52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks
Week 9
Prompt – Disaster
My maternal line, The Krikau's, come
from a group of people known as Volga Germans. This was because they
settled along the Lt. and Rt. bank of the Volga River just south of the
city of Saratov. These were the German people who came to Russia at
the invitation of Catherine The Great.
 |
| Catherine The Great |
The Germans were at the end of
a 30 year war and subsequently their taxes increased and their availability of
land for their sons decreased. The promises of The Manifesto of 1763 spoke to
the disgruntled and destitute German people. Among the promises was
religious freedom, military exemptions, free land, tax exemption,
monies to move and they could keep their own language. Thus in 1766 the first
settlers set off for their new promised land. After almost a year of
travel they arrived on the east side of the Volga River. As far as
their eyes could see there was open land with thigh high grass. They
had thought there would be shelter of some kind or at the very least
wood as promised in The Manifesto to make their shelters. Winter was
coming and they had to have shelter. They built homes dug into the
mud at the side of the banks of the river. Not everyone in the
colonies survived the first Russian Winter.
Catherine the Great had an ulterior
motive to bring on the colonists. Her kingdom was expansive and she
was unable to fend off the raiding marauders taking over the land she
claimed as hers.
My Krikau ancestor, Johann George Krikau born in
1723 in Wofenhausen, Germany was one of those Germans seeking out a
better life for his family. He settled in Warenburg in the Saratov
region of the Volga River. Colonies settled along the lines of their
religion which was either Lutheran or Catholic. My family was
Lutheran.
From the time of their arrival until
1775 the colonists came under attack. In an article written by Asya
Pereltsvaig it is explained like this.
“Early on, the Volga German colonies
came under attack during the Pugachev's Rebellion of 1773-1775. The insurrection started among Yaik Cossacks headed by Yemelvan Pugachev, a disaffected ex-lieutenant of the Russian Imperial
army. Pugachev claimed to be Tsar Peter III, who had actually been
assassinated in 1762, promising freedom and land to the enserfed
peasants. Motivated by these promises, his force quickly numbered in
the thousands. During 1773-1774, Pugachev’s band rampaged
throughout the Volga region, wrecking havoc as they went from village
to village. Many of the German settlers fled to the countryside,
burying whatever valuables they possessed, while others remained in
the villages, only to be beaten and hung on hastily erected gallows.
Whole villages were burned down. The rebellion was eventually crushed
by government forces, and Pugachev himself was captured in the Urals
after his fellow rebels betrayed him in September 1774. He was taken
to Moscow and after a trial was executed in January 1775. “
Despite their disastrous start, the
Volga Germans persisted and prospered for the next century. In that
time Johann George Krikau had a son Johan Adam Krikau born in Germany
just a year before going to Russia. J. Adam Krikau married Barbara
Catherine Marie Schmidt and they had a son Johann Phillip Krikau born
September 15, 1811 in Warenburg. He married Ann Marie Engelhardt –
born March 6, 1815. They had 8 children that I am aware of. My
direct line Krikau was born July 31, 1837 in Warenburg. His name was
Johann Andreas Krikau. He married twice. His first wife was
Katharina Margaretha Kramer. They married in 1857 and had 6
children, Katharina M Kramer died in January, 1875 at the age of 38.
In that same year Johann Andreas Krikau married his second wife
Elisabeth Barbara Doering who was 35 years of age. Together they had
3 children. Johann Andreas and Elisabeth Barbara are my direct line.
Their middle child was born in Warenburg, Russia on January 20th
1879. He was my great grandfather Andreas Krikau. Andreas married
Marie Katherine Kraft on June 15, 1898 in Warenburg. At this time,
Russia had started to rescind some of it's promises such as military
exemption, tax exemptions and language spoken.
Andreas and Marie Katherine must have
seen that things were about to go badly for Volga Germans in Russia.
Thus they were lured by Canada's free land and endless possibilities.
They immigrated in fall of 1911 to Saskatchewan.
Unfortunately for the family and
friends they left behind in Russia, life was about to get much much
worse.
During WWI they endured the “anti –
German” sentiment. The Bolsheviks persecuted them for their
religious beliefs. Church was closed down and the pastors arrested
and deported.
In a previous blog I discussed the
catastrophic famine and typhus epidemic that followed the Russian
Revolution where it is estimated that a third of the Russian Germans
died.
More immigration may have occurred at
this time, that is until Stalin closed the Russian borders in 1929 and
brought in “agriculture collectivization”.
WWII began. On June 22, 1941 Germany
invaded Russia. Stalin retaliated by deciding to deport the German
Russians including those who were fighting for Russia. He deported
them to Siberia and Central Asia (Khazkhstan) to enforced labour
camps. On August 12, 1941 Stalin decreed their expulsion due to
supposed treasonous acts such as helping the German forces as they
invaded Russia. The expulsion was quickly done in a matter of
months. They were allowed one suitcase. Told to bring food for their
trip. They were escorted to a train station. The men were separated
from the women and children. They were loaded into cattle cars and
their transport to Siberia and Kahzkhstan took months which meant it
was during the cold winter. They only stopped every 3 days at which
time they were given sips of water. It is said that approximately
200,000 to 300,000 ethnic Germans died either due lack of shelter,
starvation, disease or over work in the labour camps.
On November 26, 1948 Stalin made their
banishment permanent, forbidding them to relocate to European Russia,
the Volga Valley, and it remained that way until after Stalin's death
in 1953. In 1955 the Soviet Union released the whereabouts of a
million Volga Germans and granted them belated amnesty. It was not
until the 1960's that the government admitted responsibility for the
persecution of innocent people and declared the 1941 action “null
and void”.
At this time a few Russian Germans
moved back to the Volga Region but in fact their homes were occupied
and in some cases their villages did not exist anymore. The majority
stayed and were in general assimilated into Russia Society.
In 1980's under Mikail Gorbechev
perestroika (restructuring of Soviet politics and economy) and in the
era of glasnost (openness) many Russian Germans began their return to
Germany. This was due in part by Germany's “Law of Return”
whereby those Germans with proof of descendency (like a family bible)
could repatriate to Germany and become German citizens along with all
of its privileges. The German population was not happy that these
Russians who never lived in Germany could become citizens. For those
who chose to return to Germany it was not an easy transition. Many
no longer spoke German. Their culture was basically Russian. Starting
over was too much for some who by this time were established and
assimilated to their Siberian and Central Asian homes.
In about two and one-half centuries the
descendants of the Volga Germans suffered through unimaginable and
disastrous events. Some left to start over in America. Some stayed
and died at the hands of political war, revolutions, famine, plagues
and enforced labour camps. Those that stayed and survived were more
than likely assimilated into the Russian culture. The Volga Germans were no more.
Wendy
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