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===Becoming Volga Germans===
[[File: German_Russians.jpg|300px|thumbnail|left|A Volga German Couple.]]
When the first German colonists began arriving in the Volga region, they quickly learned what any Russian could have told them – life in Russia can be difficult. The first set of difficulties they encountered came from the very government that invited them to Russia. There were no ready made homes waiting for them so they had to build sod houses much as their ancestors later did when they migrated to the plains of America and Canada. <ref> Koch, pgs. 24-26</ref> There was also a lack of stock available and the manner in which the land was given to them was not conducive to the German idea of private land ownership, so they adopted the Russian <i>Mir</i/> system of farming. The colonists lived in the village or town and worked communally in the fields every day, much as their Russian neighbors did. <ref> Koch, p. 32</ref> Once the Volga Germans overcame those initial problems, they then faced a plethora of other problems.
The government often micromanaged the colonies early on, forbidding them from engaging in trades other than farming and failing to provide doctors and other basic medical care. Russians were also forbidden from living in the colonies and Germans were forbidden from moving to Russian cities, which was fine for most of the insular minded Volga Germans <ref> Koch, pgs. 40-44</ref> Worse still, although the government promised to protect the settlers under the terms of the Manifesto, the Volga Germans were often left to fend for themselves against Tatar raids and Cossack rebellions, which often used the Volga Germans as foreign scapegoats. <ref> Koch, pgs. 96-108</ref>
Despite the government’s attempts to micromanage the Volga German colonies, they for the most part left the people alone culturally. The cultural hands off policy followed by the tsars of the eighteenth century and most of the nineteenth century came to an end, though, while the future Emperor Alexander III (reigned 1881-1894) was the crown prince. Alexander III believed strongly in the idea of Russification, forcing the non-Russian nationalities of the Russian Empire to become more Russian, and was allowed to pursue the policy under the rule of his father, Alexander II (ruled 1855-1881). Under the Russification policy, the Volga German schools were required to teach the virtues of absolute monarchy <ref> Kloberdanz, p. 211</ref> and by 1897 were mandated to teach Russian, <ref> Kohl, p. 145</ref> although many of the Volga German school had already taught Russian for some time and a large share of the Volga Germans, especially the younger generation, knew Russian by the turn of the century. Perhaps most importantly, Volga German men were no longer exempt from military service after 1871. <ref> Kohl, p. 198</ref> This final point of the Russification program probably did more to change the colonies than the others. Young Volga German men left their isolated colonies, lived in barracks with men from around the Empire, and often never came back, instead opting to marry Russian women and live as Russians in the cities.
===The End of the Volga German Colonies===