The German Russians

In 1763 Catherine the Great of Russia issued the second of her manifestos encouraging immigration to her country from Germany in order to colonize underdeveloped land on the Black Sea and on the banks of the Volga River. A German herself, Catherine also hoped that the colonists would improve Russian agriculture though the introduction of more modern methods from western Europe.

The timing of the manifesto was crucial to its success. Germany was just beginning to recover from the Seven Years' War. Promising freedom from taxes, a loan for transportation to Russia and exemption from military service, Catherine appeared to be offering a new beginning to those tired by war. As an inducement to encourage the Germans to emigrate to Russia, the manifesto offered the following rights and privileges to incoming foreign settlers:

1. Free transportation to Russia.
2. The right to settle in segregated colonies.
3. Free land and the necessary tax-free loans to establish themselves.
4. Religious freedom and the right to build their own churches. (Implied in this was the right to establish their own schools).
5. Local self-government.
6. Exemption from military or civil service.
7. The right to leave Russia at any time.
8. Therefore mentioned rights and privileges were guaranteed not only to incoming settlers but also to their descendants forever.

Between 1763 and 1768 thousands of Germans originally established over 300 colonies throughout Russia.  Eventually this grew to over 3,000 ethnic settlements.  They lived in relative isolation from Germany and their Russian neighbors.

In 1871 Russian Czar Alexander II revoked their exemption from military service and essentially reduced the German Russians to the level of peasants.  In 1874 German Russians were drafted for the first time.  They began to look elsewhere for land and opportunities. By 1920, it was estimated that 116,539 German-Russians were in the United States. 

 

Posts about my German Russian family: 

Almost to Siberia - A Homecoming - Russia, Kazahkstan, Grauberger, exhile

The Church at Gnadentau - A Silent Witness  -  Gnadentau, Baku, Schreiner, Spengler, Lochmann, Winter, Schaefer