American Historical Society Of Germans From Russia Work Paper No. 25 Winter, 1977 Price $2.50 TABLE OF CONTENTS PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE RuthM. Amen ................................…………………………………………………………...............…................... i TWO POEMS Nona Uhrich Nimnicht .................................…………………………………………………………….........……............... .ii PASSAGE TO RUSSIA: WHO WERE THE EMIGRANTS? Lew Malinowski Translated by Dona B. Reeves. ................………………………………….................……................ 1 THE FIRST STATISTICAL REPORT ON THE VOLGA COLONIES - February 14, 1769. Prepared for Empress Catherine II by Count Orlov Translated by Adam Giesinger.....................................……………………………………………………………...............…4 EARLY CHRONICLERS AMONG THE VOLGA GERMANS Reminiscences ofHeinrich Erfurth, S. Koliweck, and Kaspar Scheck Translated by Adam Giesinger. ...............................……………………………………………………..................... 10 A VOLHYNIAN GERMAN CONTRACT Adam Giesinger. ...................................................…………………………………………………………............. 13 THE REBUILDING OF GERMAN EVANGELICAL PARISHES IN THE EAST An Appeal of 17 January 1943 to the Nazi authorities by Pastor Friedrich Rink Translated by Adam Giesinger. ..................................……………………………………………………................... 15 A BIT OF EUROPE IN DAKOTA: THE GERMAN RUSSIAN COLONY AT EUREKA W. S. Harwood ..........................................…………………………………………………………….................... .17 A VOICE FROM THE PAST: The Autobiography of Gottlieb Isaak Introduced & Annotated by Otto Bruntsch Translated by Otto Wenzel ....................................………………………………………………………....................21 ADDITIONS TO THE LOAN COLLECTION Reviews by Emma S. Haynes. ...............................…………………………………………………...................... .24 VILLAGES IN WHICH OUR FOREFATHERS LIVED: THE PRISCHIB GROUP Emil Blank Translated by Adam Giesinger......................……………………………………………………..............................29 (Continued on inside back cover) Published by American Historical Society of Germans From Russia 631 D Street • Lincoln, Nebraska 68502 Editor: Nancy Bernhardt Holland ©1977 by the American Historical Society of Germans from Russia. All rights reserved. THE RUSSIAN MENNONITE VILLAGE: A DOCUMENTARY PORTRAIT FROM 1909 Jacob B. Janz Translated by John B. Toews .......................………………………………………………..............................36 WE SING OUR HISTORY Lawrence A. Weigel. ..............……………………………..……………………............................................. .40 MENNONITES IN BRAZIL Peter Klassen.........................………………………………………………………......................................... .42 MENNO COLONY IN PARAGUAY: From Canada to the Chaco 50 years ago Jacob B. Reimer ..........................................………………………………………………......................49 QUERIES AND SURNAME EXCHANGE Prepared by Arthur E. Flegel. ............................…………………………………....................... .54 CONTRIBUTORS TO THIS ISSUE .........................……………………………………….............................58 COVER: German emigrants from Russia model the sheepskin Pelz, "great top-boots," bright skirts "falling like truncated cones . aprons of white or yellow or pink" and royally embroidered head shawls fashionable in the German- Russian colony near Eureka, South Dakota one hundred years ago. The photographs appeared originally in Harper's Weekly July 11, 1896. See pages 17-20 of this issue. PRESIDENTS MESSAGE Dear AHSGR Members: I want to tell you about a very interesting experience I had recently. Lincoln had four distinguished visitors from the Soviet Union and I was fortunate enough to be invited to join a group having breakfast with them. The four included: Vladimir Alexandrovich Gusev, the Mayor of Kiev. He is Chairman the Soviet Executive Committee and Deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the Ukraine. Elkhan Beyukorgyl Kerimov, the Deputy Mayor of Baku, a port on the Caspian Sea. Maria Vasil-Yevna Krivenko, the Mayor of Kashira. Six of the forty mayors near Moscow are women. Vladimir Lesnyak, Secretary of the Soviet Association for Contact in Foreign Cities of Moscow. He served as an interpreter along with another person from the U.S. State Department and a Lincoln woman who spoke Russian fluently. The group was in Lincoln for one day to call on Mayor Helen Boosalis who was among the group of U.S. mayors who visited the Soviet Union last year. Each of the three tables at breakfast had one of the Russian dignitaries and an interpreter. I was seated next to Mr. Kerimov. Our interpreter was the Lincoln resident and she lost no time in telling him that I was the president of AHSGR. The group had already been told that many Germans from Russia lived in Lincoln. Before