A Shared Heritage

We recently attended the 54th Annual International Convention of the Germans from Russia Heritage Society. Many people outside of this group wonder and ask what is that all about. It is a group that celebrates the history, strength, and determination of some of our forefathers who survived under the most trying of conditions. Many in the reach of this newspaper can claim  this ancestry. I do, even though my name is Swedish with an Americanized spelling from Björling. My paternal grandmother immigrated from Ukraine with her Menge family and settled in this area. All the grandparents on my wife’s side immigrated from Ukraine, although this was on the west side of the Missouri River.

Many of these G-Rs settled in what today they are calling the “Sauerkraut Triangle.” Some of the towns referred to are Napoleon, Wishek, Ashley, Lehr, Linton, up to Rugby, and down to Aberdeen.

Here is how this whole storyline began. Catherine the Great of Russia came from Germany after marrying into the Russian hierarchy.  Her husband was a weak and waffling individual who could not match wits with his strong-willed wife. She, in effect, ran the country. In Germany she had observed how prosperous the farmers in her home country had been and saw how poorly the Russian farmers compared. Her solution: offer German farmers attractive enticements to settle in Russia and raise the agricultural standards.

Those enticements came in an attractive package: free land, religious freedom, no military service, self-governance, freedom of language, and more. How could they go wrong? Things went well. Catherine’s invitation was very timely because Napoleon’s army had come through the area and conscripted many men to serve with him. To escape his further grabs as well as the crop failures they’d been experiencing, resettlement in Russia looked good. There they prospered for about one hundred years, but then revolution, Lenin, and Stalin erased all the promises; The better option was to escape and emigrate to the promise of a better life in America.

With that we gathered, over 200 strong, to share stories of our heritage. Now this gathering isn’t the only one of its kind since several others exist in the country with similar goals and programs. The annual gathering for meetings and events for this particular group features many worthwhile presentations. In one of them I did not expect much but quickly changed my mind. Titled “German Artists of the Gulag,” it revealed a new facet of the struggle they faced. 

German artists detained by the Gulag system in the Soviet Union were tasked with providing works of propaganda. This was one of the better jobs because they could trade pieces of their artwork “under the table” with guards for extra helpings of food or other favors. A terrible story shocked us when we saw on the screen one of the paintings of a naked man tied to a tree. The artist painted his body full of little white dots, those dots depicting a multitude of mosquito bites, one of the ghoulish punishments handed out to prisoners.

The reality of second and third generations growing up German from Russia on the northern plains has generated a new book based on 200 oral histories collected in the area. Its first day of sales occurred at the convention, and I bought mine. Titled “Echoes of the Old Country,” author Jessica Clark and her team recorded their voices and memories which can be found easily by searching the NDSU library and Dakota Memories. You might find people you know.

A historian from Saskatoon, Sask. presented “The Gates of Europe: The History of Ukraine from a Germans from Russia Perspective.” A veteran presenter at this conference, he always dives deeply into his subject. Here he discussed how changes in Russian policies motivated immigration to America. 

We don’t intend to bore readers with discussing each and every topic in the program, but it wasn’t all grief and misery. Humorous folklore spoken in German and translated to English entertained. Cooking classes taught how to make Kuchen, Halupsi, and Kase Knoephla. A one-time Farm Broadcaster of the Year, Al Gustin, told of his G-R background. Accordion music played in the hallways. Meals featuring German dishes satisfied our hunger. A white elephant sale and a youth products sale raised money for the organization. And to wrap it all up a dance featuring old-time German music set people to moving on the dance floor.

 Large, comprehensive libraries have been established where interested people can read the history and search for specific information. One is the Germans from Russia Heritage Society Library in Bismarck. Housed in a relatively new building, it contains a helpful office staff that collects and catalogs pertinent materials in support of the G-R experience. 

In the NDSU library a Germans from Russia Heritage Collection is housed and proves to be  a valuable resource. Since its inception in 1978, this privately funded, specialized archive has become one of the most comprehensive collections of German-Russian resources in the world. The Germans from Russia Heritage Collection's mission is to share and preserve the history and culture of the Germans from Russia in North Dakota and the Northern Plains.

An interesting note about the NDSU collection it was built by a dedicated man from Strasburg named Michael Miller who worked at the library for an amazing 55 years before retiring. But he hasn’t stopped working since he still volunteers.

The next convention will be in Fargo next July. If interested contact the Bismarck G-R library for information. They would like new members.