BIEKER MIGRATION FROM GERMANY TO RUSSIA

On December 4, 1762 an invitation was issued by Catherine II inviting colonists to Russia. Earlier that year Catherine, of German birth, ascended to the throne of the Czars as empress of all of the Russians. She was following the example of Frederick the Great and Peter the Great to continue colonizing Russia with Western Europeans. Her invitation got little response. Similar invitations were coming from the Monarchs of Hungary, Austria and Prussia which needed to bolster their labor forces that were depleted by the many wars. The following year on July 22, 1763 a more detailed invitation was published. The invitation included free exercise of religion and the right to build churches with bell towers. The colonists were to be free of all taxed for a period of 30 years. In addition they were exempt from military duty for an indefinite period. The offer also included free transportation and money to maintain them on the road. The seven year war in Europe from 1756 to 1763 spurred the peace loving Catholic Germans to relocate. The Hessen cities of Marburg a and Kassel were captured five times in battles between the French and North Hessian troops. The French sacked and burned and fields, crops and industries were destroyed. During this time 30,000 Russian troops (Cossacks) marched through and outdid the French in wasting, killing and burning everything in their path.

In 1763 a group of Germans were sent to Frankfurt to invite Germans to migrate to Russia. They succeeded in inducing about 8,000 families (25,000 individuals) to emigrate. The new colonist were to go to Hamburg and leave as a group to Kronstadt. They proceeded on to Oranienbaum, where they were greeted by Catharine II. The first winter was spent in Moscow and Petrowski. In the spring of 1764 they moved south toward Saratow settling on both sides of the Volga River. A second group of colonists followed in 1768. 104 colonies were founded. Four of the colonies were attacked and destroyed by the Kirghiz tribesman. The total emigration of Germany totaled about 100,000. Other emigrants came from France, Poland and Sweden. Biekers settled in Obermonjour (founded 1766), Schoenchen (founded 1767, Paninskoje) all lying on the east bank of the Volga River, north of Saratow. Most of the people that settled in the Volga Valley were artisans by tradition (weavers, cobblers, tailors etc.) and very few farmers.

By 1770, Hessian officials ordered the following: "It has been rumored that various subjects have been induced to sell their property in order to emigrate from the country,. This action, however, since it was taken without having obtained our gracious permission, is ill advised, injurious, and punishable...Emmissaries who try by means of persuasion and delusory promises to induce subjects to emigrate shall be carefully watched by local mayors, and upon discovery, regardless of by whom they may have been sent, they shall immediately be placed under arrest and delivered to the prison here." The emigration continued with peasants simply slipping away into the night. This was also true of the conscripted soldiers serving the French military or awaiting orders to be shipped off to fight foreign wars.

On December 13, 1916 the volga Germans were ordered to be banished. This order was never carried out because on internal troubles in Russia. On July 16, 1918 the Czar and his family were executed by the Bolsheviks. Between 1920 and 1923, 160,000 Volga Germans died of starvation under Bolshevik rule, about one third of the German population. Thousands more died of starvation under Stalin's rule from 1928 to 1933. It is estimated that over 2,000,000 Germans died under Stalins Rule. From 1928 to 1940, Volga Germans were forced on to collective farms, imprisoned in slave labor camps or relocated to cities. All of their possessions, cattle, farm equipment, grain seed and land were seized by the government. Germans were branded "Enemies of the Government" and called "Kulaks". They were arrested and put into boxcars and the doors were sealed shut. They were to spend weeks, imprisoned in these boxcars sent out onto side spurs. They were given a few grains of rye and a meager amount of water. Sometimes it would be several days before food would arrive. Eventually, they were hauled off to work in the forced labor camps beyond the Urals to Kazakhstan and the northern Siberian wilderness.

The banishment and exile of the Volga Germans began on August 28, 1941. 400,000 Germans were deported to middle Asia and Siberia. Men were sent to build the Trans-Siberian railroad, work in coal mines, fall timber and women were sent to cut down trees. I have not seen any Bieker information come out of Russia to date.