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Home , Baltic Germans, German Empire, Russian Empire, Southern Ukraine, Volga Germans, Volhynia

THE RUSSIAN GERMAN COMMUNITY IN I; A PRELUDE TO LIFE IN THE UNION

From the Revocation of the Special Privileges in 1871 to the First World War

On , 1871, II (1855-1881) revoked the privileges that had been granted to the German colonists by the manifestos of Catherine II and Alexander I. The colonists now had the same legal status as Russian peasantry, and were subject to the same laws and obligations. The basic purpose of this action was to integrate the German into the Russian .

The Revocation of the Special Privileges

By the time Alexander II came to the , anti-German sentiment in was increasing The resented the extraordinary influence of the German Baltic aristocracy in public affairs. Many Russian and merchants envied the special privileges of the German settlers, their extensive land acquisitions and increasing prosperity. The pan-Slavic movement, which had many adherents in the nobility and , became suspicious of the German colonists’ true allegiance to Russia rather than . They considered them a possible threat to Russia, a consideration which became more acute with the in 1871. did not want the German to become an extension of the new German Empire5.

These reasons explain in good part Alexander’s abrogation of the Colonial Code which listed the rights and duties of the German colonists. An additional reason, undoubtedly, was to place the German farmers on an equal legal and social level with the recently freed Russian peasants. The decree of June 4, 1871. repealed the colonists’ right to local self-government, abolished the Kontor and the Fürsorgekomite, and incorporated the German colonies into the system.6 Subsequently, in 1876, were no longer designated as “colonists” but as “settlers-landowners”7

The 1871 law also stipulated that all or town business, as well as all court proceedings, had to be in the . To be a village or town leader, therefore, one had to be fluent in Russian, a condition that did not exist before 1871.

One of the principal privileges revoked in the June 1871 decree was the exemption from . The German colonists were exempt in perpetuity from military service by the manifestos of Catherine II and Alexander I. The German colonists’ rejection of this revocation was so strong that they received a ten year grace period during which time they could be permitted to emigrate . Although the German settlers finally acquiesced to compulsory military service, apprehension about their future in the grew and spread. This fear was borne out by the mass of reservists at the time of the Russo-Japanese War (1904-1905) which caused a considerable, illegal German emigration from Russia.11

Picture #9: Photograph circa 1893 of German Russian officers in Czarist . They appear to belong to a guards infantry regiment. Source: Germans from Russia Heritage Collection, North Dakota State University Libraries. (Photograph permission of the Germans from Russia Heritage Collection, North Dakota State University Libraries, Fargo, North Dakota; www.ndsu.edu/grhc)

“Russification”and the Pan-Slavic Movement

The latter part of the saw the growth of a pan-Slavic movement among the Russian upper classes and in certain imperial court circles. The chauvinistic press and organizations such as the Slavic Society provoked resentment among the non-Russian minorities.13 The motto of the pan-Slavic organizations was “Russia for the Russians,” a parallel development to the increasing in 19th century and America. was, undoubtedly, also influenced by increasing unrest among the country’s minority Polish, Finnish, native Baltic and Caucasian populations.

Since Peter I, the Russian Czars had relied heavily on the German Baltic nobility to fill important positions in many ministries, high military commands, and at the senior levels in higher education, and scientific and medical institutions.14. At one time, for example, all members of the St. of Science were of Baltic German origin.15 German officers also had a disproportionately large role in the . In the Napoleonic War of 1812, it is estimated that 7% of all Russian Generals were Baltic German nobles. It is also a fact that at this time and in subsequent years, the number of higher army officers of German origin was close to 40%. 17 Baltic aristocrats owed their success thanks in part to their Lutheran Church, with its stress on duty, hard work, and obedience, as well as to the Enlightenment in . They were thus much better educated than their counterparts in the Russian provincial nobility.16

Czar Alexander III reacted strongly to the resentment caused by the privileges and increasing wealth of the German colonists. He is reported to have said that he would “squash the German colonists like a handful of rubber”. In the nationalistic press of that time in St. Petersburg and , officials and others wrote that the colonists were a threat to the nation’s security; that they were subsidized by the German in order to transform the of their settlements into a German possession. 18 They were also accused of promoting pan- Germanism in their schools and churches as well as disloyalty to the Czar and teaching hatred of Russia to their children.19 Although these charges were publicly repudiated by the Russian of province, that failed to silence these comments and intolerance continued to spread.20

