Zjanna Aleksandrovna Serzhanova
Chief lecturer of the Siberian State University of Technology
Krasnoyarsk Territory, City of Krasnoyarsk
More than two centuries ago, the ancestors of the Russian-Germans were invited by the Russian government to come to their country, in order to cultivate unsettled outskirts. Caused by the fact that they used to live very close togethe and due to their autonomy, the Russian Germans developed into a people with an own culture and characteristic manners, customs and traditions.
In 1941, as a consequence of the defamatory accusation saying that they were making common cause with the German fascists, the Russian Germans were deported from the Volga Region and other European regions to Siberia and Kazakhstan. In accordance with the census records 3962 Germans were living on the Krasnoyarsk Territory on the eve of deportation. The forced resettlement of the Volga Germans at the beginning of the Great Patriotic War lead to a precipitous rise of the population among the German ethnic group within the region, and by November 1941 already 17307 families in a total number of 77359 individuals had arrived in the region. Mass deportation advanced the geographic spreading of the Germans – they were taken to 42 different districts within the region [2,4,5].
The Russian Germans had not even succeeded to getting accustomed to the conditions of the Siberian winter, find themselves lodgings and jobs, when they were mobilized into the labour army, just like the entire rest of the population fit for work. Old and ill people, as well as minor children, were not affected by the call-up. All members of the armed forces, who were of German nationality were removed from the hinterland and also mobilised into the labour army, which, “in principal, was nothing else but a concentration camp, where people were forced to work under strict surveillance and escort. All this happened in accordance with the ukase of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR dated the 28 August 1941, which accused the Soviet Germans of collaboration with the fascists. They were kept in camps and had to fulfill the daily work norm, which only thoroughly healthy, strong men contrived to do. As soon as they failed to fulfill the set norm, their food ration was shortened immediately. The poor supply with food did not allow them to regain strength after a day of hard labour, so that their chances to survive were decreasing fromday to day. The people were rapidly wasting away”. (According to the words of W. Disendorf)[6].
This statement a also be proved by memoirs of the Russian Germans who experienced all the difficulties and privations of the war years. “They came to mobilize my husband into the labour army to a place called Reshoty. There he had to fell trees. He was forced to do hard labour, received a poor food ration. My husband suffered rom hunger oedema. In all, I went there 37 on foot to let him have parcels with additional food. I always carried clothes and other useful things with me, which we had brought with us from the Volga; on my way I exchanged them against foodstuffs. If I had not gone there to support him, Andrei (her husband) would have hardly had a chance to survive. In the autumn there were about 3000 prisoners in Reschoty – all of them were labour armists. And in the spring only 600 of them were left. When I went there for the last time, I exchanged my only remaining skirt against food. Fortunately, and with wise foresight, I had also brought along a sack made of coarse linen from the kolhoz farm, which I put on after having given away the skirt. Later, Andrei tried to escape, but they seized him. Soonafter, I went to the militia office, in order to put in a good word for him. I was crying so heartrendingly that the frontside of my dress got all wet” – and recalling the situation to her mind, A.J. Michel bursts into tears again. Russian Germans usually think back to wartime events with tears in their eyes. Calling these horrible events to one’s memory is a sorry affair, indeed, but nevertheless those hard times must never fall into oblivion.
During the years of the Soviet power, considerable changes took place with regard to the ethnic self-confidence of the Russian Germans [7]. Their scattered settling all over the territory, far away from eachother, under the concitions of special resettlement and internal exile, had a negative influence on the number of linguistic and cultural components regarding the daily life of the resettled Germans; the after-effects of this regime make itself felt even today. Due to the deportationof the entire ethnos and the special resettling system the rights of the Russian Germans were restricted in most points: they were subject to regular registration with the special commandant’s office, and they were not allowed to leave their place of residence to visit the neighbouring village or next town without explicit official permission; when they appeared before the commandant once a month, their fingerpints were taken. For a long time they even lost the possibility to to improve their education and skills, to attend secondary schools or other educational establishments; they were confronted with considerable problems when looking for a job; they did not serve in the army, were not in possession of identity cards and, as a consequence, were not allowed to marry legally or have their children registered. When the repressions began, they were furthermore forbidden to use their mother tongue; moreover, they lost the entire financial and social basis of their cultural life at the moment, when the German Volga Republic was liquidated: they suffered the heavy loss of their schools, churches, newspapers and publishing houses. The worst, however, was that their entire ethnic group was “thrown apart, scattered to the four winds”. Ethnic, economic, cultural and even family bonds were broken off all of a sudden. K.W. Fadeev as the opinion that the situation became more critical yet, because men and women at an age when the were capable of childbearing, were separated from eachother (due to their different sex) for a period of more than 10 years, a fact, which interrupted the process of a normal reproduction of their ethnos and left a big gap between the generations [3].
Only in December 1955, the restrictions within the legal status of the Germans and their family members who were living under special resettlement, were abolished by an ukase of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet. However, they were not given back the right to return to the places, where they had been deported from. Only in 1964 all charges and false accusations against the Soviet Germans were set aside. They were released from administrative surveillance. In 1972 the Soviet Germans were permitted to remove to other districts of the country and toeven return to the places, where they had lived before the war. But the ASSR of the Volga Germans was not re-established [3].
