History of Germans in Russia and the Soviet Union, History of Germans in Russia and the Soviet Union - Decline of the Russian Germans, History of Germans in Russia and the Soviet Union - Germans in central Russia and Ukraine, History of Germans in Russia and the Soviet Union - Germans in the Baltics, German Russian, Volga German, Volga German Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, German operation of the NKVD
The earliest German settlement in Russia dates back to the reign of Vasili III in the 16th century. A handful of German and Dutch craftsmen and traders were allowed to establish themselves in Moscow's German Quarter (Немецкая слобода, or Nemetskaya sloboda), providing essential technical skills in the capital. Gradually, this policy extended to a few other major cities.
Peter the Great was greatly influenced by the international community located in the German Quarter, and his efforts to transform Russia i ...
See also Baltic German
The German presence on the eastern shores of the Baltic Sea dates back to the Middle Ages when traders and missionaries started arriving from central Europe. The German-speaking Livonian Brothers of the Sword conquered most of what is now Estonia and Latvia (the former Livonia) in the early 13th century. In 1237, the Brothers of the Sword were incorporated into the Teutonic Knights.
Over the course of the next several centuries, the Teutonic Order solidified into a regime of mostly German-speaking ...
The decline of the Russian German community started with the reforms of Alexander III. In 1871, he repealed the open door immigration policy of his ancestors, effectively ending any new German immigration into the Empire. Although the German colonies continued to expand, they were driven by natural growth and by the immigration of Germans from Poland.
The Russian nationalism that took root under Alexander III served as a justification for eliminating in 1871 the bulk of the tax privileges enjoyed by Russian Germans, and after 1874 the ...
