Volga River Region (Russia)

Abstract

The Collection of Genealogical Research on Germans from Russia in Northern Colorado focuses on families who immigrated from Russia to northeastern Colorado, Nebraska, Kansas, and the Portland, Oregon, area and consists of census records, family histories, passenger lists, obituaries, birth, death, and marriage records, and regional histories on areas of Russia settled by Germans.

Abstract Germans from Russia, or Volga Germans, originally came from Germany. During the eighteenth century, Catherine the Great and her grandson Alexander I invited Germans to settle rich farm lands along Russia's Volga River. They enjoyed about one hundred years of prosperity and considerable autonomy in matters of language, law, religion and social customs. Political turmoil in Russia at the end of the nineteenth century motivated thousands of Volga Germans to immigrate to the United States, where...

Abstract Ida Lichtenwald Hettinger was a Russian German who was part of the forced deportation to Siberia in 1941. The collection contains original letters written between 1993 and 2002 to distant family in the United States, which she located through answering an ad in Neues Leben. Much of the content of the letters is about her extended family and personal history. The original letters are written in German; many of the letters have an English translation provided...

Abstract The Papers of Kenneth W. Rock focus on the history of the migration of Germans from Russia to Colorado, course work related to Vienna, and references countries that he traveled and taught study abroad programs. Kenneth W. Rock is Professor Emeritus of History at Colorado State University. His research and teaching focused on the Habsburg Empire, Central and Eastern Europe, European Biography, and the Germans from Russia Immigration experience. He taught undergraduate European history courses...