quite limited in Moscow took place in July and October 1988, ultimately proving number of small-circulation German-language news- unsuccessful as well. Photo courtesy of North Dakota State University papers. In Soviet Central Asia, some German-language Libraries’ Germans from Russia Heritage Collection, Fargo. radio broadcasts also were permitted to announce Party and the Soviet State, the German population in the decree. At the same time, the Russian-language recent years has firmly taken root in the new places press in the USSR kept coverage at a minimum,4 of residence and takes advantage of all the rights as only “commenting” on its release.5 Not until January citizens of the USSR.” Not until subsequent decades 10, 1990, did the central ethnic-German newspaper did this notion gain wider credibility, however, when Neues Leben (New Life) publish in its entirety and in increasing numbers ethnic Germans, no longer truly Russian the 1964 “rehabilitation” decree—however, expecting to return to native homelands and villages, with only a few thousand copies in circulation per is- had already lived for more than two generations in So- sue for a nationality group of two million—and more viet Siberia and Central Asia. By that time, the children than twenty-five years after it was signed. and grandchildren of the German deportees had grown

AHSGR Journal Summer 2020 15 more attached to their new communities. By then, it Germans with native- or primary-language instruction. was indeed much more difficult for many to pack up These limited educational provisions coincided with and move from established homes and communities, the creation in 1957 of two small-circulation newspa- excepting, of course, the growing number of cases pers, Neues Leben in Moscow and Rote Fahne (Red in which they took the risk of migrating to Germany Banner) in Slavgorod, Russia. In matters of education, at the end of the Cold War. Into the early 1990s, a the media and the press, however, the regime could large number of ethnic Germans, especially the older use these cultural provisions as tools of Communist generations, would still have been willing to consider indoctrination. The official use of propaganda in the resettling along the Volga and other traditional home- native German language was most necessary for the lands, if the government made clear provisions and older generations of ethnic Germans in the Soviet guarantees to return the politico-cultural institutions Union.6 and other legal protections lost under Stalin. Unlike some of the deported Soviet peoples of the Associated with the idea that the Germans “had estab- period, such as the Chechens, Ingush, and Kalmyks, lished” themselves in the East, the third and perhaps the ethnic Germans and others, including the Crimean most compelling reason for the Kremlin to keep the Tatars and the Meskhetian Turks, never received the Germans in exile was economic. Expressing perhaps opportunity to restore their previous national and too much optimism about their more recent handling cultural status in the USSR. of ethnic Germans, the authorities made it all too evi- dent—no doubt that this sentiment was sincere—that ENDNOTES they prized this large and productive labor pool living on the developing eastern steppes. 1. Copyright permission granted by the Germans from Russia Heri- tage Society, Bismarck, North Dakota. The article first cited as: Though the 1964 decree painted perhaps too rosy “Soviet Documents in German-Russian History Series: Decree of the Presidium of the USSR Supreme Soviet ‘Concerning the a picture about the status of ethnic Germans in the Submission of Changes to the Decree of the Presidium of the USSR, a degree of truth also rested behind these of- USSR Supreme Soviet from August 28, 1941 ‘On the Resettle- ficial claims. By Soviet economic standards—despite ment of Germans Residing in the Volga Region’ (August 29, the many early hardships and virtually no govern- 1964).” Trans. and ed. Eric J. Schmaltz. Heritage Review, Vol. mental assistance up to that point—many resettled 41, No. 4 (Dec. 2011): pp. 38-42. The original Russian source: ethnic Germans had managed in more recent years A. I. Mikoyan and M. Georgadze, “Ukaz Prezidiuma Verkhovno- to establish new lives for themselves. In Siberia and go Soveta SSSR o vnesenii izmenenii v Ukaz Prezidiuma Verk- hovnogo Soveta SSSR ot 28 avgusta 1941 goda ‘O pereselenii Central Asia, they had begun to enter into the agricul- nemtsev, prozhivaiushchikh v raionakh Povolzh’ya’ [Aug. 29, tural, mining, industrial, and engineering fields and to 1964],” in Vladimir A. Aumann and Valentina G. Chebotareva, restore their traditional reputation as sober and produc- eds., Istoriia rossiiskikh nemtsev v dokumentakh (1763-1992 gg.) tive Soviet workers. Their own success in labor and (Moscow: MIGUP, 1993), pp. 178-179. industry in part resulted from an overwhelming desire 2. Despite the relatively close proximity of dates, there appears to to prove themselves again to a society that had once be no connection between the August 1964 document’s release and Nikita Khrushchev’s abrupt dismissal in October of that year. ostracized them as “foreigners, fascists, and Fritzes.” On the matter of political fate, however, there is an odd paral- lel between Khrushchev in late 1964 and Mikhail Gorbachev in The decree’s claim about German-language instruc- late 1991. About four months after the release of the April 1991 tion and accommodations was also partly true, but “rehabilitation” decree for the “deported and repressed Soviet misleading. In the late 1950s, as an early but indirect peoples,” Kremlin hardliners tried to oust Gorbachev from office. consequence of the 1955 “amnesty,” some limited In August 1991, preparations for the First All-Union Congress of educational opportunities for children in the group Germans in the USSR were also to take place in Moscow with the goal of legally restoring autonomy for the nationality group to learn German as a second or foreign language also inside the country. Because of the attempted coup d’état against had been implemented in a few remote parts of the Gorbachev, the Congress had to be rescheduled for October of USSR. Such courses were open to Soviet citizens that year. Two months after the Congress convened, the So- of all nationalities and were not intended to provide viet Union disbanded in December 1991, when the last pillars of the political legitimacy of the Soviet regime and Gorbachev col-

