A social and economic history of German settlements in the land of the Volga, especially on the system of land utilization and the agriculture

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

1. The Germans who settled in the land of the Volga and at the south of Russia since the end of 18 century were estimated as industrious and virtuous in comparison with Russian lazy peasants. But such Germans were, needless to say, an ethnic minority in Russia and were blamed as "privileged, useless parasites" by Russian peasants and their fate was affected by the Russian modernization, the First World War, the Socialist Revolution, Stalin's regime, the Second World War and the collapse of USSR. In the history of Russia had existed always "the problem of German-Russian".2. In response to Catherine II's Manifest of December 4, 1762 and July 22, 1763 many Germans came through Luebeck, St. Petersburg and Novgorod and thereafter by land or by river to Saratov in the land of the Volga, but they had to settle not in promised paradise, but in a wasteland.3. Galka, a German village in Saratov Province, had a population of 194 in 1764, 1814 in 1849, 2709 in 1888 and 3426 in 1910, and introduced early the Russian traditional, communal system of land utilization with not so bad harvest. At the beginning of the 20th century seven-fields system had been introduced in this village.4. A great many Germans in the land of the Volga died of hunger in the famine of 1921-22. In the process of negotiation with Moscow were carried out evacuations of children, transports of provisions from inland and through the American Relief Administration, the International Relief Association for Children and other organizations in foreign countries and a way of overcoming the famine was found.