Alexander III’s policy was intended, first, to eliminate the German Baltic nobility from its dominant position in the army, higher government positions and the diplomatic service and, second to place the German school system under Russian government control. In 1892 all schools, whether they received government financing or not - and the German schools did not - were subordinated to the control of Russian government school inspectors. They had absolute authority over the school system; chose the teachers; and enforced the plan of studies set by the ministry of education in St. Petersburg. They made Russian the teaching language in the village schools as well as in the Zentralschulen, to the detriment of German. Only religion and German (as a second language) were taught in the language of the settlers. Consequently, about two-thirds of a school day’s instruction was taught in Russian. 21 The Czar also changed the language of instruction of the University of Dorpat () from German to Russian.The russification of the school system created deep anxiety in the German communities. The Russian government’s takeover of the schools not only created the fear that their would be relegated to second place but, as the school system and church were tightly linked, they feared that the Russian Orthodox religion would be forced upon them. As best they could, however, the German colonists resisted assimilation in order to keep their ethnic identity.22

It must be mentioned that, until , the Russian government’s russification policy directed at the German population was not as ruthless or extreme as that directed at the , and . The Germans were intimidated and subject to discrimination, but they were never subjected to violence.

Emigration to

The revocation of the special privileges, particularly the exemption from military service and the russification of their school system, caused many German Russians to seriously consider emigration. They did not think, however, of returning to their ancestral homeland in Germany, but rather of going to the and , where agricultural land was plentiful and cheap or even free. From the to prior to WWI, about 300,000 settlers came to the United Staeas and Canada..

The Revolution of 1905

In October 1905, Czar Nicolas II (1894 – 1917) ceded to popular demands and appeared to introduce a constitutional . He issued a manifesto granting basic civil liberties, such as freedom from arbitrary arrest and imprisonment without trial; freedom of speech and association; freedom of the press and opinion; and universities free of government interference. He also promised the institution of a free, popular vote to elect a national assembly, the , which would have to approve all legislation. All these rights of a citizen were later incorporated in the new, Fundamental Laws of the Empire, a form of constitution. 34

Nevertheless the Czar could convoke and dismiss the Duma at will and had full power of decision on issues of war and peace. He also controlled more than one-third of the state budget. He could govern by decree when the Duma was not in session and could appoint or dismiss state ministers without Duma approval.35

The effect of the revolution and subsequent reforms on the German communities were very different, as was their response to these new circumstances. For the first time, the various German settlements organized to form regional and even national associations. These societies were created to promote the interests of their constituencies on a higher level than just their . Their priorities were cultural autonomy, local self-government and moderate agrarian reform. . In Moscow, The German communities considered that the Czar’s 1905 manifesto guaranteed them their fundamental rights and therefore remained loyal to the Russian Crown.37

With these imperial reforms, anti-German measures were relaxed. The German Baltic were again welcome at the court and government and played an important role again in the higher ranks of the army, administration and foreign diplomatic service. They welcomed the provisions concerning religious and cultural freedoms, and were particularly interested in the reversal of the educational russification measures in their school system. In 1907 the requirement of Russian as the teaching language in the German school system was eliminated. In these years, many new secondary schools opened in the region. Unfortunately for the Germans, they were closed or made into Russian schools in 1914, when World War I started. By and large, despite problems, the German Russians had achieved a fairly high level of well being by the end of the 19th Century .

World War I

By 1914 there were 1,621,000 Germans living in Russia. This figure does not include the Germans living in the Baltic provinces nor in Polish Russia or . The principal poles of German population were 600,000 living in the region and 529,000 near the Black Sea in Southern and the . The Russian settlements totaled about 200,000 and in Siberian Russia about 102,000. The balance was in the and in the major Russian cities.47

The new cultural and political freedom that the colonists enjoyed after the revolution of 1905 proved to be short-lived. As tension between Russia and Germany increased in the immediate pre-war years, the Russian government, the and the intelligentsia became less and less friendly to the Germans in Russia. Hostile articles in the press misrepresented and maligned them. They were forbidden to hold a planned all-Russian congress of Germans, in which the Baltic nobility and colonists could meet to discuss the development of institutions for the preservation of their common cultural heritage. There was a serious proposal in government circles as early as 1910 of a law forbidding Germans to buy or rent land in the three western governments of Volhynia, , and Kiev. Only the influence of the German members of the Duma succeeded in averting this attempt to restrict the economic rights of the German colonists. In 1912 the same men managed to prevent from reaching the Duma an even harsher proposal, one that could have been used to dispossess German colonists in Volhynia, Podolia, Kiev and Bessarabia. This was a portent of things to come.