16 AHSGR Journal Summer 2020 lapsed quickly. Also consult the memoirs of ethnic activist Adolf Volga Germans and Meskhetians: Soviet Treatment of Some Na- Bersch, Zwischen Leiden und Hoffen: Das Schicksal eines Wol- tional Minorities, Report No. 6 (London: Minority Rights Group, gadeutschen (Erinnerungen) (Augsburg: Negele-Druck, 1997). 1973), p. 26. 3. Soviet foreign policy considerations figured in the drawing up of 5. In a personal letter addressed to Anastas I. Mikoyan, the second the August 1964 “rehabilitation” decree. Owing to strained So- delegation of ethnic German activists to convene in Moscow in viet-West German relations after the construction of the Berlin mid-July 1965 reported that they were only aware of two “shame- Wall in late 1961, Khrushchev sent his son-in-law on a state visit ful” articles about the August 1964 decree published in the Rus- to Bonn in July 1964. Consequently, the decree opened further sian newspaper Trud (Labor)—in its issues of January 31, 1965, talks between the USSR and West Germany. Then at the 1965 and June 22, 1965. These articles appeared after the first dele- Vienna Conference, both countries discussed the issue of Ger- gation of ethnic activists in early January of that year had pressed man families separated during the war. See Sidney Heitman, for newspaper coverage of the decree. In both instances, the “Soviet Emigration Policies toward Germans and Armenians,” Trud articles simply reported briefly on the decree, but did not in Henry R. Huttenbach, ed., Soviet Nationality Policies: Rul- reprint it in full. Both articles appeared more or less in response ing Ethnic Groups in the USSR (New York and London: Mansell to the group’s demands to publicize the decree. See “Pis’mo A. I. Publishing Limited, 1990), pp. 246-247; Benjamin Pinkus, “The Mikoyan [July 9, 1965],” in Vladimir A. Aumann and Valentina G. Germans in the USSR Since 1945,” The Soviet Germans: Past Chebotareva, eds., Istoriia rossiiskikh nemtsev v dokumentakh. and Present, ed. Edith Rogovin Frankel (New York: St. Martin’s Tom II: Obshchestvenno-politicheskoe dvizhenie za vosstanov- Press, 1986), p. 110. lenie natsional’noi gosudarstvennosti (1965-1992 gg.) (Moscow: 4. Meir Buchsweiler, ed., A Collection of Soviet Documents Con- Verein für das Deutschtum im Ausland [VDA], 1994), p. 39. cerning Germans in the USSR, Research Paper No. 73 (Jeru- 6. Created in 1957, the Slavgorod, Russia newspaper Rote Fahne salem: The Hebrew University of Jerusalem Marjorie Mayrock (Red Banner), later renamed Zeitung für Dich (Newspaper for Center for Soviet and East European Research, Dec. 1991), p. You), was the sole ethnic German newspaper to be published 5; Alfred Eisfeld, Die Russlanddeutschen, rev. ed. (Munich: F.A. entirely in German. Unfortunately, since its inception, it had also Herbig Verlagsbuchhandlung, 1999 [1992]), pp. 139-141; Boris been one of the smallest circulating newspapers for the ethnic Levytsky, “Germans in the Soviet Union: New Facts and Figures group, so much so that many ethnic Germans for years did not [Jan. 1975 issue of Osteuropa],” trans. LaVern J. Rippley, Work even know about its existence. Before the end of the first decade Paper of the American Historical Society of Germans from Rus- of the twenty-first century, this declining newspaper finally ceased sia No. 22 (Winter 1976): p. 3; Ann Sheehy, The Crimean Tatars, operation.

In Memoriam: Dr. Lew Marquadt, 1936 - 2020

Dr. Lewis Raymond Marquadt, former professor of humanities at Arizona State University and at Texas State University San Marcos, died in Austin, TX on May 31, 2020. He was born November 7, 1936 in Jamestown, North Dakota and grew up in Linton, North Dakota, the son of teacher Mary Lucille Grimes Marquardt and George Raymond Marquardt. His undergraduate studies were completed at Minot State University where he financed his study by founding, directing, and playing with the popular dance band, “The Collegiates” at countless high school proms across North Dakota and Montana. After teaching music and band many years at Miller and at Webster South Dakota High Schools, he returned to higher education, acquiring a Ph.D. in Humanities at Arizona State University. In 1959, he married his high school sweetheart, Judith Aileen Woods. Lew and Judith enjoyed twenty-five years of marriage and five children, Kathryn Ann, Mark Raymond, David James, Steven Carl and Gregory Lewis Marquardt. When Judith died in 1984, he married Dona Reeves in 1985. The two frequently traveled through Europe in search of Lew’s ancestors and his dear Gothic cathedrals. Following his interest in history, philosophy, and social studies, he joined the American Historical Society of Germans from Russia as a Charter member. Thirty years later, served as its President. Along the way, he established the Arizona Sun Chapter in Phoenix. He was also an Executive Director of the German-Texan Heritage Society. He was happiest advising students, supervising theses, utilizing audio-visual equipment, researching German-Russians, and presenting meticulously prepared lectures. He also wrote scripts for the Prai- rie Public Television (PBS) series of programs devoted to German-Russian history and culture. The AHSGR board and staff send their deepest and heartfelt sympathy to Dona and all their family and friends on their loss.

AHSGR Journal Summer 2020 17 After Collectivization: How Stalin’s Agricultural Policies Affected German Farming Settlements By Ulrich Merten

Soviet collectivization of agriculture operatives, and credit unions. These helped them buy With the end of the Soviet civil war in 1920, the Ger- farm machinery and, generally, finance production. man communities in the Soviet Union were in dire On the other hand, one of the first state farms Sovk( - straits, as was the rest of the country. Agriculture was hoz) was established at this time on the estate—in the virtually destroyed. Added to this catastrophe was Black Sea region—of the Sattler family, one of the the famine of 1921. Food aid from the United States largest German landowners. The family’s property helped to alleviate the famine, but still 300,000 ethnic was confiscated during the Civil War. Germans died of starvation in the period 1921-1925, as well as 6.4 million Russians. In February 1924, shortly after Lenin’s death, the Soviet government transformed the Volga German Lenin’s New Economic Policy (NEP) Commune into the Volga German Autonomous Soviet The collapse of Soviet agriculture forced the Soviet Socialist Republic, ASSR. At the time of formation, government to reconsider its communist policies. The the population comprised about 65 percent ethnic result was the introduction of Lenin’s pragmatic New Germans, 22 percent Russians and 13 percent Ukrai- Economic Policy in March 1921. Basically, it realized nians. The German population was estimated at some that inducements had to be given to the peasants to four hundred thousand in 1924. The Republic had the produce. Confiscations were ended and replaced by a formal appearance of an autonomous administrative tax on production. It introduced capitalist incentives entity, but in reality all decisions were made by the allowing the peasants to plant, harvest, and market Communist Party. The capital was Engels (Pokrovsk) their production without being forced to sell it to the near Saratov on the Volga River. Although it was the government at artificially low prices. Although it came single largest concentration of ethnic Germans in the too late to avoid the worst of the famine, by 1923, Soviet Union, the majority of the Soviet Union’s 1.3 harvests in the Volga settlements improved. Slowly, million Germans at that time, lived outside of this the German Russian farming communities recovered ASSR. from all the anarchy, violence, and uncertainty of previous years and a general well-being began to develop. The New Economic Policy continued until 1928, but Nikolai Bukharin, a senior Soviet leader, and Politburo by that time Stalin was the undisputed ruler of the member, is reported to have said, “Enrichissez-vous.” Soviet Union. In November 1927, at the tenth anniver- sary of the Communist Revolution, Stalin announced Under the NEP, farmers were allowed to sell their the first five-year plan. That was the beginning of the production on the open market; they could hire farm forced collectivization of agriculture, and the effective workers to help with the sowing, harvesting and other end of the NEP. On December 27, 1929, Stalin called normal agricultural work; they regained control over for the liquidation of the kulaks as a social class. And their own land, and could lease or purchase new land that was the beginning of a reign of terror. without being persecuted as kulaks. Production increased rapidly, and by 1924-1925 the Volga German Years of fear and terror settlements were again exporting grain. For the German community in the Soviet Union, the 1930s were characterized by one calamity after an- Concurrently with the liberalization of agricultural other. First, the forced collectivization of agriculture production, German farmers founded producers’ co-

