Leichtling
Names
Ilavla, Ilavlinka, Ilavlya, Ilawla, Ilovlinka, Ilowla, Ilowlja, Jelowlja, Leichtling, Rasowka, Rasovka, Rezowka, Rezovka
Location
50º32' N 45º24' E
History
      Leichtling was founded on 14 May 1767 as a Roman Catholic colony by the Government, 120 kilometers from Saratov and 54 versts from Kamyshin. Its 49 founding colonist families were from Mainz, Bamberg, and Bavaria.
Church
      Leichtling was first part of the Semenovka Parish. Later it became part of the Hildmann Parish. At the turn of the 20th Century, Leichtling became an independent parish with a resident priest. A wooden church was built in 1850. This parish church was destroyed by fire on 24 August 1897, just after Mass celebrating the feast of St. Bartholomew. Three visiting ministers tried to help save the church, but it was completely destroyed. There was no church building in the colony until a new church was completed in 1919. The colonists worshiped in the school house during this time.
Priests
Alois Ocks
Johannes Schneider, Sr.
Population
Population Table
Year
Households
Population
Total
Male
Female
1767
49
143
67
76
1769
34
150
73
77
1773
47
188
97
91
1788
45
259
133
126
1798
46
300
154
146
1816
63
398
213
185
1834
93
677
342
335
1850
105
963
485
478
1857
112
940
468
472
1860
98
919
470
449
1886
185
1,359
718
641
1891
167
1,755
906
849
1894
166
1,886
983
903
1897
1,451*
726
725
1905
1,835
1910
2,414
1912
2,535
1920
308**
2,038
1922
1,297
1926
251
1,394
694
700
1931
1,627***
*Of whom 1,440 were German.
**Of which 306 households were German.
***Of whom 1,604 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): 351.
- Diesendorf, V.F. Die Deutschen Russlands : Siedlungen und Siedlungsgebiete : Lexicon. Moscow, 2006.
- Klaus, A.A. Our Colonies (Saint Petersburg, Russia, 1869): 2:13; 4:52-53.
- Mink, A.N. Historical and Geographical Dictionary of the Saratov Province [in Russian] (Saratov, Russia, 1898): 353-355.
- Pallas, P.S. Reise durch verschiedene Provinzen des Russischen Reichs. Theil 3,2, Reise aus Sibirien zurueck an die Wolga im 1773sten Jahr (St. Petersburg: Kaiserl. Academie der Wissenschaften, 1776): 623.
- Preliminary Results of the Soviet Census of 1926 on the Volga German Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (Pokrovsk, 1927): 28-83.
- Schnurr, Joseph, Die Kirchen und das Religiöse Leben der Russlanddeutschen - Katholischer Teil (Stuttgart: Selbstverlag Joseph Schnurr, 1980): 258.
- "Settlements in the 1897 Census." Journal of the American Historical Society of Germans from Russia (Winter, 1990): 18.

Resources
- First Settlers of Leichtling
- 1834 Census of Leichtling (PDF)
- 1850 Census of Leichtling (PDF)
- Leichtling Database
External Links
- Leichtling (wolgadeutsche.net) - in Russian
- Leichtling Russia (Darryl Boyd)
Last updated 6 April 2013.
Map showing Leichtling (1935).