In our village in south Kazakhstan we had a large Volga Germans that been moved from Russia, they was the best non local foreigner neighbors better that Russians! They’ve learned Kazakh language faster and better that anyone else and even now they and only them who can speak our language very clearly even in some older style or manner! I highly respect this Germans even most of them now shifted to Germany but even from Germany they still sending us treating in our language! They left only worm memories about them here those whom are returned to Germany and gone for other states

I’m from small community in eastern Washington and many of the people including myself are descendants of Volga Germans. Mainly Yogodnaya Polyana. I am just learning of this part of my heritage, but remember so much of what I grew in. Many of my childhood friends are also descendants of this village, And the culture that I was raised in to me was just normal, but as I get older I realize how unique it was. The food, lifestyle, dress everything. I am deeply moved and amazed by all of this. The summer kitchen! Still used back home till this day. Thank you for this video

I’m 65% German Russian from the Strassburg settlement in Odessa on my father’s side. This is so interesting to me! My grandparents were thrifty, resilient and always made kuchen for holidays!

My sweet gramma was German Russian. I’m thankful they made it to US in 1900. Thank you for a wonderful program.

I wouldnt be here in North Dakota if wasn't for the Germans from Russia

I remember as a little girl, visiting on Sundays was a big deal. Everyone had such a great time. Spending time and dinner at grandma's, with Aunts, Uncles and cousins. Wonder memories.

Growing up in a mennonite family, knowing my grand grandmother born 1894 in Russia, listening to all stories about my ancestors I must say it's a very accurate documentary, especially the emotions and the "worldview" of the Russlandsdeutsche.

Thank you so much for making this video. I am 75 percent Volga German and my ancestors settled in Alberta and Sakatchewan Canada. This explains so much about my older relatives.

My great grandparents on both my mother and fathers side are Volga Germans. So proud of my heritage. Thank you for his documentary. Very miss understood culture.

July 26, 2020. I just watched this with my Mennonite mom & dad, my heart sings and is so sensitive to my own history. I happen to be a Canadian born one, my parents born in Chihuahua Mexico, grandparents from the Saskatchewan prairies, great grandparents from the old colony mennonites from Russia. The fortunate ones that left when first given the opportunity to come to Canada. In my trucking career of over 40 years, not a day goes by anywhere in this hemisphere, from Whitehorse in the Yukon south thru any part of Canada, anywhere USA, Mexico and south in my travels to Belize. Each day I have the privilege to share in low German a greeting. I believe if every Mennonite in the world would or could vote according to their convictions and conscience we truly could have a longer lasting kindness in this world. I am so grateful to belong. Isaac Peters

Thank you for this educational, very informative and touching documentary! Germans from along the Volga in Russia also settled in Lipscomb county in the panhandle of Texas. The town still holds a Deutsche Festival each July. The town (of just over 300 people) comes together to make beirox, butterballs and noodles, and kuchen and does an amazing job hosting this annual celebration that combines great food, a small parade, a melodrama, baseball tournament etc. I love learning more about the heritage of the town I grew up in, and the depth of these hard-working people!

Very interesting. My Mom's side of the family is German from Russia and it is so interesting to learn more about the cultural history. Thank you.

My great grandparents were German Russians from a town near the Black Sea. They went to Bismarck..

Vielen Dank für diesen tollen Bericht. Hat mich zum Weinen gebracht. Obwohl niemand aus meiner Familie von dort ist. Heimat.... so much more than “homeland”. There is the word Heimatland in German, ( homeland). Heimat is so much more...

I've been working on my family ancestry and this finally explains so much. This saddens me but also brings me peace. Thank you to my family who came here to America. And to my family who chose to stay in Ukraine/Russia, I wish you came with.

My maternal grandparents are German Russians from the Volga area and immigrated to the United States in the early 1900's. A most enjoyable and informative video.

Im from German Russian decent. My great grandparents immigrated from Odessa Russia to North Dakota, then to Canada. I remember my grandparents and mom and dad speaking german when I was a child, but I never learned the language. Maybe because they thought that the low German language was not worth passing along. This was a treat, thanks for posting this.

Germans from Russia sounds as beautiful as a story book. So happy with their simple life and friendly communities. But they do more hard work and live with more difficult hardship than any Disney book would add. Glad for this video 😀☺😊😃😄😆☺💐

My mother's family were germans from russia. I read Volga Germans by Sigrid Weidenweber and got a bigger picture of just what went on. Sent the book to my kids. Originally settled in Winnipeg due to US quotas at the time, then several years later, they moved to Lincoln. My mother's rules were never to talk of the "old country". Years later grandma shared some stories and later one cousin had a treasure trove of letters. Interesting that in the mid 1970s my grandmother, quite by chance, was able to make contact with a younger sister who ended up in Siberia. Such richness there of a tough people.