The declaration of war against the came as a great shock to all German Russians In spite of their demonstrated loyalty to Russia and the , the Germans immediately became objects of suspicion and hatred to the Russian public. Leading newspapers vied with each other in the imaginativeness of their hate propaganda. Publicists, politicians and generals accused the Germans of generations of activity and long-planned treason, although there as not a shred of evidence to support the charges. "It's time to deal with the “inner Germans" became a popular slogan. The city mobs, their anger whipped up by such propaganda, more than once threatened direct action against Germans in business and industry. In -June 1915 the situation got out of hand in Moscow, encouraged, it is said, by the reported German-hating governor- Yusupov. For three days a ferocious raged, the worst in Russian history. Hundreds of German shops, banks, factories and homes were looted and burned. There were many casualties and the property damage ran into the millions of roubles.

German Russians in the Imperial Army

It was incomprehensible to many Russians that the German Russians s, as a national minority, could be loyal to the Russian crown, and at the same time hold to their language, their religion, and most of their ethnic culture. However, this was an indisputable fact, and the incredulous surely should have realized that this duo-affinity could apply to the German colonists as well as it had to other nationalities in the Russian ethnic make-up Ironically, Russia's Nationalists hated these people as Germans; Cadets (Constitutional Democrats) despised them as ; and the extreme left-the socialists and anarchists-detested them as monarchists, or pro the "establishment" (the could be considered monarchists)Nevertheless, 250,OOO were to bear arms in the Empire's declared "holy" war against the German Empire.

Russia plunged into the conflict inadequately organized, ill- prepared, and undersupplied. Her avalanche of manpower sometimes was led by inept commanders following questionable orders from higher commands. Surprisingly, shortly after hostilities began, the Russian army under General von Rennenkampf won an important battle at Gumbinnen that could have led to a drive on itself.

Failure to follow up on this victory proved to be one of the country's major military blunders. Meanwhile, Field von Hindenburg and General Ludendorff, who had been transferred to the Russian front, virtu ally destroyed General Samsonov's Russian army at Tannenberg, in August 26-30, 1914 , thus dealing Russia a crippling blow from which she never fully recovered. Consequently Russia’s troops were driven back along the northern front and by the end of they had evacuated East . The Germans pushed their offensive, and the first ten months of the conflict were to cost the Russian Imperial forces losses of 3,800,000 men.'

The Baltic German, General Rennenkampf was accused of treason to Russia but later absolved., Russia soon ran low on equipment, armament, ammunition, and supplies. Shortages frequently were the result of bungled transportation and faulty logistics. Great numbers of poorly trained recruits of all ages were thrown into the front lines as hurried replacements. Troops sometimes faced the enemy without weapons and had to rely on arming themselves with those dropped by their fallen comrades

German colonists served loyally in the Russian army during the war. Most German Russians, however, were not sent to the Western Front to fight against the German and Austrian armies, but to the Turkish fighting front in the Caucasus. Those that initially served in the West, were subsequently removed and also sent to the Caucasus.

Picture # 10:Russian soldiers in trenches on the Caucasus front, Winter, 1915 . It is interesting to note that the majority of the Russian soldiers do not appear to have arms. Source: Wikimedia Commons.

In midwinter 1915-1916 the Army of the Caucasus launched an offen- sive against the heavily fortified position of in Turkish as part of the Commander of the Caucasus Front, Grand Duke ’ scheme was to drive all the way to Constantinople. The ancient Turkish stronghold, modernized and strengthened by German military engineers, was ringed by at least eighteen outer forts and defended by some 350 heavy guns. Against these fortifications, which military authorities held to be impregnable, situated as they were in high, difficult, mountainous terrain, the rash, vainglorious Grand Duke threw great contingents of Volga German soldiers and other troops into a bloody two-week assault that began at the end of January . During one stormy night 500 soldiers are said to have been frozen to death in a single battalion. The loss of life was staggering as the struggling men were driven into murderous fire. At last several key positions were taken, largely by bayonet. The successful conquest of Erzurum itself followed.