18 AHSGR Journal Summer 2020 in which many German farmers were identified as • Poor peasants who possessed no land and few farm wealthy peasants, or kulaks, and deported to Siberia. animals and were generally disposed to join the This was followed by the famine of the early 1930s. collective farms. Although drought was a recurring natural phenomenon • Farmers who were somewhat well-off possessing in Southern Russia, the accompanying famine was land and farm animals. These farmers were very caused in part by reduced harvests due to the collec- reluctant to join the collectives. tivization of agriculture. Perhaps more importantly, • Affluent and well-off farmers having sizeable land it was Stalin’s opportunity to wipe out the remain- holdings and numerous farm animals. As a group ing opposition to collectivization, particularly in the they opposed joining the collective farms. They Ukraine. The famine, as expected, resulted in great were labeled kulaks but, in reality, all farmers loss of life. Lastly, in the course of the 1930s, Stalin except those in the first category were considered imposed a Russification policy on the national minori- kulaks and became victims of Soviet repression. ties, while at the same time eliminating all organized religion of the ethnic Germans—and all Russians, for Communist activists, supported by the police—and that matter—in the Soviet Union. This period was also sometimes even by the Red Army—went to the known as the “Great Terror,” whereby Stalin purged villages aggressively promoting and enforcing col- not only all opposition, but any suspected opposition lectivization of the farms. Opposition was not toler- as well, in order to consolidate his power, with tragic ated, and any sign of refusal to join a collective was consequences for the German minority. met with arrest and deportation. Peasants and their families who opposed these measures were branded Collectivization of agriculture as kulaks and sent to concentration camps in Siberia The forced collectivization of agriculture began under and Central Asia. Even relatively poor peasants who Stalin’s first five-year plan (1928-1932). Ostensibly, it owned only a little land and few farm animals were would introduce communist principles to agriculture, considered kulaks, in line with communist class war- by eliminating private ownership of farm land, with fare principles. In a period of two months (January everyone working on a collective farm (kolkhoz) for and February 1930), more than one million peasant the common good. The real purpose, however, was families became slave labor in the Gulag, working in a ruthless transfer of wealth from agriculture to the mines, factories and forests. rapid industrialization of the Soviet Union, by impos- ing high production quotas and work norms on the Other sources state that over two million kulaks and farms and price controls on their agricultural output, their families were exiled in the years 1929-1931. resulting in systematic underpayment to the farms. The majority of the kulaks reportedly came from the Collective farmers received no wages, as they were Ukraine. The secret police (OGPU) directives classi- considered owners. Theoretically, they all shared in fied the kulaks into three categories: the surplus created by their labor, with payment de- 1. Those considered counter revolutionary activists termined by the type of work they did and number of were sent directly to the concentration camps in hours worked. All overhead expenses were deducted the Gulag or even shot. Family members were from this surplus, leaving the individuals usually with sent to the special camps or “special settlements.” scarcely enough money to feed themselves and their 2. Well-to-do farmers were sent to the special settle- families. ments in Siberia or Central Asia. 3. All others were initially kept in their area of resi- To enforce this rapid collectivization on an unwilling dence but were not allowed to join the collective peasantry, Stalin introduced class warfare by pitting farms. As they had no means of support, eventually poor, usually landless peasants against the better off they also ended up in the “special settlements.” or well-to-do peasants. In December 1929, Stalin pub- licly demanded the elimination of the rich peasants, the (The Soviet secret police OGPU, a State Political so-called kulaks, which was the beginning of a reign Directorate, was a department of the NKVD. The All of terror. The farmers were divided into three classes: Union State Political Board became the successor of

AHSGR Journal Summer 2020 19 the GPU in 1923 and was placed directly under the ing mine production. The camp population expanded control of the Council of People’s Commissars. In greatly in the 1930s, first with the arrest and incarcera- July, 1934, the NKVD became the senior security tion of the kulaks and then with the massive arrests service in the Soviet Union, known as the All-Union during Stalin’s Great Terror. The camps continued to NKVD. It was the executive organ of the MVD, Min- grow during World War II, with the deportation to the istry of the Interior.) camps of the German Russians and people from the Baltic lands and Poland occupied by the Soviet Union, The firstkulak deportees went to camps in the North- and later, with the many Caucasian ethnic minorities ern Krai (administrative regions) in North European who were accused of helping the German occupation Russia, on the White Sea. Others were sent to Sibe- army. There were 470 labor camp complexes in the ria, Kazakhstan and the Northern Urals. Many were Soviet Union and each one had many subcamps. forced to work in forestry or fishing industries, while some were sent to the mines, mainly coal and cop- A number of different categories of slave labor camps per. Kulaks were also placed in special settlements existed. The katorga were the most severe and strictest under the supervision of the secret police. With no labor camps, performing the heaviest work and having preparation made for their reception in these remote the poorest living conditions. They were camps for areas known for their harsh winters—and subjected to the most important enemies of the Soviet regime and high working norms with minimal nourish ment and had the highest mortality rate. The corrective labor health services—the death rate was exceedingly high. camps were the standard concentration camps, and In the period 1932 to 1940, the secret police, OGPU the destination of most of those condemned to the and NKVD, recorded 389,521 deaths in the special Gulag system. The special settlements were prisons settlements or 9.79 percent of their inhabitants. without walls, located in remote areas of Siberia or Central Asia, where the prisoners were forced to work By September 1931, the mass deportations ceased. in timber, fishing or mining industries. Families there The Politburo resolution of July 20, 1931, stated that could live together, albeit in very primitive conditions. the dekulakization process had been successfully All three types of camps were under the supervision completed and all future deportations of kulaks should of the secret police. only be done on an individual basis. Earlier, in June 1931, the Communist Party had announced that the According to the writer Anne Applebaum, the total collectivization of farms had been accomplished in number of prisoners in the camps at any one time the major grain-growing areas of the Soviet Union. was about two million. By 1953 when Stalin died, it is estimated that eighteen million people had passed Explanation of the Gulag system through the Gulag system. Another six million were The Gulag (main camp administration) was a depart- sent into exile in the special settlements, deported ment of the Soviet MVD, Ministry of the Interior. It to Central Asia or the forests and mines of Siberia. has become synonymous with the entire repressive The number that died in the Gulag between 1929 and system of the Soviet Union from arrest to interroga- 1953 is estimated at 2.7 million, but this might be an tion, transport to the camps by cattle cars, forced labor underestimation, as it does not include those, for ex- under appalling conditions, destruction of families, ample, who died while under arrest in prisons or on the and ultimately the suffering and death of the prison- transports to the camps. It also does not include those ers. The purpose of the camps was not necessarily to executed by the secret police, which is estimated to be kill the prisoners but to work them as forced labor. 786,000. Although the number of camps were reduced Although the labor camps existed in the early days of after Stalin’s death, they did not entirely disappear. the Soviet Union—established as re-education camps Many were maintained to imprison Soviet national- through labor—it is in the early 1930s that Stalin ists, dissidents and other non-conformists. Although decided to give the camp system a new and more conditions were not as harsh as during Stalin’s time, important function. He used slave labor to spur the they were still run as corrective labor camps, and the industrialization of the Soviet Union, such as increas- inmates forced to work on government projects. It

