Library

This collection of documents, compiled by A. Eisfeld and O. Eisfeld, is devoted to the deportations of the German population of Ukraine during the Second World War and the immediate postwar years. The documents illuminate the course of the preventive deportations of the German population in 1941–1942; the expulsion of Germans accused of collaboration (the so-called Volksdeutsche) from the liberated territories of Ukraine; as well as the fate of German repatriates sent to special settlements under the supervision of the NKVD–MVD of the USSR.

A number of sources also characterize the socio-legal status of ethnic Germans after their release from special settlements in 1955 and the process of their rehabilitation, which culminated in the adoption of the Law of Ukraine of 17 April 2014 “On the Restoration of the Rights of Persons Deported on Ethnic Grounds.”

This volume brings together scholarly studies devoted to the issue of the forced deportation of ethnic Germans, carried out on the basis of resolutions of the State Defense Committee of the USSR in the summer and autumn of 1941. It examines the expulsion of the German population from Crimea and from Zaporizhzhia, Stalin, Voroshylovhrad, and other regions of Ukraine to remote areas of the Soviet Union. The conditions and consequences of the deportation are analyzed, as well as the legal status and actual living conditions of Germans in special settlements, and the fate of those mobilized into the labor army (Trudarmee). Particular attention is paid to the complex and protracted process of rehabilitating the German population and restoring historical justice in the postwar decades and during the period of Ukraine’s independence.

This collection includes documents that illuminate the preparation and implementation by the NKVD of the Ukrainian SSR of the mass “German Operation,” a constituent part of the “Great Terror” in the USSR in 1937–1938. It reveals the historical circumstances surrounding the issuance of NKVD Order No. 00439 of 25 July 1937 and the specific features of its implementation in the Ukrainian SSR.

The volume characterizes the methods used to select the “contingent” subjected to repression, the mechanisms by which mass repressions were carried out within the framework of the operation, and their tragic consequences for the German population of Ukraine.

The collection includes documents and materials that shed light on the process by which the State Security Directorate of the NKVD of the Ukrainian SSR fabricated the so-called ‘case’ of the “National Union of Germans in Ukraine” in 1935–1937—a case that preceded the mass “German Operation” of the NKVD of the Ukrainian SSR in 1937–1938.

The volume contains 114 documents that reveal the mechanisms used to fabricate the “NSGU case,” illustrated through group cases involving the “NSGU leadership center” and its “Odesa group”—the nomenklatura of the German national districts of the Ukrainian SSR. It also presents the process of rehabilitating individuals convicted in connection with these cases.

The publication is intended for a broad readership: researchers studying the repressions of the totalitarian regime in Ukraine; academic and teaching staff of higher education institutions; students; activists of national societies in contemporary Ukraine; as well as all those interested in the modern history of Ukraine.

This popular scholarly work by the historian and local history researcher E. Plesska (Sebold) introduces the reader to the multifaceted history of the Germans of the Black Sea region, from the period of the Russian Empire to the present day. The book examines the process of colonization of the southern regions in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries; the distinctive features of economic activity; the everyday and family life of German colonists; their relations with other ethnic groups; as well as the spiritual sphere and the educational system.

A separate chapter is devoted to the gradual destruction of the traditional way of life of German settlements by the Soviet authorities. Considerable attention is given to the repressions of 1920–1941 and to the tragic consequences of the Second World War for the fate of the ethnic Germans of the Black Sea region.

The catalogue “The Germans of the Black Sea Region” is a scholarly illustrated publication devoted to the history and culture of German colonists in southern Ukraine. The volume was prepared by staff of the Odesa Historical and Local History Museum in cooperation with representatives of the German society Wiedergeburt, within the framework of the program “The Black Sea Germans. 1803–2003”, under the auspices of the Institute for Culture and History of the Germans of North-Eastern Europe (Lüneburg / Göttingen, Germany).

The introductory essays by E.H. Plesska-Sebold and V.V. Solodova highlight the process of settlement of the region by German colonists, their economic activities, way of life, religion, education, and historical fate during the periods of the Russian Empire and the USSR. The core of the catalogue consists of systematized museum collection of household items and documents gathered during expeditions in the Odesa and Mykolaiv regions.

The publication is an important source for researchers, museum professionals, and a broad readership.