Official casualty figures for this campaign were nebulous, approximate, partial, or entirely lacking. However, Volga German assessment held that 40,000 colonists, sons and fathers, perished in these operations . Many German Russians believed that the Grand Duke had assigned them to storm at least three key outer forts, wantonly subjecting them to annihilation.

Captured Turkish flags by Russian soldiers in Erzurum

The first ten months of the war cost the Imperial Government losses of 3,800,000 men, killed, wounded and prisoners of war. The demand for troops became so great that most of the first class of the , ex- veterans from previous wars between the ages of forty and forty-three , as well as untrained and poorly armed twenty-one to forty three year olds whose lottery numbers had never been called, were also activated. Further, the government had to reduce the draft age to seventeen and extend military obligations to the age of fifty. Great numbers of poorly trained recruits were thrown into the battle, often without proper arms, waiting- it is reported- to receive a weapon only when an armed fellow soldier had first been killed or wounded.

The Expropriation of German land

As Russia’s war losses increased so did anti-German hysteria. They were made responsible for the disastrous course of the war; and were accused of being spies and saboteurs betraying Russia. The use of German in correspondence with soldiers was prohibited. German language newspapers and organizations were closed and the German language was forbidden in schools, even in the religious education of the colonists’ children. German was not even allowed to be taught as a second language. Using German in Church sermons was prohibited and infractions could end in of the clergy to . All German Russian teachers were dismissed in 1915, even though they were government accredited, and replaced by Russians.53

Anti-German measures reached a nadir with the government’s so-called liquidation laws, of , to expropriate German properties in the Western border provinces. Compensation was envisaged in the form of 25 year government obligations. The laws were not immediately enforced, because the government feared the economic repercussions, this decree was left over the colonists as a threat. Even the threat itself was seriously disruptive of the economy in the German areas. The presence of the decrees, however, caused great anxiety in many German villages, particularly in the province of Volhynia, resulting in panic sales or neglect of the land expected to be expropriated at any moment

It should be mentioned here that in a Council of Ministers’ meeting held shortly after the outbreak of the war, it was decided that the Russian state should liquidate all German landholdings along the western frontier. The underlying theme was to rid Russia of its “German yoke”, the expression used to describe the economic power of German Russians.

Not only did the central government enacte such legislation, provincial , army commanders, and local superintendents of education insisted on doing their bit against the inner German enemy. The harshest measures were imposed in the west, where there was military rule, and in the south, where the governors were the most zealous enemy of Germans In the Black Sea region even German sermons in the churches were forbidden and the was enforced by deportation of clergy to Siberia. Anti-German Catholic Poles appear to have been especially active as informers. Even Bishop Kessler himself, who continued to preach in German in his at Saratov, was threatened by such over-zealous patriots in his flock. Similar persecution was visited on the German Protestant clergy of all denominations, for whom religious services were made almost impossible, since language and religion in their case were very closely linked.

This crushing military losses, the daily of other war dead, and the relentlessly approaching unknown hour of the impending mass banishment from their homes, farms, and villages plunged the stricken German populace deeper and deeper into despair.

Grand Duke Nicolas (at the time he was still commander in chief of the Western forces), after suffering serious defeats at the hands of the , decided to implement the decrees for the German Russians living under his army’s control, principally in Volhynia province. The lands were to be expropriated, and the owners deported to Siberia. This cruel and unjustified action was thought to be the kind of morale booster that was needed to restore the soldiers' will to fight. Beginning on July 15, 1915, without warning, holding hostages to assure good behavior, ignoring the niceties envisaged by the Czar's expropriation law, the' army rounded up more than 150,000 Germans in the province of Volhynia, packed them on trains and shipped them eastward. The deportees had to leave behind a ripe crop of uncut grain, their land, and most of their movable property. Ukrainian peasants were moved in, to take over their farms. The same fate was intended for all the Germans in . when the time was ripe.

One villager describes this scene:

Our entire village lay in deep sleep when about midnight we were awakened by cries and shouts in the streets. Peering out of the window, I saw heavily armed police storming into the homes. Then three of them came to our house, ordering all to get out of bed and prepare to leave at once for Siberia. "You are spies and criminals," they shouted; "you want to deliver our Fatherland to Wilhelm. We are going to prevent that by sending you to Siberia. In one hour you will be ready." ... While the police were crowding us to finish packing, they ransacked our cupboards, chests, bins-and even the sacks and bags we already had packed. They took anything that pleased them. Money and jewelry were particularly sought after. They even seized our wedding rings.

