Research on the history of Russian Germans: crisis and development prospects

Viktor Denninghaus,
Doctor of Historical Sciences, Professor,
Acting Director of the
Northeast Institute at
Hamburg University,
Lüneburg, Germany

Introduction / Brief Historiographical Overview

Throughout Russia's history, whether during the Russian Empire, the RSFSR, or the USSR, ruling elites sought various ways to address the national question, developing specific strategies and methods for implementing national policies with varying degrees of success. The importance of the multi-ethnic factor for the country's destiny has become especially evident to contemporary Russian society after the collapse of the USSR. Efforts to understand the roots of today’s problems and to find ways to resolve them naturally lead to an examination of historical experience.

Most scholarly works on the so-called Western national minorities living in the Russian Empire and the USSR have focused on the German-speaking population [2]. This is primarily due to their significant numbers and the unique circumstances in which Russian Germans found themselves as a result of the two world wars. For decades, research on the history of Russian Germans had a political undertone. This tradition began under tsarism: some authors emphasized themes of the "German domination in Russia" and the "peaceful conquest of Russia by Germans," while others countered these views, highlighting the contributions of Germans to the country's economic and cultural development.

A new peak of interest in Russian Germans occurred in the late 1920s to early 1930s, when B. Bartels, I. Gebhardt, A. Reinmarus, G. Friesen, and A. I. Klibanov published books and pamphlets on the "Soviet Germans" [3]. Written primarily to combat the emigration movement of Germans and the so-called "sectarian" Mennonites, these works were highly ideological, containing a significant amount of falsified information. They were supplemented by propagandistic works on the progress achieved in the Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic of the Volga Germans (Volga German ASSR), aimed at showcasing the successful resolution of the national question in the USSR. Despite their overtly propagandistic nature, some of these works retain scholarly value to this day for studying the dynamics between the central government and the periphery, as well as the functioning of various social and state structures of German autonomy. For example, publications by E. Gross, M. Gulchak, and A. Loos stand out in this regard [4].

The dissolution of the Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic of the Volga Germans (Volga German ASSR) and the deportation of its population during the Great Patriotic War imposed a strict taboo on the study of the history of "Soviet" Germans. Political changes in the country following the death of Joseph Stalin, particularly the process of rehabilitating Soviet Germans, made it possible to return to researching their history in the 1960s and 1970s. During this period, works by V. F. Krestyaninov, A. I. Klibanov, A. N. Ipatov, and A. F. Belimov were written [5]. These authors primarily focused on the history of the ethnoconfessional community of Mennonite Germans. Their works contain episodic mentions of the activities of Mennonite cooperatives, the communities' stances on issues such as school education, military service, and emigration during the 1920s. However, the dogmatization of the class-based approach in research methodology, weak differentiation in the structure of research topics, the inaccessibility of many key sources to historians, and the political and ideological oversight of the Communist Party led to most of these works becoming conceptually, methodologically, and empirically outdated today.

After Russian archives became accessible to both domestic and foreign scholars, the study of the history and culture of Russian Germans entered a new phase [6]. By the mid-1990s, several regional centers had emerged in the former USSR, where scholarly monographs were published. Among the most significant works of this period are the studies by A. Herman, L. Malinovsky, L. Belkovets, V. Brul, and V. Chentsov [7]. One of the main focuses of these works was the state’s repressive policies and their ideological justification. For instance, they provided comprehensive analyses of the "dekulakization" and repressions of the 1930s, as well as the role of party and state institutions in combating the Lutheran and Catholic churches during the 1920s and 1930s [8]. Among the studies on the history of "Soviet" Germans that appeared in Germany in the late 20th century, the works of B. Pinkus, I. Fleischhauer, and M. Buxweiler stand out, as they examine the policies of the central authorities of the USSR toward the German population during various historical periods [9]. However, the main shortcoming of these publications is that their authors did not have access to materials from Russian archives.

In recent decades, particularly since the "great archival revolution" in Russia, an increasing number of individual nationalities, including Germans, have naturally become the focus of targeted historical studies. Thanks to the efforts of the International Association of Researchers of the History and Culture of Russian Germans (MAIIKRN), numerous new works, including comprehensive studies, have emerged. These works explore the history and culture of Russian Germans and various aspects of their lives and activities within the Russian Empire, the USSR, the Russian Federation, and the post-Soviet states. Members of MAIIKRN, both within and outside the Association, have published dozens of monographs, collections of documents, annotated archival guides and inventories, and hundreds of articles [10].

