On This Day, 29 June 1764

Dobrinka was the first Volga colony founded on this day 29 June 1764 with 353 Lutheran colonists by the Russian government.

By the late 1800s, Dobrinka had grown to over 4,000 residents.  Families from Dobrinka moved to new areas and helped found daughter colonies in Eckheim, Frankreich, Kana, Neu-Galka, Neu-Weimar, Oberdorf, Straßburg and Weimar.

Around 1860, in addition to traditional Lutheran and Reformed churches, there were several small mystical and/or rational sects of Protestantism cropping up in what was known as the Right Bank Ukraine, a historical name for a part of modern Ukraine on the west bank of the Dnieper River bordering Volhynia.  These sects were considered by the Russian authorities radical and a threat to the Russian Orthodox Church and to Imperial Russia itself. Of particular concern to the Russian government, their rise coincided with social uprisings across the country.  

In response to hardships and poverty, these sects would form around a charismatic leader.  Followers rejected authority and ordained ministers, and they always meet in secret to avoid persecution by Russian authorities and questioning neighbors.  There were many sects in Russia, most of which don't have a lot of information about them available.  There is also little concrete proof in addition to a few oral histories that Germans partook in all of them.  Some of the sects include the Brüderschaft (Brotherhood), Dukhobors (spirit wrestlers), Fuß Wacher (foot washers), Isralites(?),  Khlysty (flagellents), Maliovansty(?), Molokane (milk drinkers), Painters(?), Skoptsy (castrated ones), Studenbrüder (student brethern) and Tanzbrüder (dance brethren).

Location of Dobrinka on
Karte der deutschen Siedlungen im Wolgagebiet
(Map of the German settlements in the Volga region, AHSGR map #6)

In Dobrinka, the Tanzbrüder sect evolved in 1860, a Messianic sect that danced until its members fell exhausted.  An oral history of residents living in southeastern Colorado in 1975, a part of the Germans from Russia in Colorado Study Project, indicates the piteous sect was also present in "Straßburg on the Wiesenseit." It would make sense since Straßburg was founded in 1860 by families from Dobrinka . 

Location of the Volga colony Dobrinka, today known as Nizhnyaya Dobrinka, Volgograd, Russia

Learn More: 

Center for Volga German Studies - Dobrinka

Pietism and the Russian Germans in the United States

Volga German Institute - Dobrinka

Wolgadeutsche (History of the Volga Germans) - Dobrinka

Sidney Heitman Germans from Russia Collection
Village of Dobrinka

2017 marks the 250th anniversary of the founding of the Mother colonies along the Volga River. There are many events throughout the year to commemorate the anniversary, and the Germans from 

Russia Settlement Locations project joins in the celebration of this rich Volga German heritage.  

The German immigrants that came to the Volga region were among first colonists to take up Catherine the Great on her manifesto. They came from Hesse, the Rhineland, the Palatinate and Württemberg.  They are also among the most well researched and documented groups of German colonists in Russia. Thus far, the Volga Mother colonies settled between 1764 and 1767 are the only colonies that have precise dates they were settled.  

For more historical and current events related to Germans from Russia, see our calendar page or link to our public Google calendar.

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New Map: Don Cossacks

We have new map of the Don Cossacks area available. More colonies will be added to it over the next few weeks, but we had a request for the Mennonite colony of Romanowka that we wanted to fulfill along with some surrounding villages. 

The German colonies established in the Don region were all daughter and chutor colonies whose founders came from the areas Mariupol, Hoffnungstal and Molotschna.

The name of the area has changed over time, beginning with the Province of the Don Cossack Host (Russian: Область Войска Донского, Oblast’ Voyska Donskogo).  At the time Germans started settling into the area in 1870, it was called the Don Host Province.

