My great uncles who were forced into the Russian Army against their will. They fled to America in 1913

As I was growing up on the farm in Wyoming, none of my family questions were answered. No one talked about Russia, or relatives left behind, or the villages and farms that were abandoned.

I knew the names of the four villages that my grandparents were born in and their birth and death dates.

Decades later when communism fell, Russia opened up and people were able to travel into Russia and get some answers. This was in the early nineties.

My grandparents did not speak of their past because it hurt their hearts too much to speak of it. It was an actual physical pain. They had had to flee their homes, land and beloved families because the Bolsheviks had begun to torture and starve them. The men were forced to join the Russian army and their schools were supposed to stop teaching in German.

Many of the Volga Germans stayed in Russia and persevered through unspeakable horror. In 1941, however, Russia was afraid that the Volga Germans were conspiring with the invading Nazi armies. Most of the Volga Germans did not know who Hitler was!

But my people were loaded on trains and transported to Siberia. This journey took over a month and 30 percent of the people on the trains died. My people were held in captivity until 1956 – 11 years after the end of World War 11.

In Picture: Adam Kinsfather    

Today, we who are second generation Americans want to know all we can about our families. Through Ellis Island records, through records that were not destroyed in Russia, through the American Historical Society of Germans from Russia, I have been able to trace my Kinsfather family to 1560 and my Nab family to 1656. It is so gratifying to find our family histories and know what happened.

North Dakota State University has a Volga German Studies Center. At the University of Minnesota they are recording the ancient German that my people speak. This must be done or this language will be lost in a few years when my mother’s generation passes.

I am proud of my heritage, but more than that I am so happy to be able to know the story of the Volga Germans and to be able to tell it to you.

My ancestor, Wilhelm Nab, traveled to Russia from Germany in 1764. German people kept migrating to Russia even into the late 1800’s because there was free land.

By the time my grandfather, Johannes Nab, immigrated to Colorado in 1912 there were 160 German villages up and down the mighty Volga River in Russia. These villages were entirely German with German mores and religion. They did not mingle with the Russian people.

When these German people came to America, no one knew what to make of them. They were from Russia and were in Russian clothing, but they spoke and wrote German and were Lutherans or Catholics. Americans started calling them the Volga Germans to describe them.

Today, there is a wonderful American Historical Society of Germans from Russia organization. They have been rescuing the history and ancestry of my people since communist Russia failed.

Astonishingly, the Russian government preserved the town and church records of the Volga Germans in three warehouses, and they are now helping people in America find lost family records. Because of this organization, I have been able to trace my family back to Wilhelm Nab who came from Darmstadt, Germany to Russia.

(Above: My mom, dad and Uncle Bill. Americans of Volga German descent.)

Important Dates in the Lives of German Russians

April 21, 1729

Sophia Augusta Frederica of Anhalt-Zerbst was born in Germany. She later ruled Russia with the name of Catherine II, better known as Catherine the Great.

1756–1763

The Seven Years’ War takes place. It is an important factor in bringing Germans to the Lower Volga to establish colonies.

June 28, 1762

Catherine II, or Catherine the Great, ascends to the throne of Russia.

December 4, 1762

The first Manifesto is issued by Catherine II. She invites foreigners to come to Russia to live. The invitation brings few to the country.

July 22, 1763

Catherine II issues a second manifesto. It spells out in detail the conditions under which foreigners can immigrate and grants them special privileges and rights. Large numbers of German peasants accept the invitation to live in the country.

1764–1767

German colonies are founded along the lower Volga River.

1771–1774

Kirghiz raids during Pugachev’s rebellion in what is called the Pugachevshchina. The Volga colonies are decimated as a result.

1786

Mennonites from West Prussia begin coming to Russia because the 1772 Partition of Poland threatens military exemptions that the Mennonites make use of as conscientious objectors. The Mennonites settle primarily in the Taurida region in southern Russia.

1793

The second partition of Poland grants an area of Volhynia to Russia. Polish landowners invite the German peasants to lease land for farming.

November 6, 1796

Catherine II dies at the age of 67.

1796–1801

The son of Catherine II Czar Paul I reigns.

1801–1825

Tsar Alexander I, the beloved grandson of Catherine II, reigns.

February 20, 1804

Alexander I modifies and reissues the Manifesto of Catherine II, inviting foreigners to settle in New Russia.

1825–1855

Tsar Nicholas I, who is the grandson of Catherine II and a brother of Alexander I,
reigns.