20 AHSGR Journal Summer 2020 was not until 1987 that Gorbachev began to dismantle Those who refused to voluntarily join the collective this system. were heavily taxed. If the farmers were able to pay the tax, the amount of the tax was then increased to Collectivization of German farming communities such a level that the farmer could no longer pay it. Although the mass deportation of the kulaks was based At the same time, they were required to make grain on social and not ethnic criteria, the German Russian deliveries to the State. At the point where the farmer settlements probably suffered more than any other could no longer pay the tax, his house, furnishings, community. About 1.2 percent of the Soviet popula- and all farm animals and implements were confiscated tion was classified askulak and deported to the Gulag, and became property of the State. The farmer and his based on a total Soviet population of 147 million, family were then expelled from the comreduumunity according to the 1926 census. The number of ethnic and deported to the East. The German community Germans sent to the camps as kulaks was around fifty considered these actions simple plundering by the thousand out of a German population in the Soviet communists of their property, all under the guise of Union at the time of the same census of 1.239 million, class warfare against the kulaks. or about four percent. The Germans were not the only ethnic group deported in large numbers during the The deportations began in the spring of 1929 with the collectivization drive, as many ethnic Poles also suf- village leaders and more well-to-do farmers, who were fered the same fate. But the Germans were the single strongly opposed to collectivization. They comprised largest foreign minority in the Soviet Union that was the first classification of the secret police. They were sent to internal exile. There appeared to have been a taken to the closest railway station, shoved into box deep prejudice against German communities, as many cars—which often had a sign displayed on them say- Soviet officials considered all German farmerskulaks , ing “Voluntary Resettlement”—and sent to the con- no doubt because they appeared better off than the centration camps and special settlements to work as average Russian peasant. slave labor in the forests of Northern Russia (forestry products were one of the major exports of the Soviet In a letter written in 1933 to relatives in the United Union) or the mines of the Ural Mountains. Many States, the writer, a member of a collective farm, sums thousands died of exposure, malnutrition, disease, up the Soviet attitude to ethnic German villagers: and mistreatment.

The commandants of our collective have told The German kulaks were sentenced without trial to us, “Now [...] you will see that wherever you forced labor of three years, which was considered a destructive insects have settled in our land, [...] light sentence, to twenty-five years. They were ac- that no God will drop manna from heaven to help cused and convicted of sabotage, opposition to col- you, and nowhere will anyone hear your miser- lectivization or just for being a kulak. One of the major able complaints. Hangings, shootings, starvation projects they worked on was the Moscow-Volga canal, and freezing—all of those will be done to you if connecting Moscow with the Volga River and built you don’t work to exactly meet the requirements with forced labor. It took five years to build, working of the predetermined Plan.” under the most difficult conditions, particularly in winter when the ground was frozen. As the prisoners At the time of the farm collectivization, no large received a starvation diet and were scantily clothed, it landed estates were owned by German settlers. The was not surprising that many died of hunger and cold. few that had existed, mostly in the Black Sea area, had already been confiscated during the Revolution. No By 1930, over 78 percent of the private lands in the German farmer, whether in the Southern Ukraine or German Volga colonies had been collectivized as a Volga region, had more that sixteen dessatines of land, result of drastic coercive measures. Interestingly, only or forty-three acres. Though not wealthy, by virtue of 11 percent to 22 percent of other farms in the same hard, disciplined work they were generally comfort- region at this time were in collectives and, overall, in ably off, but as they strongly rejected collectivization, the Soviet Union, the figure for 1930 was 24 percent. they were automatically labeled as kulaks.

AHSGR Journal Summer 2020 21 By the following year, however, about 86 percent Regarding conditions in South Russia in 1932, he of the land in the Volga colonies had been placed in said: “I’d left the Ukraine in 1929 [...] when it had collective farms, certainly one of the most success- pulled itself up to prewar living standards. Food had ful collectivization drives in the Soviet Union. Some been plentiful and cheap. Yet now, we were told, ascribed this success to the fact that their farms were people were starving. It was incredible.” Pointing smaller than those of the other German settlers, par- out the confiscatory production levies, he charged: ticularly in the Southern Ukraine. But, by the end of “This quota was established arbitrarily [...] not on 1931, most farms ended up in a collective, kolkhoz, the basis of how much we really could produce, but and those that didn’t, particularly the larger estates, on the basis of how much the State thought it could became state farms, the sovkhoz. Volume 41 of the beat out of us. The quota system was really a system 1939 edition of the Large Soviet Encyclopedia has of extortion [...] I was getting letters from collective the following comments about the relatively rapid farm workers and from their chairmen [...] who wrote: collectivization in the German Volga region: ‘Well, Comrade Khrushchev, we have delivered our quota to the State. But we’ve given everything away. During the first and second Stalin Five-Year Plans, in Nothing is left for us.’” the periods of the all-out Socialist offensive against the capitalist elements of town and country, the Khrushchev also said that Stalin did not know what Volga-German Autonomous Soviet Socialist Repub- was going on in the collective farms and knew “the lic was the foremost in carrying out collectivization country and agriculture only from the films,” many in the countryside, and effectively mechanized its of which “so pictured kolkhoz life that the tables were agriculture. Industry also developed. [...] The future bending from the weight of turkeys and geese” and development of the national economy and culture of that he actually thought this was true. the Volga-German Autonomous Soviet Socialist Re- public, its rapid progress towards a better, still more The Famine of 1932-1933 (Holodomor) joyous life, and towards Communism, are guaranteed The Ukrainians, who bore the worst of the famine, by the Stalinist Constitution, by the resolute Stalinist called it Holodomor (famine-extermination), indi- leadership of the Central Committee of the Bolshevik cating that it was not only caused by nature but also Communist Party of the Soviet Union and the limitless by man’s action. In many ways it was a repeat of the devotion of the working people of the Volga-German famine of 1921 with the same tragic loss of human Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic to the cause lives, but it also differed in several aspects. There was of Communism. no famine relief from abroad, although it was offered, because the Stalin government opposed any foreign On the other hand, Premier Nikita Khrushchev, in his interference in its internal affairs. Additionally, the famous speech to the Twentieth Communist Party famine enabled the government to enforce collec- Congress on February 25, 1956, exposing the terror tivization of agriculture, particularly in the Ukraine, of Stalin’s reign and his cult of personality, told a where there was still substantial opposition. Stalin different story. He said that Stalin was headstrong in also used this famine to eliminate any remnants of carrying out his objectives at any cost. Because of his Ukrainian nationalism, arresting and sending to the “capricious and despotic character” he used “brutal Gulag many suspected nationalists, including even violence” to collectivize agriculture. members of the Communist Party.

