Two million Germans once lived in Russia. Where did they go?

Germans are the main ethnic groups in modern Germany and Austria, but for a long time, Germans have been distributed almost all over Europe. 187 1 before reunification, Germany maintained hundreds of principalities, large and small, and it was relatively easy for Germans to move around inside and outside.

In Central Asia, far away from Germany, a group of Germans live there. Before the disintegration of the Soviet Union, there were 200 Dovander nationals in the Soviet Union, mainly in Central Asia and Siberia. They have the same blood relationship with modern Germans.

How can there be so many Germans in the hinterland of Asia far from Europe?

First, the fate of Slavs and Germans.

Speaking of Slavs and Germans in ancient times, Russians and Germans are the most representative descendants of these two ancient nations in modern times. But in ancient Europe, they were all barbarians in the eyes of the ancient Romans.

In contrast, Germans were influenced by ancient Roman culture earlier. In 476 AD, the Germans destroyed the Western Roman Empire, established their own kingdom on the ruins, accepted Christianity, and became "civilized people" from then on.

At this time, Slavs were still in the primitive tribal society, just out of the Eastern European plain where they originated and migrated to Central Europe and the Balkans. Influenced by the Eastern Roman Empire, Slavs began to believe in the Orthodox Church and gradually formed a feudal system.

In the 9th century, Slavs in the west such as Poland and Czech Republic collided with Germans for the first time in Central Europe. The Germans are a central European nation that has been divided from the Germans after experiencing the Frankish Kingdom and the Holy Roman Empire. Hundreds of years after the founding of the People's Republic of China, they have occupied greater advantages in military, political and economic aspects, forcing the Western Slavs to convert to Christianity by force.

Although the Eastern Slavs gradually established their own feudal country around the 10 century, in the eyes of the Germans, the Slavs were still backward and barbaric, and even the first country of the Eastern Slavs, "Kiev Ross", was completed by a branch of the Germans. It can be seen that there is a precedent for Eastern Slavs to invite Germans to be leaders. After that, throughout the Middle Ages in Europe, except for the Teutonic Knights and the Knife Knights, which once went deep into the Baltic Sea and ruled for a short time, there was not much contact between Germans and Eastern Slavs.

▲ Teutonic knights let the German space expand eastward.

/kloc-In the 3rd century, Mongols from East Asia conquered the Eastern Slavs and extended their territory to the Dnieper River. It was not until 240 years later that the Eastern Slavs gained independence and established a unified Russia under the leadership of the Grand Duchy of Moscow. However, they still have a deep Mongolian brand, with Mongolian beards and loose robes, more like white Mongols.

When the Russians looked around and planned to expand their territory, they found that the west had already led Russia in all aspects after the Renaissance and the great voyage. Although Germany is politically divided due to the weakness of the Holy Roman Empire, its industry and commerce are developed, and its scientific and technological level can keep pace with Britain and France.

Second, German immigrants.

After Peter I ascended the throne in 1682, he felt deeply that Russia was backward, and he did not hesitate to put down the czar's dignity and pretended to be a soldier and craftsman to learn advanced technology from western European countries. When he returned to China after finishing his studies, he began a vigorous reform and urged Russia to catch up and become one of the European powers. This Peter I was later called Peter the Great by Russians.

The main content of the reform is to learn from the west in all directions, from clothing and appearance to military, political and economic affairs. Peter I hired a large number of experts and technical talents from the west to help Russia get rid of backwardness quickly and then expand in all directions, especially in Central Asia and Siberia in the East.

▲ the bronze statue of Peter I in St. Petersburg, this city is his greatest trophy.

Germany is the closest western country to Russia, separated only by Poland, a Western Slavic country, so it was hired by Peter I with the most technical talents in the past, which had a far-reaching impact on all aspects of Russian society. These technical talents can be regarded as the first Russian-German immigrants.

More importantly, Peter I married all his children to the nobles of a powerful German country to show the special relationship between Russia and Germany. In this way, his descendants became mixed-race Germans and Russians. According to the habit of respecting paternal descent at that time, Peter I's grandson should be regarded as German.

