Volga German Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic
Template:Short description Template:Use dmy dates Template:Infobox former subdivision
The Volga German Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (Template:Langx; Template:Langx), abbreviated as the Volga German ASSR, was an autonomous republic of the Russian SFSR. Its capital city was Engels (known as Pokrovsk or Kosakenstadt before 1931) located on the Volga River. As a result of the German invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941, the republic was abolished and Volga Germans were exiled.
HistoryEdit
The first provision of a special status for Volga Germans in the Russian SFSR was created following the October Revolution, by a 29 October (some claim 19 October) 1918<ref name="knowbysight.info">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> decree of the Soviet government, establishing the Labour Commune of Volga Germans. This gave Soviet Germans a special status among the non-Russians in the USSR.<ref name="otto">Template:Cite book</ref> It was restructured as an Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic on 20 February 1924 (claims of 19 December 1923),<ref name="knowbysight.info"/><ref name="otto" /> by a declaration of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee and the Council of People's Commissars of the Russian SFSR. It became the first national autonomous unit in the Soviet Union after the Donetsk–Krivoy Rog Soviet Republic. It occupied the area of compact settlement of the large Volga German minority in Russia, which numbered almost 1.8 million by 1897. The republic was declared on 6 January 1924. Template:Citation needed
At the moment of declaration of autonomy, an amnesty was announced. However, it eventually was applied to a small number of people. According to the policy of korenizatsiia, carried out in the 1920s in the Soviet Union, usage of the German language was promoted in official documents and Germans were encouraged to occupy management positions. According to the 1939 census, there were 366,685 Germans in the republic.
By 1 January 1941, the Volga German ASSR included the city of Engels and 22 cantons:<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Baltsersky, Gmelinsky, Gnadenflyursky, Dobrinsky, Zelmansky, Zolotovsky, Ilovatsky, Kamensky, Krasnoyarsky, Krasnokutsky, Kukkussky, Lizandergeysky, Marientalsky, Marxshtadtsky, Pallasovsky, Staro-Poltavsky, Ternovsky, Untervaldsky, Fedorovsky, Franksky, Ekgeimsky and Erlenbakhsky.
The German invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941 marked the end of the Volga German ASSR. On 28 August 1941, the republic was formally abolished and, out of fear they could act as German collaborators, all Volga Germans were exiled to the Kazakh SSR, Altai and Siberia.<ref name="Abolish">Template:Cite Russian law</ref> Many were interned in labor camps merely due to their heritage.<ref name="otto" /> On 7 September 1941, the republic was formally extinguished and its territory divided between the Saratov Oblast (15 cantons) and the Stalingrad Oblast (7 cantons).<ref name="Extinguish">Template:Cite Russian law</ref><ref name="otto"/>
Following the death of Stalin in 1953, the situation for Volga Germans improved dramatically. In 1964, a second decree was issued, openly admitting the government's guilt in pressing charges against innocent people and urging Soviet citizens to give Volga Germans every assistance in their "economic and cultural expansion".Template:Citation needed With the existence of a socialist German state in East Germany now a reality of the post-war world, the Volga German ASSR was never reestablished.
Beginning in the early 1980s and accelerating after the fall of the Soviet Union, many Volga Germans have emigrated to Germany by taking advantage of the German law of return, a policy which grants citizenship to all those who can prove to be a refugee or expellee of German ethnic origin or as the spouse or descendant of such a person.<ref>Barbara Dietz, "German and Jewish migration from the former Soviet Union to Germany: Background, Trends and Implications", Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 26, No. 4 (October 2000): 635-652.</ref>
PopulationEdit
The following table shows population of the ethnic groups of the Volga German ASSR:<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
| 1926 census | 1939 census | |
|---|---|---|
| Germans | 379,630 (66.4%) | 366,685 (60.5%) |
| Russians | 116,561 (20.4%) | 156,027 (25.7%) |
| Ukrainians | 68,561 (12.0%) | 58,248 (9.6%) |
| Kazakhs | 1,353 (0.2%) | 8,988 (1.5%) |
| Tatars | 2,225 (0.4%) | 4,074 (0.7%) |
