JOURNAL Of The American Historical Society of Germans From Russia

Transcription

1 JOURNAL Of The American Historical Society of Germans From Russia Vol. 17, No. 4 Winter 1994

2 Editor CHRISTINE CLAYTON Editorial Board IRMGARD HEIN ELLINGSON Bukovina Society, EUis, KS ARTHUR E. FLEGEL Certified Genealogist, Menio Park, CA ADAM GIESINGER University of Manitoba, emeritus NANCY BERNHARDT HOLLAND Trinity College, Burlington, VT WILLIAM KEEL University of Kansas, Lawrence PETER J. KLASSEN California State University, Fresno TIMOTHY KLOBERDANZ North Dakota State University, Fargo GEORGE KUFELDT Anderson University, Indiana, emeritus LEONA PFEIFER Fort Hays State University, Hays, KS HELMUT SCHMELLER Fort Hays State University, Hays, KS On the cover: The photograph shows members of Abram Berg's family in the Ukraine. It is one of the few records left after the family's repeated disbursement. John B. Toews' translated and edited version of "Abram's List" tells the stories of the Berg family members and other Germans in the Ukraine. The Journal of the American Historical Society of Germans from Russia is published quarterly by AHSGR. Members of the Society receive the Journal, a quarterly Newsletter, and an annual genealogical publication, Clues. Members qualify for discounts on material available for purchase from AHSGR. Membership categories are: Individual, $40; Family, $40; Contributing, $50; Sustaining, $100; Life, $500 (may be paid in five annual installments). Memberships are based on a calendar year, due each January 1. Dues in excess of $40 may be tax-deductible as allowed by law. Applications for membership should be sent to AHSGR, 631 D Street, Lincoln, NE The Journal welcomes the submission of articles, essays, family histories, anecdotes, folklore, book reviews, and items regarding all aspects of the lives of Germans in/from Russia, Manuscripts should be typed double spaced with endnotes. Computer fan-fold paper should be separated before mailing. If written on computer, please include a diskette containing a copy of the computer file. We can accept IBMcompatible ASCII or WordPerfect files. Our style guide is The Chicago Manual of Style, 14th ed. revised (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1993). Please indicate in your cover letter whether you have photos or illustrations to accompany your article. If you wish your submission returned to you, please include a stamped, self-addressed envelope with adequate postage. Unless you instruct us otherwise, submissions not published in the Journal will be added to the AHSGR archives. The International Foundation of AHSGR is a non-profit organization which seeks funds beyond the annual dues of members of AHSGR to support the needs of the many operations of the Society. The Foundation accepts monetary gifts, bequests, securities, memorial gifts, trusts, and other donations. Gifts to the Foundation may be designated for specific purposes such as promoting the work of the Aussiedler Project gathering information from German-Russian emigrants recently arrived in Germany, the AHSGR/CIS Project of research in Russia, or supporting the Society's library or genealogical work; gifts may also be designated for use where most needed. All contributions help further the goals of AHSGR; to gather, preserve, and make available for research material pertaining to the history of Germans from Russia. For information and to make contributions, contact the International Foundation of the American Historical Society of Germans from Russia, 631 D Street, Lincoln. NE Telephone: (402) Fax: (402) Donations to the International Foundation are tax deductible as allowed by law. Opinions and statements of fact expressed by contributors are their own, and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Society, the Foundation, the Editor, or members of the Editorial Board, who assume no responsibility for statements made by contributors. Published by the American Historical Society of Germans From Russia 631 D Street - Lincoln, NE Phone Fax Copyright 1 W4 by the American Historical Society of Germans from Russia. All rights reserved. Printed in the U.S.A. ISSN

3 CONTENTS CHRISTMAS EVE IN THE FATHERLAND ii Timothy J. Kloberdanz IMPRESSIONS FROM OUR TRIP TO RUSSIA (SARATOV VILLAGES) AND KAZAKHSTAN (KUSTANAI AREA) IN William M Wiest THE LANDAU BAPTISTS Adam Giesinger "THE TERRIBLE GHOST OF 1941": A HAUNTING REMINDER OF THE VOLGA GERMAN DEPORTATION Rosalinda Kloberdanz, and Timothy J. Kloberdanz ABRAM'SLIST...,...,...,...,...26 Edited and Translated by John B. Toews Compiled by Abram Berg AHSGR LIBRARY POLICIES NEW ADDITIONS TO AHSGR LIBRARY Michael Ronn, AHSGR Librarian GETTING ACQUAINTED WITH OUR NEIGHBORS: MULTI-ETHNIC RESEARCH Edward Reimer Brandt BEGINNING GENEALOGY Donnette M. Sonnenfeld

4 CHRISTMAS EVE IN THE FATHERLAND Timothy J. Kloberdanz In what language do you cry out As swastika-bedecked youths Set fire to your shelter On this, the holiest of nights? Surely you hear the attackers Running and shouting in the street As hatred's hungry flames Lap at the children's feet. "Keine Auslander!" (No more foreigners!) "Schweinhunde!" (Filthy dogs!) "Kommunisten!" (Communists!) "Russen raus!" (Russians out!) Could this be the same fatherland your old ones immortalized in song? The home of Heine's Lorelei And deutsche Gemutlichkeit? Or does it suddenly seem you are back in Omsk or Volchansk Where the frozen Siberian stillness Was pierced by other taunts? "Rossiya dlya Russkich!" (Russia for the Russians!) "Frits! Frits! Frits!" (Fritz!) "Fashisty!" (Fascists!) "Nemtsy proch!" (Germans out!) Yes, you can fight the encircling flames Even whitewash the blackened walls. But how do you disguise the telltale smoke when it clings to the clothes of children? Is this why you escaped the gulag And signed your hands upon barbed wire? Did you survive the Russian holocaust to warm your scars in German fire? (Written after hearing a news report about the fire-bombing of a Germans from Russia refugee center in Werbig, Germany. The attack occurred on 24 December 1993.)