Unexpectedly, Peter I's son died young, leaving no grandson, so the grandson had to inherit the position of czar and become Peter III. As a result, the Russian czar became a German, and Peter III's wife was an authentic German aristocrat. Since then, all czars are of German descent.

Peter III was regarded as an incompetent czar, who sold too much Russian rights to Germany. On the contrary, his wife is more politically talented and willing to safeguard Russia's interests. 1762 After the palace coup, Peter III, who succeeded him for only half a year, was deposed.

With the support of ministers, Peter III's wife became the new czar-Catherine II, a native German without any Russian descent, and eventually became the Russian czar, and will become Catherine the Great, who is as famous as Peter the Great.

Catherine II continued to study the western reforms, and with the help of her status as a German aristocrat, she increased the introduction of talents from Germany and other European countries, and promoted a comprehensive westernized education and lifestyle. At one time, Russian aristocrats were proud to speak German, French and Latin.

According to statistics, in 1869, there were 45,000 Germans in Petersburg, Russia, accounting for 6.8% of the total population. Most of them are descendants of German immigrants introduced in the era of Peter I and Catherine II.

On the other hand, in 1762 and 1763, Catherine II invited Europeans, especially Germans, to move to the Volga River basin and develop the region. At that time, Russia was preparing to expand into Central Asia and needed to attract more immigrants to fill the shortage of domestic population.

Putting German immigrants in the Volga River basin can not only form a buffer zone between Russia and Central Asia, but also open up a forward base for the next invasion of Central Asia. These German immigrants were later called Volga Germans.

People from western European countries such as Britain and France are more inclined to immigrate to the new continent such as America, and the main force of real immigration to Russia is the Germans. In addition to being more convenient than Britain, France and other countries, Germany's fragmented political structure also makes Germans more willing to immigrate to Russia.

/kloc-Before the 9th century, Germany was nominally under the rule of the Holy Roman Empire, but the real power was in the hands of state lords. Due to various reasons, such as religion, hegemony of great powers and so on, as many as hundreds of countries have joined different camps to fight against each other. The war in Germany continues, and people can't live and work in peace and contentment, so they have to endure heavy taxes and military service.

Therefore, when many Germans heard that Russia promised to provide a large area of undeveloped land, as well as preferential conditions such as tax exemption, exemption from military service, allowing Germans to live in compact communities and retaining their original religion and culture, they embarked on the road of moving eastward. They were later called Volga Germans.

Three. German autonomous Republic

The area where the Germans live in the Volga River is near the junction of Russia and Kazakhstan today, on the east bank of the Volga River. It used to be a nomadic area, but the fertile land and sufficient irrigation were suitable for developing agriculture, which attracted a large number of German immigrants and formed a distinctive German community.

/kloc-In the late 20th century, due to the completion of the expansion of Central Asia, the importance of the Germans in the Volga River declined, and Russia cancelled the preferential policy of duty-free military service. Some people began to leave, go back to their hometown in Germany or immigrate to the United States. Although their total number is small, they have planted seeds for future Russian German immigrants.

▲ Volga Germans have created a new home through the efforts of several generations.

According to statistics, from the end of 18 to the beginning of the 20th century, there were more than 200,000 Germans in Volga River, and the number of Russian Germans in China was about 1 10,000, making it the ninth largest ethnic group in Russia.

19 17 The October Revolution took place in Russia, and the tsarist system was destroyed and replaced by the Soviet Union. During the period of 1924, the Soviet Union conducted a large-scale inventory and statistics of all ethnic groups in its territory and established many autonomous republics based on ethnic groups.

Thus, the Germanic people of Volga River had an autonomous republic, which belonged to Russia, with an area of 28,000 square kilometers and a population of 370,000, exceeding 60% of the total population of the autonomous republic. The capital is Engels, which has been preserved to this day and belongs to Saratov State.

Because Russian Germans are generally well educated, they have brought advanced production technology and management skills from their hometown. After several generations of efforts, their living standards are obviously higher than those of neighboring Kazakhs and Russians.

▲ Engels City on the Volga River has been preserved until now, and its name has not changed.