This volume brings together papers by Ukrainian scholars on the history and culture of the Germans of the Black Sea region, presented at international academic conferences held in Göttingen between 1995 and 2001. The contributions address previously underexplored issues concerning the establishment of German colonies in the early nineteenth century, as well as the specific features of their economic, social, cultural, and political development from the nineteenth century through the first half of the twentieth century.

The publication is intended for historians, local history researchers, ethnographers, archivists, library and museum professionals, students of history faculties, and representatives of national and cultural communities.

The book explores the economic, social, and demographic aspects of the development of agricultural German colonies in southern Ukraine between 1781 and 1871. The author analyzes the complex process by which German migrants adapted to a new environment within the Russian Empire.

At the center of the study is the everyday life of the colonists: adaptation to climatic and soil conditions, struggles with disease, epidemics, and pest infestations. The work also examines processes of social and occupational differentiation within rural communities; the development of religious congregations and colonist families over the course of nine decades; and relations between Germans and representatives of the state administration, as well as with neighboring populations, in the multiethnic and multiconfessional space of the Northern Black Sea region. Particular attention is given to German–state relations during the Crimean War, shedding new light on interactions between the army and colonist communities.

The book is based on archival documents and materials from sociological studies conducted by the Center for Ethnosociological and Ethnopolitical Research of the Institute of Sociology of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine. It examines the size, settlement patterns, and status of the German national minority in the early 1920s, and traces the history of the formation of German districts and village councils, the network of educational institutions, as well as the activities of Soviet and administrative bodies in areas of compact German settlement.

The authors focus in particular on the repressive policies of the Stalinist regime toward Germans in Ukraine: the dismantling of institutions of national and cultural development, the fabrication of “anti-Soviet” cases, and the mass deportations from territories of historical residence. The processes of national and cultural revival of the German community in Ukraine in the context of contemporary state-building are also examined.

This collection of documents traces the fate of the German ethnic group in Ukraine under the conditions of the totalitarian regime in the 1920s and 1930s. The published materials reflect Soviet policy toward the German minority, the transformation of its social and legal status, and the mechanisms of repressive control. The publication is intended for ethnologists, historians, lecturers and students of higher education institutions, local history researchers, and all those interested in the historical past and contemporary situation of national minorities in Ukraine.

The book explores the history of German settlers in southern Ukraine from the late eighteenth to the early twentieth century. The authors analyze the colonists’ path of adaptation—from the first years of struggle for survival and the overcoming of administrative obstacles to the creation of highly productive farms.

It examines in detail the contribution of Germans to the development of livestock breeding, viticulture, and the manufacture of agricultural machinery, particularly in the colonies of Khortytsia and Odesa. Special attention is given to the system of internal self-government, as well as to the role of the church, school education, and medicine in the life of colonist communities.

This monograph is devoted to the history of the Khortytsia and Molochna colonies in southern Ukraine during 1914–1931. The study analyzes the condition of the settlements and the community as a whole during key historical periods: the First World War and the Civil War, the famine of 1921–1923, the era of the New Economic Policy, and collectivization.

A separate section focuses on the international charitable activities of overseas Mennonite centers aimed at preserving the Mennonite diaspora in Ukraine. The publication is intended for professional historians, students, local history researchers, and all those interested in the history of Mennonitism.

This monograph is devoted to key issues in the history of the German and Mennonite populations of southern Ukraine. The study analyzes the causes and motivations of migration, the processes involved in the formation of German and Mennonite colonies, and highlights the settlers’ economic activities, the difficulties of the initial stage of colonization, and the ways in which these challenges were overcome.

It also addresses questions of the spiritual life of the colonists and provides an overview of the state of historiography on the subject.

This book is a comprehensive study of the history and heritage of the Mennonites of Katerynoslav region. It traces the community’s path from the founding of its first settlements to the tragic events of the twentieth century. The volume is based on essays on twenty colonies compiled from the materials of international expeditions, archival sources, and unique eyewitness testimonies.

The book characterizes the distinctive features of Mennonite spiritual life, culture, and exemplary farming practices, and demonstrates the impact of collectivization, famines, and the Second World War on their fate. The authors succeed in capturing “living history”—the recollections of long-time residents about the everyday life and traditions of their colonist neighbors. The publication is a heartfelt attempt to recreate the image of a vanished world and to preserve the memory of the colonists who made a significant contribution to the development of Ukraine’s southern lands.

