Question by Brutal: German-Russians Near the Volga River?
I have ancestors that were apart of this group.
The question is, did the Germans mix and mate with native Russians?
Or did the Germans stay with Germans?
Answers and Views:
Answer by Cossak
Hmmm,might be mix and germans with germans,but at nowerdays its just a mix. In 1920-th there was russian german republic,it was created by soviets,but then they took back it.
Read all the answers in the comments.
What do you think?
Spellbound says
The Volga Germans did tend to marry within their ethnic group. They were largely Lutherans and were surrounded by Russian Orthodox Russians and Muslim Tatars and Kazakhs. They maintained their language, religion (mostly), cultural and ethnic differences with the neighbouring populations.
They were encouraged into the area by Tsar Catherine the Great to open up the (newly conquered) area to farming and commerce. In the early Soviet period they had their own Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic – and were brutally suppressed during the course of WWII, as they were suspected of sympathising with the Nazi invaders. Before the Germans invaded the Nazis also encourage many to move to the conquered areas of Poland where they were given the homes of Jews who had been forced into the ghettos.
See:
The Nationalities Question in the Post-Soviet States – Graham Smith