The work is being done off the Karte der deutschen Siedlungen im Gebiet (Oblast) Stalino (ehem. östl. Teil com Gouvern. Jekaterinoslaw u. westl. Teil com Dongebiet) einschl. der deutschen Dörfer im östl. Teil des Gebiets Charkow (Map of the German settlements in the Stalino region, formerly the eastern part of the governorate of Jekaterinoslav and west part of the Don region, including the German villages in the eastern part of the Kharkov region, AHSGR map #24). This and the other two maps that include Don villages bump up against the Mariupol colonies, so anticipate a map for that area to be coming soon as well.

Most of the Stumpp maps overlap somewhat, so as all this gets worked out, there will be some shifting of colonies into appropriate groups.  Updates will called out for those keeping track.

The following maps have been updated with the new colonies: 

• Don Cossacks Colonies (new map)
• GRSL (Germans from Russia Settlement Locations) map 

All of the maps associated with this site along with their descriptions can be found on the Maps page and a list of sources used on the Sources page.

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Alt-Kassel, Tiraspol District, Odessa

So Dennis Bender is back from the 2017 Journey to the Homeland tour orgniazed by the Germans from Russia Heritage Collection, part of the North Dakota State University Libraries.  He's brought back a lot of photos without humans in them, at my request, and has been busily adding coordinates to them, including stray dogs and Ukrainian women.  

I'm not kidding.   

"Stray Dog at 45.9989°, 29.4148°"
Of course I looked it up.
It was in Artsyz, Ukraine just north of the Bessarabien ancestral colonies of Alt-Arzis and Brienne.
So, if you're missing this dog, it was seen at these coordinates on 22 May 2017.

In addition — and at least equally important — on his tour of Kassel in the Glückstal colonies, he learned from the tour guide, Serge Jaroslavjarik, that Kassel was resettled in the location we know of now. The original Kassel, Alt-Kassel (Old Kassel), was located northwest of there. It doesn't appear on any of the Karl Stumpp maps for the Odessa region, but it's referenced in the entry for Kassel in Ulrich Merten's German-Russian Handbook: A Reference Book for Russian German and German Russian History and Culture. It was resettled in 1843 due to recurrent spring flooding and lack of drinking water during drought conditions.

The location of the Glückstal colony of Alt-Kassel in relation to Kassel, where colonists moved around 1843.

The following maps have been updated with the new addition: 

• Glückstal Colonies 
• Black Sea Colonies 
• GRSL (Germans from Russia Settlement Locations) map 

All of the maps associated with this site along with their descriptions can be found on the Maps page and a list of sources used on the Sources page.

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On This Day, 27 June 1766

Katharinenstadt was founded by Baron Ferdinand de Canneau de Beauregard, a settlement agent hired by Catherine the Great, on 27 June 1766.  Interestingly, the founding families were Protestant (both Lutheran and Reformed) and Roman Catholic.  Later there was also a Russian Orthodox Church.  

The population schedules show the colony grew, beginning with 83 households and 283 colonists in 1766 to 1,306 households in 1910, with 15,370 inhabitants.  

Location of Katharinenstadt on
Karte der deutschen Siedlungen im Wolgagebiet
(Map of the German settlements in the Volga region, AHSGR map #6)

The 1798 enumeration included a description of the colony.  Text courtesy of Wolgadeutsche (History of the Volga Germans). 

Katharinenstadt

May 1798

On behalf of the supervisory authority

Chief judge, court councilor [Hofrat] Popov

       The colony lies on the meadow side of the Volga on the Winterweg, which stretches from the government town of Saratov to the district town of Wolsk.   It is located 1.5 km from the river, 50 km from Saratov and 55 km from Wolsk. The colony consists of 153 households with a total of 779 inhabitants, of which 389 are male and 390 female. The population consists of three confessions: 86 families are Lutheran, 30 Roman Catholic, and 37 families are reformed. Each confession has its own church building. The municipalities of the colonies of Orlovskaya, Obermonjou, Boisroux, Kaneau, Beauregard, Paulskaya, Niedermonjou, Philippsfeld   and Ernestinendorf also belong to the parishioners. The Reformed have their own priest, The Lutherans and Catholics are served by priests invited from other colonies. There is a school building where the children of the local inhabitants are taught by teachers (schoolmasters) in reading, writing and religion.

