Russian and Soviet Germans

Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 56. Chapters: History of Germans in Russia and the Soviet Union, Baltic Germans, Georg Leibbrandt, Russian Mennonite, Volga Germans, Caucasus Germans, Reinhold Glière, Vsevolod Meyerhold, Molotschna, Jefferson Park, Chicago, Vilyam Genrikhovich Fisher, Mennonite settlements of Altai, Vistula Germans, Vvedenskoye Cemetery, Otto Schmidt, Vladimir Wiese, Germans in Kyrgyzstan, Pyotr Schmidt, Alexander Geynrikh, Volhynia, Count Nikolay Adlerberg, Germans from Russia, Nikolai Essen, Crimea Germans, Alexander Schmorell, Vasiliy Ulrikh, German Quarter, David Rigert, Alexey Miller, Volkovo Cemetery, Germans of Kazakhstan, Paul de Schlözer, Smolensky Lutheran Cemetery, Anatoly Durov, Pavel Pabst, Johann Cornies, Adrian von Renteln, Vasili Altfater, Edgar Gess, Alt Danzig, Andrei Stackenschneider, Arthur Leist, Hans Tiedge, Black Sea Germans, NKVD Order No. 00439, Karl Fuchs. Excerpt: The Baltic Germans (German: , or Baltendeutsche) were mostly ethnically German inhabitants of the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea, which today form the countries of Estonia and Latvia. The Baltic German population never made up more than 10% of the total. They formed the social, commercial, political and cultural élite in that region for several centuries. Some of them also took high positions in the military and civilian life of the Russian Empire, particularly in Saint Petersburg. In 1881, there were approximately 46,700 Germans in Estonia (5.3% of the population). According to the Russian Empire Census of 1897, there were 120,191 Germans in Latvia, or 6.2% of the population. In the 12th and 13th centuries Germans, both colonists (see Ostsiedlung) and crusaders, settled in the Baltic. After the Livonian Crusades they quickly came to control all the administrations of government, politics, economics, education and culture of these areas for over 700 years until 1918, despite remaining a minority ethnic group. Whilst the vast majority of urban lands were colonised by traders, rural estates were soon formed by crusaders and their descendants. With the decline of Latin, German quickly became the language of all official documents, commerce and government business for hundreds of years until 1919. The region was politically subordinated to the rule of the monarchs of Sweden until 1710, and the tsars of the Russian Empire until 1917. Both these successive ruling kingdoms guaranteed the continuation of Baltic Germans' special class privileges and administration rights when they incorporated the provinces into their respective empires. In contrast to the Baltic Germans, the ethnic majority of Estonians and Latvians had restricted rights and privileges and resided mostly in rural areas as serfs, tradesmen, or as servants in urban homes. This was in keeping with the social scheme of things in Imperial Russia, and lasted well into the 19th century, when emancipation from ser