1. (American Historical Society of Germans from Russia)
2. (German Russian Heritage Society)
3. Catherine The Great by John T. Alexander
Web page By: Bob L. Berschauer E-mail
Last update 20 May 1998
1756 Outbreak of seven years war [3,p48]
1762-1796 Reign of Catherine II the Great. [3,preface]
1762 First Manafesto inviting people of all nationalities, except Jews
22 Jul 1763 Second Manafesto: Colonists prommised the right to settle in any part
of Russia, payment of travel expense, freedom of religion, freedom
from; taxes for 30 years, military service and internal self government.
1763-1784 Migration from Western Europe, mainly from Prussia
1776 Declaration of Independence in the United States of America
1792 Treaty of Jassy.
1793 Second Partition of Poland. Mennonites from West Prussia settle in
the region of Ostrog.
1795 Third Partition of Poland.
1796 Odessa founded.
1799 Suvorov's Italian and Swiss campaigns (War of Second Coalition).
1796-1801 Reign of Czar Paul I, son of Catherine II.
1801 Russian suzerainty formally recognized by Georgia.
1801-1825 Reign of Czar Alexander I (the Well-Beloved), grandson of Catherine II.
1802 Philharmonic Society founded.
1803 Expedition around world.
1803 Czar appoints Richelieu governor of Odessa. Arrival of 2,990 immigrants.
1803 Alexander publishes Rescript on the colonization of "New Russia".
1803 Kanenius becomes president of the Colonist Welfare Office.
1804-1806 Grossliebental colonies founded.
1804-1806 Emigration to Franzfeld, Mariental, Josefstal by Odessa from
Alsace, the Palatinate, Baden.
1804-1806 Emigration to Halbstadt, Molotschna (Mennonites) from Danzig,
West Prussia.
1804-1806 Emigration to Prischib, Molotschna from Wuerttemberg, Baden, Hesse.
1804-1806 Emigration to Crimea (Neusatz, Zuerichtal) from Wuerrtemberg, Switzerland.
1805 Defeat at Austerlitz.
1805 Richelieu appointed governor of New Russia.
1806 Outbreak of war with Turkey.
1807 Defeat at Friedland.
1807 Treaty of Tilsit: alliance with France.
1807 Napoleon liberates the central region of Poland from Russia and calls
it the Duchy of Warsaw
1807-1909 War of Coalition against France.
1808 Congress of Erfurt.
1808-1809 Russo-Swedish war.
1808-1809 Constitutional reforms proposed by Speransky.
1808-1810 Glueckstal colonies founded.
1808-1810 Emigration to Kutschurgan District from Alsace, Baden, Poland.
1808-1810 Emigration to Beresan District from Alsace, Baden, Palatinate, Wuerttemberg.
1809 Treaty of Frederikshavn with Sweden: acquisition of Finland.
1809 Opening of official relations with United States.
1811 The first census of the colonists.
1812 Peace with Turkey at Bucharest: acquisition of Bessarabia.
1812 Napoleon's invasion of Russia.
1812 Odessa plague kills 2,656 people.
1812-1827 Emigration to Prischib, Molotschna from Wuerttemberg, Baden, Hesse.
1813 Battle of the Nations at Leipzig.
1813 Persia cedes Baku; incorporation of Georgia.
1814 Occupation of Paris.
1814 Richelieu returns to Paris; is succeeded by Count Langeron
1814-1816 Emigration to Bessarabia, Colonies near Odessa from Wuerttemberg,
Prussia, Poland, Bavaria.
1815 Napoleon is defeated. The Congress of Vienna creates the semi autonomous
state of Congress Poland under Russian rule.
1815 Congress of Vienna; Holy Alliance founded.
1815 Russia conquers Duchy of Warsaw.
1815-1820 The "golden years" of colonist prosperity.
1816-1819 Emancipation of peasants in Baltic provinces.
1817 1,360 Wuerttemberg families arrive at Ismail. 1,300 people
perish in quarantine camps.
1817-1818 Emigration to South Caucasus from Wuerttemberg.
1818 Constitution for Poland.
1818 Colonist Welfare Committee established. Inspectorates introduced in the colonies.
1818-1845 President of the Welfare Committee - General Ivan Insov.