I'd like to add: the film was shot almost 20 years ago, the German settlements in Russia shown there are looking a bit better, there is a lot of renovation. I guess many of the old people in the film have passed away now. I used to know quite a few old Russian Germans and found them to be very nice, kind and caring people. God bless them all.

I am 72 and all my grandparents were Volga River Germans born in Franck Russia.They settled on farms in eastern Washington.

Both my mother's and my father's families are Volga Germans. They settled in Wisconsin.

My grandma is German but her and her family were born in the Ukraine, and they immigrated to Canada (Alberta) to flee the war. I have wondered why she doesn't say she's Russian-German but I think she just identifies way more with her German heritage (German songs, stories, food, etc). So cool learning about this stuff as a 2nd generation Canadian!! Viele danke für der Video!!

I'm a born German Mennonite, my father says Russians were horrible to Mennonites and then Hitler sent his soldiers to rescue the German Mennonites. This was after Katherine the Great. Weddings were also treated as funerals, still to this day they dress in black for wedding's. Lots of German Mennonite are still stuck in there ancestors experience, to my experience that has kept the Mennonites down on the ground, focused on suffering there past. There is respect for ancestors, but also seeing your father so focused on respecting the past and not the present family has also created a lot of suffering.

My grandparents didn't miss the old country. They made a good life in Portland OR. They carved holes in ice for water in Russia while praying wolves didn't attack! My grandma worked very hard in Russia, America was easy street compared.

On my paternal grandmother’s side is where the Hutterite and Mennonite German ancestry comes from in my family. Each of her grandparents except for her maternal grandmother have roots in Russia, and in fact her paternal grandfather, Paul T Hofer, was born in Neu Hutterthal, Ukraine (now called Derezivka, near Orikhiv) and immigrated to the US a few months later with his family. The Hutterites lived in Czechia, Slovakia, and Romania before making it to their Ukrainian settlements. The Hutterites are actually composed of ancestry from three different Germanic regions: some from Carinthian and Tyrolese Austria (surnames Hofer, Glanzer, Wurtz, Kleinsasser, Waldner), some from Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg in Germany (Tschetter, Walter, Pullman, Wipf, Mendel/Mandel, Wollman, Stahl) and some previously Mennonite from the Vistula Delta regions of Prussian Poland (Gross, Decker, Entz, Fast). If there’s anyone with this specific background out there, I’d love to see what connections we can make!

I enjoyed this video very much. My paternal grandparents were Germans from Russia who became farmers in North Dakota. Thank you for making this available on youtube.

These were the tough breed. Heart touching and inspiring!

This really hit home at times. Both my parents were of German Russian Catholic heritage. We had the huge family Sunday visits, strudel, kuchen, german songs, nursery rhymes. My mother (Bachmeier/Ruscheinski/Mueller/Miller, Dressler/Faehnrich)came age 4 from Caramurat, Romania in 1929 through Hamburg To Halifax to Manitoba then in 1939 to Richmond, BC. My dad's parents came from Odessa, UKR, Russia around 1900 through Ellis Island to Mandan, N. Dakota. They had it worse.. stories of soddy homes, babies and children dying of scarlet fever, starvation, bitter cold, extreme religiosity, general harshness of life was very sad. My GF worked for the railroad and met my GM in a saloon where she and her sisters worked. They had 11 children..the first 2 died at 5 and 3, then another brother at 9, full term twins were miscarried when the horses spooked and upturned the buggy, throwing my GM. They followed the railway work in 1918 Saskatchewan with CPRail. My GF was a herbalist as well with old country remedies and wrote a book..I cannot imagine how devastating losing small children to sickness could be...as the saying went..try not to love too much.. I have always appreciated growing up here in the Vancouver area and how easy we have had it compared to our ancestors. Most of my relatives according to Ancestry.ca DNA are in Alsace-Lorraine, and North Dakota. (Stoltz/Immel/Helbing/Leingang/Kaiser)

We are germans Not nazis. Very proud

Very important subject, and what I'd give to taste Oma's apple strudel (again) - there was a lot of love in that stuff.

My maternal great grandparents were from Walter and Frank and settled in Washington State. Their family names were Ils and Walter. The strudel lady so reminds me of my great grandmother. Thanks for putting this on KZfaq!

Thank you for this very much. German family from Russia through Dakota to Alberta is my history

What a wonderful documentary!

I'm glad this doc. is out there. I spoke to a family friend who tried to explain to her husband how her family weren't Russians or Ukrainian but Germans who spoke German.