5 IMPRESSIONS FROM OUR TRIP TO RUSSIA (SARATOV VILLAGES) AND KAZAKHSTAN (KUSTANAI AREA) IN 1993 William M. Wiest After years of planning and hoping, my wife, Thelma, and our oldest daughter, Suzanne, as well as a wonderful group of fellow travelers joined me in the summer of 2993 in visiting the Volga villages of my mother's people. I had long dreamed of seeing Brunnental (Krivoyar) and Wiesenseite (Lugovskoye) on the Wiesenseite (or meadow side) of the Volga River, southeast of Saratov; my maternal grandmother, Maria (Weber) Buxman (daughter of Heinrich Peter Weber and Elizabeth Mohn) was born and grew up in Brunnental and she married my grandfather, Karl A. Buxman (son of Peter Buxman and Katerina Helfenbein) from nearby Wiesenmueller, before they came to America in 1901 (first to Isabella, Oklahoma, and a year later to Windsor, Colorado), I remember my mother telling me when I was a child that her mother, Maria, and her aunt, Elizabeth "Lizzie" (Weber) Uhrich often spoke longingly of the beautiful wild flowers and wonderfully tasty strawberries that grew in the meadows near their homes in Brunnental. My own dreams about visiting Brunnental and Wiesenmueller were further nourished in 1988 when Thelma and I, along with my parents, William W. and {Catherine E. (Buxman) Wiest had the opportunity to visit the village of Rohrbach not far from Odessa, Ukraine, where my paternal grandparents were born [see article by author in Journal of the American Historical Society of Dr. William M. Wiest, a professor of psychology at Reed College in Portland, Oregon, is related to three different groups of Germans from Russia: His paternal grandparents were Black Sea Germans and Volga Germans, while his wife's ancestors were Mennonites from the Molochna villages and the Kuban Region of the North Caucasus. Dr. Wiest's current research interests include identifying social psychological and personal history predictors of the decision to immigrate to Germany by members of the ethnic German population in the former Soviet Union. A different version of the first part (Saratov Villages) of this article appeared in The Village Frank/Brunnental Newsletter (Winter 1993/94; Spring 1994). Germans from Russia 12 (Spring 1989): 1-12]. Two years later we had the privilege of leading a group of American and Canadian visitors to Friedrichsfeld in the North Caucasus, not far from Gorbachev's home village near Stavropol [see article by Irene Kary in Journal of the American Historical Society of Germans from Russia 16 (Summer 1993): 36-40]. Such satisfying discoveries about the history of my father's family strongly influenced my determination to visit the Volga villages where my maternal grandparents were born and lived prior to their 1901 immigration to America. When the formerly closed Saratov area was finally officially open to foreign visitors we began to plan in earnest for our three week tour, "Russia: Old and New." Having adequate time to spend in the Saratov area and especially in the Volga villages was our primary objective. But we also wanted to be able to see some of the wonderful old historically interesting places in Russia, and to experience a variety of types of transportation train, cruise ship, bus, and airplane. As a final objective, we wanted our tour to make contact with the large group of ethnic German people still living in Central Asia so we also included a visit to Kustanai, Kazakhstan, a city of approximately 200,000 where many of our people were re-settled during and after their deportation in First, a number of highlights of our experience in other parts of Russia, including Saratov, are described. Following that, we move directly to what we saw and heard in and around the villages in the Saratov area. Finally, I relate some very moving experiences we had among our people in Kustanai, Kazakhstan, where many Volga Germans currently live. The following description draws from both tours of "Russia: Old and New" (6 July to 27 July, and 16 August to 7 September) which I accompanied in * * *

