![[History]](http://us.yimg.com/i/ligans/cb/smtdih.gif)
- Short overview:
On July 22, 1763, Catherine the Great of Russia published a manifesto inviting stressed, war-weary families from western Europe and the area that is now Germany to come to Russia. Catherine II, a princess from the German province of Anhalt-Zerbst, had become Russian as a consequence of her marriage to Czar Peter. After Peter's death, as Czarina, she was faced with the problem of feeding Russia's Burgeining cities. She believed Russia's steppes, vast areas of vacant land similar to the prairies of North America, could do this if farmed properly. Catherine remembered how excellent the farmers had been back in her home country and thought they could improve both the farming practices and cultural level of the Russian peasantry. The first arrivals settled along the Volga River and became known as Volga Germans.
In 1804, Catherine's grandson Alexander I again set up recruiting offices in Germany, this time aiming to populate the Crimean Peninsula and the area north of the Black Sea. Emigration from Germany to Russia continued for as long as a century, some recorded as late as 1862. The group descended from the families invited by Czar Alexander I identifies itself as Black Sea Germans.
At Czarina Catherine's insistance, each village was of the same religion. A little over a quarter were Catholic, and most of the rest were Lutheran. Always they sought to keep their identitiy, which with time was no longer entirley German but never truly Russian either. Their distinctive culture became remarkably similar throughtout the villages.
After awhile, major changes took place in how the Russian Government saw these German enclaves. Some feared they were not entirely loyal to Russia. There was jealousy amoung the Russian neighbors over the Germans' prosperity. During the reign of Czar ALexander II, in 1874, freedom from military service was ended. The colonists felt deeply betrayed by the suspension of this promise because it had been embedded in both manifestoes and in a seperate agreement with the Mennonites. The Czar Alexander III, who regined 1881-1894, instituted a general Russification policy, which threatened the cultural identity of the German villagers.
In 1862, the United States instituted the Homestead Act, and word reached to far away Russia. It provided an alternative to the increasingly marginal existance in the colonies caused by the new laws and be a shortage of farmland. The act promised 160 acres of free land to current citizens and newcomers who would live on the landfor five years and improve it. Similar calls from Canada and the countries of South America induces many colonists to move westward.
