There Is Always Room For One More: Volga German Stories and Recipes

by Rebecca Nab Young

Overview

From living on a farm and then a ranch in Wyoming I have a passion for good food and recipes. I also am immersed in the history and personal stories of the Volga Germans. All my grandparents came from Russia, but were of German descent. This places me in a small, but unique group of people within the United States. I would like to introduce you to these wonderful, hardworking people who still cling to their values, tradition, and religion.

I decided to combine my Volga German upbringing with stories and recipes from my childhood and beyond.

I now reside in Cave Creek, AZ with my husband David and new AZ Rescue A Golden, Dudley DoRight.

I work in the food and beverage department for a 5 diamond resort in Scottsdale, AZ. I continue to research the Volga Germans through my family tree and I still cook and bake our special german foods from “scratch”.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781456728922
Publisher:	AuthorHouse
Publication date:	04/05/2011
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	992 KB

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There Is Always Room For One More at Our Dinner Table

Volga German Stories and Recipes

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By Rebecca Nab Young

AuthorHouse

Copyright © 2011 Rebecca Nab Young
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4567-2893-9

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Chapter One

Dedication

My soul was born in Russia next to the Volga River. I am not Russian, however. My ancestors came to Russia from Germany in the 1760s to homestead on land given to them by Tsarina Catherine who was also German born. Catherine had become Empress of all Russia when her husband Tsar Peter III was deposed and assassinated in 1762. She needed help taming the Russian Steppes, which were open prairie lands like our North and South Dakota. She knew her people to be hardworking and tenacious. My great, great, great, great grandfather was Wilhelm Nab, born in 1743. He was a miller from Darmstadt and arrived in the German village of Kraft, Russia in 1766.

It took my grandfather almost one year to get from Germany to Saint Petersburg on a ship named the Elephant, and then by wagon to Kraft. Many, many Germans died making the long trek to the Steppes. Many more died that first winter because they had no homes or crops. It was a harsh life with long winters filled with death. Only the strongest survived to flourish and establish more villages and farms. The new German homesteaders did not mingle with the Russian people much. They kept to themselves and their own ways.

My people lived in Russia for about 250 years before revolution and persecution became inevitable. When revolution arrived in 1874 and subsequent years, more began migrating; however, this time it was mostly to America. My grandparents came to America between 1901 and 1912. My mother's mother Anna Marie Bauer was only 1 year old when she arrived in America, but my father's mother Susanna Nab was thirty-one. Grandma Nab always missed her home in Russia, and she continued to speak German and dress in smocks worn over a long dress. She had very long white hair that she wore in a bun on the top of her head. She never learned to speak or write English. I never saw her in a pair of pants. Grandma Bauer, on the other hand, was modern. She wore her hair short, she wore pants, and she spoke English. My mother Helen didn't speak German until she was 18 and married my father Harold. Mom and Dad lived with his parents on their farm for over a year, so because Grandma Nab couldn't speak English, my mother learned German. My mother and father spoke German quite a lot at home when I was a child, but mother wanted us to be "real" Americans, so speaking German eventually stopped in our household. My mother is one of the last people I know who still speaks the ancient German dialect brought from Russia.

I grew up on many farms that my father rented. We grew corn, pinto beans, white beans, sugar beets, and alfalfa. Even though we were poor by today's standards, we had plenty to eat. We had three milk cows and dozens of chickens. Mom also had a big garden, and she and I spent a lot of the summer canning and freezing corn, tomatoes, peas, and so on. Mom bought lugs of apricots, peaches, pears, and cherries for us to can. We had a room in the basement where we stored jars of fruits, jellies, pickles, and vegetables. It was a wonderful sight—all the rows of food for the winter. We called this room the fruit room.

My grandmothers, mother, and aunts were all great cooks; everything was cooked from scratch from recipes handed down from the Russian villages. Each woman in the family had her own specialty and no one else would bring that dish to our family gatherings. Aunt Esther Wagner made the best grebbles or sugared doughnuts. Aunt Esther Schmidt made a delicious vegetable soup. My mother made the great cabbage buns and still does.

I wrote down my family recipes so that they will not be lost for all time. Some of the recipes I learned how to make over the years from watching my mother, grandmothers, and aunts. Some have become family favorites. This book is dedicated to all the brave Volga German women who made the journey to Russia and then to America. I especially dedicate it to my grandmothers Anna Marie Bauer and Susanna Kinsfather Nab, to my Mother Helen Bauer Nab, and to my daughter Nikki Innes Alford who asked me to write this book. I want to thank my grandmothers for all the great food and recipes and my mother for teaching me how to cook and keep the ways of Unserer Leute, which means, our people.

With my best wishes for eating well and enjoying a walk back in time.