6 Saratov Villages Our sojourn began in St. Petersburg where we shared the delight of most visitors in the architectural beauty of the old city. We were deeply touched by the Piskarevskoye Memorial Cemetery, where the suffering and death of many citizens of that city during World War II is so starkly memorialized. We also saw some very encouraging signs of the new order in St. Petersburg. The large old Peter-Paul Lutheran Church on Nevsky Prospect, which had been converted to a swimming pool during the Soviet era, has now been given back to the church; efforts are underway to renovate the impressive structure so that it may again serve its original purpose. Especially relevant to our roots-tracing interest was a visit to Oranienbaum, not far from St. Petersburg, where our ancestors, arriving from Germany by way of the offshore island, Kronstadt, first set foot on the Russian mainland in 1766; there they took the oath of allegiance to the Russian government before proceeding on to the Saratov area. After leaving the St. Petersburg rail station at midnight, we drank hot tea, slept somewhat fitfully, and eventually awakened to the picturesque dachas (small country homes and gardens) spotted here and there in sunny forest clearings and meadows as our train approached Moscow. Several days of fast-paced city life in Moscow, including a visit to the Armory gallery in the Kremlin, riding the Metro (impressive underground train system), walking around Red Square, made us more than ready for our bus tour into the peaceful countryside, about a half day's drive northeast of Moscow. We admired attractive farmland and beautiful old cities in the heart of ancient Russia Vladimir and Suzdal and stayed overnight in nicely outfitted log cabins within the walls of the strikingly beautiful Pokrovsky Monastery in Suzdal. During our excursion out of Moscow by bus we saw an example at a roadside stop of the increasing use of private delivery service between Russia, Kazakhstan, and Germany, The new private carriers have sprung up because of the breakdown in reliable postal service in the former Soviet Union, as well as because many Aussiedler in Germany frequently send packages to relatives and friends in Russia and Kazakhstan. After visiting Vladimir and Suzdal we flew via Aeroflot to Volgograd, ate freshly made jam-filled blinys, drank mead and danced with contemporary Cossacks in their village between the Volga and the Don Rivers. We marveled at the size and felt the emotional impact of the "Mother Russia" sculpture at the Mamaev Memorial along the Volgograd riverbank. We were also touched by the stark evidence of the fierce fighting at "the battle of Stalingrad," as evidenced by the ruins of the old Hergert flour mill left as a reminder on the banks of the Volga River in Volgograd. One of the tsar's palaces in Oranienbaum under renovation.

7 By this time we were ready for a relaxing twenty-hour cruise up the Volga River to Saratov; many of us wistfully watched the sun setting from the comfort of our Volga cruise ship, knowing that as we awakened the next morning we would be seeing those places where our ancestors themselves once stood as they looked out over the mighty Volga, The city of Saratov was mostly a very pleasant surprise. It features many elegant old buildings still standing proudly and displaying the good effects of respectful maintenance, an attractive riverfront promenade extending for several miles, impressive views from our hotel (Slovakia) of the river and its bustling shipping activity, an attractive and busy pedestrian mall (still named Ulitsa Nemetskaya or "German Street"), and a large number of old private wooden houses with intricate decorative carving around the windows; many of the latter were in need of repair. The city is valiantly trying to provide housing for all in the functional but mostly drab apartments that have become the trademark of most Russian cities in the Soviet era. An old Volga German bank building now occupied by the History Department of the Saratov State University. Pedestrians strolling on the very pleasant mall called "German Street" in Saratov. While in Saratov, my wife, Thelma, and I, along with others who had earlier contracted with Dr. Igor Pleve to do family history research had private appointments with him. Information from these conversations (later supported by written documents) was of great value in identifying the first Buxmann (Buxman) family to come to the Saratov area (to the village of Muller) from Rheinheim, Germany, in The directors and members of the German Cultural Center in Saratov welcomed us with open arms they invited us to their meeting hall and entertained us with singing, dancing, classical music, and skits by adult and children's groups; they also shared with us the history of their organization, and their current projects and aspirations. Groups of two or three of us were invited into member's homes for dinners (English speaking translators were provided for most groups), and we were overwhelmed by their generosity and hospitality. Because Thelma's maiden name was Bartel we were surprised and delighted to discover that our hosts were Vladimir and Margareta Bartel. We found out that Vladimir's grandfather had come from the same area of the Kuban River (North Caucasus) as Thelma's great-grandfather, so we are continuing to pursue the possibility that the Bartels in Saratov may be her distant relatives. AHSGR Journal/Winter J994

8 Many of the Saratov Germans are in positions of leadership in the community and live relatively comfortably by Russian standards; people we met were city government workers, elementary, high school and university teachers, nurses, doctors, musicians, architects, clothing designers, factory workers, military instructors, agricultural advisors, etc. Among the Saratov Germans we talked to I detected little or no evidence of a general interest in immigrating to Germany. Some expressed impatience with the government's slowness in implementing the long-discussed plans to privatize land, and people are clearly distressed about the painful effects of inflation. In this latter respect, Saratov Germans gave us the same message we heard all over Russia, But the picture is clearly different among our people who live in the Volga villages we repeatedly encountered families in the process of selling their belongings in preparation for their move to Germany. We were told that many German people who used to live in the villages had already gone to Germany, and that of those remaining at least eighty percent were waiting for permission from the German government to immigrate. The nearly universal wish to go to Germany seemed to be accelerating in response to feelings that life would never get any better if they stayed in Russia, As one man put it, "the government has been pulling our leg -all we hear is talk, but no action" (with respect to reestablishing more opportunity to purchase private land, and to have self-government along the lines of the former Autonomous German Republic). That is the larger political and social context of what we saw. We now look at some details we experienced as we traveled to various villages, first on the Bergseite and then on the Wiesenseite. We departed Saratov for Frank via minivan early one morning, raced through the outlying industrial areas southwest of the city, and eventually were out on the rolling plain. We admired fine-looking grazing land as well as wheat and sunflower crops (occasionally, a field seemed to be a mixture of both crops surely not a good idea in terms of harvesting efficiency), and noted that many of the roadsides were lined with small trees, probably planted as windbreakers. An abundance of many kinds of wildflowers, sometimes turning whole fields pink or yellow, also caught my eye. We stopped along the way to sample local wild currants at the suggestion of our local guides, and in general found the scenery attractive and similar to mixed pasture and cultivated land in the Midwest United States. Several hours out of Saratov, a very attractive old church building demanded our attention. The church was The former Lutheran Church at Neu-Walter. locked and we did not take the time to find a caretaker to open it because we wanted to get on to our destination Frank. We later learned that this fine old former Lutheran Church was in Neu-Walter. After another hour or so of driving, passing through fields of pumping oil wells and oil storage tanks, we found ourselves entering Frank just after crossing a low, ricketylooking wooden bridge over the Medveditsa River. We stopped to talk to both Russian and German local people before driving up the hill where most of the houses in Frank can be found. One German man in his thirties who came to talk to us had clearly been imbibing too much; he apologized for his slurred speech, and said his only ambition in life was to go to Germany. (This first encounter with a German villager was, fortunately, quite atypical; Never again in seven more days of visiting villages did we see evidence of drinking to excess among the German residents; in addition to Frank, I visited Brunnental, Marienburg, Wiesenmueller, Gnadenthau, Kolb, Moor, Grimm, Kraft, and Orlovskoye, and other members of our group visited many other villages as well.)

