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The
history of the Fargo-Moorhead area is a history rife with people
of all different creeds and nationalities. One of these groups of
immigrants, strangers to our country, instantly stands out from
other groups. They came from a land where they were already strangers.
This group, the German-Russians, consisted of people who were already
immigrants before they ever began their journey to America.
Michael Miller is a bibliographer
representing the Germans From Russia Heritage Collection, located
at North Dakota State University in Fargo. He describes the group’s
mission: “to collect, document, preserve, exhibit, translate,
publish, promote and make accessible resources on the culture, history,
folklore, foodways and textiles and clothing of the Germans from
Russia.”
Along with preserving the rich culture
of Germans from Russia, the GFRHC also works in publishing books
about the German-Russian heritage. Their newest project is an anthology
of poetry written by both German-Russian immigrants to America,
and those German-Russians who stayed in Russia.
This anthology was put together by
Samuel Sinner, a noted author and scholar in the area of Russian-German
history, literature, and folklore. This newest work is an anthology
of Russian-German poetry, short stories and essays, sub-titled “An
Experiment in Ethnic Anthology.”
Sinner explained the importance of
poetry among German-Russian immigrants in America: “I think
that the function of poetry amongst the German-Russians here was
probably comparable to other ethnic groups that had also come from
a village background... Poetry...is very much like folk songs. This
is an integral, essential part of the culture. For me, it’s
almost artificial to make a distinction between the folk songs and
poetry. I think they had the same function.”
This village culture and history of
poetry and folk songs were transported along with the immigrants
to America. Sinner described: “The Russian-Germans had a very
strong tradition of having village poets. These people knew all
the folk songs, and they would constantly be writing poems. They
were very simple poems and very much like a folk song. So, a few
of those village poets came to America and continued…writing
material.”
The history of the Germans from Russia
began in 1762, when a former German princess, Catherine II, became
Empress of Russia. Upon taking control of a large tract of land
along the Volga River, Catherine II invited foreigners to settle
this new land. To entice new settlers to Russia, she offered many
benefits, including free transportation to Russia, free land, religious
freedom, and the right to leave Russia at any time.
All of these rights and privileges
were enough to draw the interests of a multitude of Germanic people.
German settlers established approximately 300 mother colonies throughout
Russia. During the settlement years, these German-Russians lived
good lives, enjoying the freedom to live in Russia while retaining
their German heritage.
However, in 1871, Czar Alexander II
revoked all of the rights and privileges that had been given to
the German settlers. Russia drafted German sons into the army and
relegated these German settlers to a status equal to peasants. The
German-Russians felt betrayed by the Russian ruling class, and many
began to leave Russia. Wanting nothing more than the freedom to
live life as they once knew it, these Germans from Russia emigrated
to the one country that would allow them this freedom: They set
out to America.
Many Germans from the Volga region
of Russia poured into the growing territories of the Mid-West. While
German-Russians settled into land as far away as California, Michigan,
Nebraska, and parts of Canada, an overwhelming number flocked into
the Dakota Territory. As more and more German-Russians immigrated
into America, available homesteads in South Dakota decreased. So,
around 1884, German-Russians began filling up the territory that
would become North Dakota. Consequently, North Dakota currently
has twice the number of Germans from Russia as any other state in
the U.S.
Most of Sinner’s book concentrates
on poetry written during a dark period of time in German-Russian
history. This period began with the outbreak of World War I in 1914.
German-Russians served Russia in the war but were still declared
“spies and saboteurs.” All German culture, including the
use of German language in schools and churches and the printing
of German-language newspapers, was prohibited.
Conditions grew ever worse for the
German-Russians when World War II began. In the beginning, Hitler
and Stalin struck an agreement to return all ethnic Germans to Germany.
The Russian government ordered the German-Russians to pack their
goods and return to Germany.
However, in 1941, war broke out between
Germany and Russia. This ceased the transportation of German-Russians
back to Germany. However, their displacement proceeded, nonetheless.
Russians forced German-Russian men into prison camps and treated
them as enemies of the state. The Red Army rounded up German-Russians
en route to Germany, and transported them back to Russia in cattle
cars.
Sinner described how this dark period
affected poetry, both from Germans still in Russia, and from their
friends and family who had emigrated to America: “For the ones
who were in America, a lot of their poetry deals with memories of
the old country, memories of the old village. There was a darkness
and a melancholy attached to that because of what happened after
the Soviet regime took power in 1917.” The old way of life
began to collapse, Sinner said. “There was increased urbanization…village
life was destroyed forever,” Sinner described. “There
were mass executions and famines. An entire way of life was destroyed.
So, when you read these poems here in America by these Russian-German
poets, this was their way to sort of help them as part of the grieving
process. Their old way of life was dead.”
Despite their dark history, Miller
sees no end to the possibilities of keeping this German-Russian
heritage alive into this new century and beyond. He said: “When
people ask me, ‘What is the future of preserving this heritage?’
I think that the whole aspect of [preserving] this heritage and
culture of Germans from Russia has taken on a whole new realm because
of the technology. Because of Web sites and Internet e-mail, it’s
grown and it’s activities for us. Our German-Russian collection,
we wouldn’t be publishing if it wasn’t for that.”
Sinner agrees that it’s important
that the history and culture of German-Russians are shared, both
for German-Russian descendents and for all other Americans. This
poetry teaches us about dark times in human lives. “It’s
a topic that I feel is not dealt with enough, it needs more attention,”
Sinner said. “That’s part of this anthology; these poets
talked about what happened to them in the earlier times. It’s
not pleasant. It was hell on earth.”
Historical
information provided by the Germans from Russia Heritage Collection,
NDSU Libraries, Fargo, ND
http://www.lib.ndsu.nodak.edu/grh
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