18th-century German immigrants to the Volga region of Russia
Volga Germans
Wolgadeutsche
Flag of Volga Germans
Total population
594,138
Regions with significant populations
Russia
Altai Krai 79,502
Omsk Oblast 76,334
Novosibirsk Oblast 47,275
Kemerovo Oblast 35,965
Chelyabinsk Oblast 28,457
Tyumen Oblast 27,196
Sverdlovsk Oblast 22,540
Krasnodar Krai 18,469
Orenburg Oblast 18,055
Volgograd Oblast 17,051
Tomsk Oblast 13,444
Saratov Oblast 12,093
Perm Krai 10,152
Kaliningrad Oblast
394,138[1]
Kazakhstan
200,000[2]
Languages
German, Russian, Kazakh
Religion
Lutheran, Roman Catholicism, Mennonite, Orthodoxy
Related ethnic groups
Black Sea Germans, Don Cossacks
The Volga Germans (German: Wolgadeutsche, pronounced[ˈvɔlɡaˌdɔɪ̯t͡ʃə]ⓘ; Russian: поволжские немцы, romanized: povolzhskiye nemtsy) are ethnic Germans who settled and historically lived along the Volga River in the region of southeastern European Russia around Saratov and close to Ukraine nearer to the south.
Recruited as immigrants to Russia in the 18th century, they were allowed to maintain their German culture, language, traditions and churches (Lutheran, Reformed, Catholics, Moravians and Mennonites). In the 19th and early 20th centuries, many Volga Germans emigrated to the United States, Canada, Brazil, and Argentina.
After the October Revolution, the Volga German ASSR was established as an autonomous republic of the Russian SFSR. During World War II, the republic was abolished by the Soviet government and the Volga Germans were forcibly expelled to a number of areas in the hinterlands of the Soviet Union. Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, many Volga Germans emigrated to Germany.
^"Russian Census 2010: Population by ethnicity" (XLS). Perepis-2010.ru (in Russian). Retrieved 12 November 2017.
^"Stat.kz". Stat.kz. Archived from the original on 12 February 2010. Retrieved 11 November 2017.
Soviet government, establishing the Labour Commune of VolgaGermans. This gave Soviet Germans a special status among the non-Russians in the USSR. It...
consciousness of Germans. Today, German Argentines make up the fifth-largest ethnic group in Argentina, with over two million citizens of VolgaGerman descent...
Due to the German right of return law that enables ethnic Germans abroad who had been forcibly deported to return to Germany, VolgaGermans could immigrate...
VolgaGermans. Russian Mennonites. Germans of Kazakhstan. Bosporus Germans, originally craftsmen in and around Istanbul, Turkey. Cyprus has a German expatriate...
Nogais, formerly inhabited the lower Volga steppes. The Volga region is home to a German minority group, the VolgaGermans. Catherine the Great had issued...
Sea Germans are distinct from similar groups of settlers (the Bessarabia Germans, Crimea Germans, Dobrujan Germans, Russian Mennonites, VolgaGermans, and...
tributaries of the Kama River. Volga economic region Volga Federal District Povolzhye famine Samara Bend VolgaGermans Collins, Roger (2010), "The Carolingian...
Russian Germans frequently lived in distinct communities and maintained German-language schools and German churches. They were primarily VolgaGermans from...
dictator of Nazi Germany and embarked on a genocidal campaign to unify all Germans under his leadership. His Nazi movement defined Germans in a very broad...
The Labour Commune of VolgaGermans was a polity established in Russia following the Bolshevik seizure of power in October 1917. The Council of People's...
programs. Russian Mennonites are different from another German-Russian group, the VolgaGermans, through religion, ethnicity, and reasons for immigrating...
in Germany. Although to a lesser extent than the VolgaGermans, Sudeten Germans also immigrated to Argentina. Some groups settled in different German colonies...
Saratov developed as a shipping port along the Volga and was historically important to the VolgaGermans, who settled in large numbers in the city before...
The Volga Commissariat for German Affairs started work in Saratov in March 1918. Its role was formalised through a charter which was approved on May 29...
(literally "little pirog"). In the 18th century, VolgaGermans (ethnic Germans who settled in the Volga River valley in the Russian Empire at the invitation...
Reichsdeutsche, literally translated 'Germans of the Reich', is an archaic term for those ethnic Germans who resided within the German state that was founded in 1871...
a few "pure" Ukrainian villages remain. Green Ukraine Grey Ukraine VolgaGermans Zhelty Klin website Wikimedia Commons has media related to Zhovtyi Klyn...
populous division are the VolgaGermans. During the advance of the Red Army in the course of World War II, many Black Sea Germans, who had fallen under National...
Germans Crimea GermansVolgaGermans Volhynian Germans Russian Mennonites This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the title German Russian....
56°20′N 44°00′E / 56.333°N 44.000°E / 56.333; 44.000 Volga Federal District Volga Federal District (Russian: Приво́лжский федера́льный о́круг, romanized: Privolzhskiy...
residence, such as Wolgadeutsche or VolgaGermans, the ethnic Germans living in the Volga basin in Russia; and Baltic Germans, who generally called themselves...
infrastructure evacuated from Eastern Europe, and after the war many VolgaGermans were resettled in Astana following internal deportation in the Soviet...
during the 1930s and 1940s, such as approximately 400,000 VolgaGermans deported from the VolgaGerman Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic in September–October...
exploration. In the late 18th century, the government permitted families of VolgaGermans to settle in the Kuban. However, poor infrastructure, lack of organization...
[citation needed] They were Germans who had lived for generations throughout the Russian Empire, but especially along the Volga River in Russia and near...
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