9 Impressions 5 asked about the name Weber, since that was my grandmother's family name. In Grimm we met a Mr. Karl Weber, born 1933, taken as an eight-year-old in 1941 to Krasnoyarsk, and returned to Grimm in Karl's son, Andrei (Heinrich), gave a wooden has relief of Christ, which he had carved, to a member of our group who had made an admiring comment about it. We all soon discovered that expressing admiration for any decorative item was almost always followed by receiving it as a gift! So, we learned to moderate too much overt expression of admiration, We were all amazed at the generosity and hospitality of people we met in the villages. Typical old log house on Karl Marx Street in Frank. After looking around Frank and seeing both new and old houses, we eventually spent most of our time visiting with Paulina Grosskopf and her daughter, Olga, both of whom lived together in a large old German-built house on Pushkina Street. Paulina related some of their very difficult experiences during the famines of the 20s and 30s, as well as during the deportation of 1941 and the time in exile. Her stories were repeatedly echoed by others whom we talked to in other villages. We were invited into the house and were pleased to see that inside everything looked quite comfortable and tastefully decorated, complete with the typical Oriental rugs mounted on walls. Outside in the garden we saw apples, cherries (which were ripe and which we were invited to sample), tomatoes, squash, potatoes, cucumbers, and an abundance of dill. Reluctantly, we moved on because we wanted also to visit nearby Kolb before returning to Saratov. In Kolb we talked to George Walter, Rheinhold Kuntsler, Jakob Seibert, and a Mrs. (Schreiner) Schmidt. Each of these people also had poignant stories to tell; most ended their stories with a sad comment, something like, "Das war eine sehr schlechte Zeit!" [That was really a terrible time!]. Mr. Kuntsler showed us a Kuntsler/Kantsler family history and photo album sent to him recently by a relative in Ritzville, Washington. Wherever we went members of our group inquired about various family names of special interest. I often The school building in Grimm. Given my Buxman heritage in Wiesenmueller on the Wiesenseite (eastern or meadow side of the Volga), I was especially pleased to meet Anna and Wilhelm Sommer by their house which they described as having been built by a Buxman family prior to the deportation in 1941.We also saw the Yeruslan River, often mentioned by my Grandfather Buxman. In the cemetery at Wiesenmueller there were many unmarked graves, but on one of them we were able to read the inscription, "Hier ruht in Frieden Jakob Hefmann, Geboren 9 December, 1874, Gestorben den 5 Juli, 1913(?)."

10 square in Katharinenstadt, but years of neglect have taken their toll. Supported by funds from Germany, a new Roman Catholic Church is under construction on the outskirts of town. Unlike many cemeteries in the villages, the main cemetery at Katharinenstadt still has many German gravestones that are clearly readable. We visited Orlovskoye, not far from Katharinenstadt, to see this unusual and interesting village that had earlier been described by a member of our group, Irma E. Eichhorn, who with her father had written on the early history and atypical layout of this village [see Jacob Eichhorn and Irma E. Eichhorn, "Orlovskaia on the Volga,' 'Journal of the American Historical Society of Germans from Russia 3 (Spring 1980); 36-40]. Orlovskoye, it turns out, is one of a small number of villages whose streets had originally been laid out in the form of concentric circles, a Rundell. The Yeruslan River on the south side of Wiesenmueller. Mr. Sommer showed us the former location of the Lutheran Church in Wiesenmueller. Where the church once stood is now a small building housing a very sparsely equipped hospital (Balnitza) or medical clinic. The small hospital or clinic had several in-patients who were attended by a young physician, One member of our group, Sue Kottwitz, was particularly interested in visiting the nearby village of Gnadenthau (Verkhniy Yeruslan) where it was reported that the church steeple built by her great-grandfather George Peter Schreiner was still standing. When we stopped to ask for directions from local people we were always told, "You'll see it from afar there is a tall church steeple." The main structure of the old Lutheran Church is still solid and architecturally impressive, though it is obvious that the foundation and entrance steps have been badly neglected. The inside of the church also exhibited signs of earlier skillful construction, and we were all sad to see this beautiful building now used to house cattle! The account of our visit to the Saratov villages would be incomplete without mention of a day trip via hydrofoil to Marx (Katharinenstadt) and from there by bus to Orlovskoye. The large Lutheran Church, currently used as a community cultural center, still stands in the main The Lutheran Church at Gnadenthau.