1830

A Polish insurrection brings the immigration of many Polish Germans to the Bessarabia and lower Volga region.

1855–1881

This is the time of the reign of Tsar Alexander II, great grandson of Catherine II and the son of Nicholas I.

1860s

Another flood of Germans immigrate to Volhynia prompted by the abolishment of
serfdom. This leaves a significant lack of a work force. A second Polish uprising in1862 brings more Polish Germans to Volhynia and
other parts of Russia.

1871

Germany is unified as a nation for the first time. This created great unease among other European nations and Russia. It is a time of animosity toward foreigners in Russia due to a Slavophile movement and growing nationalism.

June 4, 1871

The Imperial Russian Government issues a decree repealing the manifestos of Catherine II and Alexander I. It terminated the special privileges of the German colonists.

January 13, 1874

The Imperial Government of Russia issues a second manifesto amending the previous one. This decree institutes compulsory military conscription for the German colonists. This sends thousands of German Russians fleeing to North and South America.

1881–1917

This is the reign of Tsar Nicholas II, a descendent of Catherine II. He abdicates during World War I. On July 16, 1918, the Bolsheviks execute him and his family.
Nicholas II is the last monarch to rule in Russia.

July 28, 1914

The start of World War I.

1915

The Eastern Front advances. The Volhynian Germans are deported to the Lower Volga and South Russia.

December 13, 1916

The Volga Germans are ordered to be banished. This is never carried out because
of other troubles in Russia at that time. November 7, 1917 The Bolshevick Revolution in Russia is led by Vlaimir Lenin. This is the beginning of the Communist regime.

June 24, 1918

Lenin establishes the Autonomous Volga German Workers Commune, which becomes
the forerunner of the ASSR of the Volga Germans. It is founded in 1924.

1920-1923

This is a period of famine in Russia. Death by starvation in the Volga- German colonies alone is estimated at 166,000, one third of the population. Assistance is provided by the American Relief Administration.

January 1924

Autonomous Socialist Soviet Republic of the Volga Germans is established.

1928–1933

A second famine claims many lives throughout Russia.

1928–1940

German farms and property are taken away by the Soviet government. Volga Germans are forced onto collective farms or they migrate to cities. This is the period of Stalinization.

September 1, 1939

World War II begins.

June 22, 1941

Nazi Germany invades Russia.

August 20, 1941

This is the beginning of exile and banishment of the Germans left in Russia. The Crimean Germans are deported.

August 28, 1941

A decree is put out ordering the deportation of the Volga Germans to the northeastern area of the Soviet Union. This includes Middle Asia and Siberia.

October 1941

The Germans in the North and South Caucasus are deported. Germans from St Petersbrug are also deported.

1991

The Soviet Union falls.

Imagine that you emigrated from Germany to Russia in 1764 because Catherine the Great gave many incentives such as free land, no taxes, no military service, and freedom of religion.

You traveled over a year to get to your land along the Volga River about 100 miles south of Saratov. You suffered the most extreme hardships trying to get established. The winters on the Steppes of Russia were brutal and 50 percent of your people were lost.

After three long years, things were better and you started to prosper.

This experience was that of the Volga Germans. In the next decades the Volga Germans turned the Russian Steppes into the bread basket of Russia.

The Volga Germans did very well until the late 1800’s when Tsarina Catherine died and her heirs rescinded all the privileges given the German settlers.

Slowly, the Volga Germans began migrating to North and South America. By the early 1900’s a flood of people were leaving because the Russian Revolution had begun and the Bolsheviks were rampaging thru the German settlements.

My Bauer grandparents left Russia in 1900, and my Nab grandparents left in 1912.

They got on a train that took them to Germany. It was better to go to Germany because there was an open quota from Germany to the USA. America wanted German citizens, so if you lived in Germany for 6 months you could become a citizen and immigrate to America.

Grandpa Bauer is said to have come from Germany to Boston. We can find no records of it.

Grandpa and Grandma Nab came through Ellis Island in 1912. They were on a ship named the Krownprincessen Cecilie.

Both sets of my grandparents were Volga Germans. The ships from Germany took three weeks to get to America, and it was usually third-class or steerage. Once off the ship and thru Ellis Island, They boarded a train and went to Colorado. There were relatives in Colorado.

It was a terrible journey and I admire their courage, and thank them for coming to America for those of us who were born here and are free from fear and tyranny.