Katana VentraIP

History of Germans in Russia, Ukraine, and the Soviet Union

The German minority population in Russia, Ukraine, and the Soviet Union stemmed from several sources and arrived in several waves. Since the second half of the 19th century, as a consequence of the Russification policies and compulsory military service in the Russian Empire, large groups of Germans from Russia emigrated to the Americas (mainly Canada, the United States, Brazil and Argentina), where they founded many towns. In 1914, an estimate put the remaining number of ethnic Germans living in the Russian Empire at 2,416,290.[7] During World War II, ethnic Germans in the Soviet Union were persecuted and many were forcibly resettled to other regions such as Central Asia.[8] In 1989, the Soviet Union declared to have an ethnic German population of roughly 2 million.[9] By 2002, following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, many ethnic Germans had emigrated (mainly to Germany) and the population fell by half to roughly 1 million. 597,212 Germans self-identified as such in the 2002 Russian census, making Germans the fifth-largest ethnic group in the Russian Federation. There were 353,441 Germans in Kazakhstan and 21,472 in Kyrgyzstan (1999);[10] while 33,300 Germans lived in Ukraine (2001 census).[11]

Total population

~2.3 million

226,092 (2021)[1]

195,256 (2021)[2]

33,302 (2001)[3]

Emigrants from Germany first arrived in Kievan Rus during the reign of Olga of Kiev.[12] Before Catherine the Great's reign (1762–1796), ethnic Germans were also already strongly represented amongst royalty and aristocracy, as the European nobility was highly interrelated. In addition, Germans had become prominent among large land-owners, military officers, and the upper echelons of the imperial service, engineers, scientists, artists, physicians, and the bourgeoisie in general, because there was strong education among some of the German peoples. The Germans of Russia did not necessarily speak Russian; many spoke German, while French was often used as the language of the high aristocracy. Depending on geography and other circumstances, many Russian Germans spoke Russian as their first or second language. During the 19th century many of the early immigrants began to identify primarily as Russians, particularly during and after the Napoleonic Wars of 1803-1815. The large numbers of farmers and village tradesmen who arrived following Catherine the Great's invitation were allowed to settle in German-only villages and to keep their German language, religion, and culture until the 1920s. She was seeking to repopulate some areas devastated by Ottoman invasions and by disease.


Today's Russian Germans speak mostly Russian, as they are in the gradual process of assimilation. As such, many may not necessarily be fluent in German. Consequently, Germany has recently strictly limited their re-patriation. A decline in the number of Germans in the Russian Federation has moderated as they are no longer emigrating to Germany. In addition, Kazakhstan Germans from Kazakhstan are moving to Russia rather than Germany. As conditions for Germans in Russia generally deteriorated in the late 19th-century and early 20th-century during the period of unrest and revolution, many ethnic Germans migrated from Russia to the Americas and elsewhere. They became collectively known as Germans from Russia.

German International School Moscow

German International School St. Petersburg

Several German international schools for expatriates living in the former Soviet Union are in operation.


Russia:


Georgia:


Ukraine:

(1903–1971), Soviet intelligence officer

Rudolf Abel

(1873–1905), Russian revolutionary of the Bolshevik Party

Nikolay Bauman

- a regent of Ivan VI of Russia

Ernst Johann von Biron

as son of Duke Anthony Ulrich of Brunswick - Emperor

Ivan VI of Russia

- father of Emperor Ivan IV and Generalissimo

Duke Anthony Ulrich of Brunswick

(1872–1918), Empress Consort of Russia

Alexandra Feodorovna (Alix of Hesse)

(born 1963), governor of Kaliningrad Oblast, 2005 to 2010.

Georgy Boos

as son of Charles Frederick, Duke of Holstein-Gottorp - Emperor

Peter III of Russia

(1729–1796), Empress of Russia

Catherine the Great

(1900–1970), dramatist

Nikolai Erdmann

(born 1984), singer, dancer, entertainer, TV presenter and actress.

Helene Fischer

(born 1934) actress

Alisa Freindlich

(1974–2015), singer, model, actress, socialite

Jeanna Friske

(Andre Geim) (born 1958), Physics Nobel Laureate for his work on graphene

Andrei Geim

(Anna Hörmann) (1936–1982), singer

Anna German

(born 1954), football player & coach

Edgar Gess

(Reinhold Ernst Glier) (1875–1956), composer

Reinhold Glière

(born 1964), Minister of Economics and Trade

Hermann Gräf

(born 1979) volleyball player

Angelina Grün

(1876–1937), communist politician

Gustav Klinger

-Chekhova (1868–1959), actress, wife of Anton Chekhov

Olga Knipper

(born 1961), statesman, writer, mathematician, economist and businessman

Alfred Koch

(1846–1940), meteorologist, climatologist and botanist

Wladimir Köppen

(born 1948) governor of Tomsk Oblast, 1991 to 2012.

Viktor Kress

(1870–1924), Soviet Chairman of Soviet Union

Vladimir Lenin

(born 1970), local politician

Andreas Maurer

(born 1992), football player

Alexander Merkel

(Karl Kasimir Theodor Meyerhold), (1874–1940), actor & theatre director

Vsevolod Meyerhold

(born 1972), long-distance runner

Irina Mikitenko

(born 1962), Gazprom CEO

Alexei Miller

(1780–1862), count and diplomat

Karl Nesselrode

(born 1966), football player and manager

Peter Neustädter

(1848–1933), pianist

Vladimir Pachmann

(1793–1826) one of the Decembrist leaders

Pavel Pestel

(Vyacheslav Pleve) (1846–1904), Minister of the Interior

Vyacheslav von Plehve

(1915–2001), physicist and engineer

Boris Rauschenbach

(1915–1997), pianist

Sviatoslav Richter

(Alexey Ridiger) (1929–2008), primate of the Russian Orthodox Church

Patriarch Alexy II

(1874–1947), painter

Nicholas Roerich

(born 1937), governor of Sverdlovsk Oblast, 1995–2009

Eduard Rossel

(1891–1956), geophysicist and statesman

Otto Schmidt

(1867–1906), Russian naval officer and 1905 revolutionary

Pyotr Schmidt

(1934–1998), composer

Alfred Schnittke

(born 1979), mixed martial arts fighter

Dennis Siver

Jordin Sparks (born 1989), singer and actress

(Vasiliy Ulrich) (1889–1951), Soviet political judge

Vasiliy Ulrikh

(1835–1916), mother of Vladimir Lenin

Maria Alexandrovna Ulyanova

(1886–1962), wrote the Etymological dictionary of the Russian language

Max Vasmer

(born 1965), Premier of Saskatchewan, 2007 to 2018.

Brad Wall

(1903–1992), an accordionist, bandleader and TV impresario

Lawrence Welk

(1886–1932) – Pastor, official representative of Black Seas Germans

Immanuel Winkler

(1849–1915), the first Prime Minister of Russia Empire

Sergei Witte

(1769–1843), Field Marshal in the Imperial Russian Army

Peter Wittgenstein

(born 1982), football player

Andreas Wolf

(born 1978), bodybuilder

Dennis Wolf

(born 1989), stage name of Anton Zaslavski, record producer, DJ, musician & songwriter.

Zedd

Black Sea German Research

Germans From Russia Heritage Society

American Historical Society of Germans from Russia

German-Russian Settlement Map

Manifesto of the Empress Catherine II issued July 22, 1763

Vistula Germans - history and map settlements by religion

Germans from Volhynia - genealogy, culture, history

JewishGen's Gazetteer