Ober-Monjou

Names

Krivovka, Kriwowskoje, Obermonjou, Obermunjour, Ober-Monjou, Ober-Monjour (after 1941, Krivovka)

Location

51º44' N 46º51' E

History

      Ober-Monjou was founded as a Roman Catholic colony on 5 March 1767 by Baron Caneau de Beauregard.
      In 1859, a daughter colony was established by colonists from Ober-Monjou seeking additional farm land. The daughter colony was called Neu-Ober-Monjou.

Church

      The congregation in Ober-Monjou was part of parish headquartered in Katharinenstadt. The Catholic church in Ober-Monjou was built of stone and dedicated to "The Immaculate Conception" on 28 September 1897. This structure no longer exists.

Priests

      The parish in Ober-Monjou was served by the following priests:

Population

Population Table

Year	Households	Population
		Total	Male	Female
1767	82	299	160	139
1769		324
1772		325
1788	72	370	177	193
1798	76	429	211	218
1816	91	620	308	312
1834	138	1,068	546	522
1850	174	1,608	808	800
1857	197	1,897	921	976
1859	165	1,513	744	769
1886
1891
1894
1897		2,251*	1,129	1,122
1904
1910	392	2,752	1,365	1,387
1912		2,882
1926**	433	2,443	1,190	1,253

*Of whom 2,235 were German.
**Of those, 431 households accounting for 2,432 colonists (1,184 males, 1,248 females) 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.
- List of the Populated Places of the Samara Province (Samara, Russia, 1910): 261.
- List of Populated Places of the Russian Empire, vol. 36 - Samara Province (St. Petersburg, 1864): 82.
- Klaus, A.A. Our Colonies (Saint Petersburg, Russia, 1869): 2:13; 4:54-55.
- Pleve, Igor R. The German Colonies on the Volga: The Second Half of the Eighteenth Century (Lincoln, NE: American Historical Society of Germans from Russia, 2001): 314.
- Schnurr, Joseph. Die Kirchen und das religiöse Leben der Russlanddeutschen - Katholischer Teil (Stuttgart: Selbstverlag Joseph Schnurr, 1972): 122.
- "Settlements in the 1897 Census." Journal of the American Historical Society of Germans from Russia (Winter, 1990): 17.
- Stumpp, Karl. Die Auswanderung aus Deutschland nach Rußland in den Jahren 1763 bis 1862 (Landsmannschaft der Deutschen aus Rußland, 2004): 70.

Map showing Ober-Monjou (1935).

Immaculate Conception Catholic Church
Ober-Munjor, Russia
Photo courtesy of August & Elizabeth (Leiker) Exsner.