1819 Colony of Hoffnungstal (Odessa) founded.
1820 The Jesuits expelled from Russia.
1825 Alexander visits South Russia - dies in the Crimea. Nicholas I becomes Czar.
1825-1855 Reign of Czar Nicholas I, brother of Alexander I.
1822-1831 Emigration to Swabian colonies near Berdjansk from Wuerttemberg.
1823-1842 Emigration to Granau area (Planer colonies) from: [Danzig, West Prussia,
Rhine-Hesse, Baden].
1825-1829 Good crops in the colonies. Building of new homes.
1825 Dekabrist Rising.
1826-1828 War against Persia; expansion in Caucasus region.
1826 Death of Karamzin.
1827 Battle of Navarino.
1828 Outbreak of war with Turkey.
1829 Peace of Adrianople.
1829 Platzer's plan to establish Central (secondary) schools.
1830-1832 Revolution in Poland.
1831 The first major Polish uprising causes many Germans to flee from Congress
Poland to work for Polish landlords in Volhynia, and to new settlements
in South Russia and Bessarabia.
1832 First commercial treaty with United States.
1833 The Black Year: no rain, no crops; famine and food relief.
1833 Treaty of Unkiar Skelessi.
1835 Colonial affairs under the Ministry of Imperial Domains.
1837 Death of Pushkin.
1839 Russian silver currency established.
1842 First Central schools established.
1845 Czar Nicholas I visits Pope Gregory XVI.
1845-1848 Councilor Hahn president of the Welfare Committee.
1846-1848 Years of colonist prosperity.
1848 Councilor Hahn directs writing of 1848 village histories.
1848 Colonist Codex established.
1848 Death of Belinsky.
1848-1853 President of the Welfare Committee - Baron von Rosen
1849 Suppression of Hungarian revolution.
1849 Johann Ludwig Bette, 28, of Johannestal/Odessa, with a small
party emigrates to USA, and settles in Ohio.
1850 Helanus Kahn becomes the first bishop of Tiraspol diocese.
1851 St. Petersburg-Moscow railroad opened.
1853 Occupation of Sakhalin and Korea.
1853 Emigration to Samara (Mennonites) from Danzig, West Prussia.
1853-1856 President of the Welfare Committee - Baron von Mestmacher.
1854-1856 Crimean War. (1853-1856?)
1855-1881 Reign of Czar Alexander II, son of Nicholas I.
1855 Fall of Sevastopol.
1855 Cholera epidemic.
1856 Peace of Paris.
1856 Death of Glinka.
1856-1858 President of the Welfare Committee - Islawin.
1857 Catholic seminary established in Saratov.
1857-1867 Herzen, The Bell.
1858-1866 President of the Welfare Committee - Alexander von Hamm.
1859-1862 Emigration to Samara (Mennonites) from Danzig, West Prussia.
1860 Founding of Vladivostok; Treaty of Peking.
1861 Emancipation of serfs. Land distribution. Redemption payments.
1862 Financial reform.
1862 Unterhaltungsblatt published. (the first German paper).
1862 US Homestead Act.
1863 Educational reform. (Prohibition of corporal punishment for school children.)
1863 Secession from Academy of Fine Arts.
1863 The last major Polish uprising is put down by the Russians. Germans begin
to flood into Volhynia.
1863-1864 Revolt in Poland.
1864 Judicial reform; introduction of Zemstvos. (The Zemstvo local self-government.)
1864 Bishop Kahn dies. Lipski becomes administrator.
1865 Capture of Tashkent.
1865 Corporal punishment of women abolished.
1866 Attempted assassination of Alexander II.
1866-1867 President of the Welfare Committee - Th. Lysander.
1867 Reduction of protective tariffs.
1867 Sale of Alaska to United States.
1867-1871 President of the Welfare Committee - Vladimir von Oettingen.
1868 Capture of Samarkand.
1869 Karl Marx, Das Kapital (Vol. I).
1869 Central School established in Grossliebental.
1870 Abrogation of Black Sea clauses of Treaty of Paris.
1870 Mennonites begin migration from Volhynia to the Americas.
1870 Municipal reform.
1871 The Colonist Codex is abrogated. Bismark unifies Germany.
1871 Privileges of colonists granted by Catherine and Alexander repealed.
1872 The first German colonists migrate to USA. (see 1849 - led by
Johann Ludwig Bette).
