Journal of the American Historical Society of Germans From Russia Vol. 14, No. 1 Spring 1991 COVER PHOTO: Catholic Church in Karlsruhe (Heimatkalender der Deutschen aus Bessarabien). CONTENTS THE SOVIET CATHOLIC CHURCH DURING THE NEW ECONOMIC POLICY AND THE STALINIST TERROR: SELECTED TEXTS DEALING WITH THE SOVIET GERMANS ....... The Rev. Christopher Zugger EARLY VOLGA GERMAN SETTLEMENT LIST FROM THE WIESENSEITE.................................. David F. Schmidt PIECING THE PAST TOGETHER: THE IMPORTANT ROLE OF FOLKLORE IN FAMILY HISTORY RESEARCH...................... Timothy J. Kloberdanz DOWN "DIE LIME," CAUCASIAN FRONTIER. William Seibel Published by American Historical Society of Germans From Russia 631 D Street • Lincoln, Nebraska 68502-1199 • Phone 402-474-3363 Edited by Richard R. Rye ® Copyright 1991 by the American Historical Society of Germans From Russia. All rights reserved. German settlements in Odessa and Black Sea area. (Cartographer Dr. K. Stumpp) THE SOVIET CATHOLIC CHURCH DURING THE NEW ECONOMIC POLICY AND THE STALINIST TERROR- SELECTED TEXTS DEALING WITH THE SOVIET GERMANS The Rev. Christopher L Zugger these times. Others would try to escape abroad or head to Siberia or the European quarters of the cities After 1921 and the consolidation of Soviet power of Central Asia. A priest wrote from Astrakhan, "Our in the West, religion was seen as the principal people die out." obstacle to the spread of communism. Physical per- In spite of the population losses, there were still secution had been violent during the Civil War, as Polish, Lithuanian, and German Catholic workers seen, and administrative persecution continued after among the urban proletariat who were unable to leave the fighting ended. "A war of unparalleled ferocity" or thought that Bolshevism would pass. They made took place in the press, in meetings at work and great sacrifices to keep their churches open, paying neighborhoods, and on a national level. The Cieplak the enormous rents, taxes, and high utility bills arrest, trial, and expulsion of the Latin bishops and assigned to all religious centers. Many times they imprisonment of the Russian Exarch were but one failed and the churches would then be closed. phase of this war. Churches of all faiths continued to At the same time, the Church experienced the new be shut down, and clergy and lay leaders such as phenomenon of apostasy. Some who left the faith religious teachers and committee heads were arrested. simply ceased worship, turning indifferent to religion, The Bezbozhniki, or League of the Godless, was and were not heard from again by the priests. Others founded in 1925 under the direction of Emilyan became activists, betraying priests or subjecting them Yaroslavsky. The Godless put on blasphemous pro- to slander and abuse, cessions, participated in the desecration of the sacred, In the rural areas, the Autonomous Republic of and had sole access to the media and propaganda 1 Germans on the Volga was founded (1924) and a concerning religious beliefs. number of German national districts were established in the Ukraine, Russia, Georgia, and Azer-baidjan. CATHOLIC RELIGIOUS LIFE IN THE Polish districts existed in the Ukraine and EUROPEAN U.S.S.R. DURING NEP Byelorussia. In all these areas, parishes continued to Soviet Catholicism remained concentrated in the exist, though with diminished staff and fewer cities and among the rural Byelorussian, Polish, and churches. German populations. These populations were weak- Byelorussian territory was formed into the Byelo- ened by the effects of the 1921-1922 famine, emi- russian Soviet Socialist Republic (B.S.S.R.), one of gration, and—especially in the Ukraine and southern the sovereign republics. Originally very small in Russia—recurring episodes of malaria, cholera, 1920, its government took advantage of Leninist typhus, bubonic plague, and shortages of medicine. nationality policy to try to embrace all of the Byelo- Outbreaks took place in both cities and countryside. russian-speaking areas. From a core region around Drought in 1923-1924 meant small crop yields and Minsk, the B.S.S.R. was expanded in 1924 and 1926, food shortages. Episodes like these created panic. embracing significant Catholic populations in and Entire families would flee a rural district struck by around Polotsk, Vitebsk, Orsha, and Moghilev in the these disasters. Kiev, Kharkov, Baku, Astrakhan, and first expansion and around Gomel in the second. other cities were swamped with refugees at However, many Byelorussians and Catholics were left in the Russian Federation. In 1926, the B.S.S.R. AHSGR Journal I Spring 1991 Page 1 had nearly 5 million inhabitants, with many of the status, Notre Dame in Petrograd, and St. Louis in archdiocese's remaining faithful.2 Moscow. Both belonged to the French government, Catholic Administrative Centers Attempts to place St. Andrew's in Makievka under A number of priests in the Moghilev archdiocese French protection due to the presence of the Franco- struggled valiantly to keep