Important Dates in the Lives of German Russians

April 21, 1729 Sophia Augusta Frederica of Anhalt-Zerbst was born in Germany. She later ruled Russia with the name of Catherine II, better known as Catherine the Great.

1756–1763 The Seven Years' War takes place. It is an important factor in bringing Germans to the Lower Volga to establish colonies.

June 28, 1762 Catherine II, or Catherine the Great, ascends to the throne of Russia.

December 4, 1762 The first Manifesto is issued by Catherine II. She invites foreigners to come to Russia to live. The invitation brings few to the country.

July 22, 1763 Catherine II issues a second manifesto. It spells out in detail the conditions under which foreigners can immigrate and grants them special privileges and rights. Large numbers of German peasants accept the invitation to live in the country.

1764–1767 German colonies are founded along the lower Volga River.

1771–1774 Kirghiz raids during Pugachev's rebellion in what is called the Pugachevshchina. The Volga colonies are decimated as a result.

1786 Mennonites from West Prussia begin coming to Russia because the 1772 Partition of Poland threatens military exemptions that the Mennonites make use of as conscientious objectors. The Mennonites settle primarily in the Taurida region in southern Russia.

1793 The second partition of Poland grants an area of Volhynia to Russia. Polish landowners invite the German peasants to lease land for farming.

November 6, 1796 Catherine II dies at the age of 67.

1796–1801 The son of Catherine II Czar Paul I reigns.

1801–1825 Tsar Alexander I, the beloved grandson of Catherine II, reigns.

February 20, 1804 Alexander I modifies and reissues the Manifesto of Catherine II, inviting foreigners to settle in New Russia.

1825–1855 Tsar Nicholas I, who is the grandson of Catherine II and a brother of Alexander I, reigns.

1830 A Polish insurrection brings the immigration of many Polish Germans to the Bessarabia and lower Volga region.

1855–1881 This is the time of the reign of Tsar Alexander II, great grandson of Catherine II and the son of Nicholas I.

1860s Another flood of Germans immigrate to Volhynia prompted by the abolishment of serfdom. This leaves a significant lack of a work force. A second Polish uprising in 1862 brings more Polish Germans to Volhynia and other parts of Russia.

1871 Germany is unified as a nation for the first time. This created great unease among other European nations and Russia. It is a time of animosity toward foreigners in Russia due to a Slavophile movement and growing nationalism.

June 4, 1871 The Imperial Russian Government issues a decree repealing the manifestos of Catherine II and Alexander I. It terminated the special privileges of the German colonists.

January 13, 1874 The Imperial Government of Russia issues a second manifesto amending the previous one. This decree institutes compulsory military conscription for the German colonists. This sends thousands of German Russians fleeing to North and South America.

1881–1917 This is the reign of Tsar Nicholas II, a descendent of Catherine II. He abdicates during World War I. On July 16, 1918, the Bolsheviks execute him and his family. Nicholas II is the last monarch to rule in Russia.

July 28, 1914 The start of World War I.

1915 The Eastern Front advances. The Volhynian Germans are deported to the Lower Volga and South Russia.

December 13, 1916 The Volga Germans are ordered to be banished. This is never carried out because of other troubles in Russia at that time.

November 7, 1917 The Bolshevick Revolution in Russia is led by Vlaimir Lenin. This is the beginning of the Communist regime.

June 24, 1918 Lenin establishes the Autonomous Volga German Workers Commune, which becomes the forerunner of the ASSR of the Volga Germans. It is founded in 1924.

1920-1923 This is a period of famine in Russia. Death by starvation in the Volga- German colonies alone is estimated at 166,000, one third of the population. Assistance is provided by the American Relief Administration.

January 1924 Autonomous Socialist Soviet Republic of the Volga Germans is established.

1928–1933 A second famine claims many lives throughout Russia.

1928–1940 German farms and property are taken away by the Soviet government. Volga Germans are forced onto collective farms or they migrate to cities. This is the period of Stalinization.

September 1, 1939 World War II begins.

June 22, 1941 Nazi Germany invades Russia.

August 20, 1941 This is the beginning of exile and banishment of the Germans left in Russia. The Crimean Germans are deported.

August 28, 1941 A decree is put out ordering the deportation of the Volga Germans to the northeastern area of the Soviet Union. This includes Middle Asia and Siberia.

October 1941 The Germans in the North and South Caucasus are deported. Germans from St Petersbrug are also deported.

1991 The Soviet Union falls.

A Short History of Why Germans Went to Russia

Germany was not brought together as a nation until 1871. However, the German principalities and kingdoms shared a strong link with Russia. For centuries, Germans have lived inside of Russia's borders. They were especially drawn to the Baltic States where they were the landowners. During Peter the Great's reign, many Germans were given government positions. Under Elizabeth I, these positions were purged of foreign officers, primarily German officers.

