This series of posts is from a presentation entitled “German Geography of the Russian Empire 1721-1914” that I gave in the summer of 2025 at the conferences of the American Historical Society of Germans from Russia (AHSGR) and the Foundation for East European Family History Studies (FEEFHS). At a high level, it explores the territorial growth of Imperial Russia and shows its significance to German settlement and migration across the empire in the 18th and 19th centuries.
Geography of German Settlement in the Russian Empire
III. Eastern Europe
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Timeline
1772 — First Partition of Poland.
1792 — Polish-Russian War.
1793 — Second Partition of Poland.
1794 — Kościuszko Uprising.
1795 — Third Partition of Poland.
1803 — Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815).
1807 — Grand Duchy of Warsaw.
1815 — Treaty of Vienna ends the Napoleonic Wars.
1830 — November Uprising.
At its largest, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth included all of what we know today as the Baltics, Belarus, most of Poland and Ukraine, a bit of Moldova and Romania, and part of Russia. By the mid to late-1700s, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth had been weakened by both internal strife and external pressure by neighboring empires, namely, the German Kingdom of Prussia, the Austrian Habsburg monarchy, and the Russian Empire.
Under Catherine the Great, while not formalized, Poland became a de-facto protectorate of the Russian Empire between 1768 and 1771. A protectorate meant it was controlled and protected by Russia while retaining its own monarch. And in most cases, like this one, Russia kept a military presence in the countries that it supposedly protected. Being a protectorate was often the first step Russia took before annexation of territory, as we will see again in other regions.
During these years, Russia was at war with the Ottoman Empire (one of many) over the territory around the Black Sea. Some Poles took up arms against Russia and allied with Turkey. After Russia’s victory over Turkey, it allied with Austria and Prussia and began carving up the Commonwealth.
In 1772, the first partition of Poland occurred. Russia’s take was the district of White Russia, or White Ruthenia, the eastern part of Belarus.
The Polish-Russian War (1792) was a short conflict in which Russia invaded the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in order to prevent reforms it saw as radical. It resulted in the second partition 1793. Russia’s take in were the Polish regions of Minsk, Podolia, and part of Volhynia. This roughly includes modern-day central Belarus and part of western Ukraine, sometimes referred to as right-bank Ukraine.
The final partition occurred in 1795. It was the result of the Kościuszko Uprising, an uprising against Poland’s foreign occupiers, Russia and Prussia. It was initially successful, but by November 1794, it had been crushed. From this last partition, Russia acquired the region of Kurland, an historical region southwest of Riga on the Baltic Sea, the remainder of Lithuania, and the rest of Volhynian Ukraine.
With this, Poland ceased to exist as a sovereign state.
The Napoleonic Wars (1803-1815) continued to redraw borders. In this region, Napoleon defeated Prussia where it had established South Prussia from its take of the second partition of Poland. From this, Napoleon created the Grand Duchy of Warsaw, a client state of France. That’s the bump you see on the left.
Napoleon was said to be a champion of Polish independence and gave control back to the Poles. French occupation was short-lived, and at the end of the Napoleonic Wars, the Duchy of Warsaw was again divided in the Treaty of Vienna. Most of it went to Russia and became the Kingdom of Poland. It was officially called the Kingdom of Poland but was referred to as Congress Poland, or Congress Kingdom of Poland to differentiate it from all the previous kingdoms of Poland. The king of Congress Poland was not a Pole but Russian Tsar Alexander I.
In addition to Congress Poland, the Treaty of Vienna confirmed to Russia its territories taken through the three partitions of Poland.
The November Uprising in 1830 did not gain territory per se for Russia. It was a Polish rebellion against Russian rule in Congress Poland and political repression. A revolutionary government was formed. It formally deposed the Tsar as King of Poland. Although it garnered much support, the rebellion was eventually crushed by Russian forces, after which the area was completely incorporated into Russia and became Russian Poland, solidifying the territory as part of the Russian Empire.
What did this mean for German settlement and migration?
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| Known German habitation in this region of the Russian Empire on a modern map. |
This region came with more free Germans. As early as the 1650s, Germans were known to be living in the Vistula River delta around Warsaw. After Prussia took that region in the second partition of Poland and called it South Prussia, the king was eager to populate it with even more Germans.
As history would have it, there were Germans in Napoleon’s path after the French Revolution who wanted nothing more than not to be in his path. Many of those living in Alsace in the Kingdom of France and the western and southwestern regions of Germany today immigrated to South Prussia, only to find themselves occupied by the French again in 1807 when South Prussia became the Grand Duchy of Warsaw.
In 1808, many began immigrating as colonists to South Russia and were a part of founding the Black Sea colonies in the provinces of Kherson, Ekaterinoslav, Taurida, and later Bessarabia. More on this when we get to the Black Sea region.
If you have ancestors who lived in this region, as I did, sometimes you’ll sometimes see the area referred to as Poland…sometimes Prussia…sometimes Russia. It all depends on when they were there.
Both the Russian provinces of Volhynia and Podolia were mostly populated by Germans who had lived in Russian Poland long before it was called that, and arrived after the partitions and at the invitation of wealthy landowners who needed farmers.
Eventually there were many Germans who lived in many places in this region that is now western Ukraine. There were a few villages that were 100% German or Mennonite like we see in enclaves in other regions; most were mixed ethnically. This entire area was also a part of the Pale of Settlement.
Next, we’ll move on to the Black Sea region.––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
Related Posts and Sources:
- Geography of German Settlement in the Russian Empire
I. Introduction (posted 20 September 2025)
II. The Baltics & Finland (posted 21 September 2025)
III. Eastern Europe (posted 22 September 2025)
IV. The Black Sea Region
V. The Caucasus Region
VI. Central Asia and Western Siberia
VII. Far East Russia
VIII. Summary - Images from the series Geography of German Settlement in the Russian Empire