a curia going in Petro- Belgian colony of engineers and miners failed. Even grad, trying to stay in touch with parish curates and in Moscow, French protection was no guarantee of even process marriage cases. Interference from safety. St. Louis' church eventually lost its rectory and Bishop von der Ropp in his Polish exile made life another building to—of all things—the use of the complicated on two counts. First, the bishop and his secret police. staff were increasingly out of touch with Soviet real- In addition, churches had been lost. By the ity. Second, their presence in Warsaw left the Soviets summer of 1923, many religious centers had been shut continually suspicious due to the perennial tensions down. Some of these were able to reopen once the between Poland and the Soviet Union. contracts were signed by committees. Some were In the Ukraine and southern Russia, Monsignor never restored to religious use. Many Catholic houses Skalski in Kiev, and Bishop Zerr at Selz and of worship met the fate of the Orthodox Church's Franzfeld began to emerge as significant figures for Kremlin Cathedrals of Moscow, which were the Poles and Germans, respectively. In addition, confiscated in 1918 and remain secularized. However, Monsignor Kruschinsky, who would be the "star" in a the Orthodox Divine Liturgy was celebrated in Stalinist show trial in 1930, tried to keep the Tiraspol Assumption Cathedral in October 1989, for the 400th diocese functioning from its base in Odessa and the anniversary of the founding of the Russian Black Sea districts. Tbilisi remained the Catholic Patriarchate. That was the first religious service in the heart of the Caucasus and residence of administrators. Kremlin since 1918, Another service was held in the autumn of 1990. However, not all Kremlin churches Parishes have survived. Where parishes remained, sacramental life con- Chapels and churches in nationalized public tinued, but with great differences. Sacraments were buildings or in public complexes, such as the Catholic taxed by the State. Priests were denied rations and chapels in the Imperial Pages Building in Petrograd depended solely on the charity of the people for and the former Theological Academy are permanently survival. Parish organizations were banned, save for lost to Catholic worship. Throughout the NEP era, choirs. Children were pressured by teachers and churches were closed, exorbitant rents and taxes were Komsomol (Communist Youth League) activists to assessed, and churches were lost. No church, no legal stop serving at the altar, singing in church, or attend- services. A closing meant the loss of statues, ing mass. Activities of the godless in the cities vestments, and all the remaining Mass vessels. All that included pressure at work to stop going to mass. A could be legally removed by the priest or council was parish needed competent adults to be able to function: the Blessed Sacrament itself: the, Hosts had to be these adults were now known to the police and carried out in a cloth or container belonging to the activists. Their collaboration with the priests would priest personally. place them in danger in later years. Finally, a closing left the building where a com- The physical structure of the parishes was sharply munity's baptisms, weddings, funerals, and ordinary reduced by 1924. Of course, there were no schools divine consolation had taken place transformed into a left to the Catholics and all property had been lost. theater, warehouse, garage, or barn. It might be left to Only churches, cemeteries, and rectories remained. decay behind locked doors or even be totally The churches had been nationalized and the priests in demolished. Whatever the fate of the parish church, their rectories or in tiny apartments and rooms had to the situation caused pain to the remaining believers. pay high rents and taxes. Congregations had to pay 3 high rent to use the churches built by their ancestors. Priesthood Only two parishes escaped this Catholicism is dependent upon the ordained Page 2 AHSGR Journal / Spring 1991 priesthood for the essential celebrations of the faith; and Adam Zimmerman. Their pastoral life was brief: only the sacraments of baptism and matrimony could Father Nold celebrated their tenth anniversary alone, be kept up. Without priests, there was no Mass, no as his classmates were already in prison. Holy Communion, no Confession, no Anointing for Even with the ordinations, the diocese was not the sick and dying. Baptism can be administered by a keeping pace. In the same time period nine priests layperson using water and the proper formula died, and there were a number of vacant parishes invoking the Trinity. Latin Catholics could contract because of the losses suffered through flight, deaths in marriage by pronouncing their vows before two the war, arrests, and evictions of priests. Catholic witnesses. Germans did this, but apparently not Poles. TABLE II The closure of the Theological Academy was Natural Attrition of Tiraspol Diocesan Clergy: devastating.