Germans from Russia

Among the millions of mid- to late-nineteenth century immigrants arriving in the United States from Europe were ethnic Germans who had immigrated to Russia in the 1765-1824 period. Poland's rulers had encouraged Germans to settle in the province of Volhynia (between the Dnieper and Dniester rivers, part of Russia by 1797), and Russian rulers, including Catherine the Great, had promoted settlement along the Volga River (north of the Caspian Sea) and on the coast of the Black Sea and Sea of Azov beginning in 1750. As a result, in the 1760s groups began leaving various German principalities where wars, invasions, high taxes, and military conscription made life unbearable. Colonists arrived in the steppes (plains), where the Russian czars offered them free land, exemption from military service and taxation, and, to an extent, religious liberty. A second wave immigrated between 1789 and 1862, including in the 1850s thousands of Mennonites, originally of Dutch ancestry. Between 1763 and 1862 an estimated one hundred thousand Germans moved to Russia.

Germans in Nebraska

German American Society of Omaha Nebraska

Germans in Nebraska, World War I

Germans from Russia in Nebraska

The Volga Germans

Germans and Indians, a fascinating book ‘

Nebraska Staats-Zeitung

Germans from Russia, Books, Heritage

German Congregation on the American Frontier

Stinking old Germans

Prisoner of War Camps in Nebraska