Exploring the heritage of Wolgadeutsche - the Russian Germans
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- Опубліковано 27 чер 2024
- The Soviet Union was a vast and diverse multinational state that encompassed numerous nationalities, ethnic groups, and cultures. At its height, the Soviet Union comprised 15 republics, each designated as a Soviet Socialist Republic (SSR), along with various autonomous regions and districts. One of the national minorities of the USSR was Wolgadeutsche - ethnic Germans who settled in the Volga River region of Russia during the 18th century. They were invited by Catherine the Great in the late 1700s to help develop agriculture in the area.
During World War II, many Volga Germans were deported to Kazakhstan and Siberia by Stalin, who distrusted ethnic Germans living in the Soviet Union.In the late 20th century and early 21st century, there were efforts to revive Volga German culture and heritage in Russia. However, the population of Volga Germans in Russia has significantly declined compared to their numbers in earlier centuries, due in part to migration, assimilation, and historical events.
I went to Saratov region of Russia to personally see and explore places where Volga Germans had been living for more than 2 centuries. I wanted to explore the historical artifacts of German culture that have been survived the Soviet era and 30 years of the independent Russia. Join me on the exploration of this rarely discussed topic of the Russian and German history.
Enjoy!
Filmed in January 2024.
Key moments:
00:00 - Who are the Wolgadeutsche (Volga Germans)?
04:40 - Kamenka (Ber) - the former German colony with an abandoned Lutheran church
10:40 - Interviewing a German descendant in the village of Kamenka (Ber)
12:40 - Visiting Ust'-Zolikha aka. Messer - a former German colony with an abandoned Lutheran church
14:35 - Engels - the first capital of the Autonomous Republic of Volga Germans (Wolgadeutsche)
17:37 - Zürich is not what you expect
19:19 - Marks (Catharinenstadt) - the capital city of the Wolgadeutsche Autonomous Republic
20:40 - Lipovka (Schäfer) - the German colony in the Russian nowhere
I‘m Volga German living in Germany. We became an own hybrid ethnicity :-) Although Russians just see us as „Germans“ and Germans just see us as „Russians“.
I used to struggle with my self identity because we aren’t any of those two nationalities completely, however now im extremely happy and feel BLESSED to be part of two great cultures and countries who had immense impact on the world and history.
Grüße gehen raus aus Bayern
Передаю привет из Баварии
Freut mich zu hören. Grüße von einem halb Österreicher, halb Weißrusse aus Wien.
I had a friend with whom I have unfortunately lost contact, who is Volga German. When I knew her about 30 years ago, she described her situation in southern Germany much like yours. She was neither properly German nor Russian. However, she married a Norwegian, moved to Norway and eventually became a Norwegian citizen.
We dutch kind of have the same situation as your people, with the distant colonists of south Africa which has somewhat evolved in its own ethnic group the Boers
Feeling similar, I'm Russian German who grew up in Germany.
Between VAGA BOND and Limcube there is Akrus15, the ideal human being really.
Interesting video! I live in a region of Germany where lots of Volga Germans migrated to after the fall of the Soviet Union. Some towns have 25% people with Volga German heritage. Many of them didn't actually know how to speak German anymore when they moved to Germany but still had German surnames. Nowadays they're mostly integrated but still have some unique traditions, go to different churches etc.
what kind of Churches do they attend? I'm intrigued. Are their denominations different or do they do services in a different dialect?
@@neilwhitaker6284 They're protestants, but their churches are not affiliated with the German protestant church organization, so they're known as "free churches". Their interpretation of christianity is generally a bit stricter than mainstream German protestantism. I believe they have services both in German and Russian.
@@PonyOfWar right on thank you for your reply.