Volhynia in the

Also in 1915 and 1916,German settlers’ land was expropriated in the provinces of Kiev, Podolsk and Bessarabia An eyewitness account by a Lutheran pastor from Novogradvolynsk who was arrested at the time stated

“The expropriation of the German landowners in Volhynia and the uprooting of probably 200,000 colonists to Siberia had already been long planned by the Tsarist government. The tragic war against Germany offered a welcomed cause to carry out their plan. Whatever is German, it was said, is the enemy and is to be treated accordingly. 56

All eyewitness accounts of the ethnic-German groups deported in 1915- 1916 reveal that the "resettlement operation" was carried out in the most brutal manner. Those expropriated and deported were often stripped of all possessions and were cursed as traitors and spies by soldiers and police, and treated accordingly." For those who were simply expropriated, they were free to choose where to "resettle," but often only with a few hours' notice. The were preceded by the arrest of village intelligentsia, pastors, lawyers, and other prominent leaders." According to eyewitness Lutheran pastor Rudolf Deringer of Novogradvolynsk, who was arrested at this time: "The expropriation of the German landowners in Volhynia and the uprooting of probably 200,000 colonists to Siberia had already been long planned by the Tsarist government. The tragic war against Germany offered a welcomed cause to carry out their plan. Whatever is German, it was said, is the enemy, and is to be treated accordingly” The mortality rate from these deportations is estimated to have been 63,000 to 100,000, that is from 30% to 50%, but exact figures are impossible to determine.

A further liquidation law was passed in extending the expropriation and expulsion of German settlers from their homes in the Baltic, the Black Sea, the Crimea region, and the Caucasus, with additional settlement areas to be added in 1916.Finally, in February of 1917, just weeks before the collapse of the Czarist government, Nicholas II decreed the expropriation and expulsion of German lands and their inhabitants from the remaining provinces of Russia, including from the .. The were given one year to sell their land to the Land Bank, which would then settle Russians on these properties. Thus the groundwork was therefore laid for a of Russia's German problem. Although small groups, like the Hirschenhof colonists, were deported in 1916, the revolution came before the deportations could be carried out

Restitution

The revolution and the Czar’s abdication later in March of that year put a stop to these measures and they were never carried out. The liquidation decrees were suspended by the Provisional Government. The new government issued a declaration of human rights whereby all national minorities, excepting the Germans, were given full equality. The immediate and energetic intervention of German community leaders with the new government achieved a retraction of the discriminatory clause insofar as the southern colonies were concerned. Premier Kerensky explained that this article had been drafted through a misunderstanding. He refused, however, to repudiate the deposed Czsar's final ukase calling for the banishment of the Volga Germans. For unfathomable reasons, this decree was only placed in abeyance instead of being revoked; For the , unfortunately, the deliverance came too late. The greater part of the population had been deported, and although these colonists were free to return and endeavor to reclaim their former homes, it has been estimated that only about half of them succeeded in reestablishing themselves. Many found their houses destroyed or occupied by others. In some instances entire villages were obliterated, or taken over by Russians.

The German Catholic bishop of Tirasopol, Josef Kessler, had the following comments about the Czar’s liquidation decrees of the Volga German communities:

Upon the fall of the Tsarist government it was found that this order was planned by the Tsarist government with the view to starving and driving all of the German subjects out of the of Russia. At the time of the fall of the Tsarist government orders were in the hands of the army to proceed with forces into the colonies along the Volga to execute this commandeering ukase. On that same day I had urged the boys in my seminary of Saratov (because there were no men except old men at home) to pray for a miracle to save us from extinction, and on the same day, the revolution began in Petrograd. 1,800 mounted were held in readiness at Saratov, to swoop down on the defenseless villages, to murder, to plunder and scatter the inhabitants. But on account of the revolution he order was never executed."

In conclusion, R. J. Rummel, a political scientist at the University of Hawaii, argues that the casualties which resulted from the deportation of this ethnic German group should, in accord with standard legal definitions, be classified as "murder. Moscow German author Waldemar Weber remarks: "Therefore, genocide in relation to the Germans was no invention of the Stalin leadership, but had some previous models”.

Source: Voices from the : The Oppression of the German Minority in the