[Ger-Poland-Volhynia] german russians?

[Jerry Frank]

I suppose there may be some technical merit to the argument of the Ukrainians but I suspect it is coming more out of a recent (say last 20 years or so) development of pride in their independent nation than out of an understanding of history.  We certainly do not want to become revisionists in order to comply with this desire.  The term is really time, location and context dependent.

Context:
Many people who hear the term automatically assume we are referring to the Germans who went to Russia under the invitation of Catherine the Great.  This of course is not valid.  It applies to those who were assimilated into Russia during the Partitions of Poland as well as those who migrated to Russia after her death.

Time:
The vast majority of our ancestors (other than those assimilated as noted above) migrated to Russia prior to WW I.  Neither Ukraine nor Poland existed in that time period so the term, in my opinion is very valid.  I think this would be my primary argument if they made this suggestion to me.

Location:
Volhynia was split in half between Poland and Russia between the two World Wars.  So are the Germans who still lived there German Poles, German Russians, or German Ukrainians?  It really does simplify things if we can refer to them as German Russians because of their heritage as noted above.  [caveat:  We must remember that they would have carried different passports depending on where they were living at the time.  Not sure if Ukraine issued passports prior to WW II or if those residents would have traveled under Russian ones.]


Jerry



----- Original Message -----
From: GABRIELE GOLDSTONE <ggoldstone1 at shaw.ca>
Date: Thursday, February 10, 2011 9:39 am
Subject: [Ger-Poland-Volhynia] german russians?
To: ger-poland-volhynia at eclipse.sggee.org

> Hi,
> 
> I did a little presentation yesterday to a local ukr. cultural 
> group here in Wpg. The topic was 'kulaks' based on research I 
> did for my book, The Kulak's Daughter.
> 
> It mostly went quite well - except some people were upset that I 
> called my family German Russians as opposed to German 
> Ukrainians. Perhaps I should be calling them German Soviets? Any 
> comments on this sensitive issue? Maybe this has been discussed 
> before.gabe
> 
> 
> ________________________ 
> www.gabrielegoldstone.com 
> 
> 
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