Post by nockwasright on Apr 29, 2005 10:42:23 GMT -5
Germans migrations
Here follow some short notes about German migrations in Great Russia. All the information are from Migration and Cultures, by Thomas Sowell. I found such information curious both because I think they are telling about German national character, and because Germans are never seen as victims of racism and misery, but they actually were in some cases.
Baltic States
German presence in the Baltic States is due to very ancient (Middle Ages) movement of German peasants, often encouraged by the local landlords.
At the end of 1700 a.d. Germans made up around 8% of the Baltic population. At the end of the 1800 they were 6%. They were a dominant socioeconomic class, and all parameters, social, cultural and economical show their advantageous position (land owned, literacy rates). It was even often necessary for urban Latvian and Jews to learn German in order to climb the social ladder.
The same pattern of overrepresentation in high level social position was kept when the Baltic states were conquered by Russia. Baltic Germans under Russian rule particularly were overrepresented as high level public officers, army’s officers, scientists. In the 1880 40% of Russian army high command was German, most of them from Baltic states. German generals were noted for their loyalty toward Russia, also in the first world war. Intermarriage in the Baltic states was frequent and Germans were not a close community. Germans position in such states started to be more difficult with the rise of Russian nationalism in the late IX century.
The Volga Area
From 1763 to 1766 peasants from southwestern Germany migrated to the Volga area in Russia, practically recruited by Catherine the Great (Russian government subsided the migration and exempted them from military service. One of the purposes of e settlement was to provide a model of efficient agricultural organisation to the backward Russian peasant masses). The migration process however took his deadly toll on the migrants, who had to face al the harshness of Russian climate, in a place where, when they arrived, there was nothing but wilderness (eventually some of them spent the winter in holes in the ground). Besides, they experimented the inefficiency of Russian government (that had to provide the grain for planting) lost the first season to produce a crop, and were harassed by bands of bandits from Central Asia who robbed and devastated the region sometimes carrying off some of them to sell them as slaves in Asia.
Of 30.000 immigrants recruited only 28.000 arrived alive in the settlements. After ten years only 23.000 of them were still alive.
However, with time the immigrants succeeded in building their villages and farming as they were supposed to do. They lived in totally separated enclaves and not only intermarriage, but almost contact with Russians was almost unthinkable. Their level of production and literacy were far above those of the Russians’peasants (but lower than that of the Germans in Germany). Their reproduction level was instead double than that of the average German peasant; they averaged 10 children per family. One of their village became a show colony, for the entire Russian Empires, visited by dignitaries and educators.
The rise of Russian nationalism, the lift of the exemption from military service, and finally Communism (many of them were “kulaks”) lowered their standard of living, but not as much as the IIWW and the consequent deportations. Before the deportations most of the Volga Germans, after hundreds of years, still didn’t speak a word of Russian. In the 1920 85% of German men in Russia married German women and 95% spoke German. Mixing concerned mostly Baltic Germans.
In the 1941 380.000 Volga Germans were deported behind the Ural mountains. After the war there was heavy migration of Germans from Russia to USA and South America. The Volga Germans migrated mainly to USA, Argentina and Uruguay where still can be found areas of “Volga Germans”, with their characteristic dialect.
The Black Sea
German migration in the Black Sea area follows the Volga migration pattern. Migrants were Mennonites. The migration was subsided by the czarist government (within the grat project of modernising Russia) that even forced some of the Mennonites’ farming methods on the local Russian peasants. Generally the condition of the migration were more fortunate than in the Volga area. As in the Volga area, the prosperity and success of the German migrant grew. In 1912 they owned 41% of the arable land on the Crimean peninsula. During the 1800 however, there was a substantial migration of Black Sea Germans to Brazil, USA, Canada, due partly to the active policy of this states, looking for expert and organised peasants, partly to the growing hostile politics of Russian government toward foreigners.
Overall, at the end of the IXX century there were 1.800.000 Germans in Russia; in 1916 there were 2.400.000, but in the 1970 they were again less than two millions.
Solgenytzin writes about German deportation during communism, prising the industriousness with which they brought relative order and prosperity to wherever they where deported, but also condemning their extreme respect for the authorities which made easy for communist government officer to bully and harass them beyond any conceivable limit (as opposed to Caucasian ethnicities, who, according to Solgenytzin, even in the Gulag created their own mafia that kept in check officers’ harassing).
