[Ger-Poland-Volhynia] Church books and the change from German to Russian language

[Jerry Frank]

Found an interesting article today that may be of interest to those of you delving more deeply into the history of Germans in Volhynia as compared to simple genealogy.

http://daviscenter.fas.harvard.edu/seminars_conferences/WERTH.pdf

This is a downloadable pdf file, 29 pages.  The article's focus is the use of church metrical books for civil purposes but there is a significant section that deals with the  imposition of the Russian language c.1888 in lieu of German.  It includes discussion of how the Germans argued to keep their language and the Russian rationale for changing it.