Khruschev reported that in 1930 he visited a collective There was a drought again in 1931 and 1932 over farm near Samara about two hundred miles northeast a wide area of the Ukraine, lower Volga and North of the Volga German colonies. He stated later: “We Caucasus. Grain harvests in the collective farms were spent only a few days at the collective farm and were sharply reduced. The government, nevertheless, in- appalled at the conditions we found there. The farmers sisted that the delivery quotas be strictly adhered to, were starving to death [...] They literally begged us to in order to feed the workers in the cities and the Red give them food.” Army and maintain grain exports (one of the major

22 AHSGR Journal Summer 2020 sources of foreign exchange for a rapidly industrial- food. Their condition deteriorated to such an extent izing Soviet Union). This led to very aggressive grain that the Soviet government in early 1933 sealed off requisitions in the producing areas. Because the gov- the famine areas to prevent people from fleeing. In ernment cadres not only confiscated the seed grain January 1933, internal passports were introduced for from the collective farms but also their daily food all city dwellers. Peasants fleeing to the cities were not needs, famine was inevitable. Stalin considered failure eligible for a passport and were expelled. Starvation to deliver the grain quotas opposition to the regime, decimated the villages. A letter from a Volga German even plotting by Ukrainian nationalists. village relates:

Drought no doubt was partially responsible for the Everything we had [in Splavnukha (Huck)] is de- poor harvests, but peasant resistance to the forced stroyed, and the government took everything away. collectivization leading inevitably to low productiv- Many people have to die of hunger [...] There is much ity was equally responsible. Additionally, the new fruit in the store rooms, but the state doesn’t let any administrators of the kolhkoz were usually not farmers of it out. We will, it appears, starve to death [...] The but Communist party bureaucrats. The peasants on the state took away the last pud (unit of measurement like collective and state farms were earning hardly enough a pound) of bread from the people, and the last pota- to live on. The saying was, “They received too little toes. All the cattle are gone, and no one can protect to live, and too much to die.” Peasants also slaugh- himself from all this; the Soviet has the power, no tered their animals in order not to have to give them one has enough to eat. Whoever works for the state to the collective farms, leading to a great decrease in gets his share, but the family can starve to death [...] livestock. And here we sit in the worst famine that Russia has ever known, and they say to us that the government is These conditions were exacerbated by the govern- taking care of us? Now I think they want to violently ment’s brutal grain and food requisitioning. Rather execute us, but it would be better for us if they would than reducing required delivery quotas because of the take a canon and mow us down. Then we would be drought, the grain quota for 1932 was increased by 40 freed from our misery all the sooner. percent. Those collective farms that could not produce the required grain had to fulfill a meat quota, which A number of international and national organizations proved to be just as difficult. Peasants were accused of attempted to organize relief efforts, including the stealing from the collective farms, of hiding the grain, Catholic Church in Europe and two German welfare and charged with being saboteurs and kulaks. With organizations—Brothers in Need and Union of Ger- the so-called “law on gleaning,” of August 1932, all mans Abroad—who did manage to send the equiva- food production was deemed state property and any lent of about $240,000 ($1= 2.5 Reichsmark) to the unauthorized collection of food would be a criminal German ethnic communities. Those Germans who act punishable by prison or death. distributed this aid in the settlements were arrested, about four thousand people, accused of espionage By late summer 1932, there were no grain reserves for Germany and sent to the Gulag. Nevertheless, all left in the Ukraine, Volga region, and North Cauca- offers of assistance were rejected by the Soviet gov- sus, but government grain exports continued. In the ernment, stating that there was no famine. 1931-1932 harvest season, the Soviet government exported 4.8 million tons. In the 1932-1933 season, On the contrary, the government insisted that the cri- at the height of the famine, the USSR exported 1.6 sis was caused by recalcitrant peasants mainly in the million tons of grain. Ukraine. In a December 1932 decree, the Politburo stated that the failure of grain requisitions in both the The German villages in Ukraine and Volga region Ukraine and the North Caucasus was due to Ukrainian also suffered greatly from the famine. With increas- nationalist resistance. Stalin severely criticized Ukrai- ing hunger, the starving peasants began roaming the nian kolhkoz leaders and Communist Party members countryside and entering towns and cities looking for for not pursuing food confiscation vigorously enough.

AHSGR Journal Summer 2020 23 In November 1932, 1,623 kolhkoz leaders were de- Ulrich Merten was born in Berlin, ported to the Gulag. In 1932, a total of 30,400 peasants Germany, and came to the United and communists were sent to the concentration camps, States as a small child before the Sec- and in 1933 this number increased to 142,000, mostly ond World War. He grew up in New from the Ukraine. York City and returned to Europe to study after the war. He was an inter- It is estimated that 150,000 ethnic Germans died from national banker and a senior executive starvation during the famine. This represented about of the Bank of America, working in 12 percent of the German population as per the 1926 Latin America and the Caribbean. His book, “For- census. It is also estimated that 7.2 million died of gotten Voices; The Expulsion of the Germans from famine in the entire Soviet Union in the same period, Eastern Europe after World War II ” was published slightly less than 5 percent of the total population ac- in 2012. There have been eight editions of the book. cording to the same census. It is clear that the famine The author and his wife live in Miami. disproportionately affected the German ethnic group. This was ascribed to the fact that proportionally, a larger number of them lived in the rural Southern Ukraine, lower Volga and other farming regions affected by the famine. Khrushchev is quoted as having admitted (after Stalin’s death) that the famine of 1933 was an act of murder by the government. For Stalin, however, the famine of 1932-1933 achieved two important objectives. First, collective farming became irreversible and accepted by everyone, however reluctantly, in the Soviet Union. Second, the last vestiges of Ukrainian nationalism, actual or perceived, were eliminated.

The 1933-34 harvests improved but had to be brought in by members of the Red Army, Communist Party cadre and students, as there were not enough peasants to do it. At the end of 1933, certain benefits were given to the peasants on the collective farms, because the regime finally realized that some incentives were required to raise production in the Soviet Union.

