During the Russian Civil War some Volga Germans enlisted with the White Army and, as a result, fierce attacks by the Red Army on Volga German communities took place. In the aftermath of the war, the famine that swept the U.S.S.R. took the lives of 1/3rd of the Volga German population. To the moment of declaration of the autonomy an amnesty was announced. However it eventually was applied to a small number of people. According to the politics of korenizatsiya, carried out in 1920s in the Soviet Union, usage of German language was promoted in official documents and Germans were encouraged to occupy management positions. According to the 1939 census, there were 366,685 Germans in the Republic.
| 1926 census | 1939 census | |
|---|---|---|
| Germans | 379,630 (66.4%) | 366,685 (60.5%) |
| Russians | 116,561 (20.4%) | 156,027 (25.7%) |
| Ukrainians | 68,561 (12.0%) | 58,248 (9.6%) |
| Kazakhs | 1,353 (0.2%) | 8,988 (1.5%) |
| Tatars | 2,225 (0.4%) | 4,074 (0.7%) |
| Mordvins | 1,429 (0.3%) | 3,048 (0.5%) |
| Belarusians | 159 (0.0%) | 1,636 (0.3%) |
| Chinese | 5 (0.0%) | 1,284 (0.2%) |
| Jews | 152 (0.0%) | 1,216 (0.2%) |
| Poles | 216 (0.0%) | 756 (0.1%) |
| Estonians | 753 (0.1%) | 521 (0.1%) |
| Others | 710 (0.1%) | 3,869 (0.6%) |
| Total | 571,754 | 606,352 |
The German invasion of the Soviet Union (known in the former U.S.S.R. as the Great Patriotic War, 1941-1945) marked the end of the Volga German A.S.S.R. The Soviet government declared all Germans to be enemies of the state, which increased the persecution and fear of the Volga Germans among the general Russian populace. On August 28, 1941, Joseph Stalin issued a formal Decree of Banishment, which abolished the Volga German A.S.S.R. and exiled all Volga Germans to the Kazakh S.S.R. and Siberia.
On 1 September 1941, mass evacuation was announced for the Volga Germans. Ten days later they began their forced deportation to Kazakhstan and Siberia.
- J. Otto Pohl, Ethnic Cleansing in the USSR, 1937-1949 (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1999): 19-37.
- Ethnic Cleansing (Wikipedia)
- Wolgadeutsche Republik (German Wikipedia)
- Secret Criminal Proceedings Against the Last Volga German Government during the Years 1944-46
Last updated 19 December 2009.
Emblem of the Volga German Republic
The first known flag of the Volga German Republic was adopted in 1926. It was red flag with golden letters represent the Sozialistische Sowjetrepublik of Wolga Deutschen (SSRWD).
Additional information about VG-ASSR flags
Location of the Volga German Republic.
Detailed map of the Volga German Republic.
A 64 page booklet titled "Autonome Sozialistische Sowjetrepublik Der Wolgadeutschen" (Autonomous Socialist Soviet Republic of the Volga Germans) published by the Deutscher Staatsverlag in Engels, Russia. The cost for the booklet in 1938 was 40 kopecks.