Volga Germans

Volga Germans
Wolgadeutsche
Flag of Volga Germans
Total population
594,138
[1]
 Russia 394,138[2]
 Kazakhstan200,000[3]
Languages
In Europe: German · Russian · Kazakh
In America: Spanish · English · Portuguese
Religion
Lutheran · Roman Catholicism · Mennonite · Orthodoxy
Related ethnic groups
Black Sea Germans · Don Cossacks

The Volga Germans (German: Wolgadeutsche, pronounced [ˈvɔlɡaˌdɔɪ̯t͡ʃə] ; Russian: поволжские немцы, romanizedpovolzhskiye nemtsy) are ethnic Germans who settled and historically lived along the Volga River in the region of southeastern European Russia around Saratov and close to Ukraine nearer to the south.

Recruited as immigrants to Russia in the 18th century, they were allowed to maintain their German culture, language, traditions and churches (Lutheran, Reformed, Catholics, Moravians and Mennonites). In the 19th and early 20th centuries, many Volga Germans emigrated to the United States, Canada, Brazil, and Argentina.

After the October Revolution, the Volga German ASSR was established as an autonomous republic of the Russian SFSR. During World War II, the republic was abolished by the Soviet government and the Volga Germans were forcibly expelled to a number of areas in the hinterlands of the Soviet Union. Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, many Volga Germans emigrated to Germany.

  1. ^ "Día del alemán del Volga en la Argentina: Más de 2,5 millones de personas de esta descendencia celebran hoy su día". Paralelo32 | Paralelo32 te brinda noticias e información fehaciente, las 24 hs. del día, de Crespo, la región y el país.
  2. ^ "Russian Census 2010: Population by ethnicity" (XLS). Perepis-2010.ru (in Russian). Retrieved 12 November 2017.
  3. ^ "Stat.kz". Stat.kz. Archived from the original on 12 February 2010. Retrieved 11 November 2017.