       The lands of this colony are from one side of the Volga river, the other from the lands of the colony of Obermonjou, from the third and last side of the territories belonging to the colonists of the villages of Boisroux   and Boregard, and the heath of the former   colony Caesars field.   Within these limits, the following countries are assigned to the colony: usable farmland - 2,100 desjatins, brown soils - 1,100 D., 500 D. forest. In addition, it was assigned to Heideland, which is located 20 versts from the colony, at the mouth of the small river Volaman Karaman and the Karaman to the Boisroux colony. These are 110 D. Heuschlag and 140 D. Wald. This makes a total of 3,950 D. However, this area is not being processed by farmers by more than 1,200. Approximately 100 D. Land are taken from the farms, 5 - from roads. The rest of the usable land serves as pasture. This country is not worked, the peasants claim it is not usable: sandy and salty. That is why, in view of the large number of the population, they feel a lack of usable land and cultivate more tobacco instead of grain, which, however, produces less income than if they could grow crops.

       Many colonists still produce large quantities of tobacco and grain for sale. On the Volga there is a good place to visit, and every week merchants come with their trucks and buy their products from the colonists. On Mondays, market days are organized, to which many colonists also come from the mountain side of the Volga. From the surrounding Russian villages many craftsmen sell their products with great profit. The trade here is very favorable, since the goods are easy to transport on the waterways. There are merchants from up to the upper regions of the Volga River. The industrious colonists enjoy   good conditions which are   not granted to other neighbors. They trade trade with rich merchants from Saratov and even from Poland.   There they got permission to set up branches and even build houses. Some produce handicrafts which they exchange favorably in other colonies along the main road for hay, sheep and other articles of use. That is why they live rather well.

       The local inhabitants have nearly 800 desjatins haylofts and 80 desjatins forest, where aspen, ashes and other trees grow. Several previous haystacks were washed away by the high waters of the Volga. There was only sand left. The forests were cut down. So that today a great lack of hibernation and forest reigns. Feed for livestock and firewood must be purchased during the year's markets. To heat the cooking stove mainly peat and marbles are used, which testifies to the colony's poor location. There are almost no ways to fix the shortcomings of farmland in the colony. Therefore, the colonists demand that they be given rights to the nearby Heideland, which was handed over to the Bashkiere in 1797. These countries are about 25 or 30 versts from their place of residence. They could build chutors there and run agriculture with success. Apart from these lands, there is no way to remedy the lack of meadows and forests. Everything else they can buy cheaply, as stated above, during the annual markets.

       The buildings are in good condition, but a bit old. The roads are well secured. In the colony there is a wooden church. A house is built of bricks. Others are built of good   wood. The rest of the buildings are made up of cattle, with cattle and barns. The courtyards are all fenced. Behind every house there is a garden where all sorts of vegetables are cultivated. In the colony there is a large drying-house for tobacco. Many orchards and hives are also found in the colony. There is also a brickyard where red bricks are made, and three windmills. On a river there is a water mill, where the grain of the colonists and also from other villages is ground from the mountain side. The owners of the mill have a good income.

       The farmland, which is near the colony, is divided into three long fields. The next fields are fertilized with cow dung and plowed with plows. The grain is harvested and threshed in the same way, as is also the case in the other colonies. The community grain storage is in order and in a safe place built. According to the file of the Saratov Ministry of Treasury and of the Economic Director, 127 grain value of the grain stored in it since 1793 is wheat   (1 liter value = 210 liters). According to the pickling woods with which the delivery was registered, there have been no further deliveries since nothing has been sown.

