German-Russian

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The term German-Russian is used in three somewhat different senses.

One meaning is to describe people of German ethnic heritage who live in Russia and have adopted Russian culture. The most prominent example was V. I. Lenin, whose mother, Maria Alexandrovna Blank, was a Lutheran of Volga German ancestry. The Soviet spy Vilyam Genrikovich Fisher, better known as Rudolf Abel, was a German-Russian.

The first meaning may be contrasted with Germans who have remained in enclaves with distinctively German culture such as the Volga Germans. However those Volga Germans who emigrated from Russia and Soviet Union are often referred to as German-Russians or Russian-Germans as well.

A substantial number of German-Russians from the Volga ethnic enclave, and also from the German-Russian Black Sea Colonies, emigrated to the United States during the great wave of immigration to the U.S. from approximately 1880 to 1910. Many of these immigrants settled in the American Midwest states of North & South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas and Minnesota. The lure of cheap farmland and America's freedom enticed many to migrate. Most were very successful, and contributed significantly to America's agricultural production and ethnic heritage. This large migration ended with the outbreak of World War I, and subsequent rise of the Bolsheviks, and the Communist state. Many researchers have written about these German-Russians, including Joseph Height, and Dr. Karl Stumpp, but as a group they are largely overlooked in popular history.

Finally, in the history of the Russia there was a period, initiated by Peter I of Russia, when foreigners were invited to Russian service. In particular, St Petersburg Academy of Sciences hosted a large number of prominent persons of German origin: Georg Wilhelm Steller, Peter Simon Pallas and many others. Some of them (and their descendants) assimilated into the Russia, others eventually returned to Germany, but still they are considered Russian Germans.

The history of Russian Germans as an ethnicity is covered in detail in the German minority in Russia and Soviet Union article.