long I asked the question, "Will the time ever come when we whose ancestors came from the Volga Region will be able to visit these ancestral villages?" The response came quickly. "Of course. You can go now. Tomorrow! Merely tell whom you will visit and the arrangements will be made." "But," I said, "I don't know anyone there. However, I would like to visit the village where my parents were born." "That can be done. This can be easily arranged with the In Tourist." Conversation switched to the election process and mayoral duties, during which time Mr. Kerimov noted that he has little free time, even as officials in this country. When he returns home very late his wife, too, looks at her watch and says, "Where have you been?" And now it was time for our charming visitors to leave for the airport. As we shook hands, Mr. Kerimov said, "Come to see us." To which I replied, "Thank you. I will. I'm glad for the information you have given me." Will it happen? We must continue to try. My brother Paul had received the same response from the Mayor of Kiev when he expressed an interest in attending the 1980 Olympics and then visiting Frank. David J. Miller has made some recent inquiries through a travel group. An AHSGR tour to Russia which would include visits to selected villages in all the areas from whence our people came as well as where they live now would be an unbelievably exciting adventure. Let's hope it will happen. And now let me wish for each of you a very merry Christmas and a New Year filled with everything your heart desires. Cordially, Ruth M. Amen PASSAGE TO RUSSIA: WHO WERE THE EMIGRANTS? Lew Malinowski Translated by Dona B. Reeves With this issue, the Work Paper begins a series of articles on the colonization of Russia translated from Neues Leben, the weekly newspaper for Germans in the Soviet Union. The author of the Series. L. V. Malinowski, a doctoral candidate in history, is currently writing his dissertation on the history of the Soviet Germans before 1917. Like his group of articles which appeared in Neues Leben six years ago, the new series by Malinowski is of great interest to all Germans from Russia not only for the fascination of the articles themselves (and the information that the history of the Germans from Russia is an attractive topic for Soviet scholarship) but also because Malinowski's researches reveal the presence of materials from the earliest days of colonization still preserved in the Soviet Archives. The article above was translated from the 14 September 1976 issue of Neues Leben, pp. 6-7. A Letter of Thanks to the Turkish Bandits Do you know what an Ulm "Schachtel" is? In the South German city of Ulm, two rather large tributaries join the Danube which from this point on becomes navigable. So it was that ships were built there for the purpose of transporting goods and passengers, the well known Ulm "Schachtel." These roughly constructed vessels were about twenty-five to thirty meters long, seven meters wide and had a wooden cabin midships. Above the cabin two platforms protruded crosswise, providing a vantage point from which the four rudders could be tended. The helmsmen could guide the awkward craft through the rapids which used to be rather numerous in the Danube. Of course, these "Schachtel" could only travel downstream. About four days were required just to go as far as Regensburg, the next important town on the Danube. An artist represents a group of German Colonists en route to Russia on an Ulm "Schachtel." Flowing with the current of the Danube, the slight craft passes the spires of Ulm Cathedral on the way to Ismail. 1 Model of an Ulm "Schachtel" (i.e. "box") in the City Archives in Ulm. Dimensions of a typical craft are as follows: Length of craft 30 meters Height of sides 150—160 centimeters Width of bow 7.5-8 meters Width of stern 80—200 centimeters Length of cabin 5-6 meters Height of gable 4 meters It was also from Regensburg that the recruitment of colonists for Russia was administered at the beginning of the nineteenth century: the Russian ambassador to the Imperial Diet had his headquarters here. Letters with reports about recruiting drives and lists of colonists went from here to Vienna, to the emperor's court, and on to Petersburg. Occasionally there was also a representative in Ulm who directed the embarkation of the colonists and, what was most important, issued them passports for the trip and for immigration to Russia. In part they were also issued by the Russian Embassy in Stuttgart, the capital of Württemberg. The entire trip to the Black Sea by way of the Danube took about one and a half months. Many days, the travelers were compelled to "windfeiern," that is, to remain motionless in the water in their vessels because of unfavorable weather. The journey went not only through German