       The inhabitants have a sufficient quantity of cattle, which is periodically enlarged. Only chickens are kept by poultry. There is no shortage of self-made products other than flax and hemp. These can, however, be easily and cheaply procured on the markets of the year, when the inhabitants come from the mountain side with their boats across the Volga. There are no fixed   selling prices, they vary according to the prevailing conditions. Last year, rye was used for 2 rubles, wheat - for 3.50, barley for 2,   oat for 1.30, millet for 1.80 ruble, peas for 3 rubles, potatoes for 1 ruble 30 kopecks the value and tobacco for 1 Rubel the Pud sold.

       In the colony there are a total of 82 buildings.

After 1917, the colony became known as Marxstadt, and today it continues to be known as Marx

Location of the Volga colony Katharinenstadt, now known as Marx. 

Learn More: 
Volga Germans - Katharinenstadt
Geschichte der Russlanddeutschen (History of Russian Germans) - Baron Canneau de Beauregard
Volga Germans Germans from Russia - Katharinenstadt
Volga German Institute - Katharinenstadt
Wolgadeutsche (History of the Volga Germans) - Ekaterinenshtadt




2017 marks the 250th anniversary of the founding of the Mother colonies along the Volga River. There are many events throughout the year to commemorate the anniversary, and the Germans from 

Russia Settlement Locations project joins in the celebration of this rich Volga German heritage.  

The German immigrants that came to the Volga region were among first colonists to take up Catherine the Great on her manifesto. They came from Hesse, the Rhineland, the Palatinate and Württemberg.  They are also among the most well researched and documented groups of German colonists in Russia. Thus far, the Volga Mother colonies settled between 1764 and 1767 are the only colonies that have precise dates they were settled.  

For more historical and current events related to Germans from Russia, see our calendar page or link to our public Google calendar.

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On This Day, 26 June 1767

Location of Brabander on
Karte der deutschen Siedlungen im Wolgagebiet

(Map of German settlements in the Volga region, AHSGR map #6)

Brabander, a Catholic Mother colony, was founded in the Volga region of Russia on 26 June 1767 by LeRoy and Pictet, a co-operative company commissioned by Catherine the Great to recruit and settle Germans in Russia.

On Google Maps, there are several photos of the old flour mill, Parovaya Mel'nitsa Kaufmana (Kaufman's Steam Mill) which is located southwest of the village on the edge of the Volga River.

Location of the Volga colony Brabander.  Today it's known as Krasnoarmeyskoye, Saratov, Russia.

Learn More: 
Center for Volga German Studies - Brabander
LeRoy and Pictet
Volga German Institute - Brabander
Wolgadeutsche (History of the Volga Germans) - Brabander



2017 marks the 250th anniversary of the founding of the Mother colonies along the Volga River. There are many events throughout the year to commemorate the anniversary, and the Germans from 

Russia Settlement Locations project joins in the celebration of this rich Volga German heritage.  

The German immigrants that came to the Volga region were among first colonists to take up Catherine the Great on her manifesto. They came from Hesse, the Rhineland, the Palatinate and Württemberg.  They are also among the most well researched and documented groups of German colonists in Russia. Thus far, the Volga Mother colonies settled between 1764 and 1767 are the only colonies that have precise dates they were settled.  

For more historical and current events related to Germans from Russia, see our calendar page or link to our public Google calendar.

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On This Day, 24 June 1767...or maybe 1764...or possibly 1776...

Location of Semenovka on

Karte der deutschen /Siedlungen im Wolgagebiet
(Map of German settlements in the Volga region, AHSGR map #6)

Sources do not agree on the year Semenovka (Röthling) was founded.

Several of them indicate that Semenovka, a Catholic Mother colony, was founded on 24 June 1767.   Others state it was founded as early as 1764,  or as late as 1776.  One cites it as the first colony in the Kamenka district, settled around the same time as Galka, which was founded 12 August 1764.  But there is also a dispute on the year Galka was founded, too.   But most agree on the year 1764.  Other early colonies settled in the Kamenka district were Dobrinka (29 June 1764) and Volmer (18 July 1764...or possibly 1766).