It was just the scattered settling, which played a basic and decisive roll in the transformation of the ethnic self-confidence of the Russian Germans in Siberia; it forced an accelerated acclimation which as mainly characterized by the fact that the Germans adopted the Russian language as their mother tongue.
When resettling in the 19th and the early 20th century (first phase, second phase), the Germans used to live close together by forming a so-called “speech island”. Due to deportation in 1941, however, the Germans were forced to settle down amidst the Russian-speaking population. The influence of their settling so far apart from eachother proved to be “utterly harmful to the preservation of the German language” [8]. Thelack of national schools and cultural establishments, too, affected and still affects negatively on the linguistic competence of the Germans, who, as a matter of fact, were originally bilingual.
Thus, the number of ethnic Germans who still have a good command of their dialect is decreasing year by year. In 1970, for example, 58,8% of the Germans were of the opinion that German was their mother tongue, in 1979 the percentage was 44,6% and in 1989 just 35,2% (27,4% in towns ans 42,8% in the countryside). [2]. Hence, the language of communication is quickly changing in favour of Russian. It is important to note that the overwhelming majority of the ethnic Germans in the Krasnoyarsk Territory is not using the German language very often, and if so, they just use it within the family circle.
It is a remarkable fact that the the interviewed persons used to talk in their dialect more often in earlier times than today. Just to give an example: all representative of the older generation of ethnic Germans were in the habit of talking in their specific dialect within the family; nowadays, they are using the German language. If middle-aged Soviet Germans spoke their specific dialect in their childhood, they are now unable to fluently express theier thoughts in German. The most weighty reason for this phenomenon, according to their opinion, is the deportation, for the Russian Germans, all of a sudden, found themselves in a milieu, where people spoke a foreign language, and they did not have the possibility to communicate in their own dialect anymore. The problem was also intensified by the fact that the Germans living on Russian territory were looked upon as internal enemies. They were exposed to the humiliations and insults of those ethnic groups which were in the majority; German was the language of the invaders - a vicious circle, which finally lead the Germans to limit the use of their own language. A phenomenon particularly characteristic for the middle-aged generation. The prestige of the Russian language, the use of which is indispensible for common life, which is is needed in one’s entire social surroundings (at school, in the army, in one’s professional activities), as well as mixed marriages, are reasons which have a considerable influence on the preferential treatment of the Russian language as compared to the German dialects [1].
Under the influence of Russian culture changes took place not only with regard to the language of the Russian Germans, but also in every-daylife and in their manners, customs and traditions. Thus, ethnic Germans nowadays celebrate both – German and Russian festive days; German housewives learned how to cook cabbage soup and pelmeni and bake blini. Schmidt comments that just the Russian Germans borrowed a lot from the Russian kitchen, much more than from our fields of culture and all-day life. [9]. The mutual advance of cultural parameters can also be seen in funeral rites.
Thus, as a result of a longlasting contact between representatives of the German and Russian ethnos, in the Krasnoyarsk Territory did not only develop bilingualism, but also biculturalism among the ethnic Germans.
The scale of this assimilation process is huge, and nowadays it is rather difficult to make a clear statement about whether or not the German ethnos has been able to preserve its culture, its traditions, manners and customs as a whole. The sudden increase of marriages among different ethnic groups, the change of surnames and dosuments giving particulars about an individual, as well as the desire to change one’s nationality, point to a sufficiently successful assimilation process. The determination of legal restrictions to be applied on the Russian Germans in earlier times, forced the motivation to change their nationality, give up their own language, their cultural norms and values. Nevertheless, the Russian Germans of the elder generation have always tried and arestill trying to preserve their mother tongue and pass it to the next generation.
None the less, we must not agree with A.A. Schadt’s opinion that “life under conditions of ethnic exile, the pressure of unknown cultural values from below, as well as strict ideologic guidelines imposed upon the Germans from above, lead to a practically complete transformation of the ethnic self-confidence among the Russian Germans” [7]. As a result, we may only judge upon the preservation of manners, customs, traditions and language with the Germans living in the Krasnoyarsk Territory on an individual, personal level.
1. Anasyeva, N.A. The Germans in Siberia: History, language, culture: Thesis
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October, 2004. Krasnoarsk: 2005, p. 76-83.
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October, 2004. Krasnoyarsk 2005. – p. 87-92.
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October, 2004. Krasnoyarsk 2005. – p.35 –45.
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Materials collected during the international scientific conference. –
Krasnoyarsk, 13 –16 October, 2004. Krasnoarsk 2005. – p. 46-50.
6. Disendorf, W. Final Flight. The fate of the Russian Germans and our national
movement / Book 1. National katastrophe and efforts toreturn. Moscow: 1997. – p.
175-178.
7. Schadt, A.A. The Germans in Siberia: History, language, culture: Materials
collected during the international scientific conference. – Krasnoyarsk, 13 –16
October, 2004. Krasnoarsk 2005. – p. 126-134
8. Shluktenko, Y.A. Linguistic aspects of bilingualism. Kiev, “Visha Shkola”,
1974. – p. 76
9. Schmidt, V.V. The Germans in Siberia: History, language, culture: Thesis
evolved during the international scientific conference. – Krasnoyarsk, 2004. – p.
120
Krasnoyarsk Museum Complex of Culture and History. Information messenger N° 6.
Methodic seminar for researchers interested in the subject “Political
repressions in the USSR”.
29 October 2005. Krasnoyarsk 2006