11 The circular pattern of streets in Orlovskoye reflects the original village plan. In all of the villages we visited most of the Russian and German villagers live in old wooden houses, work on a local kolkhoz or sovkhoz (collective farm or state farm, respectively) and have large and productive garden plots behind or beside their houses, sometimes even with a well for irrigation. Some also have "summer kitchens" and buildings housing several pigs, and a cow or two. The lives of the people in the villages appear to be hard by our standards no telephones, few automobiles (though some families have a three-wheeled motorcycle, and some have a horse and wagon), and no nearby store conveniently stocked with groceries and other goods. In fact, the villagers appear to be almost totally self sufficient they raise and preserve most of their own food, Since Brunnental was one of my ancestral villages I will describe it in some detail. We left Saratov early in the morning again, this time heading east on the bridge over the Volga River to the city of Engels, then south along the eastern shore of the Volga, through Laub and Dinkel and eventually to near Rovnoe where we turned east. After another hour or so of driving on surprisingly good, paved road, occasionally having to dodge self-propelled combines moving from one field to another, we arrived at Brunnental. The grain fields here on the Wiesenseite were flatter than most of the area on the west or Bergseite that we had visited earlier; the wheat, barley, oats, and sunflower crops appeared to be bountiful. This had been a good year with plenty of rain. As we approached Impressions 7 Brunnental on our left while driving east, the road made a sharp turn to the north, so that we actually entered the village from its East Side. There on the northeast side of the village was a large pond with many ducks and geese, and cattle grazing around the edges. We turned into the village and stopped at the first clump of houses. Out bounded a group of children and several women. Mrs. Elviera (Foos) Rush brought us a liter of fresh milk, and Mr. Alexander Borgens volunteered to be our Brunnental guide. We went to his home, were invited into the main house (he had obviously been spending most of his time this warm day in the summer kitchen), and were served wonderfully tasty grebbel, home-baked bread with home-churned butter, canned fruit preserves, watermelon, tea, and of course, vodka. Mr. Borgens' wife had died and he lived alone. By then, the local chief of police, a friendly man with roots in the southern Republic of Azerbaijan, had joined us. He was with us, he explained, to join Mr. Borgens as one of our guides and to give us an official welcome to Krivoyar. Mr. Borgens seemed to know him well and to accept him heartily. After lunch we admired Mr. Borgens' healthy looking dill crop as well as the ingenious hand-washing apparatus at the edge of his garden. Our next stop was the well-preserved and still used Brunnental School. The former teacher's house was built in 1895 according to very clear signs on the south side. It is now being used as a preschool, and we got to tiptoe inside to see children having their after lunch nap; we also observed lots of colorful children's artwork posted on the walls. The school itself is an imposing and attractive two story structure still used as an elementary and high school, Broken glass and piles of debris inside some parts of the school attest to the fact that not all of the building is being used effectively. Teacher's quarters (built in 1895) next to the Brunnental school.

12 Main entrance of Brunnental school as seen from the south. The inside of the school was being repainted and generally cleaned up in preparation for the beginning of classes in September. On our second tour m late August, the teachers were scurrying around very busily and had cheerful troops of ten to twelve year old girls volunteering to help get everything ready for the first day of school. At the request of one member of our second tour, Mrs. Gerda (Stroh) Walker, AHSGR village coordinator for both Frank and Brunnental, we were able to examine a bound booklet entitled, "History of the Krivoyar School." The book was written in Russian and contained many old photographs; it made reference to the fact that "the school had been built by German settlers who used to live here" but no mention was made of when or why they left! Mr. Borgens showed us the location in an open square just south of the school where the Brunnental Church used to stand. The area was fenced off and we were told that there were no remains of the Church, However, next time I get back to Brunnental, I will want to examine this area more closely to see if any relics of building materials can be found. Next we visited the old cemetery east of town, south of the large pond. It appeared to be simply a large open grasscovered field until one looked more closely then the large number of mounds arranged in rows could easily be seen. One member of our second tour, Mr. Harley Neff, walked the length and breadth of the old cemetery and estimated there were about 3000 graves. With Mr. Borgens' help, we found what he said were the two remaining gravestones in the cemetery. One was lying on its side and obviously had decorative carving as well as words, but years of weathering had made the words undecipherable. Perhaps someone expert in stone rubbing will someday be able to read this gravestone. At the western edge of the old cemetery is a new one, fenced and containing a large number of grave markers, each with its own small iron fence in typical Russian fashion. Two of these newer graves and markers had German names. One was written both in German as well as in the Russian Cyrillic alphabet. The other was written only in Russian. Photos on headstones appear to be typical Russian features. Before we left Brunnental, Mr. Borgens guided us to Marienburg, a few kilometers south, where there is a magnificent old red brick Catholic Church still standing, though its steeple had been destroyed. Mr. Borgens told us "the story of the church that wouldn't be broken." Soviet military tanks had repeatedly rammed the church in an attempt to destroy it, but the main thing destroyed by this effort were the tanks. The church had been converted into a grain storage facility, with several rooms at the front used to cure piles of salted sheepskins. The inside front ceiling had a clearly discernible colored mural depicting the Christmas theme of Joseph walking beside a donkey carrying Mary and the Christ child. The former Catholic Church at Marienburg.