Very interesting video! Thank you for covering the history of my ancestors. Sad to see how everythimg deteriorated after the deportations. But what is even sadder is the destiny that endured the germans because of WW2, my grandparents did not only lose their beloved homes they also had to endure inhuman labour camps. My grandparents from my fathers side narrowly survived but they lived to tell me the tales and it was literally concentration camp levels. My mothers side was not so lucky, unfortunately both fathers did not survive the camps and were worked until they dropped dead or fell unconcious from exhaustion. They supposedly buried one of my great grandfathers alive. Because of this my family actually rigorously preserved their heritage with great pride, their sacrifice should not be worthless. When my parents arrived here they both spoke german fluently which actually surprised the native germans here. This was also down to living in german villages beforehand. Fathers side was from Ukraine, Dubova and Smijvka region and mothers side from the Wolga Region.
It is true that many struggle to find their identity here in Germany since we got labeled russians and were generally not welcomed by the natives and were called fascists and other slurs in the soviet union. But my family is obviously used to this so they have a thick fur in that regard. We may not have a home anywhere anymore but we always manage to survive and leave the places we inhabited in a better condition!
To all germans: There is a museum about the „Russlanddeutsche“ in Detmold, North Rhine Westphalia. Also in Lüneburg, Lower Saxony, there is a museum about the Baltic Germans and the East Prussian region, now Kaliningrad - both highly recommended!
thanks, i added Lüneburg to my list. I am especially interested in East Prussia region of 19th century. If you have more recommendations, please let me know.
You put a lot of effort and knowledge into your video. Thanks for a great history lesson. I didn't know anything about this German community.
My Krieger ancestors were Volga Germans from near Saratov (Norka Settlement). This is so fascinating for me! Thank you:) And thank you to my Great-Great grandfather (Wilhelm) Krieger who left before the expulsion after the war (My Grandfather still understood some German but wouldn't speak it due to anti-German sentiment in the US). I understand some German as well out of respect for my ancestors (who were chased by Russian wolves and we had a wolf-skin rug in the family long ago to show our disdain for attacking the horses of my ancestor while returning home!:) (A real life "Peter and the Wolf" story)!
Thanks for these interesting journeys. A mix of culture and travelling
Another great geography lesson. Thank you. Camera, vocal descriptions and edit, very good. Enjoy your travels and be safe.
Еще один замечательный урок географии. Спасибо. Камера, голосовые описания и монтаж очень хороши. Наслаждайтесь своими путешествиями и будьте в безопасности.
I really love your videos and hearing you talk so knowledgeably and with such a rich vocabulary. One thing I’ve been doing is googling the places you go on a map on my desktop to get situated with where you are. I wonder if others would find it helpful to include a tiny clip of a map in your videos when you go somewhere new so we can see where it’s located? Love ya!!❤
Vielen Dank für dieses schöne und interessante Video! 🙂
Gruß aus Deutschland
The little room (14:00) in the back is called Sakristei. It is a storage for things you need for the church service.
Greetings from Cologne
Sacristy
I always love your videos. I love the history tidbits and the chatting with the locals, so interesting to hear people's stories and just watch these interactions sharing knowledge.
Finally, a video about Volga Germans🤗. I've been looking for such a thing on YT for almost two years, but in vain. Nevertheless, I love all your videos. I dream about visiting Russia every day. Best regards from Bucharest, Romania.
Your videos are always full of history and local info. Your research doesn't go unnoticed, and your English is really improving. Thanks for the content.
Love your videos
Thank you for this interesting history lesson which means a lot to me as I am a German born in Berlin in the early 1950s. I moved to the US in 1964. I have been following you for years and I really enjoy your videos. Thank you, Ivan.
😮 I would have moved back to Germany in the 2000s. Did they not let you? Or was it family or something?
My grandfather on the father's side came from the Volga region before he was deported to Kazakhstan...
Katerina the Great came from Germany just like many Romanovs after here were of German descent
18:54 That Lutheran church looks far more impressive than the church in my town where i got baptized
I have a question, is the church you mentioned a Catholic church ?