(Source: Robert Conquest, The Nation Killers: The Soviet Deportation of Nationalities, The Macmillan Company, New York, 1970)

This article is drawn from the text of chapters IV and V of Voices from the Gulag: The Oppression of the German Minority in the Soviet Union, published by A fan of Voices of the AHSGR, Lincoln, Nebraska, in 2015. It is available for sale on the AHSGR online bookstore and major Gulag by Ulrich Merten? online book stores in paperback and ebook editions. Email your reactions to Photos, maps, and other images referenced in the book can be viewed at voicesfromthegulag.com/. [email protected]

24 AHSGR Journal Summer 2020 Renn Weilert’s Story Part One: Introduction: by Gary Leikam Part Two: Mein Wiedergeburt (My Rebirth); by Renn Weilert

Renn is a 3rd cousin to another Russian friend and cousin of mine, Alexander Faller, who I have known through Facebook since 2016. Alex lives in Moscow, where he works as the brew master for a local brew- ery. I had the pleasure of meeting both Renn and Alex during our recent trip to Russia in August 2019. The Weilerts were hereditary cattle raisers and meat producers and the Fallers were hereditary blacksmiths. The families lived near each other in Katharinenstadt and their story lines intersect.

Renn, Alex, and I are related through multiple family connections. Depending on the path, my relationship to Renn and Alex varies from 6th cousins (via Renn Weilert at his meat market in Saratov our common Weilert ancestors) to 4th cousins, once removed (via the Staabs). Everyone descending from I would like to introduce you to my Russian friend the Ellis County Weilerts, Karlins, and Leikams will and distant cousin, Roman “Renn” Weilert, and to likewise be distantly related to Renn and Alex by share with you a bit of his remarkable family story. virtue of our shared Weilert ancestors, and likely via This story should be of interest to anyone of Volga other paths as well. German heritage, especially so for members of the AHSGR Sunflower Chapter, since the Weilerts are After Renn and I first connected on Facebook and closely interrelated with many of the Volga German began exchanging our family pedigrees, I became families which settled in Catharine Kansas from Kath- captivated by the amazing story that began to emerge arinenstadt Russia in the late 1800s. It is a poignant from Renn’s family records. tale, filled with drama and tragedy, which plays out during the terrible decades following the Communist I learned of a handsome young Alois Weilert (Renn’s Revolution in 1917. But it is also a positive story of great-grandfather), who married a Volga German girl, the survival of human decency and goodness in the Margaret Beilmann, who gave him three daughters in midst of all the evil. the period 1919–1923. This was during the three year Civil War following the 1917 Communist Revolution Renn and I connected on Facebook in late 2018. At and the subsequent Great Famine in the Volga region the time, he operated a meat market in Saratov (in (1921-23). During the famine years, Alois worked in the tradition of his Weilert forefathers). He moved to the ARA canteens and helped distribute food to the Moscow in the fall of 2019. Renn is somewhat of a starving. It’s very difficult to image what their lives “Renaissance man,” with broad eclectic interests. He were like! is a prolific painter and is a member of the Russian Creative Union of Artists. He is an expert in antiques, Margaret died in 1923, possibly in conjunction with an amateur archaeologist, and local historian. the birth of their third daughter. The children were

AHSGR Journal Summer 2020 25 likely adopted by Margaret’s family, since Alois large grain mill in Katharinenstadt/Marksstadt). Alois, couldn’t care for them by himself. Alois soon mar- Gabriel, Anna, Olympiada and Gottlieb were all close ried Anna Shebedyev, the daughter of an upper-class friends before Alois died. Gottlieb was working as a family that still had maid servants, at least until the steward at a school in Marksstadt when he was arrested Communists took power. They were thus members of and summarily executed in December 1937 for the the bourgeois class despised by the Reds. But tragedy catch-all crime of anti-Soviet activities. Olympiada soon struck again. At age 28, Alois died suddenly and her two daughters were deported to labor camps of lobar pneumonia in March 1924. He did not live in Kyrgyzstan with the mass expulsion of the Volga long enough to see the birth of his daughter, Valentina Germans in September 1941. They returned to Saratov (Renn’s grandmother), later that year. in1970, using the surname Donskoy.

Sometime later, the widow Anna married Alois’s best Alois’s older sister, Berta, married Peter Faller (Alex’s friend, Gabriel Potenkov, a Ukrainian from Engels. great-grandparents). They had wanted to adopt Val- Gabriel adopted the infant Valentina and claimed her entina in 1925. Berta helped Anna care for Valentina as his own child, giving her the patronymic middle during the harsh times of food shortages and strikes name of Gavrilovna. By taking on his family name, and violent resistance to forced collectivization. The they were able to pass as ethnic Russians or Ukraini- Faller family was deported to the Krasnoyarsk Krai ans, saving them from imprisonment and deportation region in southern Siberia in 1941, which is where during the reign of terror under Stalin’s brutal regime. cousin Alex was born and raised.

In an unexpected plot twist, I was astonished to learn In addition, there is the story of Alois’s uncle, Rich- that Gabriel became an officer in the NKVD (the So- ard Weilert, and his son Pavel, who were executed in viet secret police, a predecessor to the KGB), serving 1937. And there is the story of another great uncle as an administrator in the financial department for the who joined the army under a false Russian surname Stalingrad region. Not only was he at risk for conceal- and became a war hero. And more. ing his daughter’s German ethnicity, but he used his staff position in the NKVD to help other German- I encouraged Renn to write his story, so it can be related families hide their identities by destroying shared with interested readers both in Russia and this and forging government records (such people were country. It is not just dry genealogy. It is much more called “protectors” and “guardian angels”). Gabriel’s than names and dates on a pedigree chart. It is the surreptitious activities were eventually discovered and poignant and dramatic stories of real people whose he was fortunate to lose only his career and not his life. lives were swept up in the tidal waves of history. It is our responsibly to help our younger generations Renn’s grandmother, Valentina, went on to marry Yury understand what actually happened in those horrific Bubnov, the non-party son of a declared “enemy of times and how it impacted the lives of our Volga Ger- the people.” Yuri’s father, Vladimir Bubnov, had been man kinfolk. arrested and imprisoned multiple times for sabotage and anti-Soviet agitation. In doing so, Valentina placed In the rest of this article, Renn will relate his family herself squarely in the government’s cross hairs for story in his own words. His story includes his quest to close scrutiny. Although the war had ended by then, discover his suppressed Volga German roots, and why anyone with any sort of German connections or as- he chose to claim the surname of his maternal-side sociations had ample reasons to remain fearful. Into ancestors as an expression of his personal identity. He this family, Renn’s mother, Galina, entered the world calls his story “Mein Wiedergeburt” (“My Rebirth”). in January 1948. *** Anna’s older sister, Olympiada (Renn’s baptismal godmother), helped Anna raise Valentina. Olympiada mar- What happened to my family in the 1920s-1940s is ried Gottlieb Dizendorf (the Dizendorf family owned a hard to believe. There is passion and love, years of famine and revolution, communists and enemies of

26 AHSGR Journal Summer 2020 the people, “reincarnations” by changed surnames and passports, repression and executions. Some went to the front under another name; others’ fathers and grandfathers were shot; others were imprisoned or deported for many years. Some subsequently left the homeland of Russia for good! It’s hard to believe, but all this happened to the Russian-German family into which I happened to born.