In the 1767 population records, 43 households were recorded with a total of 144 colonists, 73 male and 68 female.  There was a cooperative store, an agriculture kolkhoz founded with loans, a school with grades 1 through 4, a reading room, and it was the soviet seat as of 1926.

Plat map of Semenovka, courtesy of AHSGR.  The creation date is unknown, but the agency which produced it,
Main Department of Geodesy and Cartography under the USSR Council of Ministers
(Главное управление геодезии и картографии при Совете министров СССР), existed between 1967 and 1991.

A partly cloudy day in the  Volga colony Semenovka,
which still goes by the same name today.  

Learn More: 
Center for Volga German Studies - Semenovka
Volga German Institute - Semenovka
Wolgadeutsche (History of the Volga Germans) - Semyonovka



2017 marks the 250th anniversary of the founding of the Mother colonies along the Volga River. There are many events throughout the year to commemorate the anniversary, and the Germans from 

Russia Settlement Locations project joins in the celebration of this rich Volga German heritage.  

The German immigrants that came to the Volga region were among first colonists to take up Catherine the Great on her manifesto. They came from Hesse, the Rhineland, the Palatinate and Württemberg.  They are also among the most well researched and documented groups of German colonists in Russia. Thus far, the Volga Mother colonies settled between 1764 and 1767 are the only colonies that have precise dates they were settled.  

For more historical and current events related to Germans from Russia, see our calendar page or link to our public Google calendar.

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On This Day, 20 June 1767

Location of Remmler (Luzern) on
Karte der deutschen Siedlungen im Wolgagebiet
(Map of German settlements in the Volga region, AHSGR map #6)

The Volga colony of Remmler, also known as Luzern, was founded on 20 June 1767 as a Roman Catholic colony by Baron Ferdinand de Canneau de Beauregard, a settlement agent hired by Catherine the Great.

Some sources state that the colony may have been settled as early as 1764-66.  The first population count wasn't until 1769 when 44 households were enumerated with 140 colonists total, 76 male and 64 female.

Location of the Volga colony Remmer (Luzern). 
Today it is known as Mikhaylovka, Saratov, Russia.

Learn More: 
Center for Volga German Studies - Luzern
Geschichte der Russlanddeutschen (History of Russian Germans) - Baron Canneau de Beauregard
Volga German Institute - Luzern
Wolgadeutsche (History of the Volga Germans) - Remmler



2017 marks the 250th anniversary of the founding of the Mother colonies along the Volga River. There are many events throughout the year to commemorate the anniversary, and the Germans from 

Russia Settlement Locations project joins in the celebration of this rich Volga German heritage.  

The German immigrants that came to the Volga region were among first colonists to take up Catherine the Great on her manifesto. They came from Hesse, the Rhineland, the Palatinate and Württemberg.  They are also among the most well researched and documented groups of German colonists in Russia. Thus far, the Volga Mother colonies settled between 1764 and 1767 are the only colonies that have precise dates they were settled.  

For more historical and current events related to Germans from Russia, see our calendar page or link to our public Google calendar.

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On This Day, 16 June 1766

Among the first villages settled on the Wiesenseite (meadow side) of the Volga River was Mariental. The name translates to "Mary's Valley."  There were 20 German villages in Russia with the name Mariental listed in German-Russian Handbook: A Reference Book for Russian German and German Russian History and Culture, and this was the very first founded.

Most sources agree that Mariental, a Roman Catholic colony, was founded on this day, 16 June 1766. Others indicate that may have been settled earlier,  29 June 1764.

Plat map of Mariental as remembered from about 1941.
Map courtesy of American Historical Society of Germans from Russia.
A larger version is also available from Volga Germans Germans from Russia. 

