Volga German Republic
1924 - 1941
Emblem of the Volga German Republic
The Volga German Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (German: Autonome Sozialistische Sowjetrepublik der Wolgadeutschen, abbreviated A.S.S.R.W.D.; Russian: Автономная Советская Социалистическая Республика Немцев Поволжья) was an autonomous republic established in Soviet Russia, with its capital at the Volga port of Engels (until 1931 known as Pokrovsk) in 1918 following the Russian Revolution, by October 29 Decree of the Soviet government. It occupied the area of compact settlement of the large Volga German minority in Russia, which numbered almost 1.8 million by 1897. The republic was declared on January 6, 1924.
One of heads of the Volga Republic in the 1920s (the Chairman of Regional Executive Committee of Counsel) was a native of Norka - Adam Johann Reichert.
The Volga German A.S.S.R. was divided into fourteen cantons: Fjodorowka, Krasny-Kut, Tonkoschurowka, Krasnojar, Pokrowsk, Kukkus, Staraja Poltawka, Pallasowka, Kamenka, Solotoje, Marxstadt, Frank, Seelmann, and Balzer.
After the Russian Revolution the religious Volga Germans, 76% of whom were Christians of the Lutheran faith, immediately came into conflict with the anti-religious Bolshevik revolutionaries.
As of 1919, pastors were labelled counterrevolutionary propagandists and sent to gulags in Siberia. During the Russian Civil War some Volga Germans enlisted with the White Army and, as a result, fierce attacks by the Red Army on Volga German communities took place. In the aftermath of the war, the famine that swept the U.S.S.R. took the lives of 1/3rd of the Volga German population. To the moment of declaration of the autonomy an amnesty was announced. However it eventually was applied to a small number of people. According to the politics of korenizatsiya, carried out in 1920s in the Soviet Union, usage of German language was promoted in official documents and Germans were encouraged to occupy management positions. According to the 1939 census, there were 605,500 Germans in the autonomy.
The German invasion of the Soviet Union (known in the former U.S.S.R. as the Great Patriotic War, 1941-1945) marked the end of the Volga German A.S.S.R. The Soviet government declared all Germans to be enemies of the state, which increased the persecution and fear of the Volga Germans among the general Russian populace. On August 28, 1941, Joseph Stalin issued a formal Decree of Banishment, which abolished the Volga German A.S.S.R. and exiled all Volga Germans to the Kazakh S.S.R. and Siberia. Many were interned in labor camps merely due to their German heritage.
After the war, the deportees were forced to sign contracts that promised they would never return to the Volga area.
Resources
Volga German Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic
(Wikipedia)
Wolgadeutsche Republik (German Wikipedia)
Detailed Map of Volga German Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic
Map showing the general location of the Volga German Republic. Source: Wikipedia.
Detailed map of the Volga German Republic from 1928. Norka (норка) is shown near the northwestern boundary line. Click on the thumbnail above to view a larger image. Source: J. Otto Pohl.
A 64 page booklet titled "Autonome Sozialistische Sowjetrepublik Der Wolgadeutschen" (Autonomous Socialist Soviet Republic of the Volga Germans) published by the Deutscher Staatsverlag in Engels, Russia. The cost for the booklet in 1938 was 40 kopecks. Source: Original booklet owned by Steven Schreiber.
The first known flag of the Volga German Republic was adopted in 1926. It was red flag with golden letters represent the Sozialistische Sowjetrepublik of Wolga Deutschen (SSRWD). Source: Wikipedia.