Crisis and development prospects

Alexander Solzhenitsyn, in The Gulag Archipelago, devoted the following lines to the peoples deported by Stalin, specifically highlighting Russian Germans: “Among them all, the Germans were exceptionally hardworking. Of all the groups, they severed their ties to their former lives most decisively [...]. Just as they had once taken root in the fertile lands granted by Catherine, they now embraced the barren, harsh Stalinist territories, committing to the new exile as if it were their final homeland. They did not settle with hopes for a first amnesty or royal favor—they settled forever. [...] Diligent and tireless, they did not lose heart but began to work here just as methodically and sensibly. Where in the world is there such a wasteland that the Germans could not turn into a flourishing land?” [11].

The 20th century, with its wars, revolutions, and the unpredictable and often contradictory practices of successive political regimes, proved particularly harsh for Russian Germans. They were one of the most discriminated national groups in the USSR as a result of Stalinist policies. This primarily shaped the self-identification of Russian Germans as a "people of victims." Correspondingly, historians viewed their primary mission as compensating for the severe historical injustices inflicted upon this national group. Over the past two decades, the vast majority of research into the history of Russian Germans has been conducted within the framework of the “positive discrimination” paradigm. As is known, the term “positive discrimination” (or “affirmative action”) refers to state policies aimed at granting preferential rights to previously discriminated groups [12].

Today, we can rightfully state that this critical task has been accomplished. All key documents related to the history of Russian Germans have been introduced into academic circulation, and numerous studies have been conducted on the history of individual regional groups of Germans in Russia and the USSR (such as Volga Germans, Siberian Germans, Ukrainian Germans, etc.). All the most "sensitive" topics, including mass repressions, deportations, forced labor armies, and special settlements, have been addressed. The combined efforts of many German and Russian historians have laid a solid foundation for further progress [13].

Nevertheless, it is possible to observe a state of methodological uncertainty among researchers and institutions engaged in the study of Russian Germans. This is reflected in the narrow scope of topics, reliance on certain templates when selecting new research themes, and, at best, the extension of issues explored by predecessors. Researchers of Russian German history often employ outdated approaches and methods in their studies. It is no secret that many works on this subject are more descriptive than analytical. In a situation where interest in and, more importantly, the need to study the culture and history of Russian Germans has significantly increased, this state of affairs in this area of research is undoubtedly concerning.

Where does the path out of the crisis lie?

It is clear that the solution lies not only—or even primarily—in introducing new documentary sources into academic circulation. Of course, this important work will continue, but it alone cannot change the situation as it did in the early 1990s during the "archival revolution." In our view, the way out of this situation involves three key innovations:

Research on the history of Russian Germans should be conducted primarily within a broader context, which implies the development of new areas of inquiry;

The methodology of research must move further away from traditional positivism and adopt methodological innovations that have been actively employed by the historical community in recent decades;

A comparative approach could provide additional impetus to these studies.

Let us attempt to clarify these theses with specific examples:

a) The history of Russian Germans should be viewed "as a small picture to explore larger questions." This means that in new research on the history of Russian Germans, the latter may not always need to be the central focus of the study. The loss of focus on Germans would be offset by their integration into broader all-Russian, Soviet, or pan-European processes. While there may not be many topics of this nature, they are capable of shaping a new strategic direction in the study of Russian German history. Such studies should undoubtedly be conducted within the framework of extensive international cooperation. Among the more "obvious" topics is the role of Russian Germans as a factor in the relationship between the key dialectical pair of 20th-century European politics—Russia and Germany.

b) Regarding methodological innovations, the full range of contemporary historical research approaches can and should be applied to the study of Russian Germans. This includes social history, historical anthropology, gender studies, microhistorical approaches, and the history of everyday life. The latter, in particular, appears to hold great promise. The history of Russian Germans represents a fertile ground for applying the methods of everyday history, as the realities of the 20th century sharply confronted Germans with the challenge of adapting to political conditions, turning them into "masters" of survival who developed numerous social strategies and practices for this purpose. An example of such research is the project "Under the Watchful Eye of the State: Religious Dissent Among Russian Germans During the Brezhnev Era," jointly undertaken by the Institute of Culture and History of Germans in Northeast Europe (Lüneburg, Germany) and the Institute of History of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences (Novosibirsk, Russia) [14]. This collaborative project aims not only to explore the specific "life worlds" of Soviet Germans—particularly Mennonites—during the era of "developed socialism" but also to examine the specific aspects of the Brezhnev government’s confessional policies. In turn, this will significantly broaden our understanding of Soviet society during the so-called stagnation period, contributing to a deeper and more objective understanding of Russia's political history.

c) In this context, another important aspect that could provide momentum to the study of Russian Germans is the examination of elites. Like any other people, Russian Germans need recognizable figures and heroes. This involves writing biographies of the most prominent individuals in culture, the arts, politics, and economics among Russian Germans at various stages of history [15]. Such works would give the otherwise largely impersonal history of this national minority its own, personalized face.

d) The comparative approach would primarily serve the purpose of internationalizing and popularizing the history of Russian Germans. Identifying commonalities and differences, randomness and patterns, could reveal new and often unexpected perspectives on already well-known historical events and facts. Moreover, the comparative-historical approach consistently generates interest among the public. One such study could involve comparing the situation of Russian Germans during the First and Second World Wars.