Discovered this interesting ethnic movement recently when looking at Ukrainian graves in the nearby cemetery. There was one that stated that the lady came from Rosalienfeld Ua. I realized that was a German name and stumbled onto this story! I think it is now 'Feodorivka' in Kherson Oblast. Also we have some German folk from Bessarabia, but the old immigrants to Australia are passing away!

I am Sicilian, adopted in the Netherlands, from a Bessarabian born mother. My son asked me about our roots and if we are Russian or German. I love your movie(s)! These are great to teach him about the history of... and the feeling that goes with it. Thank you!

All of my grandparents were born as Volga River Germans. I am 72 and was raised in eastern WA.

My great-grandparents ended up in North Dakota in the early 20's and ended up in Montana... last name Glockhamer. My grandma used to make bierocks, sometimes I still make them..

I love these documentaries on other people’s heritage and cultures. All together make up America.

I have always felt grateful my paternal grandmothers family left the Volga area when they did to settle in Montana, the ones that stayed behind didn’t fair well.

Excellent! This is my heritage, such scope in this story, I never knew. Thanks for the telling.

What a gem of a documentary! I particularly enjoyed the description of how they build their houses. So interesting.

It was lovely to see them cooking together. I have no connections other than speaking German - studied it to age 18 in the UK but even so it is interesting to see why people got to where they did and to see a slightly older film that this is - made about 20 years ago.

My family the Koop's are part of that Journey, we ended up Kansas, then finally Corn Oklahoma. Our family joined with John Denver's family in Oklahoma in marriage. But the Koop's and Deutschendorf's were together in Russia. So that is how John Denver's family got here. His father did join the military so we can imagine that must have cause a stir. I remember John's father Hank at family reunion's telling us every year John is coming. Finally in the 80s he started showing up. Good times. We miss him.

The strudel makers! The older one sounds exactly like my great grandmother, whose voice I haven't heard since 1968! I love this thank you! All of the info is very good to get..

My great-great-great-grandfather was born 11th of May 1837 in Chortitza South Russia and my grandfather's Peter Martins born 25 dec 1910 moved from Canada to Mexico

I love their lower German which many of these folks speak even today.

What an amazing story and the many journeys, suffering and joys that made it all possible.

Thanks so much!!

I´m one of them and live in canada for 11 years, but I´d like to move on to Paraguay one day, good Video thanks

My great-grandparents came to ND from Kassel Russia. My grandparents then came to Cali in the 50s. I’m always looking up stuff about being a “German from Russia.”

My paternal grandmother's family immigrated from Worms, Russia. My paternal grandfather's family from the Crimea.

Danke Praire Public!

So glad I found this film! My Ancestry is Volga German and Bukowina German. Learning about all this so late in life.

Great historical video.... thank you !

Thank you for uploading.

The film mentions only the German immigration wave from Germanic states under Katherine the Great - which indeed was on the large scale. However, it doesn't mention that the German immigration to Russia was ever present since the Middle Ages. In Moscow there was always the German Region (Nemetskaya Sloboda) the place where Germans used to settle - which was and still is one of the central parts of the city. Petersburg always had a big Russian German population, they preferred to settle on Vasilyevsky Ostrov. The Russian Germans gone under the same privations and sufferings after the Bolshevik catastrophe as the rest of the Russian people. During the Second WW Stalin, afraid of the 5th column cruelly banished the the mayor bulk of St.Petersburg's Germans as well as agricultural German Volga population to Siberia and Kazakhstan, so they stay as far possible from the front line.

I'm SO enjoying these videos. What would be the difference between this group and the Germanic/Holland Dutch Mennonites that came out of Russia. My maternal side came out of the Ukraine. The food, the language, stir up memories of my very early years. I love genealogy, which the family church kept for many generations, ending in the 60's.

My grandfather would have loved this. Both his parents were Volga German. His mother who I had the blessing of growing up with in his home, immigrated from Frank, Russia in 1904. (Lebsack) His paternal grandparents immigrated in 1870’s (Koch anglicized to Cook later). My great grandparents farmed in southern Nebraska (Culbertson). They left in 1940 with all their grown sons for California. I was fortunate to grow up with all of them. I still cook all of my great grandmother’s foods and enjoy talking with other Volga German families about our shared history and culture. I learned tocook, stitch and crochet from her warm hands and still fondly remember those lessons

i found out my mothers side of the family is Volga German from choritza, this was highly informative and the comments are extremely helpful because my moms great grandparents were settled in Saskatchewan.

Just found this now. My maternal grandfather was German and grew up on a farm in the Ukraine in the U.S.S.R.. When he was young Stalin confiscated his parents' farm and they had to move to an industrial city to work in a factory. His father was sent to Siberia and died there. My grandfather emigrated to Saskatchewan, Canada after WWII and became a farmer. His brother stayed in Russia. A lot here that reminded me of him. Even the clothes and kitchen drawers and cupboards look exactly like my grandparents' old farm house😊💓

Thank you for very interesting history.

