​German Russian resilience: they came to Russia for the land and left to avoid becoming Russians

By Michael M. Miller

Francie M. Berg, native of Hettinger, N.D., edited an impressive book, “Ethnic Heritage in North Dakota,” published in 1983. She grew up on a ranch near Miles City, Montana. Her son, Richard Berg, is Interim President at NDSU.

In her article, “Most North Dakota Germans came from Russia,” Berg wrote:

They went to Russia largely to obtain free land. They left Russia largely to avoid becoming Russians. But once they came to the United States, they encountered even stronger pressures that worked against their intense desire to maintain their German identity.

Unlike most immigrant groups who willingly became Americans, the German-Russian settlers who came to North Dakota wanted to preserve their culture, just as they had done for 100 years in Russia. When the German-Russians came to North Dakota, they were thrown into a mix of other newcomers and into a new structure of government and commerce.

Individual homesteads replaced the colonial communities of the Volga and Black Sea regions in Russia, where German-Russians of various religious faiths had lived separately in villages and worked the surrounding farmland.

In North Dakota, compulsory schools were conducted in English. Social pressure, during two world wars that pitted Americans against Germans, also forced German-Russians to identify with the United States. Economic and cultural privileges that had helped the German-Russians maintain their culture in Russia stemmed from promises Catherine the Great and Alexander I (her grandson) gave to attract German farmers in Russia to settle new land and boost agricultural output.

In the late 1800s, the privileges were revoked when new, nationalist Russification policies were instituted. Changes in policy in Russia included universal military service, which meant German youths would have to leave their ethnic communities for a harsh life in a culturally mixed army.

Russian language was made mandatory. In addition, life in Russia was sometimes harsh, and Russians became increasingly jealous at the higher standard of living enjoyed by the German settlers.

Beginning around 1870, many of the Germans felt it was time to move on again. The homestead acts in the United States and Canada offered new land and escape from problems in Russia.

Dr. Armand Bauer said:

Many of the German-Russian emigrants didn’t know where they were headed until they were aboard the ships, whose captains had quotas of settlement for other countries such as Brazil and Argentina. For instance, some German-Russians were refused entry to the United States because they suffered from an eye ailment called trachoma, to which many were susceptible.

By 1885 to 1905, when most of the 28,000 German-Russians who immigrated to North Dakota arrived, either from Russia or from other settlements in America, much of the better homestead land, particularly in eastern North Dakota, had been taken. The homestead land that remained included prairie similar to the steppes in Russia.

“Some people look at North Dakota’s lack of trees and call it empty and desolate,” said Dr. Timothy Kloberdanz, former professor at NDSU. “North Dakota German-Russians will say it is free, open without trees that have to be cleared for farming. Hills indeed were thorns in the eye.”

“The German Russians formed a large triangle in the central part of the state,” Elwyn B. Robinson wrote in his 1966 book, “History of North Dakota.” “The base of the German-Russian triangle ran from Dickey County to Hettinger County along the southern boundary of the state; its apex was in Pierce and McHenry counties.”

It was there German-Russians built homes made mostly of sun-dried bricks, a cheap available material they had been accustomed to in Russia.

Life had been hard in Russia, where the German-Russians had developed a reputation for resilience and willingness to stick to the land. That reputation was tested in North Dakota. They were basically wheat farmers, which made them vulnerable to drought, other natural disasters and the Depression of the 1930s, when many lost their land and moved to California.

“German-Russians were good farmers,” Bauer said. “And their greatest contributions to the development of North Dakota probably was in the field of agriculture.”

Modern winter wheats were developed in part from grain brought to the United States by German-Russian immigrants. Bauer said that perhaps one factor that worked against German-Russian cultural preservation in North Dakota was individual homestead land, as opposed in Russia, where the Germans lived together in villages and worked the surrounding land.

“The German-Russians tried and failed to preserve their language as common usage in North Dakota, although many descendants can speak the language today. The religious barriers between Catholics and Protestants are virtually gone,” according to Bauer. He said the German language ethnic identity seems to fade with each successive generation.

“The initial generations of German-Russian immigrants have been stereotyped as disinterested in politics and higher education, and as having an aversion to war and military service,” said Dr. Gordon Iseminger, professor emeritus of history at the University of North Dakota. “I’m not so sure they were anti-war, anti-military.”

“German-Russians have been viewed for their lack of involvement in business or political office, which stemmed from their background and preference for agriculture,” Bauer said.

According to Iseminger, North Dakota has the highest concentration of German-Russians of any state in the United States. McIntosh County has the highest concentration of German-Russians. Robert Wilkins, UND historian who wrote a book of North Dakota history, said that although people of various ethnic backgrounds helped settle the state, and new people continue to move into the state, the overall population will always be mostly Norwegian and German-Russian.

For more information about donating family histories and photographs, or how to financially support the GRHC, contact Jeremy Kopp, at jeremy.kopp@ndsu.edu or 701-231-6596; mail to: NDSU Libraries, Dept. 2080, PO Box 6050, Fargo, N.D. 58108-6050; or go to ndsu.edu/grhc. Contact the author directly at michael.miller@ndsu.edu or 701-231-8416.