This book has a relatively narrow appeal because it is written in less personal terms than most of the others. It is full of political detail, based in part on interviews with Volga Germans living in the United States; in part on printed sources, including some in the Russian language. It comes out of a study called The Germans from Russia in Colorado Study project at the Colorado State University. James W. Long did research in libraries in the Soviet Union itself. He debunks a number of myths popular about the Volga Germans, such as the idea that the Germans were invited to Russia "as model farmers invited to tame and transform the Russian frontier." He also does not believe that the Russian government specifically sought German settlers, but got them because of the stresses these people were under at the time in their home territories.
The portion of this book that interested me most, partly because it was not treated elsewhere, was the chapter on the zemstvos that flourished in some areas in the later decades of the 1800s. These were democratic governmental units, roughly analogous to United States county commissioners, which were designed to give local people of whatever ethnic background responsibility for the governance of their community. A number of German colonists achieved real stature (Peter Louck was one) as they worked with their Russian neighbors to establish schools, drill wells, build bridges and dams, provide medical care, expand job opportunities for nonfarmers, and promote other community improvements. They also cooperated to provide reserves of grain to keep their communities alive during the inevitable droughts. The zemstvos were swept away with the political changes of the early twentieth century.
Readers who want a different perspective on the forces that played on the Germans of South Russia, and who are willing to read challenging material, will enjoy this book. Some of Long's ideas are likely to shake up our old beliefs, but that is, after all, what we pay scholars to do.
Review © 2003 by Edna Boardman
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