Here follow some short notes about German migrations in Great Russia. All the information are from Migration and Cultures, by Thomas Sowell. I found such information curious both because I think they are telling about German national character, and because Germans are never seen as victims of racism and misery, but they actually were in some cases.
Baltic States
German presence in the Baltic States is due to very ancient (Middle Ages) movement of German peasants, often encouraged by the local landlords.
At the end of 1700 a.d. Germans made up around 8% of the Baltic population. At the end of the 1800 they were 6%. They were a dominant socioeconomic class, and all parameters, social, cultural and economical show their advantageous position (land owned, literacy rates). It was even often necessary for urban Latvian and Jews to learn German in order to climb the social ladder.
The same pattern of overrepresentation in high level social position was kept when the Baltic states were conquered by Russia. Baltic Germans under Russian rule particularly were overrepresented as high level public officers, army’s officers, scientists. In the 1880 40% of Russian army high command was German, most of them from Baltic states. German generals were noted for their loyalty toward Russia, also in the first world war. Intermarriage in the Baltic states was frequent and Germans were not a close community. Germans position in such states started to be more difficult with the rise of Russian nationalism in the late IX century.
The Volga Area
From 1763 to 1766 peasants from southwestern Germany migrated to the Volga area in Russia, practically recruited by Catherine the Great (Russian government subsided the migration and exempted them from military service. One of the purposes of e settlement was to provide a model of efficient agricultural organisation to the backward Russian peasant masses). The migration process however took his deadly toll on the migrants, who had to face al the harshness of Russian climate, in a place where, when they arrived, there was nothing but wilderness (eventually some of them spent the winter in holes in the ground). Besides, they experimented the inefficiency of Russian government (that had to provide the grain for planting) lost the first season to produce a crop, and were harassed by bands of bandits from Central Asia who robbed and devastated the region sometimes carrying off some of them to sell them as slaves in Asia.
Of 30.000 immigrants recruited only 28.000 arrived alive in the settlements. After ten years only 23.000 of them were still alive.
However, with time the immigrants succeeded in building their villages and farming as they were supposed to do. They lived in totally separated enclaves and not only intermarriage, but almost contact with Russians was almost unthinkable. Their level of production and literacy were far above those of the Russians’peasants (but lower than that of the Germans in Germany). Their reproduction level was instead double than that of the average German peasant; they averaged 10 children per family. One of their village became a show colony, for the entire Russian Empires, visited by dignitaries and educators.
The rise of Russian nationalism, the lift of the exemption from military service, and finally Communism (many of them were “kulaks”) lowered their standard of living, but not as much as the IIWW and the consequent deportations. Before the deportations most of the Volga Germans, after hundreds of years, still didn’t speak a word of Russian. In the 1920 85% of German men in Russia married German women and 95% spoke German. Mixing concerned mostly Baltic Germans.
In the 1941 380.000 Volga Germans were deported behind the Ural mountains. After the war there was heavy migration of Germans from Russia to USA and South America. The Volga Germans migrated mainly to USA, Argentina and Uruguay where still can be found areas of “Volga Germans”, with their characteristic dialect.
The Black Sea
German migration in the Black Sea area follows the Volga migration pattern. Migrants were Mennonites. The migration was subsided by the czarist government (within the grat project of modernising Russia) that even forced some of the Mennonites’ farming methods on the local Russian peasants. Generally the condition of the migration were more fortunate than in the Volga area. As in the Volga area, the prosperity and success of the German migrant grew. In 1912 they owned 41% of the arable land on the Crimean peninsula. During the 1800 however, there was a substantial migration of Black Sea Germans to Brazil, USA, Canada, due partly to the active policy of this states, looking for expert and organised peasants, partly to the growing hostile politics of Russian government toward foreigners.
Overall, at the end of the IXX century there were 1.800.000 Germans in Russia; in 1916 there were 2.400.000, but in the 1970 they were again less than two millions.
Solgenytzin writes about German deportation during communism, prising the industriousness with which they brought relative order and prosperity to wherever they where deported, but also condemning their extreme respect for the authorities which made easy for communist government officer to bully and harass them beyond any conceivable limit (as opposed to Caucasian ethnicities, who, according to Solgenytzin, even in the Gulag created their own mafia that kept in check officers’ harassing).