I was born in an ordinary Soviet family. My parents were technical engineers. I was born as Roman Vladi- mirovich Pchelintsev. My parents were young, and I was mostly raised by my grandmother, Valentina, and my great-grandmother, Anna, who introduced me to Gottlieb Diesendorf 1892-1937 German culture and cuisine. In 1971, I was christened with the name Roman in the Russian Orthodox Trinity As an adult, I learned that Olympiada’s husband, Gott- Church. During those years of advanced Communism, lieb Deisendorf, was shot for anti-Soviet activities. My even though the war was long over, they were afraid 3rd-great-uncle, Richard Weilert, and his son Pavel, to give me a German name like Reinhard or Gottlieb. were executed, as were other relatives. Others were At age 8, I was sent to an English school, where I had sent to prisons and labor camps. Another great uncle, to forget about everything German. under an assumed Russian name, went to the front and fought against the Nazis and came back as a war hero. The price he paid for this was to erase forever his native language and German ancestry. He is buried in Engels under the surname Vasilyev.

Almost all of my Russian-side grandfathers and relatives fought in the war. Several were sent to prison on charges decided by NKVD Special Troikas (these were special three-member extra-judicial commis- sions, tasked with conducting speedy secret trials and sentencing of declared anti-Soviet elements). Under the ruthless leadership of Laventry Beria (head of the Soviet secret police system under Stalin), the regime sentenced millions upon millions to death or to slave labor battalions. Everyone remembers this with a wane Olympiada (Shebedyev) Diesendorf, 1900- 1988, with daughters smile through tears and pain. Elena & Nina From childhood, I remember hearing German phrases My baptismal godmother was Olympiada Donskoy, spoken in the family, like “Mein Gott!” My grand- my great-grandmother Anna’s older sister. Many years mothers sometimes spoke in a strange accents. Great- later, I learned that Olympiada had changed her name grandmother Anna sometimes said “Fkussnyay Kar- from Deisendorf before returning in 1970 from her toffel” (tasty potatoes) and Grandmother Vali softly place of deportation in the Altai territory in western added the words “Mich Dich” (me, to you) and they Siberia. (Russian-German exiles were prohibited from added “-chen” and “-chel” to the ends of words. They returning to their homelands until Nov. 1972.) She sometimes called me “Rommel” (German nickname later changed her family name back to Diesendorf. for unruly child). It made me laugh and I couldn’t understand it. I asked them, but they joked that they were good at school and learned German well.

AHSGR Journal Summer 2020 27 Any restaurant could envy the dishes of our We wanted to know why our cousins’ par- cuisine. My grandfather’s clothes were always ents told them, “There is no reason to go neatly ironed, and my grandmother even crawled to these Germans. We are under watchful along the carpets to pluck a speck of dust from eyes.” Sometimes they were called fascists, the nap. She’d joke, “Laziness was born before then Jews (confusing German surnames with you were, we all have to work.” Jewish). Sometimes it sounded like they were enemies of the people or White Guards We lived in Saratov nearby to German families (counter-revolutionaries). Or because others who had returned from Siberia. We were friends, lived in the party courtyard, they were called and we celebrated the holidays of New Year and Cheka (secret police). International Women’s Day)and birthdays with them. Since my childhood, I absorbed the Ger- Such was the mentality of the local popula- man culture subconsciously. They only spoke tion. As a child, I wanted to be a knight and Russian, and none of the adults and old people a Russian hero, a doctor, a fireman, and a liked to tell or remember anything. pilot. We played in the yard with other Rus- sian and Tatar children. I considered myself a I always wanted to get to the truth. I kept won- Russian, but for some reason, I could not get dering who we were: Aristocrats or nobles? through the shell of their mentality, to reach Soviet intelligence agents? The fact that they out to their soul. I would express it like this: didn’t fight here was clear. They were proud of We thought and thought differently. it. But I could not understand why honest hard- working grandfathers were sent to prison, and I I was an adult, I think it was when I returned could not keep quiet about it. from the army at age 20, when I first heard this story. The first time providence and insight came to me was when I was about four. There was a series on My great-grandfather was Alois Weilert (for TV about spies and espionage called “Seventeen some reason, he was called Sasha by his fam- Moments of Spring” (a popular 1970s Russian ily). He was born in Katharinenstadt in 1896. TV series about a Soviet spy operating in Nazi During the years of Civil War and famine, Germany during the war). As I listened to the he was assigned to work in the defense mi- German language and German songs, I felt a litia detachments and in the ARA canteens, chill down my back and a fluttering sensation in- distributing food to the starving. He died in side. We children played games of Nazis and the 1924 at the young age of 28, leaving behind Red Army in the courtyards and kindergartens. his widow, Anna, and an infant daughter, Valentina (my future grandmother). Olympiada Deisendorf and her daughters and grandchildren lived in a neighboring court- Alois’s best friend, Gabriel Archipovich yard, which was connected to ours by a brick Portenko, a future NKVD officer, took the pathway from our rear exit. We would always young widow as his wife and adopted his go to their courtyard to visit and play, because daughter. Gabriel had always been attracted veterans of the NKVD and the Communist Party to Anna. He confessed his love for her and lived by our courtyard. For this reason, great- assured her that Alois’s child would not be grandmother Anna would not allow her older a problem for him. sister Olympiada to come to our courtyard. In 1974, the Deisendorfs again took the Donskoy Gabriel gave them his Portenko surname, surname and left Saratov forever. and Valentina his patronymic Gavrilovna.

Photos Top to Bottom: Alois Weilert 1896-1924 Renn’s great-grandfather; Anna (Shebedyev) Weilert Portenko 1908-1983, Renn’s great- grandmother; Gabriel Portenko 1897-1969; Valentina (Portenko) Bubnov 1924-1999, Renn’s grandmother

28 AHSGR Journal Summer 2020 I don’t know what it was, probably the intervention In 2016, I met my cousins, Alex Faller and Vyacheslav of divine forces. But not knowing the coming harsh Lebedev (another Weilert-related cousin in Rostov), years of Stalin’s terror, he saved them from prison and 75 years after the terrible events of 1941. And when I deportation. With their Ukrainian surnames, Anna and visited the ruins of the old German churches and the Valentina worked as secretaries and translators. church in the city of Saratov, I heard an inner voice whisper the name, Reinhard Renetus Weilert, which As a staff officer of the NKVD, Gabriel was able to means Reinhard Reborn Weillert. Since then, I have help some other German relatives. Some German signed my paintings and my stories by this name. sons married Russian relatives and entered the army under Russian surnames. He was also able to make Renn Weilert and Alexander Faller are both very better arrangements for his sister-in-law, Olympiada interested in connecting and exchanging information Disendorf and her family, when they were deported to with their relatives in the United States. Renn’s email Kyrgyzstan in 1941. Olympiada worked as a school address is [email protected]. Alex’s email principal and she was able to adopt another orphaned address is [email protected]. Both Renn and Alex are German girl. on Facebook.

