Volga German
| Wolgadeutsche | |
|---|---|
| Regions with significant populations | |
 Russia :
|
394,138 |
 Kazakhstan
|
200,000 |
| Languages | |
| Russian, German | |
| Religion | |
| Lutheran, Roman Catholicism, Baptist, Mennonite | |
The Volga Germans (German: Wolgadeutsche or Russlanddeutsche, Russian: Поволжские немцы, Povolžskije nemcy) are ethnic Germans who colonized and historically lived along the River Volga in the region of southeastern European Russia around Saratov and 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 Kansas, the Dakotas, California and other states across the western United States, as well as to Canada and South America (mainly Argentina and Brazil).
After the German invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941 during World War II, the Soviet government considered the Volga Germans potential collaborators, and transported many of them eastwards, where thousands died. After the war, the Soviet Union expelled some ethnic Germans to the West. In the late 1980s and 1990s, many of the remaining ethnic Germans moved from the Soviet Union to Germany.
In 1762, Catherine II, born a German princess and a native of Stettin, Pomerania, deposed her husband Peter III, born a German prince in Kiel, and took the Russian imperial throne. Catherine the Great published manifestos in 1762 and 1763 inviting Europeans (except Jews) to immigrate and become Russian citizens and farm Russian lands while maintaining their language and culture. Although the first received little response, the second improved the benefits offered and was more successful in attracting colonists. People in other countries such as France and England were more inclined to migrate to the colonies in the Americas than to the Russian frontier. Other countries, such as Austria, forbade emigration. The settlers came mainly from Bavaria, Baden, Hesse, the Palatinate, and the Rhineland, over the years 1763 to 1767.
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