1872 Three Emperors' League (Germany, Austria, Russia).
1873 Conquest of Khiva.
1873 55 families from Rohrbach/Worms emigrate to the Sutton NE area.
1874 Introduction of universal military service.
1874 Colonists subject to army service.
1875 Southern Sakhalin ceded to Japan; western Kuril Islands acquired.
1875 First troup of 73 Colonists Emigrate to USA, settling in
Russell Co., Kansas.
1875-1876 New uprisings in Balkans.
1876 Death of Bakunin.
1876 Annexation of Kokand.
1877 Colonist Welfare Committee abolished.
1877 Reintroduction of protective tariffs.
1877-1878 War against Turkey.
1878 Treaty of San Stephano.
1878 Congress of Berlin.
1878-1881 Terrorist activities.
1878-1881 Populist movement.
1880 Abolation of the salt tax.
1881 Death of Mussorgsky.
1881 Death of Dostoyevsky.
1881 German schools under Ministry of Public Enlightment.
1881 Assassination of Alexander II.
1881-1894 Reign of Czar Alexander III, great-great-grandson of Catherine II.
1882 Famine in Russia.
1882-1886 Payments and burdens of emancipated serfs reduced.
1882-1890 Social legislation (child labor, working hours, factory inspection).
1883 Antonius Zerr becomes bishop of Tiraspol. Increase of colonist priests.
1884 Merv taken.
1885 Revolution in Bulgaria.
1887 Reinsurance Treaty with Germany.
1890 Anti-Jewish legislation enforced.
1891-1892 Franco-Russian alliance: French loans for Russia.
1891-1903 Trans-Siberian railroad constructed.
1892 Famine in Russia.
1893 German colonies receive Russian names.
1894-1917 Reign of Czar Nicholas II, great-great-great-grandson of Catherine II.
1896 Treaty with China regarding trans-Siberian railroad in Manchuria.
1896-1897 Strike movement.
1898 Social Democratic party founded.
1898 Port Arthur leased.
1899 Hague Peace Conference.
1899 Finnish legislature abolished.
1900 Boxer Rebellion.
1901 Russo-Persian treaty.
1902 Bishop Zerr resigns. Baron van Ropp, fourth bishop of Tiraspol.
1902 Anglo-Japanese Alliance.
1903 Menshevist-Bolshevist split in Social Democratic party.
1903 Abolition of joint-tax liability of peasants.
1903 Pogroms in Kishinev, Gomel.
1904 Joseph Kessler, Volga German, becomes 5th bishop of Tiraspol.
1904-1905 Russo-Japanese War.
1904 Assassination of Plehwe.
1905 Fall of Port Arthur; naval Battle of Tsushima.
1905 Demonstration under Father Gapon: Bloody Sunday.
1905 Peace of Portsmouth.
1905 Meeting of Tsar Nicholas with Emperor Wilhelm II of Germany.
1905 October Revolution.
1906 First Duma.
1906 Stolypin's agrarian reform; dissolution of mfr.
1907 Central School established in Landau.
1907 Second Duma.
1907 Second Hague Peace Conference.
1907 Anglo-Russian convention: foundation for Triple Entente.
1907 Russo-Japanese convention.
1907-1912 Third Duma.
1908 Convention with Austria at Buchlau.
1908 Progymnasium established in Landau by Fr. Scherr.
1910 Potsdam agreement with Germany regarding Baghdad railroad.
1910 Russo-Japanese treaty.
1910 Death of Tolstoy.
1910 Jacob Johann Berschauer emigrates to USA.
1912-1917 Fourth Duma.
1914 Assassination of Archduke Francis Ferdinand at Sarajevo.
1914-1918 World War I.
1914 Defeat at Tannenberg.
1915 Defeat in Galicia.
1915 Fall of Warsaw.
1916 Brusilov offensive.
1916 Assassination of Rasputin.
1917 Kerensky offensive.
1917 Church property confiscated.
1917 July uprising of Soviets.
1917 Russia becomes a republic; renewal of patriarchate.
1917 Bolshevist October Revolution (Lenin, Trotsky, Stalin); Kerensky government
overthrown. ("Bolshevik Coup").