| Mordvins | 1,429 (0.3%) | 3,048 (0.5%) |
| Belarusians | 159 (0.0%) | 1,636 (0.3%) |
| Chinese | 5 (0.0%) | 1,284 (0.2%) |
| Jews | 152 (0.0%) | 1,216 (0.2%) |
| Poles | 216 (0.0%) | 756 (0.1%) |
| Estonians | 753 (0.1%) | 521 (0.1%) |
| Others | 710 (0.1%) | 3,869 (0.6%) |
| Total | 571,754 | 606,352 |
LeadersEdit
Heads of stateEdit
| Template:Abbr | Portrait | Name Template:Small |
Tenure | Notes | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Central Executive Committee Chairmen | ||||||
| 1 | style="background:Template:Party color" | | File:Ernst Reuter 1918.jpg | Ernst Reuter Template:Small |
1918 | 1919 | German statesman, diplomat, Mayor of Berlin |
| 2 | style="background:Template:Party color" | | Adam Reichert Template:Small |
1919 | 1920 | Teacher, journalist, kolkhoznik | |
| 3 | style="background:Template:Party color" | | Alexander Dotz Template:Small |
1920 | World War I participant, Russian statesman | ||
| 4 | style="background:Template:Party color" | | Vasiliy Pakun | 1920 | 1921 | Russian statesman | |
| 5 | style="background:Template:Party color" | | Alexander Moor Template:Small |
1921 | 1922 | World War I and Russian Civil War participant, Russian general and statesman, Turkmenistani statesman, Uzbekistani statesman, shot in Tashkent | |
| 6 | style="background:Template:Party color" | | Wilhelm Kurz Template:Small |
1922 | 1924 | Russian statesman, shot | |
| 7 | style="background:Template:Party color" | | Johannes Schwab Template:Small |
1924 | 1930 | Russian statesman, shot | |
| 8 | style="background:Template:Party color" | | Andrew Gleim Template:Small |
1930 | 1934 | Russian statesman | |
| 9 | style="background:Template:Party color" | | Heinrich Fuchs Template:Small |
1934 | 1935 | Russian statesman, shot | |
| 10 | style="background:Template:Party color" | | File:Adam Velsch.jpg | Adam Welsch Template:Small |
1935 | 1936 | World War I participant, chekist, regional party leader, Russian statesman, shot |
| 11 | style="background:Template:Party color" | | Heinrich Lüft Template:Small |
1936 | 1937 | Russian statesman, shot | |
| 12 | style="background:Template:Party color" | | David Rosenberger Template:Small |
1937 | 1938 | Russian statesman | |
| Supreme Soviet Chairman | ||||||
| 1 | style="background:Template:Party color" | | File:Gofman KG.jpg | Konrad Hoffmann Template:Small |
1938 | 1941 | World War I participant, railway worker, Russian statesman |
Heads of governmentEdit
- Sovnarkom of the Republic
Created on 12 January 1924, by declaration at the first session of the Central Executive Committee of the Republic.
| Template:Abbr | Portrait | Name Template:Small |
Tenure | Notes | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | style="background:Template:Party color" | | Wilhelm Kurz Template:Small |
1924 | 1929 | Russian statesman, shot | |
| 2 | style="background:Template:Party color" | | Andrew Gleim Template:Small |
1929 | 1930 | Russian statesman | |
| 3 | style="background:Template:Party color" | | Heinrich Fuchs Template:Small |
1930 | 1935 | Russian statesman, shot | |
| 4 | style="background:Template:Party color" | | File:Adam Velsch.jpg | Adam Welsch Template:Small |
1935 | 1936 | World War I participant, chekist, regional party leader, Russian statesman, shot |
| 5 | style="background:Template:Party color" | | Heinrich Lüft Template:Small |
1936 | 1937 | Russian statesman, shot | |
| 6 | style="background:Template:Party color" | | File:Dalinger VF.jpg | Wladimir Dalinger Template:Small |
1937 | 1938 | Russian Civil War participant, security forces officer, Russian statesman, entrepreneur |
| 7 | style="background:Template:Party color" | | Alexander Heckmann Template:Small |
1938 | 1941 | Engineer, Russian statesman, Gulag survivor | |
MapsEdit
- Volga German ASSR in modern Russia (English).svg
Administrative division of the republic after its dissolution.
- Немцев Поволжья АССР.png
Russian topographic map of the republic.
See alsoEdit
- History of Germans in Russia, Ukraine, and the Soviet Union
- Ethnic Germans
- Baltic Germans
- German Quarter
- Yellow Ukraine
ReferencesEdit
External linksEdit
- Autonomous SSR of the Volga Germans
- Native Volga-German - researcher of his heritage Template:In lang
- German Villages in the Volga Valley of Russia
- High resolution map of Volga German ASSR
- City of Pallasowka, Canton of the Volga-German ASSR
- Guide to the history of the Communist Party and the Soviet Union Template:In lang
- City of Marx, Canton of the Volga-German ASSR
- Документальный фильм о городе Маркс (documentary about the city of Marx, in Russian)
Template:Autonomous republics of the Soviet Union Template:German diaspora