Education

According to Dr. Igor Pleve in his book The German Colonies on the Volga: The Second Half of the Eighteenth Century, schools arose in the first year the colonists arrived on the Volga.  At the place of settlement, the colonists first constructed a school, the building which simultaneously served as a prayer house, and only then did they construct a church.

Over time, as many as four schools were established in Norka. The schools were named for their location in the upper, middle and lower part of the colony. As a result, the names given were the Oberdorf Schule, Mitteldorf Schule and Unterdorf Schule. A so called "Russian" school was established near the church in 1905.

The German schools made it compulsory to start classes at the age of six and they were permitted to leave at the age of fifteen.

Drawing of teaching in a Volga German school

The schools in Norka were established by the church who owned and operated them. Until 1861, the colonists provided for their own education system. The Russian government did not provide schooling for the serfs and similarly refused to support the education of the colonists.

Norka Schulmeister (Schoolmaster) Karl Leonhardt and family in 1904 or 1905. The Schulmeister was the school master or as we would say today the "principal" of the school. His job was to take the place of the pastor for the leading of the ordinary worship service and in some cases for funerals and baptisms where the pastor was unavailable. The Schulmeister also assisted the pastor in visitation of the sick along with one or two elders of the church.  This particular person wore a long suit jacket, it looked like a coat. This was considered a formal dress ware for the Schulmeister to be worn in the church.  While the pastor wore the pulpit gown or (der Mantel). Sometimes the Schulmeister also wore a small cross-stitch tie which was a symbol of the Luther and Zwingli protestant reformers. It is known that Karl Leonhardt and his family were deported to Siberia in 1941.

According to Emma Schwabenland Haynes, it was customary to chose teachers whose chief qualification consisted of a willingness to serve for a small amount of money.  In some cases the school teacher himself had difficulty in reading and writing, and as he usually had hundred of children under his care, it is easy to assume that he was not able to teach them a great deal.  Many of the pastors tried to get laws passed which would better the educational conditions of their parish, but as a whole, school rooms remained crowded. The schoolteacher was regarded as a person of great importance because of his position and the fact that he acted as the assistant pastor. In the classroom religion and education were closely interrelated because the primary textbooks were the Biblische Geschichte (Bible Stories), the Catechism, the Bible and the Wolgagesangbuch (Volga Song Book).

Teachers from Norka, January 2, 1930. An inscription on the photograph reads: "Оlga, the Rose and Маria". On the far right is M. K. Braun. Photograph courtesy of Elvira Schreiber.

Teachers from Norka in the 1930s. Standing from left to right: 1. Lydia K. Schreiber (nee Braun, wife Alexander Wilhelm Schreiber), 2 Mina Merkel, 3 unknown, 4 O. D. Harttman, 5 M. K. Leonhardt (nee Braun, sister of Lydia Schreiber), 6 unknown, 7  Altergott, 8  Klein, 9 unknown. Photograph courtesy of Elvira Schreiber.

Windows in Norka's "Russian School" in 2001

In 1890, a law was passed that required compulsory Russian language classes. From that time on, the Mitteldorf school had two German teachers and two Russian teachers.

Higher education at boarding and technical schools was available to students who had the means to study in the nearby cities of Engels and Saratov.

Technical and Vocational School in Engels, Russia

Excerpt from the Autobiography of Jacob Miller written in 1936 on the subject of education:

I, Jacob Miller, as the second to the oldest son of my parents, Johannes Peter and Elisabeth Miller, was born on the 2nd day of July, 1871, in the colony of Norka, State Saratov, Russia, a colony of about 11,000 people at that time. 

My father was a well-to-do farmer and was able to give his children an education. There were three large school houses in this colony in which was taught mostly religion and reading, writing and arithmetic.

The teachers were all German teachers. Only about 75 children, all boys, had a separate schoolroom and were taught history and geography, in the Russian language, and grammar in both German and Russian.  I and my four brothers were privileged to attend this school. The rest of the children did not know anything about the outside world, only what someone had told them.

There were no newspapers of any kind, except the pastor of the church, which was a Reformed church, got a few copies of a church paper from Germany.

Norka Mitteldorf schoolhouse and teacher's residence in 1912. Below is the schoolhouse in the 1990's

The Mitteldorf school. Photo courtesy of Ruth Schultz

I was confirmed at the age of 14, and at that time my father had leased a farm away from the colony.  In connection with the farm was a small waterpower flour mill which only ground about 75 bushels of grain in 24 hours.  Besides this we kept cattle and sheep, and hogs.  Since the land was very productive we were doing very well.

When I was 16 years of age I was permitted to go to high school in a neighboring colony, Grimm (Lesnoi Karamysch).  I soon got to the last class, and on my father's uncle's advice I had to quit without finishing high school.  But my youngest brother, Peter, was privileged to go through the University.

School in the colony of Grimm (2006). This school was one the education centers of higher learning in the Volga colonies. A photo of the school in 1911 is shown below. This photo is from the "Volksfreund Kalender für das Jahr 1911, Saratow".

Excerpt from the Memories of Norka by Conrad Brill:

Two of the older Norka schools were replaced with new ones in about 1915.  One in Oberdorf, and one in Unterdorf.  The new and larger Russian school had been built next to the church in 1905 when we were ordered to learn the Russian language along with the German we had been wholly learning previously.  The old Unterdorf school in my school days had been known as the Kaiser school.  It was because it was located next to the property of a family named Kaiser.  Old timers who came to America still referred to it as the Kaiser school.

Remains of the Oberdorf (Upper Village) school in 2006

The so called "Russian School" in Norka's was completed around 1905 according to Conrad Brill. The school is located in the Mitteldorf. This photograph was taken in 1999 provided courtesy of Ruth Schultz.

Photograph of Norka's "Russian School" taken in 2001. The school was still in use at this time. In late 2005 or early 2006 the school was torn down due to safety concerns.

In 1909, when I went to the Russian school in Mitteldorf, my teacher’s name was Hill.  He was referred to as Gigl Schnitter.  I attended for about a year, then just stayed home and helped do the farming and hauling merchandise to help support the family.  The most affluent of the village would send their children to Saratov to boarding school, where they learned both German and Russian.  They were then capable of getting good employment, in cities, or higher positions in the Russian military.