1917 Armistice with Central Powers.
1917 So called February Revolution; abdication of Nicholas II; The establishment
of a Provisional Government.
7 Nov 1917 Bolshevik Revolution led by Nikolai Lenin. The beginning of the Soviet regime.
1918 Adapted Gregorian Calendar (Feb 1 became Feb 14).
1918 Constituent Assembly dispersed.
1918 Brest-Litovsk Peace Treaty with Central Powers.
1918 Outbreak of civil war; Allied intervention in Russia begins.
1918 Red Army created.
1918 Death of Nicholas II.
1918 First Soviet Constitution (Fundamental Law); creation of Federation of
Soviet National Republics.
1918 End of World War I; revolution in Germany.
1919 Treaty of Versailles; League of Nations founded.
1919 Third International (Comintern) established.
1919 Foreign trade monopoly established.
1919 Enforced requisitioning of grain. The Red massacre in Selz.
1920 The closing of the seminary. Bishop Kessler leaves Russia.
1920 Recognition of Soviets by Estonia.
1920 End of Allied intervention.
1920 End of civil war; death of Kolchak; withdrawal of Denikin and Wrangel.
1920 Treaty of Westphalia splits Poland in two. The west half, Rowno, goes
to Poland. THe east half, Zhitomir, stays part of Russia.
1920-1921 War against Poland.
1921-1922 Famine in the Volga region. (250,000-300,000 starve to death).
American Relief Administration provides assistance.
1921 Peace of Riga; cession of White Russian lands to Poland.
1921 Institution of N.E.P.
1921 Lenin's "New Economic Policy".
1921 Friendship treaties with Turkey, Persia, Afghanistan.
1922 Conference at Genoa; Treaty of Rapallo with Germany.
1922 End of Far Eastern Republic.
1922 Arrest of Patriarch Tikhon; dissolution of Synot.
1922 Stalin becomes secretary of Communist party.
1922 Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (U.S.S.R.) created.
1923 Revised Fundamental Law published.
1923 The Soviet registration of all churches.
1924 Death of Lenin.
1924 Treaty with China.
1924 Recognition of U.S.S.R. by England, Italy, France.
1924 Incident of Zinoviev letter.
1924 Trotsky stripped of power.
1924 Stalin becomes supreme dictator.
1925 Recognition of U.S.S.R. by Japan.
1925 Fourteenth Party congress: announcement of industrialization plan.
1926 Trotsky expelled from Politburo.
1927 Raid on Soviet trade headquarters in London; relations with England broken.
1927 Tenth Jubilee of Revolution.
1928 First Five-Year Plan inaugurated.
1928 Millions sent to the slave labor camps.
1928 Briand-Kellogg Peace Pact.
1929 East Protocol signed.
1929 Resumption of relations with England.
1929 Trotsky expelled from U.S.S.R.
1929 Bishop Frison appointed administrator of the Crimea.
1929 Raid on Soviet consulate in Harbin; Treaty of Nikolsk Ussuriisk.
1929-1931 Deportation of priests and intellectuals.
1930 Turksib railroad opened.
1930 Liquidation of kulaks.
1931 Trial of Industrialist party.
1932 Dnieprostroy Dam opened.
1932 Bishop Zerr dies in Kandel.
1928-1940 Stalin's collectivization [1928-1929]:
Land is seized by the government, forcing Germans onto collective farms at
near starvation wages, liquidation of the kulaks..
1932-1933 Second period of famine in the Volga region.
1932-1937 Second Five-Year Plan.
1933 Bishop Kessler dies in a monastery in Prussia.
1933 Recognition of U.S.S.R. by United States.
1934 Russia joins League of Nations.
1934 Sham trials of the priests in Landau.
1934-1938 Party purges: execution of Zinoviev, Kamenev, Bukharin, Rykov, Tukhachevsky.
1935 Sale of Chinese Eastern railway.
1935 Franco-Russian alliance.
1936 Stakhanov Year.
1936 Stalin Constitution: revision of Fundamental Law.
1936 Death of Gorky.
1937 Bishop Frison executed in a Crimean prison.
1938 Third Five-Year Plan started.
1939 Collapse of English and French military negotiations with U.S.S.R.
1939 Nonaggression pact with Germany.
1 Sep 1939 Start of World War II.
1939 Annexation of eastern Poland.
1939 Mutual assistance pacts with Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania.
1939-1940 War against Finland.
