Frank

Names

Frank, Medeveditskii Krestovyi Buyerak, Medveditzkoi Krestovoi Buyerak, Medwedizki Krestowoi Bujerak

Location

51°04' N 44°49' E

History

      Frank, a German Lutheran colony, was until October 1918 the Township center of the Frank Township, Atkarsk Region, Saratov Province, 110 versts from the city of Saratov and 94 versts south of the county town of Atkarsk. Frank was founded as a Crown colony on 16 May 1767 by 117 families from Mecklenburg, Palatinate, Saxony, and Darmstadt-Isenburg. In an edict dated 26 February 1768, Frank was given the Russian name of Medeveditskii Krestovyi Buyerak because of where it was located on the river.
      As of 1859, there were in Frank a Lutheran church (built in 1842), a parochial school, a market, 3 oil producing factories, and one mill.
      Colonists from Frank helped to found the daughter colonies of Brunnental in 1855 and Langenfeld in 1859. In 1859, 120 colonists moved to the Samara Province on the Wiesenseite.
      Emigration to America began in 1870. At that time, 30 people left.
      A Regional government school was founded in 1871 with both governmental and private funds. Books and other supplies are provided by the government. Tuition has been set so that all can afford to attend: full payment 11-14 rubles; only 6 rubles for the poor.

Church

      Frank was set up as an independent Lutheran parish in 1768 and the pastor was resident there.

Pastors

The parish headquartered in Frank was served by the following pastors:

Population

Population Table

Year	Households	Population
		Total	Male	Female
1767	117	335
1769		425
1773	115	525	282	243
1788	109	704	367	337
1798	138	861	443	418
1816	191	1,415	768	647
1834	305	2,552	1,344	1,208
1850	314	3,775	1,905	1,870
1857	412	4,620	2,343	2,277
1859	303	4,684	2,383	2,301
1885		4,682
1897		5,080*
1905		5,454
1912	614	4,592	2,281	2,311
1920		4,872
1922		4,999
1923		5,129
1926**	861	5,374	2,612	2,762
1931		5,485***

*Of whom 5,072 are German.
**Of whom 5,288 (2,561 male & 2,727 female) were German living in 832 households.
***Of whom 5,467 were German.

Sources:
- Beratz, Gottieb. The German colonies on the Lower Volga, their origin and early development: a memorial for the 150th anniversary of the arrival of the first German settlers on the Volga, 29 June 1764. Translated by Adam Giesinger (Lincoln, NE: American Historical Society of Germans from Russia, 1991): 349.
- The German Settlements in the USSR before 1941 [in Russian] (Moscow, 2002): 125.
- Mink, A.N. Historical and Geographical Dictionary of the Saratov Province [in Russian] (Saratov, Russia, 1898).
- Pleve, Igor R. The German Colonies on the Volga: The Second Half of the Eighteenth Century, translated by Richard Rye (Lincoln, NE: American Historical Society of Germans from Russia, 2001): 318.
- Schnurr, Joseph, Die Kirchen und das Religiöse Leben der Russlanddeutschen - Evangelischer Teil (Stuttgart: Landsmannschaft der Deutschen aus Russland, 1972): 344.

External Links

- History of the Village Frank (Clarence Kissler)
- Frank (wolgadeutsche.net) - in Russian

Lutheran Church in Frank.

Church in Frank (2006).

Worship Service in Frank.

School in Frank.

Frank in Winter.

Agriculture in Frank.

Cemetery in Frank.