13 On our second visit to Brunnental Mr. Borgens was out of town doing business in Rovnoe so we were not able to use his good services to help find the well-known weir the dam with openable gates. However, among the team of volunteer schoolgirls were several, including Oxana and Nadya, who agreed to climb aboard our bus to show us the way to the dam. As we neared the fairly large body of water held behind the dam on the northwest side of Brunnental, we got out to walk the remaining distance along the reed-filled lake. There appear to be fourteen large metal valve gears mounted on a steel superstructure, all held in place by concrete and sod embankments. Turning the gears independently raises or lowers the gates, which hold the water back. Kazakhstan to live and work on the experimental farm. Their quarters were quite cramped, but they seemed pleased to be part of this new enterprise. One of a set of temporary aluminum housing units from Germany, located just outside Brunnental. View of the mechanism/or controlling the water level at the Brunnental dam. On our way back to the village, we encountered new aluminum housing units that have recently been put in place with help from the German government. These were described as part of a project involving numerous locations in Russia and Kazakhstan where many ethnic Germans live. The German government is hoping to make life more attractive for the German people in Russia and Kazakhstan, so they are less likely to want to immigrate to Germany. This particular set of twenty or so houses was said to be part of an experimental farm jointly sponsored by the German and Russian governments. We visited with one family, which had recently come from Before we left Brunnental we visited with Waldemar Alexanderovitch Brott and his neighbors. Mr. Brott's wife, now deceased, had been Irma Weber, daughter of Jakob Weber of Brunnental. Mr. Brott invited us into his house, filled with boxes packed in preparation for his departure in two weeks for Germany where he would be joining other members of his family. He had still not sold all of the things he could not take along. It seems that with so many Germans leaving the villages, it is a buyer's market. Mr. Brott was very happy to be leaving, hoping for a better life, if not for himself, then at least for his children. His German neighbors were also hoping their own departure permission papers would arrive soon. Weren't they encouraged by the efforts to establish an experimental farm in the Brunnental area? No, they'd "had it up to here" (with gestures toward their necks) with government's promises that were never fulfilled. "Words, it's just words, and no action!" many of them said. And on that note they are waiting quietly for their turn to leave their ancestral villages for what they hope will be a better "promised land."

14 Kustanai Area So far the story of our visit to Russia and Kazakhstan in summer 1993 has taken us to St. Petersburg, Moscow, Suzdal, Volgograd, Saratov, and many of the former German villages on both sides of the Volga in the Saratov area. The account next takes us into one of the areas of Kazakhstan (Kustanai) where a very large number of ethnic Germans still live. In order to round out our trip of exploration, we wanted to visit one place in Central Asia where our exiled people now live. In Oranienbaum (near St. Petersburg) we saw where the first of our ancestors had arrived in Russia, then in the Saratov villages along the Volga we walked on the ground our ancestors had worked for many years. Now we complete the circle by visiting Kustanai, Kazakhstan to see what kind of life they were living in the place where they had ended up after the long years of nearly unbearable hardship that began in The city of Kustanai is located in the northern part of Kazakhstan not far from the Russian border, about midway between the eastern and western boundaries of Kazakhstan. Getting there from Saratov required returning to Moscow and then flying from Moscow over the Ural mountains to Kustanai, The population of Kustanai is about 200,000, the majority being Russians and Ukrainians with Kazakhs, Germans, Koreans, and other ethnic groups being significant minorities. The city is situated on a flat fertile plain alongside the Tobol River, whose waters eventually flow into the Arctic Ocean. Surrounding the city are vast expanses of wheat, corn, milo-maize, and a small but significant crop of potatoes. Along the Tobol River one sees intensive cultivation of cucumbers, watermelons, cantaloupes, and other vegetables, as well as some apple orchards. We were told that the vegetable crops were raised mostly by Korean farmers apparently Koreans in the Russian far east were forcibly moved westward by Stalin at about the same time that ethnic Germans were moved eastward. As we arrived in Kustanai the quite good wheat harvest was fully underway. The city center has an attractive set of public buildings and on one of our visits a colorful local contest of making decorative displays out of flowers was underway. After two weeks of exposure to every conceivable sort of inefficiency and disorganization in Russia, many members of our group commented on the fact that Kustanai seemed somehow different perhaps it was the fact that we saw many people (even men!) working on various construction projects, street repair, new apartment buildings, new private single family houses, water and sewer lines, etc. Vast fields of wheat being harvested near Kustanai. We were met at the airport by our hosts, Alexander Winterholler, and Alexander Dederer of Deutsche Wiedergeburt ("German Rebirth") of Kazakhstan. They made every effort to make us as comfortable as possible in our not very comfortable hotel. We were probably the first group of Americans to visit Kustanai, and it was clear that the hotels did not usually cater to foreign tourists. I had been to Kustanai in 1990 with my aunt Martha (Wiest) Buxman to visit some of our many newly-discovered Wiest relatives, and it was on that visit that I learned about the large population of Germans now in Kustanai, who had been displaced from their homes along the Volga River and from the North Caucasus in In summer 1993 we had only three days to get a general impression of the life of our ethnic German people in this place so far removed from where their and our ancestors had chosen to live in Russia more than two centuries earlier. Our hosts, Deutsche Wiedergeburt, did a very fine job of helping us learn as much as possible in a short time. Deutsche Wiedergeburt is an organization that ties together many German people throughout the former Soviet Union,