Russian Germans are widely distributed in Russia, and many people gradually began to integrate with local ethnic groups such as Russia after intermarriage, and even forgot German. Because the Germanic people of Volga River live together in the same family, they have well preserved the tradition of the German nation. Some data of later generations simply refer to all Russian Germans as Volga Germans.

Unfortunately, when World War II broke out, Nazi Germany launched a large-scale attack on the Soviet Union. The loyalty of the Volga Germans and even all Russian Germans was doubted by the Soviet government.

▲ Nazi Germany attacked the Soviet Union, which brought a sad turning point to the fate of Russian Germans.

Before the outbreak of World War II, German immigrants from other European countries, such as the Czech Sudetenland, actively cooperated with Nazi Germany's aggressive policy, causing serious losses to their host countries. In view of this, the Soviet government took severe measures against Russia and Germany in order to prevent them from colluding with Nazi Germany.

Although there is no evidence that Russian Germans betrayed Russia, the brutal war changed everything. 194 1 In August, the Soviet government decided to cancel the German autonomy of the Volga River, moved all Russian Germans to Siberia and Central Asia, and deprived them of many legal citizenship rights.

▲ The life of forced migration is very hard, and it is in the position of supervising labor.

In more than a year, about 6.5438+0.2 million Russian Germans were forcibly relocated, among which 440,000 people moved to Central Asia such as Kazakhstan, almost equal to the German population of Volga Germany. They were scattered in different States and did not form larger settlements.

It took 160 years to establish the Volga German Republic, which may be the only autonomous republic of the German nation outside the non-German countries, but it vanished in just one year. The reasons are very complicated, and the most important reason is that Nazi Germany flagrantly launched a war of aggression.

▲ Memorial statue of early Volga German immigrants in Kansas, USA.

In addition, more than 200,000 Russian Germans chose to leave the Soviet Union. Most of them have relatives abroad and followed the footsteps of early immigrants to North and South America. At present, there are about 654.38 million descendants of Volga Germans in the United States, and Brazil and Argentina add up to nearly 3 million.

Fourth, the return of Russian Germans.

After the end of World War II, the Soviet Union corrected its previous forced relocation policy at 1955, canceled its discriminatory policy against Russian Germans, and restored their Soviet citizenship at 1964. However, it was not until 1972 that Russian Germans were allowed to return to their original residence before relocation, and the houses and other property confiscated during relocation could not be recovered, so the local government provided another resettlement.

As early as shortly after the restoration of civil rights, Russia and Germany proposed to restore autonomy, but at that time, they were scattered in Central Asia and Siberia, and the number of people living together was generally only a few thousand, not more than 20,000 to 30,000, so they could not exercise autonomy.

▲ Blue dots are the distribution of Germans in Central Asia.

After 1972, a large number of Russians and Germans returned to their original places of residence, especially the original German-speaking area of the Volga River. Thanks to their repeated efforts, the proposal to rebuild the Republic of China has also entered the drafting stage of the bill.

However, due to the opposition of other local ethnic groups and other factors, the draft did not make progress until the disintegration of the Soviet Union and did not enter a substantive stage. After a long wait, a large number of Russians and Germans turned from expectation to disappointment and immigrated one after another.

At the same time, Germany was divided into Federal Germany and Democratic Germany by the US-Soviet Group after World War II. After more than 20 years of recovery and development, it needs more people to boost its economy and is willing to accept Russian Germans. 1990 After the reunification of Germany, German nationality was directly granted to Russian Germans.

▲ Volga Germans and Italians have lived together for a long time and have well preserved their respective national characteristics.

According to official statistics, from 65438 to 0989, there were 2 million Germans and Italians in the Soviet Union. In the five or six years before the disintegration of the Soviet Union, an average of 654.38+10,000 people moved to Germany every year. 199 1 After the disintegration of the Soviet Union, this process was accelerated and the number of Russians and Germans was greatly reduced. Even so, there are still at least 600,000 Germans in Russia.

There are so many Germans in Russia, which are caused by Russia's expansion, World War II and the wrong ethnic policy of the Soviet Union. As time goes by, more and more Russian Germans will immigrate to Germany and other European and American countries.