This monograph, based primarily on documents of the Cheka–GPU–NKVD, examines the political repressions of the 1920s–1930s through the prism of their impact on the lives of the German population living in Ukraine. The publication is intended for students, lecturers, historians, and all those interested in the history of Soviet society.

This volume tells the story of the German writer and music teacher Hermann Bachmann (1888–1951), a native of the Ukrainian German colony of Grossliebental, and of his book written immediately after one of V.M. Zhirmunsky’s folklore and dialectological expeditions to the German colonies of the Berezan district in Mykolaiv region (summer 1927). The Russian translation of Bachmann’s book is published here for the first time, supplemented with detailed commentaries.

Comparing the travel notes with audio recordings, expedition notebooks, and photographs preserved in Zhirmunsky’s archive in St Petersburg provides a vivid picture of the everyday life, language, culture, and people of the German colonies, as well as of the techniques and methodology of early twentieth-century field research. The book is illustrated with unique photographs from V.M. Zhirmunsky’s personal archive.

This album presents photographs from the archive of the eminent philologist and academician Viktor Maksymovych Zhirmunsky, taken during folklore and dialectological expeditions to German settlements (colonies) across the USSR in the late 1920s. The aim of these expeditions was the comprehensive study of the language, folklore, and everyday life of German colonists. In a short period, the expeditions collected unique scholarly materials, including around 4,000 texts of German folk songs, approximately 1,200 melodies recorded on wax cylinders and discs, more than 1,000 dialect questionnaires, and extensive photographic documentation.

In the course of studying Zhirmunsky’s legacy, it proved possible to correlate different parts of the photographic collection with specific scholarly expeditions and to systematize the materials by geographical and chronological criteria. The album includes about 100 expedition photographs depicting landscapes, architecture, interiors, everyday life, and portraits of colonists. The foreword provides information on the expedition routes, the composition of participants, and the nature of the materials collected in the colonies.

These old photographs possess not only unquestionable historical value but also significant aesthetic merit. In light of the dramatic fate of the Germans of the USSR and the settlements they created, images taken on the eve of collectivization and the subsequent deportations become an invaluable monument to an irretrievably lost time.

The documents of the State Archive of Mykolaiv region concerning the Germans of Mykolaiv region in 1918–1931 constitute an important source for studying the region’s history. They reflect the processes of the radical dismantling of the pre-revolutionary way of life and the Sovietization of all spheres of political, legal, economic, cultural, and spiritual life. The annotated archival fonds provide a broad picture of the profound transformations experienced by German settlements in Mykolaiv region and their population.

The annotated register is intended for historians, ethnographers, archivists, local history researchers, library and museum professionals, and students of history faculties.

This publication contains an annotated list of files from 25 of the most significant fonds of the State Archive of Kherson region for the years 1919–1930, reflecting various aspects of the life of German settlers in the region. In selecting the files and preparing the annotations, the compilers sought, within the limits of the volume, to present as comprehensive a picture as possible of the social, economic, and cultural conditions of the German population, including materials that do not merely reproduce the official position of the Soviet authorities. At the same time, not all documents and fonds on this subject could be included, owing to the scope of the publication.

The volume is intended for academic historians and ethnographers, archivists, library and museum professionals, local history researchers, history teachers, and students of history faculties.

The documents of the Odesa Office for Foreign Settlers constitute an important source for studying the colonization of the territory between the Bug and the Dniester rivers, as well as its economic, demographic, social, and cultural development. They complement the materials of the Guardianship Committee for Foreign Settlers in Southern Russia with extensive information on the development of German and Greek-Bulgarian colonies in the vicinity of Odesa and on individual colonists, making it possible to reconstruct the everyday life of these settlements.

The documents of the Guardianship Committee for Foreign Settlers in Southern Russia are a vital source for studying the colonization of southern Ukraine and its economic, demographic, and cultural development. They reflect the policies of the Russian government toward foreign colonists and Russian subjects alike, the role of provincial authorities, and the system of self-government in the colonies. Everyday life is presented in its full diversity and richness.

The annotated description is intended for historians, ethnographers, archivists, local history researchers, library and museum professionals, and students of history faculties.