15 and it appears to be quite active in the Kustanai area where more than 40,000 ethnic Germans now live. In Kustanai Deutsche Wiedergeburt sponsors a weekly TV program, "Phoenix" (deliberately capturing the image of "Phoenix rising from the ashes"), broadcast in German and widely received in the city and surrounding rural areas. It is clear that German people in Kustanai, just as in the city of Saratov, are deeply involved in the life of their community they are TV reporters and cameramen, city managers, physicians, orphanage administrators, teachers, medical laboratory technicians, eyewear distributors, foreign automobile importers, community cultural affairs directors, electricians, bakery and cheese factory managers and workers, university professors, chauffeurs, building engineers, and a few are collective farm managers. An ever-increasing number is actively engaged in newly established business enterprises. As an example, meet Alexander Dornhof of nearby Rudny, a small town about twenty-five miles from Kustanai. Alexander is general director of Korporation Kreis, a company established by a small circle of ethnic Germans seeking funds to build a modern potato chip factory using the latest technology from Germany. Dornhof noted that every year tons of potatoes raised in the region spoil while waiting to be transported, Because of the large supply of potatoes at a reasonable price, he and his associates believe there would be an excellent market for potato chips, both locally and throughout Russia and Kazakhstan. Thus, he and others are seeking venture capital from contacts in Germany. Mr. Dornhof exemplifies the substantial number of ethnic Germans we met in the Kustanai area who are closely identified with the German Cultural Rebirth movement, and who believe there is a good future for them and their families in Kazakhstan. There is clearly a difference of opinion on this matter among Kustanai Germans associated with Deutsche Wiedergeburt; many, even those with prominent positions in the community, feel that emigration to Germany is still their best option for the future. Some are concerned about a recent Kazakhstan government ruling requiring that in the future all public business and education must be conducted in the Kazakh language; there is also concern that the Islamic Fundamentalist movement, already having effects in the southern part of Kazakhstan, may eventually move as far north as Kustanai. Our hosts, Deutsche Wiedergeburt, had arranged for members of our group to stay overnight with German families in the area. "In the area" was sometimes defined so broadly that driving time from Kustanai to outlying villages was on the order of two hours one way. Families arrived at our hotel at the appointed hour, and members of our group were assigned to these families. Without exception our experiences with our host families were outstanding and memorable. We were shown very warm hospitality, tables were heavily laden with beautifully arranged and tasty home cooked food, and we were given the best of the family's quarters for sleeping. My wife, Thelma, and I together with Irma E. Eichhorn were assigned to the Dornhof family, Alexander and his wife met us at the hotel in one of the Korporation Kreis's company cars. Alexander spoke reasonably good German and began to explain much of his vision for the future as we whizzed along (too fast for any of the visitors' tastes!) on a heavily trafficked four lane divided highway out of Kustanai toward Rudny. The problem with the high speed was that the highway was also occupied by weaving three-wheeled motorcycles, bicycles, trucks, tractors, an occasional stray chicken or dog, and other drivers who were intent on going even faster than we did! We were relieved when we arrived at Rudny where we were joined by other German friends of the Dornhofs for a spirited discussion of life in Kazakhstan over a beautifully prepared delicious dinner. Mrs. Dornhofs kitchen was the model of modernity and efficiency. After dinner we watched ourselves and other members of our group on the Phoenix TV program, and generally received the impression that the visit of the group from America was being given extensive and in-depth television coverage. Another memorable aspect of our experience in Kustanai was the unusually good food served to us in a German restaurant named "Apogey." Most all of our meals (except those with German families) were taken in this private restaurant; members of our group often remarked that the quality of the food, the variety, and the service was much closer to American or western European standards than most of what we had experienced in Russia. Every morning we were allowed to choose from at least a half dozen different kinds of fruit juice imported from Germany. Lunch and evening meals offered imported wines and beer at no extra cost. Waiters and waitresses who smiled while they worked were also a noticeable plus! Perhaps the highlight of our stay in Kustanai was the program put on for us at the German Cultural Center. Deutsche Wiedergeburt owns and operates a large building with many meeting rooms, ample office space, and several larger meeting rooms including an auditorium. An hour and a half program by children and adults, consisting of skits, folk music and dances (Russian, Kazakh and