Thanks.

Thank you

thank you

There is so much to learn, I did not know this one

My family are Germans who still live in Russia. My ancestors are Volga Germans . There are many of us here.

my ancestors are from Russia but they are German! I didn't know this was a thing. Thanks.

My aunt was a Volga German. There was a large community in Chicago.

What a wonderful video

this makes my heart smile ☺

Wow, I am astonished! My greatmother from father side was half german from Basarabia....

This is good to know for my mom family was mennonite from Winkler Manitoba and last name was Giesbrecht back then so it may be part of our History that way

So much of my family history makes sense now. I have a family bible in German from 1870. I was told of the program from Russia. I have a picture of me as a newborn 5th generation in front of a sod house 1960 north Alberta ..family recipes are very east European. Hudderite and Mennonite Mormon sentiments.

Thanks for your videos, I'm Mennonite my great grandparents lived in Russia and moved to Manitoba Canada from there they moved to Mexico, cuauhtemoc city Mexico 100 years ago. Now the Mennonite s are spread all over the world

It was so refreshing to watch this today, showcasing the ideals of the immigrants to this country. The young today should learn what their ancestors went through, their beliefs and values instead of their protesting and rioting, working to destroy what makes this country great. My great grandmother was German. I enjoyed learning more of the immigrant experience, most of my information has been on the Irish side of the family. I am going to do more research on the German side.

I was born in Kasachstan (Taldy - Kurgan) and we are German. 1978 we go back to Germany. My Family lives there 200 years.

Some Volga Germans went to Argentina as well, where in the late 19th century there was a huge increase in lands taken from Indians and European farmers were badly needed. There are still villages in Santa Fe province and Entre Rios province where the majority today descends from those Volga Germans (though almost of them speak Spanish by now)

danke fur diese video

This is meaningful, thank you! I’ve German roots.

I have ancestors on both sides. This is such a great video, I learned a lot from it. Thank you!

Grebels, rhunzas, and what my grandma called dina kugle, which may be kuchen, a sweet bread with strudel or fruit on top. My grandma traveled from russia to England and then to winnepeg during early pregnancy. I can't imagine.

This is an awesome documentary! Thank you.

I thank you for this video. I am 50% Volga Deutsch. It was very nice to see this resource.

I am first generation German immigrant from the1970's and thought I had a rough start. Little did I know.

Descendant of Kansas Volga checking in. Wassup, fam? :D

Germans searching for religious freedom moved to Russia. And it worked for a long time but my ancestors, Mennonites, refused to integrate, they spoke German and they kept themselves apart. They moved to the three hills area of Alberta eventually where they live even today, speaking German and keeping themselves apart. My grandfather became a Baptist preacher breaking from the Mennonite ways and moved to Oregon. He was very proud of his heritage though, speaking occasionally of how members of the Janz family rescued hundreds of German Russians as things got bad there. I wish i knew more of that history, this documentary speaks to me of my own history. For fun you might look up the Janz Brothers on youtube, they sung religious songs in German back in the 50's, 60's.

my grandfather and grandmother were germans fro. germany and formed the german community in phillippi south africa and they were a very hardworking community who farmed with pigs cows poultry and planted the land with vegetables built the german church zions kirche and the school.

I know a Volga german family here in Sweden.

My brother-in-law family were Volga German. His mom never learned Russian nor English when they immigrated to America. Their culture was German, German Lutheran Church, etc. The children in America spoke German at home. All 5 sons served in our military.

Very interesting

My greatgrandparents were from Frank Russia enjoyed the commentary

Such a wonderful video! My father came from "Eigenfeld," a Lutheran German village in the Ukraine. I would love to know about that place.

My relatives homesteaded in Schefield outside of Dickinson.

Excellent 👍👍 presentation. Perhaps you could do one about my people in Transylvania Rumania

The Russians and the Germans have so much in common.

My grandpa's mother was a Volga German and his father was an American. They married here in Alberta, Canada. Always lovely to hear about the past and our peoples. If anyone in these comments lives in this region of Russia and is familiar with the Volga Germans, her family was Mennonite. Is that one of the more common denominations among Volga Germans or is it more uncommon? Does it point me towards a specific area/group of villages where the Mennonites primarily were/are or are all denominations spread out pretty evenly among Volga Germans?

Proud German from Russia. My family settled in Strasburg ND. They spoke about the Feist family, my grandmother was a Feist. I cant remember how she was related to the family they spoke of.

Maternal grandparents are Volga Deutsch and migrated from Dreispitz Russia and settled in NE Colorado and farmed sugar beets. We are of the Mueller and Meier clans.