In 1994, when asked about a solution to the problems faced by Russian Germans, Alexander Solzhenitsyn bluntly stated that their future lies only in Germany [16]. Thus, despite his sympathy for Russian Germans, Solzhenitsyn’s vision for the reorganization of modern Russia found no place for them. The results of Russia’s 2010 census, which showed a significant and continuing decline in the population of Russian Germans, confirm this bleak forecast [17].

The shared task of Russian and German historians is to alter this trajectory so that Russian Germans can continue to serve as a "human bridge" connecting Germany and Russia. It is also important to remember that Russian Germans have long become an integral part of modern Germany. This presents researchers with a specific but highly significant challenge: to help shape the historical experience of Russian Germans and integrate it into the shared cultural memory of Russia and Germany. The historical memory of Russian Germans is the memory of a people who suffered and survived under modern dictatorship. This aspect makes it particularly valuable for both contemporary German and Russian democratic societies.

[1] Article published in: Russian Germans: 50 Years of the Post-War Public Movement: From the First Delegations to the Government, Through “Vozrozhdeniye,” to the Modern System of Self-Organization (1964–2014): Materials of the 5th International Scientific and Practical Conference. Moscow, February 11–16, 2015. – 2nd ed., revised. – M.: MaVi Group, 2015 – pp. 348–354.

[2] It should also be noted that Germans were the only representatives of the Western national minorities to receive administrative-territorial autonomy in the USSR, first in the form of an autonomous region and later as a republic. As a result, a significant portion of works are dedicated to Germans as a titular nation. See: Brandes, Detlef – Victor Dönninghaus: Bibliography on the History and Culture of Russian Germans (from 1917 to 1998). Vol. 2. Munich 1999, pp. 129–322. (Publications of the Federal Institute for East German Culture and History; Vol. 13).

[3] Bartels, B.: The German Farmers in Russia: Then and Now. Moscow 1928; Gebhardt, I.: The German Village in Ukraine. Kharkiv 1927; Reinmarus, A. – G. Friesen: Under the Yoke of Religion: German Colonists in the USSR and Their Religious Organizations. Moscow, Leningrad 1931; Klibanov, A. I.: Mennonites. Moscow 1931.

[4] Gross, E.: The Autonomous Socialist Soviet Republic of the Volga Germans. Pokrovsk 1926; Gulchak, M.: The German Village as It Is. Saratov 1929; Loos, A.: Against the Falsification of the History of the Bolshevik Party Organization of the ASSR of the Volga Germans. Engels 1934.

[5] Krestyaninov, V. F.: Mennonites. Moscow 1967; Klibanov, A. I.: The History of Religious Sectarianism in Russia. Moscow 1965. Also by the same author: Religious Sectarianism and Modernity. Moscow 1969; Religious Sectarianism in the Past and Present. Moscow 1973; Ipatov, A. N.: Mennonites: Issues of Formation and Evolution of an Ethnoconfessional Community. Moscow 1978; Belimov, A. F.: Who Are the Mennonites? Frunze 1967.

[6] See: Eisfeld, A.: The "German Question" in Russia and the USSR in Studies from 1990–2005 in Russia and the CIS Countries. // Germans of Siberia: History and Culture. Materials of the 5th International Scientific and Practical Conference. Omsk, May 16–18, 2006. Omsk 2006, pp. 87–95.

[7] German, A. A.: German Autonomy on the Volga, 1918–1941. Parts 1–2. Saratov 1992–1994; by the same author: The History of the Volga German Republic in Events, Facts, and Documents. Moscow 1996; Malinovsky, L. V.: Germans in Russia on the Altai: Popular Historical Essays. Barnaul 1995; Belkovets, L. P.: The "Great Terror" and the Fate of German Villages in Siberia (Late 1920s–1930s). Moscow 1996; Brul, V. I.: Germans in Western Siberia. Parts 1–2. Topchiha 1995; Chentsov, V. V.: Tragic Fates: Political Repressions Against the German Population in Ukraine in the 1920s–1930s. Moscow 1998.