I was looking for my real family name for a long time, when I found out that my grandmother Valentina was actually German. I began to ask her everything and even offered to move her to Germany. She cried and refused to say that she was Ukrainian. This did not heal the pain. I knew only about Diesendorf and Gertinger (Anna’s friend), and the legends about the German great-grandfathers, sometimes I even dreamed of them. Now, as a mature adult, I went to the archives, first to the Saratov archive. I studied some ancestral branches, and one October morning, I woke up with an intuition that today I’ll find everyone.

On a subconscious level and remembering the family history in the archives of the Volga German ASSR in Engels, on 30 October, I ordered the metric book of the Catholic Church in Katharinenstadt. I found a record of my great-grandfather and the names of many other relatives. It also helped me that before her death, grandmother Valentina told me the names of her Uncle Peter and Aunt Berta (Faller). That’s how I found my lost surname and the traces of my ancestors.

Then I monitored ancestry search sites for several months until I came across a post that an Alexander Faller was looking for relatives, and the data of our ancestors coincided. I recalled that the ancient Ger- mans were thought to be a mystical people, and this seemed like mysticism to me.

AHSGR Journal Summer 2020 29 Journal of the American Historical Society of Germans from Russia

EDITORIAL BOARD

Michael Brown grew up in Buffalo, Wyoming, and is connected to his Volga German heritage through his grandfather (Brug), who was from the village of Bauer south of Saratov. He received his doctor- ate from the University of Utah in 1994. and served as a professor at the University of Wyoming from 1994 to 2017. He specializes in media studies and spent several years as editor of an international radio research journal. Since 2012, he has traveled to Kazakhstan several times as a visiting professor with the Kazakh National University and used those opportunities to learn about German Russians there. In 2017, he joined the AHSGR Board of Directors.

Robert Chesney earned a Master of Arts in Literature from Marquette University and holds an undergraduate degree in English. He has taught high school English and writing for over thirty years. He has also worked as an adjunct professor at Concordia University in Mequon, Wisconsin. He served as a board member, instructor, and speaker for two Wisconsin High School Scholastic Press Associa- tions. Currently, he is managing editor of the AHSGR Southeastern Wisconsin Chapter newsletter. He presented a workshop in newsletter layout and design trends during the AHSGR annual convention in Milwaukee. In 2012, he received a second place in the AHSGR International Short Story Contest at the Portland convention.

Irmgard Hein Ellingson earned a Master of Arts in theology from Wartburg Theological Seminary and holds undergraduate degrees in political science, history, and German. She has been bilingual from birth and also reads old German script. Her research has been published in four countries and in three languages. She serves as an associate of ministry in three Evangelical Lutheran Church congregations, is an adjunct instructor of German at Waldorf College and lives in Grafton, Iowa.

Velma Jesser earned a PhD in educational policy and management from the University of Oregon. Half of her dissertation research on ethics and values was conducted on site in Germany. She served on the team that published the two-volume Black Sea German Russian Census for the Germans from Russia Heritage Society (GRHS). After more than 25 years as a business management professor in Oregon she moved to New Mexico where she established the first joint chapter of AHSGR/GRHS. She has researched over 15 generations of the Jesser Family, created and edited several years of newsletters for the Glückstal Colonies Research Association, and prepared and edited two volumes of anthologies of short stories for AHSGR. She is retired and lives in Derby, Kansas.

William Keel received a Ph.D. in Germanic linguistics from Indiana University in 1977 and since 1978 has been a professor of German at the University of Kansas in Lawrence, where he is chair of the De- partment of Germanic Languages and Literatures. He researches German settlement dialects, especially the dialects of Germans from Russia in Kansas and adjacent states. He lives in Lawrence, Kansas. Timothy J. Kloberdanz earned a Ph.D. in folklore and anthropology from Indiana University. His master’s thesis and doctoral dissertation dealt with the Germans from Russia. He has co-authored two books and published more than a hundred articles. He also wrote the script for a prize-winning television documentary. He retired from teaching in 2010 and is now professor emeritus at North Dakota State University in Fargo. He co-edited the award-winning book Sundogs and Sunflowers: Folklore and Folk Art of the Northern Great Plains, which included numerous examples of German-Russian family stories and other folklore.

J. Otto Pohl taught history in the Social Sciences Department of American University of Iraq-Sulaimani from 2016-2019. Previously, he taught in the History Department of the University of Ghana, Legon, and in the International and Comparative Politics Department of American University of Central Asia. He is the author of Catherine’s Grandchildren: A Short History of the Russian-Germans under Soviet Rule (Lincoln, NE: American Historical Society of Germans from Russia, 2008), Ethnic Cleansing in the USSR, 1937-1949 (Westport, CT: Praeger, 1999) and The Stalinist Penal System (Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 1997). His work has appeared in The Russian Review, Human Rights Review, The Journal of Genocide Research, and other places.

Dona Reeves Marquardt is Professor Emerita at Texas State University, where she taught German language and literature many years. Primarily of Volga-German ancestry, she has published articles on the language, history, and culture of Germans from Russia and has translated major works in that area. Her grandparents immigrated in 1876 from Volga villages to Russell County, Kansas. She was a Ful- bright scholar at Johannes Gutenberg Universistat in Germany, and has studied and traveled extensively in Germany. Most recently, she has visited her ancestral villages in Hesse and the Palatinate with her Black-Sea German-Russian husband, Lewis R. Marquardt.

Eric J. Schmaltz earned a Ph.D. in history at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Since 2005, he has taught modern European and world history at Northwestern Oklahoma State University in Alva. His research concentrates on modern Germany and modern Russia with an emphasis on ethnic and nationality issues. He has contributed a variety of articles and translations to AHSGR, GRHS, and North Dakota State University Libraries in Fargo. Several of his articles and reviews have appeared in local newspapers, interdisciplinary journals, and major international anthologies. He is editor of the GRHS Heritage Review. He is also an executive board member of the endowed Northwestern Oklahoma State University Institute for Citizenship Studies.

Jerome Siebert is a first-generation German from Russia whose family first settled in “Roosha” Town in Fresno, California. Both his parents were born in Russia and immigrated to the U.S. in 1907 (mother) and 1911 (father). His professional career as a Special Assistant to four U.S. Secretaries of Agriculture and as a consultant to various California Department of Food and Agriculture Secretaries frequently took him to various parts of the world in the organization of conferences and seminars on food production, distribution, and marketing. His travels have taken him to Russia, Germany, and Argentina where he has had active communications with Germans from Russia groups. He served as President of the American Historical Society of Germans from Russia International (AHSGR) from his election in 2005 to 2012. He has also served since 1999 on the AHSGR Board of Directors and currently chairs the Editorial and Publications committee and manages AHSGR’s investments.