On December 4, 1762, Catherine the Great, Tsarina of Russia, issued a manifesto asking Europeans to settle in Russia. There were few who answered the invitation. It was her second Manifesto of July 22, 1763 that offered freedom from military service, freedom from taxation, freedom of worship, and self-administration within the Russian Empire "for eternal time" that induced many Germans to migrate to Russia. Different enticements were used to get the emigrants to relocate to the Steppes of the Russian frontier. Stipends and loans were distributed to help with the relocation and establishment of colonies. Land was to be given as an inalienable and hereditary possession of the colony, though not to an individual for eternal time. Some colonists were allowed personal ownership. Catherine's timing couldn't have been better. The German peasants had suffered much through the Seven Years' War. Germany was a mix of 300 principalities and dukedoms, and these frequently changed hands politically and religiously.

With the opportunity to govern themselves and practice their own religion, thousands of Germans answered the call of Catherine's recruiters. With much effort, the recruiters mustered enough people, less than 500 families to populate 11 colonies on the Bergseite (hilly side) west of the Volga River and below the ancient settlement of Saratov. One of the recruiting teams consisted of a moderately successful trio of French men. They were Baron Jean de DeBoffe, Meusnier de Prescourt de Saint Laurent and Quentin Benjamin Coulhette d'Hauterive. The DeBoffe colonies were Bauer (Karamyshevka), Degott Kamey (oweag), Dietel (Oleshna), Franzosen (Rossoschi) Kautz (Wershinka), Kratzke (Potschennoje), Merkel (Makarovka), Rothammel (Pomjatnoje), Seewald (Werchnoje), Schuck (Grasnowatka), and Vollmer (Kopjonka). As you can see, these villages had Russian names, but they adopted names preferred by the colonists, which was usually the name of the leader of the colony.

Once recruited in Germany, the immigrants were gathered at various recruiting centers and organized for their travel to ports of departure along the northern coasts of Germany. Lubeck proved to be the best port. The vorstehers, or mayors, were then chosen from the more educated for their integrity, honesty, personal trust, and respect acquired from their fellow travelers. They were given responsibility for an assigned group of people. From these ports, the colonists sailed to a processing center at the mouth of the Neva Riva, in the harbor of St. Petersburg. Oranienbaum is an alternate name given for the center and is named for the local palace of Peter the Great. Here, the colonists were required to take the "Solemn Oath" to the Russian crown. Processing for the colonists could take weeks or months. Supplies were then purchased in Oranienbaum, and the colonists would then begin the final leg of the journey to their final destination with assigned escorting officers. The colonists had to winter along the way and were often put up in the houses of the Russian peasants. Many of the sickly and elderly died along this hazardous journey to their colony's location along the Volga.

Arrival at the colony sites was disastrous, to say the least. They had been promised finished houses in their new villages, but when they arrived, there was nothing. Instead, the Russian officers halted the wagons at predetermined sites on the barren sites and pointed out the location for the yet to be built colony. Because the colonists had arrived late in the summer there was little time to prepare for winter. Most of the colonists spent the winter in dugouts, or semlyanka, patterned after winter homes of nearby tribesmen. The Dietel colonists of my grandmother arrived on July 1, 1767.

What a difficult beginning. Many died of cold, illness, or starvation. The first three years were years of hardship, but those who survived persevered and eventually prospered. By the time the Volga Germans began migrating again, this time to the United States, there were about 1,700,000 hard-working, prosperous colonists.

The Women in my Life

Volga German women are tough. I know this first hand because I grew up surrounded by them. There was my grandmother Susanna Kinsfather Nab. She had five stepmothers when growing up in Russia. She never said what happened to them all, but I'm going to guess childbirth with no doctors, cold and pneumonia, or being worked to death. Women in Russia worked in the fields like slaves, had their babies at the end of a field, wrapped them up, and went back to work. The fields were sometimes very far away from the villages and at harvest time, the men could be gone for a month. The women would stay behind to look after the children, the livestock, and the house. My Grandma Nab never would talk much about Russia. She did, however, tell me that one harvest the men were gone a very long time in far away fields, and she was running out of meat. She politely went out to the pigs, sat on one, slit its throat, and butchered it herself! She told me this in German because she never spoke English. She did understand English, so she spoke to us in German, and we answered in English! It sounds rather strange, but it worked perfectly well and seemed normal to me.

(Continues...)

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Excerpted from There Is Always Room For One More at Our Dinner Table by Rebecca Nab Young Copyright © 2011 by Rebecca Nab Young. Excerpted by permission of AuthorHouse. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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