Location of Mariental on
Karte der deutschen Siedlungen im Wolgagebiet
(Map of German settlements in the Volga region, AHSGR map #6)

Location of the Volga colony Mariental.
Today it's known as Sovetskoye, Saratov, Russia.  

For more information, visit the following sites: 
Center for Volga German Studies - Mariental
Volga German Institute - Mariental
Volga Germans Germans from Russia - Mariental, Mariental plat map



2017 marks the 250th anniversary of the founding of the Mother colonies along the Volga River. There are many events throughout the year to commemorate the anniversary, and the Germans from 

Russia Settlement Locations project joins in the celebration of this rich Volga German heritage.  

The German immigrants that came to the Volga region were among first colonists to take up Catherine the Great on her manifesto. They came from Hesse, the Rhineland, the Palatinate and Württemberg.  They are also among the most well researched and documented groups of German colonists in Russia. Thus far, the Volga Mother colonies settled between 1764 and 1767 are the only colonies that have precise dates they were settled.  

For more historical and current events related to Germans from Russia, see our calendar page or link to our public Google calendar.

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On This Day, 15 June 1765, 1766, 1767

1765

Shcherbakovka, also known as Deutsch Tscherbakowka and Mühlberg between 1917 and 1941, was founded as a Lutheran colony on 15 June 1765 by the Russian Government on the lower Volga River.  It was named in honor of Mikhail Shcherbatov, a noble, writer and promoter of Russian Enlightenment during the time of Catherine the Great.

Most of the immigrants were farmers, but by 1798, there were several craftsmen including a joiner, a blacksmith, a tailor, a cobbler and two weavers.

Location of the Volga colony Shcherbakovka (Mühlberg). Today it's still known as Shcherbatovka, Volgograd, Russia

1766

Louis was founded on 14 June 1766 by LeRoy and Pictet, a co-operative company commissioned by Catherine the Great to recruit and settle Germans in Russia, as a Roman Catholic colony.  The colony had a cooperative store, an agriculture kolkhoz (cooperative) founded with loans and a school with grades 1 through 4.

Location of the Volga colony Louis, now known as Stepnoje, Saratov, Russia.

1767

Pfeifer, a Roman Catholic colony, was founded on the right bank of the Ilava River on 15 June 1767 by the Russian Government. The colony had a cooperative store, an agriculture kolkhoz (cooperative) founded with loans and a school with grades 1 through 4.

Location of the Volga colony Pfeifer, currently known as Gvardeyskoye, Saratov, Russia.

Learn More:  
Center for Volga German Studies - Louis, Pfeifer, Scherbakovka
LeRoy and Pictet
The Lower Volga Project - Shcherbakovka
Volga German Institute - Louis, Pfeifer, Scherbakovka
Volga Germans Germans from Russia - Louis, Pfeifer
Wolgadeutsche (History of the Volga Germans) - Louis, Pfeifer, Mühlberg (Scherbakovka)



2017 marks the 250th anniversary of the founding of the Mother colonies along the Volga River. There are many events throughout the year to commemorate the anniversary, and the Germans from 

Russia Settlement Locations project joins in the celebration of this rich Volga German heritage.  

The German immigrants that came to the Volga region were among first colonists to take up Catherine the Great on her manifesto. They came from Hesse, the Rhineland, the Palatinate and Württemberg.  They are also among the most well researched and documented groups of German colonists in Russia. Thus far, the Volga Mother colonies settled between 1764 and 1767 are the only colonies that have precise dates they were settled.  

For more historical and current events related to Germans from Russia, see our calendar page or link to our public Google calendar.

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Map Refresh: Dobrudscha

The map of the Dobrudscha (Dobruja) colonies has been completely updated. There is a lot of new information, including some corrections and sources.  In time, more of the defunct villages will be added.

