According to Gottlieb Beratz, a Volga German historian, the first group of German colonists arrived in Kratzke on 7 August 1767. This colony was founded by Baron de Boffe. In all, Baron de Boffe founded a total of 10 German colonies and 1 French colony west of the Volga River and south of Saratov.

The first statistical report on Kratzke was made by Count Orlov to Empress Catherine II on 14 February 1769. It outlines that there were a total of 127 inhabitants (67 men and boys and 60 women and girls) in Kratzke comprising 34 families. These families had a total of 47 hourses, 13 work oxen, 69 cows & calves, and 6 pigs among them. There were a total of 48 houses in the colony at the time. Other population statistics can be found under the population statistics link.

There was a school in Kratzke from the earliest days. The 1798 Census indicates that the schoolmaster was Nikolaus Rupp (age 41) who was originally from Huck, but who had been living in Balzer before moving to Kratzke. By 1904 there were 200 students. The school fee was 5 kopek per student. The teacher in Kratzke received 450 rubles for his efforts in Kratzke during that same year.

In September 1773, the notorious rebel leader Yemelyan Ivanovich Pugachev assembled a small band of guerrilla forces in southern Russia. Claiming to be Tsar Peter III, Pugachev promised freedom and land to the serfs and other discontented peoples. Assuaged by these promises, his force reached several thousand rather quickly. During 1773 and 1774 his band rampaged throughout the Volga region, capturing the city of Saratov on 6 August 1774. From the 9th through the 13th, Pugachev’s renegades traveled from Saratov to Kamyshin wrecking havoc as they went from village to village among the German colonies. The colonists in Kratzke also were caught in the crossfire of this rebellion. Gottlieb Beratz reports the following:

In the colony of Kratzke, soon after his arrival, Pugachev erected gallows and strung up four strangers thereon. “Thereupon these monsters,” reported the witness Dewald, “ransacked the few houses of our then still very small village, took what pleased them, struck old men and women, as well as children, with their whips and rods, but without killing anyone, and then camped near the village. Before dawn was visible on the horizon, a few houses in the village here and there began to burn. At the same time the whole pack of brigands with their leaders got up and left our village. As there was no wind that morning, the fire did not spread and even in the farmyards where it had broken out, much could still be saved. All the grain, hay,and straw on the threshing floors, however, fell prey to the flames. Also, everything that the robbers came across in the fields was completely destroyed. The livestock that they could catch also was partly butchered on the spot, partly driven away with them.”

Following an unsuccessful campaign against Moscow, Pugachev was finally captured in the Urals by the forces of Tsarina Catherine II on 15 September 1774. He was executed in Moscow on 11 January 1775 for his crimes. The devasting consequences of his raids through the German colonies along the Volga River were to be felt for many years.

On 11 October 1798, a Mr. Sixtel completed a report on the condition of the Kratzke colony and its inhabitants. This report was made to the Office of Immigrant Oversight which at the time was responsible for monitoring the progress of the German colonies. This report indicates that there were a total of 210 people in the colony making up 39 households. There were 112 men & boys and 98 women & girls. All the families were Lutheran with the exception of two which were of the Reformed faith. There was a school teacher and a separate building which functioned as a school house. The congregation was currently without a pastor as he had moved to the parish of Katharinenstadt.

All of the families were engaged in farming. There was one who had skills as a dyer and two who were also shoemakers in the colonies. The colonists are noted as being diligent workers. The houses in the colony were ramshackle in condition with wattle and daub fences surrounding their yards. There was a mill located along the Karamysh Brook which ran along the northern edge of the colony. The report further indicates that there had been trouble with gophers distroying the crops during the summer of 1798, and that the colonists did not have an effective means with which to combat them. Many of the colonies had public granaries, but the report indicates that Kratzke did not have such a facility because it lacked the forested land from which lumber could be cut to build a granary.

Beratz, Gottlieb. The German Colonies on the Lower Volga: Their Origin and Early Development. Lincoln, NE: American Historical Society of Germans from Russia, 1991.

Giesinger, Adam. From Catherine to Khrushchev: The Story of Russia's Germans. Lincoln, NE: American Historical Society of Germans from Russia, 1981.

Mai, Brent Alan, ed. A Description of the Saratov Colony of Pochinnaya [Kratzke] 1798. Lincoln, NE: American Historical Society of Germans from Russia, 1995.

Web page by: Brent Mai and Bob L. Berschauer

Contact: Brent Mai E-mail

Last Update 24 May 2000