During the period of British America (pre-1776) a lot of "Palintine" Germans immigrated to North America. They were protestants. They were also unhappy with high taxes and actually had to pay exit taxes. My Palintine ancestors settled in Pennsylvania. Later on some Volga folk immigrated to the US in the 1870's and they settled in the mid-west in places like Nebraska and Iowa. Interesting content, it's nice to see that at least one church survived.
Interesting. Do you happen to know why they chose states such as Iowa and Nebraska except for the obvious reasons of language and familiar culture?
@@Robutube1 The middle part of the country was the last land available for Europeans that wanted to farm. My home town of Amarillo, TX was founded in 1880 and there was an influx of Germans nearby about that time. Same for Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa etc. After that last surge the cheap new land was all claimed. My family from TN and Alabama moved west slowly after the civil war. That was a pattern of migration for non-immigrants. Those population shifts filled up the Midwest.
@@HiwasseeRiver What a great (and swift!) answer - thank you so much for taking the time to reply!
Das ist wirklich interessant Dankeschön dafür! Thats a very interesting Video Thank you very much for this Video :)
Wo in Deutschland?
It's so cool to see these places in Russia but with a non-Russian heritage. Very fascinating
Thank you so mch Vagabond
Lincoln, Nebraska was settled by a large number of Volga Germans. There is a "Germans from Russia" museum in the city. After living conditions were not what they expected in Russia, many of them emigrated to the United States and settled in the Midwest.
Lawrence Welk was Wolgadeutsch - from North Dakota, I believe
That's really interesting; thank you so much
The Volga Germans have a few websites on the net. There you even can find historic photos how the church in Ust 'Zolikha "Messer" or the church in Lipowka "Schäfer" looked before the war.
Thank you for this Video. My grandfather was born in Kamenka. Btw., the church in Kamenka was not lutheran but catholic, as Kamenka was a catholic settlement. My grandmother is from Semenowka. After deportation and komendatura many family members returned from Siberia and Kasachstan into the Volga region. Now all of them live in Germany, so do I. We truly are a special people, Volga Germans, a mix of german heritage with russian soul. I'm a proud Wolgadeutsche.
Nice
Many thanks for your videos. I always enjoy to wacht them, learn a lot about Russia - culture, geography and history. Great job!
I grew up in Birobidzhan and in our block of flats were several Korean families who'd been deported, some Crimean Tatars and several Wolgadeutsche who never got 'round to returning to their lands after they were allowed to. When I was really little, I thought the Wolgadeutsche kids were just speaking a really funny dialect of Yiddish. As I got older, I learned better - and they would watch out when we had Jewish services in flats on Friday nights & we'd watch out for THEM when they'd have secret services on Sundays. My mum was born in Danzig & we have a branch of non-Jewish relatives in our family, so mum always made sure the Wolgadeutsche knew we could be trusted. Love seeing your visits to the former Autonomous Republic, Vagabond! I'd like to do that sometime. We've gone to places where we had Jewish relatives - you go through the towns and the locals will ALWAYS say "The old houses that are still in good condition are the ones the Jews or Germans built, look for them if you're looking for history". The Synagogues usually became cinemas, Dom Kultury, or warehouses; the German churches either got turned into Orthodox churches or the Red Army destroyed them when they liberated the area. This video is so good, THANK YOU.
really well made video! :)
My grandparents came from the Black Sea Germans in 1907. Before the Socialist took over. Visited the area in 90s. All the cemeteries and churches destroyed. My great aunt and great-grandmother were shipped to Siberia to work in the coal mines in the 30s. They died in the 50s.
Engels came to Manchester and wrote a book about the poor people in industrial England.
Now, in fact, they are already called Russian Germans. This is more accurate. Since not all Germans lived on the Volga, many lived in Crimea and Novorossiya. And after the deportations in Siberia and Kazakhstan. Therefore, they are more often called Russian Germans. There are about 6 million people in Germany. But a lot of Russian Germans are returning to Russia.
Thank you, that was very interesting to get to see.
absolutely fascinating, as usual. 👍
Your videos are expanding in such a cool way. I loved this one. Thank you for publishing this for us!
