Glossary

Bergseite - The "Bergseite" is a German geographical term referring in general to the territory occupied by the Volga German colonies on the west side of the Volga River. Translated, it means "mountainous side" or "hilly side" of the river.

Colonies on the Bergseite include: Alexandertal – Anton – Awilowo – Balzer – Bauer – Beideck – Bergdorf – Brunnental – Degott – Dehler – Dietel – Dobrinka – Dönhof – Dreispitz – Erlenbach – Frank – Franzosen – Friedental – Fritzendorf – Galka – Göbel – Grimm – Grundt – Hildmann – Holstein – Huck – Huckertal – Husaren – Hussenbach – Josefstal – Kamenka – Kautz – Köhler – Kolb – Kraft – Kratzke – Kukkus – Kurnawa – Kutter – Leichtling – Marienfeld – Merkel – Messer – Moor – Mühlberg – Müller – Neu-Balzer – Neu-Dönhof – Neufeld – Neu-Frank – Neu-Kraft – Neu-Messer – Neu-Moor – Neu-Müller – Neu-Norka – Neu-Straub – Neu-Walter – Norka – Oberdorf – Pfeifer – Pobochnaya – Rosenberg – Rosenfeld – Rothammel – Schilling – Schuck – Schwab – Sewald – Semenovka – Shcherbakovka – Stephan – Streit – Swesda – Unterdorf – Volmer – Walter – Wissenfeld – Yagodnaya Polyana

Wiesenseite - The "Wiesenseite" is a German geographical term referring in general to the territory occupied by the Volga German colonies on the east side of the Volga River. Translated, it means "plains side" of the river.

The following colonies are/were located on the Wiesenseite:

Ährenfeld - Brunnental - Eckheim - Friedenfeld - Marienfeld - Wiesenmüller

Mother Colony - Between 1764 and 1772, 106 colonies were established along the Volga River near Saratov. Historically, these colonies became known as "Mother Colonies".

Daughter Colony - When the German colonies were established along the Volga River in the 1760s, each colony was alloted a certain amount of land. This land allotment changed little over time. During the early years, the land was periodically redistributed according to the number of men of the colony who were of a certain age. Consequently the amount of land allotted to each person decreased substantially as the colony’s population grew.

By the 1850s, this land shortage was becoming critical. Additional land was allotted east of the Volga and east-southeast of the original settlements for expansion.

Volost - (Rural Area) is an administrative concept of a few villages, that share the same administrative office. For example, about 4 neighbouring villages would make up a “volost” or “rural area”.

Uezd - a district or county.

Guberniya - a province.

Pud - is 16.38 kg or 36 pounds.

Ruble or rouble – the common currency of Russia. 

Masloboi - means ‘butter-beating'‘ or ‘creamery’, but is also means “oil-mill”.

Papirossy - are cigarettes with Mundstueck/ mouthpiece of cardboard, which elegant people smoked.

Makhorka - is very cheap tobacco for the masses.  The Russian State decreed that any tobacco factory that made expensive cigarettes must also produce a certain amount of cheap tobacco for the poor. (This piece of egalitarian legislation, incidentally, nearly bankrupted the Stahf cigarette factory)

Posad - is a “free trading village”

Slaboda - as in Pokrovsk/Engels, means a settlement of “free people” – non-serfs.