The Volga German Famine of 1932-1934

The Volga German Famine of 1932-1934

By

J. Otto Pohl

While much has been written about the Holodomor in Ukraine comparatively little has been published regarding the simultaneous famine in the Volga German ASSR and Saratov Oblast. These areas had large ethnic German populations whose origins dated back to 1763 under Catherine the Great. In the Volga German ASSR they formed two thirds of the population. This ethnic German population was descended primarily from colonists invited in by the Russian government during the late 18^th century. They bore the brunt of the deadly famine in the lower Volga in 1932-1933. Largely overshadowed by the Ukrainian famine and almost completely ignored in the Anglosphere today, the famine in the Volga German ASSR became an important issue in Germany in 1933. Hitler was appointed chancellor in March 1933 and by August 1933 the issue was being covered in major newspapers and was a subject of activism by a number of NSDAP members. The influence of the famine on subsequent NSDAP policy has needless to say been almost completely ignored by US scholars.

Excess deaths in the Volga German ASSR during 1932-34 claimed over a fifth of the total population, the vast majority of them ethnic Germans. As many as 120,000 people, mostly ethnic Germans, may have perished from hunger in the Volga German ASSR during these years. At 20.75% the excess death rate for the Volga German ASSR exceeded even the hardest hit oblasts in Ukraine, Kiev at 20.03% and Kharkhiv at 19.4%. (Levchuk et. al. Figures 1 and 2). It was significantly higher than Ukraine as a whole during this time, which had an excess mortality rate of 13.33%. (Levchuk). The extraordinary excess mortality from famine related causes in the Volga German ASSR during the 1930s was only exceeded by the Kazakh ASSR. The causes of famine in the Volga German ASSR, however, resemble those for the famine in the Ukrainian SSR and not the Kazakh ASSR where most of the population was either nomadic or semi-nomadic at the start of collectivization. The German farmers in the Volga in contrast had always practiced settled agriculture. The vast majority of deaths in the Volga German ASSR were of ethnic Germans. Out of 13 cantons in the Volga German ASSR 9 were majority German and only 4 majority Russian. In 1933 all the German cantons had higher death rates from the famine than the Russian ones with the exception of Pokrovskii. In the German Baltservokskii Canton the registered deaths in 1933 were 21.1% vs only 2.9% in the Russian Staropoltavskyi Canton (Levchuk). The recorded number of deaths in the republic increased from 20,152 in 1932 to 50,139 in 1933. A full 45,000 of the registered deaths in 1933 were officially due to hunger (German and Pleve, 40). Given the huge loss of life among the Volga Germans due to hunger from 1932-1934 it seems prudent to examine the cause and history of the famine and its influence on people in Germany especially members of the NSDAP.

The Volga German ASSR had a total population of 633,400 in 1930. By 1932 it had declined significantly down to 580,400, a net loss of over 50,000. Two years later in 1934, the population was only 433,500, a loss of nearly 147,000 people (German 2000, 247). The net decline in the population of the Volga German ASSR from 1930 to 1934 by almost 200,000 people has several causes. These include the deportation of “kulaks” from the Volga German ASSR to special settlements in the Far North and Ural and flight out of the territory during the famine. The OGPU deported 4,288 families consisting of some 25,000 people from the Volga German ASSR during 1930-1931 (German et al., 351). But, the major cause for the population decline were deaths caused by the famine. While the absolute number of famine victims in the Volga German ASSR remained far below the excess deaths in the Ukrainian SSR, the percentage to perish from hunger was much greater. Thus it is all the more surprising that the only time and place this famine has aroused interest was in Germany and among German diasporas while it was happening. Research and publication on the subject in the English speaking world has been almost non-existent.

The Soviet government began the forcible collectivization of agriculture in the Volga German ASSR in September 1929. By 20 June 1931 the portion of collectivized rural households in the territory had increased from 7% to 95% despite setbacks in spring and early summer 1930. Agricultural output in the republic plummeted dramatically from 1929-1933 leading to famine. Grain production fell from 672,100 tons in 1931 to only 251,600 tons in 1932, a decline of more than half. Likewise livestock holdings drastically declined from 1929 to 1933. Long horned cattle went from 352,200 to only 123,700. Horses declined from 166,100 to 40,000. Pigs went down from 245,200 to 51,000 and sheep and goats declined from 641,500 to 113,000. This massive decrease in both grain and livestock led to famine. It only ended in 1934 and a full recovery was only possible by 1937 due to the 1935 guarantee of private kitchen plots to kolkhoz farmers (German and Pleve, 39-40). The impressive agriculture output of the Volga German ASSR was so devastated by collectivization and dekulakization that it led to a collapse of both grain production and livestock holdings and subsequent mass starvation.

Both the German government and public were aware of this devastating famine by summer 1933. The cause of the starving Volga Germans was promoted by activists in the NSDAP like Adolf Ehrt and Hans Steinacher during that year. Die Welt-Post (The World-Post) published an article on Steinarchers’s efforts on behalf of the Volga Germans as chairman of the Volksbundes für das Deutschtum im Ausland (National Association for Germandom Abroad) on 3 August 1933. This article sported the urgent title, “Der Hungertod unter den Deutschen an der Wolga” (The Starvation Deaths of Germans in the Volga). Steinarcher was himself originally from Austria. Ehrt was born in Saratov and published a 17 page pamphlet with the title Bruder in Not (Brother in Need) in 1933 on ethnic Germans suffering from famine in the USSR. Both Steinarcher and Ehrt were members of the NSDAP. Thus the mass starvation of Volga Germans in 1933 was well known in Germany and a cause for prominent NSDAP activists.

The famine in the Volga German ASSR from 1932-1933 is relatively neglected by scholars especially in the English speaking world. This neglect continues despite the fact recent scholarship reveals that the mortality rate for famine in the republic was much higher than in Ukraine. In percentage terms the loss of agricultural output, livestock holdings, and human lives the Volga Germans was second only to the Kazakhs during the 1930s. In contrast at the time of the actual famine it was given widespread publicity in Germany by such NSDAP activists as Hans Steinarcher and Adolf Ehrt. Newspaper articles, pamphlets, and other forms of media covered the famine suffered by ethnic Germans in the USSR in 1933. In particular the plight of Volga Germans received attention from the German media in 1933.

Sources:

Ehrt, Adolf, Bruder in Not. Dokumente der Hungersnot unter den deutschen Volksgenossen in Russland. Berlin: Zentralverband Berlin, 1933.

German, A.A., ed., Istoriia respubliki nemtsev povolzh’ia: V sobytiiakh, faktackh, dokumentakh. Moscow: Gotika, 2000.

German, A.A. and Pleve, I.R., Nemtsy povolzh’ia: Kratkii istoricheskie ocherk. Saratov: Saratov University, 2002.

German, A.A., T.S.Ilarionova, I.R. Pleve, eds., Istoriia nemtsev rossii: Khrestomatiia. Moscow: MSNK-Press, 2005.

Levchuk, Natalliia et al., “Regional 1932–1933 Famine Losses: A Comparative Analysis of Ukraine and Russia,” Nationalities Papers, vol. 48, Special Issue 3: Special Issue on the Soviet Famines of 1930-1933, May 2020, 492-512 .DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/nps.2019.55

Die Welt-Post, Der Hungertod unter den Deutschen an der Wolga, 3 August 1933.