I hadn't heard about the Volga Germans before. I wonder if there are any towns that are still Volga German concentrations.
Great video! Possibly the most informative so far.
Incredible videos as always man ! Your english improved a lot too!
Love your informative vlogs..❤
I really liked this video full of interesting history. Thanks Mr Top-vagabond!
Great stuff, Ivan. Very informative.
Bro I literally check every week for you’re videos you’re the best ❤
This is peak content
Read about that many years ago, thanks for the history lesson. Greetings from Germany! ✌
great! as always.
These vids are on another level, keep it up man
There's a fantastic chapter about the Germans in Russia and elsewhere in Thomas Sowell's book Migrations and Cultures.
Very interesting video.
so amazing! please take care and dont stop making your art and sending your message.
It's always a good day when you upload!
Good stuff bud. thank you!
I love that you keep making this amazing content. If you keep making it, ill always watch it. Good job bro your one of the last young people that seems to be invested in real meaningful history.
Thanks mr vagabond for showing us diverse people and heritage of Russia
Dear VAGA! I Enjoyed Áll Your Journey! But I must go tó GET SOME SLEEP!!! Thanks U for Your explanation!!!
See You soon!!! Take Rest and have nice BREAK!!!
your effort will pay off, take care
Great video
I love your video , 😂new subscriber I binged most of your videos and this came up before I went to bed and I had to click it again😂
The Map at 0:37 is the Map during the cold war, and only CCCR and Western Germany is marked. But not the GDR or other areas where the wolgagermans came from.
A lot of Volga Germans also came from Alsace which is modern day France.
Так интересно смотреть на свой родной город, энгельс. В детстве к бабушке в липовку ездил, церковь всегда завораживала, но дырку вниз что то не припоминаю, только толстый слой голубиного помета и сколотые ступени
Fun video
This is a very interesting journey. This is very helpful documentation for German families who used to live in the area.
I would love to see a Vagabond video in the Kolyma region.
Danke.
My paternal grandfather is from near Engels, my maternal grandfather from around rostov-na-donu, and my maternal grandmother from around mariupol, but all newborn when the wars started and they got deported to siberia, afterwards moved to Kazhakhstan, learned about their history and culture through their own parents, but were more integrated with russian and soviet society, and their children (my parents) one step more but not completely, we are still aware of our history and heritage. If you were ever in Germany before 2022, and met a russian speaking person who then said they were from Kazhakstan, good chance is that they are volga-german or more generally "Russlandsdeutsche". I was always fascinated by my family's history, and through them I got this kind of exposure to some aspects of "soviet" and "russian" culture like food and shows, and that sparked my interests in the former USSR and Russia. I have set myself the goal to once fly with my mom and parents to Kazhakstan and """revisit""" the old country, and before I wished to start a great tour through the whole former USSR, but since 2022 the prospects for that became uncertain.
was just thinking about you earlier. im here for this. question for anyone here who might know. used to work with a russian with the last name blair. is that german or no?
Scottish surnames aren't so rare, but they are usually russified
Thank you very much that you show this important part of German-Russian Friendship , great love for you as a person and the russian people
The church at around 20:35 is not Lutheran, but Roman Catholic. It was built in the early-1990s. A number of Volga Germans were also Catholic; as I understand it the Lutheran and Catholic Germans formed separate villages when they came to Russia. Great video though!
It seems like all your trainsurfing videos are gone. Are they reuploaded somewhere?
They are available on my Patreon.
hello i saw you today in sobotica in serbia
Engels was originally called "Kosakenstadt", town of the Cosacks, and it never had a German majority population. The Bolsheviks just needed a urban center for the Volgagerman ASSR and took this one, since it had many German villages around it. The Cosacks were originally stationed there to protect the German settlers East of the Volga from Kazakh nomands, but they didn't do much, prefered to take bribes and let the German settlers more or less defend themselves. Later the Germans befriended the Bashkirs, Kazakhs and Kalmyks of the region and traded with them and slowly finding a modus vivendi with them. One of the offspring of such a German-Nomad friendship is Mr. Uljanow, who had a German-Swedish mother and a russified Kalmyk father.