[8] Chentsov, V. V.: The German Population on the Dnieper Under the Shadow of Stalinist Terror. // Research on the History and Culture of Russian Germans 5 (1995), pp. 7–22; Chentsov, V. V.: The Issue of Political Repressions Against Germans in Ukraine in Light of NKVD Documents. // Issues of German History: Germans in Ukraine. Dnipro 1996, pp. 164–174; Belkovets, L. P. – V. V. Belkovets: The Grain Procurement Campaign of 1934 and the Repressive Policies of the Stalinist Regime in the German District of Western Siberia. // Collection of Scientific Articles. Novosibirsk Higher Command School of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Novosibirsk 1995, pp. 47–68; Meshkov, D. Yu.: The "Kal’chinovka Case": On the History of State-Organized Grain Procurement Policies in the German Colonies of Southern Ukraine in 1932. // Research on the History and Culture of Russian Germans 5 (1995), pp. 53–64; Brandes, D., Savin, A.: The Germans of Siberia in the Soviet State, 1919–1938. Essen: Klartext Verl., 2001, and others.

[9] Pinkus, B. – I. Fleischhauer: The Soviet Germans. Past and Present. London 1986; Idem. Die Deutschen in der Sowjetunion. Geschichte einer nationalen Minderheit im 20. Jahrhundert. Edited by K.-H. Ruffmann. Baden-Baden 1987; Buchsweiler, M.: Volksdeutsche in der Ukraine am Vorabend und Beginn des II. Weltkrieges – ein Fall doppelter Loyalität? Tel Aviv 1984; Idem. Rußlanddeutsche im Sowjetsystem bis zum II. Weltkrieg. (Minderheitenpolitik, nationale Identität, Publizistik). Essen 1995.

[10] See the detailed electronic catalog of the MAIIKRN: http://www.rusdeutsch.ru/?lib=3

[11] Solzhenitsyn, Alexander: The Gulag Archipelago. 1918–1956. An Experiment in Literary Investigation. V–VII. Yekaterinburg 2006, p. 358.

[12] Historiography generally offers a highly positive assessment of Soviet "national construction" during the NEP period. A significant portion of historians, following Terry Martin, regard the Soviet Union as the first "empire of affirmative action" in the world, one that actively promoted the development of its ethnic groups and their cultures. Some, like Mark Mazower, even view the "world’s first state of workers and peasants" as the successor to the national-cultural autonomy policies of the Habsburg Empire. These interpretations have substantial grounds: the "carnival of nationalities" in the 1920s, with its efforts to settle ethnic groups in their respective "quarters," from union republics down to national districts and village councils; its national "indigenization" of the administrative apparatus in the form of various "Ukrainizations," "Belarusizations," and "Tatarizations"; and its national press, schools, theaters, and so on, leaves a strong impression on historians. For more details, see: Martin, Terry: The Affirmative Action Empire: Nations and Nationalism in the Soviet Union, 1923–1939. Ithaca 2001; Mazower, Mark: The Dark Continent: Europe in the Twentieth Century. Berlin 2000.

[13] See, for example, bibliographic reviews of literature on the history and culture of Russian Germans published in Germany and Russia over the past two decades: Bibliography on the History and Culture of Russian Germans. Vol. 1: From Immigration to 1917. Edited by Detlef Brandes / Margarete Busch / Kristina Pavlovic. Munich 1994; Bibliography on the History and Culture of Russian Germans. Vol. 2: From 1917 to 1998. Edited by Detlef Brandes / Victor Dönninghaus. Munich 1999; Chernova-Döke, T. N.: Russian Germans. Domestic Bibliography 1991–2000. Moscow 2001; section "Current Bibliography" // Scientific Information Bulletin "Russian Germans" from 1995–2015, and others.

[14] For information on the project "Under the Watchful Eye of the State: Religious Dissent Among Russian Germans in the Brezhnev Era," see: http://www.ikgn.de/cms/index.php/indiv-projekte-mitarbeiter/russlanddeutsche-in-der-breschnew-aera (as of May 10, 2015).

[15] An example of this is the biography of the notable Volga German Jakob Dietz, written as part of a project by the Institute of Culture and History of Germans in Northeast Europe (Lüneburg, Germany). See more details: http://www.ikgn.de/cms/index.php/gemeinsame-forschungsprojekt/teilprojekt-ein-deutscher-politiker-im-zarenreich (as of May 10, 2015).

[16] Korn, Robert: The Gift of Compassion // http://wolgadeutsche.net/korn/dar.htm (as of May 8, 2015).

[17] In 1989, the German population in the Russian Federation numbered 842,300 people; in 2002, 597,200 people; and in 2010, 394,100 people. See more details // http://www.perspektivy.info/rus/demo/perepis_2010_etnicheskij_srez_2013-04-28.htm [Table 5] (as of May 8, 2010).