The documentary legacy of S. Kontenius—chief judge of the Office for Foreign Settlers of Novorossiya and later an extraordinary member of the Guardianship Committee for Foreign Settlers in Southern Russia—is an indispensable source for studying foreign colonization in Southern Russia in the first third of the nineteenth century. The published documents on the establishment and development of German, Mennonite, Bulgarian, Jewish, and other colonies make it possible to determine Contenius’s role and place in this process.

This work is a fundamental reference guide to the history and genealogy of German colonists in the Russian Empire. Its primary aim is to documentarily link each settler to a specific place of origin in Germany (the Palatinate, Alsace, Baden, etc.). Covering the period from the late eighteenth to the mid-nineteenth century, the book is based on unique archival sources, including revision lists, passport registers, and church records.

The first part contains an analysis of the causes of migration, the texts of imperial manifestos, and alphabetical lists of families by region (the Volga region, the Black Sea region, Bessarabia, Crimea, and the Caucasus). The second part includes detailed lists for 1808–1858 indicating family composition and ages, enabling the reconstruction of at least two generations of ancestors. Supplemented with eight maps of migration routes, the volume is an indispensable resource for genealogical research and for studying the settlement history of German colonists in the Russian Empire.

This volume is devoted to the history of the German population of the Northern Black Sea region, Crimea, and the Caucasus from the eighteenth century to the outbreak of the Second World War. It brings together articles by scholars from Germany, Ukraine, Russia, and Azerbaijan presented at international academic conferences in Göttingen. The authors examine the processes of German colonization, the settlers’ economic and cultural activities, their contribution to regional development, and changes in legal and social status in the context of the modernization of the Russian Empire and Soviet policies. Particular attention is paid to the fate of Germans during the First World War and the early Soviet period.

Dietmar Neutatz’s study focuses on the history of German colonies in the Northern Black Sea region and Volhynia in 1861–1914, examining their development in the context of the Great Reforms and the rise of Great Russian nationalism. The economic prosperity of the colonists—grounded in stable social structures—came to be perceived as a threat against the backdrop of the crisis of Russian peasantry. The abolition of privileges in 1871–1874 initiated a policy of administrative integration. From the 1880s onward, under the influence of nationalist journalism, Germans were increasingly portrayed as a “foreign element.” The author demonstrates that Russification and social pressure intensified the colonists’ national self-awareness while their loyalty to the empire was largely maintained.

This book provides a detailed account of the history of the German colony of Kandel, founded in 1808 in Kherson Governorate by settlers from Alsace, the Palatinate, Bavaria, Prussia, and Austria. The study covers the colony’s economic development; relations with authorities and representatives of other nationalities; religious life; the establishment of schooling; folklore; and linguistic features. Considerable attention is devoted to the profound changes in the lives of colonists under the impact of the dramatic events of the first half of the twentieth century. The chapters dealing with the fate of Kandel’s inhabitants during the Second World War have a memoir character, as both authors are natives of the colony.

This historical-geographical atlas commemorates the bicentenary of the founding of the Molotschna Mennonite district in southern Ukraine. Going beyond a purely academic reference work, the publication serves as a tribute to the generations who transformed arid steppe lands into a flourishing “Mennonite Commonwealth” and later suffered repression under the communist regime. The author, Helmut T. Hubert, carried out extensive work systematizing cartographic data based on archival documents, Johann Cornies’s reports, and unique eyewitness testimonies.

The atlas includes detailed plans not only of 57 standard colonies but also of small farmsteads, estates, and newer settlements. Maps from the 1910s–1940s are supplemented with valuable statistical data on everyday life and agriculture considered significant by the colonists themselves. Equipped with comprehensive personal and geographical indexes, the atlas is an indispensable tool for genealogical research and will be useful both to professional historians and to descendants of Mennonites studying their family history.

This volume is a collection of materials devoted to the history and cultural heritage of the Mennonites who lived in southern Ukraine during the periods of the Russian Empire and the USSR. The focus is on the everyday life of Mennonite colonies, their religious beliefs, family traditions, economic organization, and educational system. A substantial portion of the book is dedicated to the history of the largest settlements—Khortytsia, Molotschna, and their daughter colonies. Separate sections address the First World War, the revolution, years of exile, resettlement, and emigration. The publication is supplemented with photographs and reference materials that deepen the understanding of the lives and destinies of Mennonite communities.