Western Siberia: Tobolsk Province

1914 map of the Tobolsk Province from the David Rumsey Map Collection

The splitting of Asiatic Russia into its former imperial provinces continues. The former Tobolsk Province in Western Siberia is now complete. This province shrunk over time. I recorded it with its boundaries in 1914, toward the end of the imperial period and when the voluntary resettlement of German and other colonists from elsewhere in Russia to Siberia was in full swing. It spans parts of the present-day Omsk, Tyumen, Sverdlovsk, and Kurgan oblasts.  Thirty-eight more settlements have been added in the process. And again, like with Tomsk, settlement was primarily in the southern part of the province with a mix of previous regions of origin (Volga, Black Sea, Volhynia) and religious confessions (heavily Mennonite, Protestant, very few Catholics). More mixed ethnicity settlements, too, Russian, Ukrainian, German, Estonian, Latvian. 

The Imperial Census of 1897, there were 1,433,043 inhabitants in Tobolsk Province. Of those, 1,120 (0.08%) reported themselves as native German speakers. This increased as resettlement proceeded over the next several years.  

With this province, Siberia, as it was defined administratively, is complete. 

Next up will be the Steppes Krai and the former oblasts of Akmolinsk, Semipalatinsk, Turgay, and Ural. Starting with Akmolinsk, this will cover the remainder of the present-day Omsk Oblast in Russia and most of northern Kazakhstan. This was a heavier area of resettlement by Germans with nearly 5,000 Germans living in the region before 1897.

As has been mentioned before, the update map data will be posted at the end of this research exercise all at once. Now that it’s beginning to take shape, I’m looking forward to seeing how it will look at the end. 

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Western Siberia: Tomsk Province

German settlements in the Tomsk Province. 

The past two weeks I’ve been working through the former Tomsk Province in Western Siberia, which today spans the oblasts of Tomsk, Kemerovo, Novosibirsk, Altai Krai in Russia and the northern tip of East Kazakhstan and eastern edge of Pavlodar provinces in Kazakhstan. So far, 73 more settlements have been added. 

This part of Siberia, as you’ll recall, is the part where there was voluntary resettlement from other areas in Russia in the early 1900s. It was open for settlement, made easily accessible with the completion of the Trans-Siberian Railroad in 1904, and some Germans thought it was a good way to avoid the mandatory military conscription since it was further east with less oversight in such matters. The early settlements were in the 1890s, but many more came after the railroad was completed. Germans mostly flourished there until the fall of the empire in 1917. 

I want to note that in the Imperial Census of 1897, there were 1,927,679 inhabitants in Tomsk Province. Of those, 1,430 (0.07%) reported themselves as native German speakers. 

The origins of the German re-settlers were diverse. There were many mixed Volga/Black Sea colonies from all the provinces of those two regions. German Mennonites established the Barnaul Colony, which consisted of six settlement areas: Salvgorod, Bas Agatsch, Glyaden, Pashnya, Saratov, and Fünfziger. 

Origins of the re-settlers (reported from various sources, not confirmed):

• Ekaterinoslav Province: Chortitza Colony, Jamburg, Killmanstal, Yekaterinoslav
• Kherson Province: Fürstenfeld, Kronau, Landau, Nikolaital
• Taurida Province: Molotschna Colony
• Don Cossacks Host: Meschewoje
• Volhynia Province: Neuborn
• Samara Province: Beckerdorf, Dehler, Hockerberg, Kano, Katharinenstadt, Orlovskoye and Philippsfeld
• Saratov Province: Dönhof, Kratzke
• Orenburg Province: Ufa Colony
• Baltics: Livonia (Estonia)
• Austro-Hungry: Liebeling (Banat)

There was also a Neudorf...because there’s always a Neudorf, right? It wasn’t readily apparent exactly which Neudorf it was. In true German fashion of leaving at least some breadcrumbs, some of the colonies were named after the colonies they left: Kratzke, Dönhof, Mariupol, Landau, Lichtefeld, Kano, Beckerdorf, etc. 

Next up will be the province of Toblosk. 

1914 map of the Tomsk Province from the David Rumsey Map Collection

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