Deportations began even earlier than 1939. During the great famine, the Ukrainians call it Holodomor, many German farmers were accused of being Kulaks and deported to Central Asia if they did not participate in the centralisation of agriculture. Many died due to hunger as well. Such a sad story.
Your content is absolutely amazing, I never knew germans emigrated to russia!
Thank GOD this content will be preserved forever, well until IT CANT BE. 😢
Kind of sad to see that old churches just falling apart. A lot of work went into building them, and it was once a lively place every Sunday.
Love your videos. Hope Putin doesnt snatch you for the war.
The Altai Republic of Russia, next? Looks picturesque.
Interestingly, Ernst Reuter in 1918 was entrusted with the leadership of the provisional commissioner for the Volgade Germans by no other then Stalin, then People's Commissioner for Nationality Questions.
In 1948 Ernst Reuter, now mayor of Berlin, he was the direct opponent of Stalin and his plans for Germany.
"Rarely used tools like scythes and plows"
Is that a joke? How did russian serfs work their fields without basic tools?
They worked with sickles and sokhas.
@@ivantrainsLIVE I see. I wasn't aware rudimentary wooden style tools like that were used. I assumed metal plows were required because of the climate and land.
Even Indian merchants settled in Astrakhan under Catherine the Great's decree.
Also she was the first monarch to get the Bhagavad Gita (song of God) translated into Russian.
Please tell me any war situation happens in kaliningard upcoming days
Is Kaliningrad safest place for study ?
There is Poland between Kaliningrad and Ukraine, so it's safer than Moscow. (ukrainian drones can't fly above Poland)
My American brain at 17:10 : "oh look, they have buses! I wish I lived somewhere woth good public transportation."
Ivan: "these are old crappy German buses, they were probably sold at half price, now somehow still operating in 2024..."
😂
German public transportation is best, even if germans like to complain about it a lot. 😂 I've never been to USA, is it really that bad over there? I see this complain a lot actually.
I wonder why all the churches are so clean on the inside and not full of rubble and roofs?
Hamp ✌️👀🥦
Why can't Putin be like you? Thanks again, my friend.
Very sad to see what is left. A lot of people were hoping for a new life but were faced with brutal destruction.
Hi
Very important : ua-cam.com/users/results?search_query=volga+germans
From love : far severö sapirico. ( in Hungary )
Thanks for the vid. Very interesting video for me since my forefathers were Volga Germans. I´m Argentine and my family spoke German at home. Sergio Denis (his real surname was Hoffmann) was of Volga German descent ua-cam.com/video/aA3LmGKXYs4/v-deo.html Greetings from Paraná (Entre Ríos), Argentina.
I found recently that some of the members of my Volga german family migrated to Argentine too. Greetings from Germany!
😀
Wow. Stalin was a shocking man. Those poor souls.
What a god forsaken country. So vast, baron wasteland. It doesn’t ever seem to improve. All I have seen is derelict buildings, churches , houses . I feel so sad for anyone born there and never be able to leave. 😢
Оставьте свои соболезнования при себе и не смотрите этот канал.
If you wanted to show to us Volga Germans, and their traces now in these days, why you did not visit the cemeteries in those villages, did you think about that?
Check out what happened to Germans in Czechia at the end of ww2
Old Czech proverb: "As one calls to the forest, the same calls out from the forest."
The same thing that happened to them in Yugoslavia.
Do not fantasize about used German buses. In fact, in the 90s, many Russian cities bought new Mercedes O325 Turkish-built city buses.
I tuoi video stanno diventando delle noiosissime guide turistiche che non hanno niente a che fare con lo spirito iniziale con cui andavi incontro alle tue avventure sui treni
The ethnic cleansing of Germans after Ww2 was the worst ethnic erasure in history. 😔