According Die Deutschen in der Dobrudscha (see sources below for the online English translation), the area of Dobruja, which is now in Romania and Bulgaria, was an area to which Germans migrated rather than immigrated.  In other words, they had already left Germany behind a generation or two prior.  They came from South Russia, from the areas of  Bessarabia, Kherson, Jekaterinoslav and Taurida (all along the Black Sea region), but also from Russian Poland, Volhynia, Galizien, Bukovina and Hungary.

The earliest migrants arrived on their own around 1841.  During this first period of migrations, there wasn't any recruitment, official manifesto, government invitation, or assistance with re-location. Migrants sometimes just wandered or stayed in places for short periods before ending up in Dobrudscha.  Akpunar and Jacobsonsthal were the first colonies to have German settlers.  Akpunar only existed for about six years before being abandoned, and the Jacobsonsthal was technically outside the borders of what was historically known as Dobrudscha, northwest of Brăila.    

The second wave of migrants came between 1873 and 1883.  Russian Tsar Alexander II had revoked the manifestos of Catherine the Great and Alexander I in 1871, and in doing so, revoked all the rights, freedoms and privileges promised to the colonists.  In 1873, the German colonists became subject for conscription into the Russian military, prompting them to immediately begin looking for opportunities in other countries.  Emissaries from Bessarabia showed up during this time looking for available land and taking the news back to the colonists who wanted to leave.

The third wave came in 1890, spurred by nationalism in Russia which included a law that forbade land ownership to anyone still holding a foreign passport and had not become a subject of the Russian Empire.  They could not even cultivate or sow in Russian soil if they were not citizens of Russia. This again prompted many German colonists to leave Russia, many going to North America but many again to Dobrudscha.  The northern part of Dobrudscha was a part of Romanian rule at the time, and the government welcomed immigrants.

The "country at time of founding" was tricky in this area and depended a lot on the year that Germans settled a village or joined an existing one.  Dobrudscha was a part of the Ottoman Empire between 1840 and 1878, and thus they were subjects of Turkey.  After 1878 and the Treaty San Stefano, all of Dobrudscha was given to Russia, but Russia ceded the northern part to Romania in exchange for the southern part of Bessarabia.  The northern colonies were subjects of Romania and the southern subjects of Russia.  After the Second Balken war in 1913, both northern and southern Dobrudscha were both a part of Romainia.  Romania would also get Bessarabia back in 1918... but that's another map!

The following maps have been updated: 

• Dobrudscha Colonies 
• Black Sea Colonies (removed Dobrudscha)
• GRSL (Germans from Russia Settlement Locations) map (added Dobrudscha layer)

All of the maps associated with this site along with their descriptions can be found on the Maps page and a list of sources used on the Sources page.

Dobrudscha Sources:

• Alphabetical List of Villages in Dobrudscha 1937.  Translated by Allen E. Konrad. 2014.  Published online by Black Sea German Research.
• Bessarabiendeutscher verein (The Bessarabien Association)
• Die Deutschen in der Dobrudscha (The Germans in Dobrudscha). Paul Traeger. 1922.  English translation by Allen E. Konrad, 2016.  (Translation in progress.  Several parts are available online at Black Sea German Research.)
• Villages in Dobrudscha with German Families in 1940. Compiled and translated by Allen E. Konrad.  2013.  Published online by Black Sea German Research.
• Village plat maps, mainly from Heimatbuch der Dobrudscha-Deutschen 1840-1940, are available from are available at Black Sea German Research. 

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On This Day, 14 June 1766

Catholic Mother colony Rohleder was founded on 14 June 1766 by LeRoy and Pictet, a co-operative company commissioned by Catherine the Great to recruit and settle Germans in Russia. The village included a cooperative store, an agriculture kolkhoz founded with loans, a machinery kolkhoz and a school with grades 1 through 4.

Today, the remains of the colony are within the town limits of Raskatovo, Saratov, Russia.

Location of Rohleder. 