1939 Expulsion of U.S.S.R. from League of Nations.
1940 Incorporation of Baltic republics into U.S.S.R.
19 Jul 1940 Bob L. Berschauer is born, later to become Kratzke Web Page webmaster.
1941 Stalin becomes Premier.
1941 Russo-Japanese neutrality pact.
1941 U.S.S.R. accepts Atlantic Charter.
1941 Nazis invade Russia and Volga colonists are deported to Siberia.
28 Aug 1941 Deportation decree is issued announcing the "transfer" of Germans to
Novosibirsk and Omsk provinces, the Altay, Kazakhstan and other
neighbouring localities, as a precautionary measure.
Sep 1941 Villagers are deported by train. (many freeze and die of starvation)
Ann Sheehy, The Crimean Tatars, Volga Germans and Meskhetians: Soviet
treatment of some national minorities (Minority Rights Group, London, n.d.)
1942 United Nations Declaration signed.
1942 Siege of Moscow raised.
1942 Fall of Sevastopol.
1942 Twenty-year alliance with Great Britain.
1943 Re-establishment of patriarchate.
1943 Churches in Odessa Region reopened.
1943 Bishop Glaser appointed administrator of Transnistria.
1943 Siege of Stalingrad raised.
1943 Anglo-Russian-United States conference in Moscow.
1943 Teheran Conference.
1941 Siege of Leningrad raised.
1941 Bretton Woods Conference.
1944 Alliance with France.
1944 Retreat of the Wehrmacht. Flight of 350,000 colonists to the West.
1944 Armistice with Rumania, Bulgaria, Finland.
1945 Yalta Conference (United States, England, Russia).
1945 Volhynia becomes part of Ukraine.
1945 San Francisco Conference.
1945 Berlin taken.
1945 Soviets deport 250,000 German refugees to Siberia, 80,000-100,000
escape to Germany.
1945 Potsdam Conference.
1945 Russian declaration of war against Japan.
1945 Surrender of Japan: end of World War II.
1946 Discord in United Nations over Iran and Greece.
1946 Proposals in United Nations for atomic energy control.
1947 Peace treaties signed with Finland, Italy, Bulgaria, Rumania, Hungary.
1947 Currency reform.
1948 Establishment of a communistic government in Czechoslovakia.
1948-1949 Berlin blockade.
1949 Excommunication of Communists by the Pope.
1949 Defeat of Nationalist China by the Chinese Communists.
1949-1955 Interruption of political relations with Yugoslavia.
1950 Bishop Glaser dies in a Communist prison in Rumania.
1951 Fifth Five-Year Plan initiated.
1952 General Party Congress.
1953 Death of Stalin; Malenkov becomes Premier.
1955 Malenkov resigns; Rise of Khrushchev.
1955 Conclusion of Austrian Peace Treaty.
1957 Launching of sputnik.
1958 Khrushchev becomes Premier.
1960 Failure of Geneva and Disarmament conferences.
1961 Currency Reform.
1961 Launching of man into orbit in space.
1961-1962 Berlin Crisis.
1962 Cuba crisis.
1963 Widening gulf between Russia and China.
1963 Atomic Test Ban negotiated.
1964 Kruschchev grants amnesty, without reparations, to the deported German
Russians in the slave labor camps.
1964 Ouster of Khrushchev.
1968 Soviets invade Czechoslovakia.
1971 New Five-Year Plan. Increased decentralization.
1971 Berlin Agreement with Western powers.
1972 Treaty with West Germany.
1972 U.S. President [Nixon] visits Moscow.
1974 End of Vietnam War.
1974-1977 2,000,000 Soviet Germans in USSR.
1990 Germans in Russia begin coming back to Germany.
This information was collected from various reading and web sites. Links found on AHSGR1 and GRHS2.
Web page By: Bob L. Berschauer E-mail
Last update 20 May 1998
1. (American Historical Society of Germans from Russia)
2. (German Russian Heritage Society)
3. Catherine The Great by John T. Alexander