16 German singing group performing at the Deutsche Wiedergeburt program in Kustanai. German) and classical music was followed, after a break for lunch, by a serious discussion period. Given the content of his comments, it was ironic (or perhaps symptomatic of the "loss of traditional culture" felt by so many), that Mr., Dederer spoke in Russian rather than German, with translation into English. He outlined the main lines of thinking within Deutsche Wiedergeburt, especially with respect to questions such as: "Shall we stay here in Kazakhstan and try to maintain (or, more realistically, reconstruct) our German language and culture?", "Shall we stay here and continue the process, already far along in the younger generation, of assimilating with the surrounding, mostly Russian, culture?", or "Shall we make every effort to immigrate to Germany, and if so, should the function of Deutsche Wiedergeburt mainly be to help people negotiate the many and increasing number of bureaucratic hurdles in applying for permission to emigrate to Germany?" We, the visitors from America, were asked for our input and it was clear that we also had different points of view, although we all agreed that most Germans from Russia in North America had pretty much taken the route of assimilation into American culture. No single answer to these questions was agreed upon by Kustanai Germans. It appears, as a rough approximation, that about one-third of the Germans gives an affirmative answer to each of the three questions. If there is a preference for one of the three options over the others, perhaps it is that more believe their best option is to go to Germany. Yet, the stated intention to immigrate to Germany seemed not as strong here as in the villages in the Saratov area. But even our excellent English translator, Professor Harry Klein of the Kustanai State University, was discouraged at the prospects for himself and his family in Kazakhstan. It is no wonder, since he and his teaching colleagues at the university had not received their salary for the last three months. Klein, and other professional people survive by doing odd jobs here and there and by their own hard labor in their dachas. Klein is also fluent in German and Russian, and helps many people fill out their application papers for Germany, as well as translates their letters from friends and relatives in America and Germany, Description of life in Kazakhstan would be incomplete without mentioning the important role played by the dachas or small garden plots that most city families have in the countryside around the city. Surrounding the city are a number of forty to sixty acre spaces divided into approximately 200 smaller plots, so that each smaller family plot contained about two-tenths of an acre. Many of the small plots have a little house (an A-frame or building with Dutch style roof) in which members of families may stay on weekends or on summer evenings. Often the whole family takes the car or bus to their plot after work each day, and the family works in the garden until sundown. Such plots are surprisingly productive; most have pressurized water piped in for irrigation, but we noted that some families had to rely on a shallow well and portable pump. The plots are not actually owned by families (this may change with the beginning of private ownership of land) but a family may keep a given plot as long as they pay a token fee to the city each year. The small family plots often have apple trees, raspberries, strawberries, gooseberries, potatoes, squash, tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, carrots, cucumbers, dill and other herbs including sweet basil. In fact, enough food is produced on these plots to meet most of a family's needs. Since the growing season is short June through September most of this extensive produce is canned. We saw that most families had closets stashed full of one half liter containers of tomatoes, apples, etc. In some cases city apartment dwellers store their canned produce from the dacha in underground cellars within their locked private car garages the tatter also crowded together in a "car garage section" of the city! As noted above, surrounding Kustanai are several areas in which new private houses are being built, mostly of brick with various combinations of red bricks and white ones. I visited one of these new houses, having been invited by my father's cousins, Heinrich and Valentina Kling. I was pleasantly surprised at the size of the new house; it reminded me of new "ranch style" homes built in the United States twenty to thirty years ago with all rooms on

17 Typical scene of gardens and small houses at dachas outside Kustanai. one level (except for the ubiquitous cellar under the entrance room, and except for the fact that there did not seem to be both a front and a back entrance). Rooms were numerous and spacious, some were carpeted, many had a textured plaster surface, art pieces were hung on the walls, there was a bathroom with all the fixtures of a new American house, and the kitchen was spacious and equipped with a surprising assortment of electrical appliances. While awaiting final preparations for dinner, I was invited to experience a Russki Banya (a Russian style sauna) by Volodya Kling, a married son of Heinrich and Valentina, who had come for the occasion. Volodya showed me out to a separate building near the house. Clearly, preparations had already been made; a coal burning heater provided plenteous quantities of very hot water, and there were exceedingly hot stones on which more water was occasionally poured, resulting in a very hot steamy room. Volodya speaks very little German, but undertook to reassure me when I displayed hesitancy at seeing billowing clouds of steam emanating from the sauna as we cracked the door ever-so-slightly from the safety of the dressing room. He motioned me to follow him and do as he did. The heat of the sauna was almost too much for me; nevertheless, I did as instructed, laid face down on a bench and immediately after felt a bucket of cool water poured over me. "What wonderful relief," I thought. The next bucket was warmer, and the next still warmer. Meanwhile the very hot hissing stones continued to have water sprinkled on them, producing great clouds of steam that again made the room almost unbearably hot. Another welcome bucket of cool water was splashed over me. Out of the comer of my eye I watched Volodya as he swished a freshly cut birch branch in and out of a bucket of obviously very hot water. Eventually this steaming mass of birch leaves and twigs was being applied to my shoulders and lower back. The action was gentle and soothing a far cry from being "beaten with birch branches" which I had encountered in written descriptions. The whole process as described was repeated several more times, and I was finally offered a warm bucket of water to rinse off following a thorough shampoo with liquid soap. We cooled down slowly in the dressing room, and later in the adjoining workshop where the other men had gathered. Everyone seemed anxious to know whether I liked their Russki Banya, and I assured them I had thoroughly enjoyed it. This very pleasant (even luxurious) experience in the home sauna of our ethnic German relatives in Kazakhstan provided yet another perspective, Clearly, some of the Germans are living far more comfortably than average, and these are the people who seem inclined to stay in Kazakhstan. I later learned that Heinrich Kling had recently retired from a quite responsible position in the city. He had been chief engineer for construction of public buildings (schools, hospitals, apartment complexes) in Kustanai, His and Valentina's son, Volodya, is responsible for the distribution of eyeglass frames for much of northern Kazakhstan. As a going away present, Volodya gave me two pairs of very good quality and stylish eye glass frames one of Italian origin and the other Japanese. The most surprising and rewarding experience for me, personally, on the entire trip happened in Kustanai, New private houses under construction outside of Kustanai.