Learn More: 
Center for Volga German Studies - Rohleder
LeRoy and Pictet
Volga German Institute - Rohleder
Volga Germans Germans from Russia - Rohleder



2017 marks the 250th anniversary of the founding of the Mother colonies along the Volga River. There are many events throughout the year to commemorate the anniversary, and the Germans from 

Russia Settlement Locations project joins in the celebration of this rich Volga German heritage.  

The German immigrants that came to the Volga region were among first colonists to take up Catherine the Great on her manifesto. They came from Hesse, the Rhineland, the Palatinate and Württemberg.  They are also among the most well researched and documented groups of German colonists in Russia. Thus far, the Volga Mother colonies settled between 1764 and 1767 are the only colonies that have precise dates they were settled.  

For more historical and current events related to Germans from Russia, see our calendar page or link to our public Google calendar.

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Map Refresh: Galizien

The map of the Galizien colonies have been updated including some adjustments in location and/or current names for the following colonies: Alt-Bielitz, Bielitz, Hundstal, Kunzendorf, Krzywulanka, Kranzberg, Mariahilf, Marienhof, Mikulsdorf, Münchenthal, Muzylowice Narodowe, Neu-Babylon, Olszanka, Ostrowiec, Preppendorf.

While looking through the Gemeindelexikon der im Reichsrate vertretenen Königreiche und Länder (Gazetteer of the Crown Lands and Territories Represented in the Imperial Council), we found that a two villages on the historical map by Rudolf Unterschütz of Galizien were technically a part of Schlesien (Silesia) – Alt-Bielitz, Bielitz. The area reflects this now, and a reference to the pages online are included in the sources for each village.

The following maps have been updated:

Galizien Colonies

German Colonies in the Austrian Empire (1722-1917)

GRSL (Germans from Russia Settlement Locations) map

All of the maps associated with this site along with their descriptions can be found on the Maps page and a list of sources used on the Sources page.

Galizien Sources:

• Archiwum Map Wojskowy Instytut Geograficzny 1919 - 1939 (Map Archive of Military Geographical Institute 1919 - 1939 (WIG)
• Die deutschen Siedlungen in Galizien (Map of the German Settlements in Galicia), Rudolf Unterschütz, circa 1939.
• Galizien German Descendants
• Gemeindelexikon der im Reichsrate vertretenen Königreiche und Länder (Gazetteer of the Crown Lands and Territories Represented in the Imperial Council), XII, Galizien (Galicia). Vienna, 1907.
• Historical Maps of the Habsburg Empire, Austrian Third Military Survey (1869-1887). Mapire.
• Topographic Maps of Eastern Europe: An Atlas of the Shtetl – Galicia  

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On This Day, 13 June 1765

Husaren, a Volga Catholic Mother colony, was founded on this day, 13 June 1765, next to the Ilovlya River across from the colony of Volmer (founded 18 July 1766).  It began with 14 households with a total of 39 colonists, 19 male and 20 female.  Within 20 years, it would grow to 222 households with a total of 1,510 colonists, 772 male and 738 female.

Location of Husaren, now known as Elshanka, Saratov, Russia. 

For more information, visit the following sites: 
Center for Volga German Studies - Husaren
Wolgadeutsche (History of the Volga Germans) - Husaren
Volga German Institute - Husaren


2017 marks the 250th anniversary of the founding of the Mother colonies along the Volga River. There are many events throughout the year to commemorate the anniversary, and the Germans from 

Russia Settlement Locations project joins in the celebration of this rich Volga German heritage.  

The German immigrants that came to the Volga region were among first colonists to take up Catherine the Great on her manifesto. They came from Hesse, the Rhineland, the Palatinate and Württemberg.  They are also among the most well researched and documented groups of German colonists in Russia. Thus far, the Volga Mother colonies settled between 1764 and 1767 are the only colonies that have precise dates they were settled.  

For more historical and current events related to Germans from Russia, see our calendar page or link to our public Google calendar.

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