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The Volga Germans (German: Wolgadeutsche, pronounced [ˈvɔlɡaˌdɔɪ̯t͡ʃə] ⓘ; Russian: поволжские немцы, romanized: povolzhskiye nemtsy) are ethnic Germans who settled and historically lived along the Volga River in the region of southeastern European Russia around Saratov and close to Ukraine nearer to the south.
The Volga Germans are a unique ethnic group that settled in the lower Volga River region from 1764 to 1767 under a Russian colonization program promoted by Catherine the Great’s government.
From 1763 to 1773, the new German settlers established 104 “mother colonies” on both sides of the Volga River in an area that was larger than the state of Maryland, stretching from Saratov in the north to Volgograd in the south. But the Volga Germans quickly learned just how difficult life in Russia could be. Becoming Volga Germans
The majority (about 95 percent) of those who settled in the colonies established by Catherine the Great along the Volga River were ethnic Germans from the war-ravaged German states where religious strife and economic hardship had created a climate ripe for immigration.
Known as the Volga Germans or Wolgadeutsche, these settlers established 106 "mother colonies" near the Volga River, near the regions of Saratov and Samara. While steadfastly preserving their distinct German cultural patterns, this initial cohort of German immigrants gradually assimilated into Russian customs and traditions.
Volga Germans were an ethnic German people who settled along the Volga River in the 1700's to acquire free land and cultural and religious freedom, notions that Germany had denied them.
Documenting the cultural manifestations of the German-speaking minority that lived along the Volga River in Russia from 1764 to 1941.
A Brief History of the Volga Germans. By Brent Mai. At the invitation of Catherine the Great (1729-1796), 30,623 colonists primarily from the central region of pres-ent-day Germany founded 106 colonies along the unsettled Russian steppe near the banks of the Volga between 1764 and 1772.
The Volga German Institute’s mission is to “document the cultural manifestations of the German-speaking minority that lived along the Volga River in Russia from 1764 to 1941 . . . and their descendants.”
Volga Germans, also referred to as German-Russians, came from the Russian steppes of the Volga River to Colorado between the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries to labor in the sugar beet fields.