Geschichte der Russlanddeutschen: Von Katharina der Großen bis zur Gegenwart

German-Russian relations experienced a remarkable upswing in 1763 with the invitation manifesto of Catherine II. The enlightened monarch forced the settlement of her domain and the development of its natural riches. Central Europe had just been devastated by the Seven Years’ War (1756-1763). Therefore, many Rhinelanders, Bavaria, Badeners and Hessians saw their future on the lower Volga and in the Black Sea region. They were lured by Katharina’s promise to grant them religious freedom, delivery from military service and tax relief. Their descendants witnessed 100 years later, as the reforms of Alexander II. their material and social status sustainably affected. The minority counting around 1.7 million people in 1897 was also exposed to increasing nationalism, which escalated in the hostilities as a “traitor” in the First World War. Pogroms, deportations, and economic ruin were initially stopped by the October Revolution. War and revolution had changed the map, and many members of the minority were now no longer on Russian territory and yet under Soviet rule. If Lenin left them an autonomous republic on the Volga, they were again under general suspicion at the end of the 1930s in the course of Stalinist terror. After the German invasion of the Soviet Union, either the resettlement to the West by the National Socialists or the deportation to the East by the Soviet regime followed. Only the thaw under Khrushchev brought the survivors a limited freedom back and in the following decades the opportunity to travel to the home of their ancestors.