In the next few years, Catherine the Great expanded Russian territory dramatically by conquering Turkish controlled land to the south and Polish land to the west. Catherine again wanted Germans to help in developing her new territories, especially around the north side of the BLACK SEA. This time she turned to the Mennonites of West Prussia. Mennonites are a pacifist denomination. Frederick William II was demanding payment of heavy fines in lieu of military service and forced the Mennonites to pay tithes to the established Lutheran Church on earlier land purchases from Lutherans. They were particularly attracted to Russia by the offer of freedom from military service. In 1789, 228 Mennonite families arrived at Chortitza on the Dnieper River. They had been preceded to the general region by a smaller group of Lutherans. The Mennonite migration continued into the area for another 80 years with thousands more families answering the call. Thousands of other Germans followed the Mennonites. Lutherans and Catholics began flooding into the area, starting particular after the Napoleonic wars (1803 through 1810). They not only came from the southwest German states but also from West Prussia, Hungary, and Poland. Hundreds of German colonies sprang up in a semi circle around Odessa, now in the UKRAINE.
Another war with Turkey brought Russia more territory, the region of BESSARABIA on the west side of the Black Sea. By 1816, over 1500 German families moved into this area, most of them from Poland. Migration continued with population increases coming from Baden, Wuerttemberg, Hesse, and Alsace. Further colonization took place north of the Sea of Azov, in the CRIMEA, and the CAUCASUS.
In VOLHYNIA, early German settlement was sporadic. One of the first colonies was at Koretz in 1783. A few Mennonite agricultural villages were established prior to 1793 but most of them moved on to the Black Sea region within a few decades. The first permanent settlement came in 1816 but significant migration into Volhynia did not occur until the 1830s. The migration to Volhynia occurred under vastly different circumstances than that to other parts of the Russian empire. Polish landlords who had retained land after the Russian occupation were looking for qualified farmers to develop and farm their land. No special privileges were extended to these immigrants except for that which could be provided by the local nobility. It was the shortage of land in their old homes that drove most of the Germans into this region. By 1860, there were only about 5000 in 35 small villages. Then, with the abolition of serfdom in 1861 and the failed Polish Insurrection of 1863, Germans began to flood into this area. By 1871, there were over 28,000 and by the turn of the century, over 200,000 lived in Volhynia. Most of them had come from Poland with a minority from Wuerttemberg, Pomerania, East Prussia, Silesia, and Galicia."
Primary historical source: From Catherine to Kruschev, The Story
of Russia's Germans; by Adam Giesinger; Published by the American Historical
Society of Germans from Russia
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