Country: Russia

Group: Volga Germans

Date Finalized: 4/4/2022

Team: Amanda Nelson (lead), Hunter Blevins

Content Warning: forced labor; imprisonment

Approximate Time Period: 1940s-1950s

            Catherine the Great issued a decree in 1763 offering land along the Volga River to those that immigrated to the area, which encouraged many Germans to migrate to Russia (Minority Rights, 2020; Pereltsvaig, 2014). The Russian government also made assurances to those that migrated under this decree, such as not needing to serve in the Russian military, being exempted from taxes for a period of thirty years, and religious freedoms (Pereltsvaig, 2014). Many of these were revoked later in the 19th century, however, primarily when Russia needed to increase their military numbers (Wikimedia, 2022).

            World War II marked the beginning of a new era for the Volga Germans (Genocide, 2020). Russia forcibly deported an historic number of Volga Germans labeling them conspirators in the war (CVGS, 2020a; Pereltsvaig, 2014). During this mass deportation, men between the ages of 15-55 years old, and later women between 16-45 years old, were exiled to forced labor camps known as Trudarmii by the Germans, and NKVD labor columns by the Russian government in an unofficial capacity (Wikimedia, 2020; Wikimedia, 2022). The Russian government also banished thousands of their military members to the Trudarmii camps simply because they were Germans (Wikimedia, 2022). By 1942, close to 100% of the ethnic German population in Russia had been deported to the forced labor camps (Wikimedia, 2022). The large numbers of German detainees meant that their children were left without any family to look after them (Schreiber, 2021). The camps also had inferior living conditions (Schreiber, 2021). Due to the harsh weather in the region, lack of food and adequate housing, as well as being overworked in the camps, nearly one-third of the of the population in the camps did not survive (Schreiber, 2021; Wikimedia, 2022). If they refused to work, they were either severely penalized or killed (Schreiber, 2021). The Russians discontinued the camps at the culmination of WWII, but continued the internment of the Volga Germans until 1948 (Wikimedia, 2022). The Russians continued the forced labor of ethnic Germans well into 1953 via “agricultural servitude” (Martin, 2014).

            The Russian government released the Volga Germans from the Trudarmii camps, but labeled them as “special settlers”, thus preventing them from returning to their former homes prior to WWII (Wikimedia, 2020; Wikimedia, 2022). The Russian government implemented this practice officially until 1955, but it continued unofficially for decades with opposition from the locals in their former regions (Wikimedia, 2020; Wikimedia, 2022). Germany also implemented the law of return at this time, allowing numerous Volga Germans to return to Germany (Wikimedia, 2022).

In 2005, Germany placed more stringent restrictions on Germans returning to the country from the former Soviet Union, so the number of Germans migrating back to Germany has greatly diminished (Minority Rights, 2020). The primary reason is attributed to not knowing German, with 74% of ethnic Germans in Russia speaking some German in 1993 to only 22% in 2005 (Minority Rights, 2020). Germans migrating from Russia and other former Soviet countries back to Germany have faced excessive discrimination due to their lack of knowledge of the German language, which has also contributed to the decrease in migration back to Germany (Minority Rights, 2020). Since 2015, many Volga Germans that remain in Russia have advocated for memorial sites and other ways to preserve their heritage in Russia (Schreiber, 2021).

Data Quality: The data is a 3 out of 3 due to much of the information being found through reputable sources and historical documents.

Sources

  1. The Center for Volga German Studies at Concordia University. (2020a). Deportation (1941). Welcome to the Volga German Website. Retrieved April 4, 2022, from https://www.volgagermans.org/history/deportation-1941
  2. The Center for Volga German Studies at Concordia University. (2020b). Genocide. Welcome to the Volga German Website. Retrieved April 4, 2022, from https://www.volgagermans.org/history/genocide
  3. Martin, T. (2014, March 4). Terror, forced labor, and internal exile, 1935-1955. Conrad Grebel University College. Retrieved April 4, 2022, from https://uwaterloo.ca/grebel/publications/conrad-grebel-review/issues/winter-2002/terror-forced-labor-and-internal-exile-1935-1955
  4. Pereltsvaig, A. (2014, May 14). The tragic saga of the Volga Germans. Languages Of The World. Retrieved April 4, 2022, from https://www.languagesoftheworld.info/uncategorized/tragic-saga-volga-germans.html
  5. Minority Rights Group. Russian or Volga Germans. (2020, December). Retrieved April 4, 2022, from https://minorityrights.org/minorities/russian-or-volga-germans/
  6. Schreiber, S. H. (2021, July 25). Repression 1941-1956. NORKA. Retrieved April 4, 2022, from https://www.norkarussia.info/repression-1941-1956.html
  7. Wikimedia Foundation. (2020, April 12). NKVD labor columns. Wikipedia. Retrieved April 4, 2022, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NKVD_labor_columns
  8. Wikimedia Foundation. (2022, April 4). Volga Germans. Wikipedia. Retrieved April 4, 2022, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volga_Germans#:~:text=men%20between%20the%20ages%20of%2015%20and%2055%20and%2C%20later%2C%20women%20between%20the%20ages%20of%2016%20and%2045%20were%20forced%20to%20do%20labor%20in%20the%20forests%20and%20mines%20of%20siberia%20and%20central%20asia%20under%20conditions%20similar%20to%20that%20prevalent%20in%20the%20gulag%20forced-labor%20camps