Finishing the research

Summer has come, and in a flurry of activity, I have found little time to post, although I have continued to absorb information from many sources.

I finally have been able to finish from Catherine to Krushchev. While the book flowed easily through narrative, I admit the geneology and emigration records effectively blockaded my efforts to trace Germans from Russia Settlements in America. However, within the narrative I found that life at the turn of the 20th Century had not changed much in the 1920's and 30's, when my great-grandparents had emigrated from Russia, save the advent of railroads and a few modern vehicles in larger cities. Rural Russia still relied on wagons and oxen or horses as the main transportation, and the housing had remained unchanged up until the Revolution. This is important for several reasons. First it explains why the few remaining villages have 20's-50's style buildings, when they were forced to completely rebuild towns and villages that had been destoyed during the ethnic cleansing. Also, there are few modern buildings, as until the 50's, Russia did experience some growth, but severely dropped off during the Cold War Era, when the small towns were virtually ignored. Second, it makes my research easier to visualize. Although their description of the main house said that it was constructed of wood, their summer house was reported to be of a building style similar to adobe, or very similar to the Volga House I visited at the Ellis County Museum in Hays. Third, it also explains why Aunt Martha, only 12 when she left Russia, was so enamored with the Mennoite Settlement Museum in Hillsboro, Ks. To her, it simply looked like home. Although I was young, I remember her face and tone of voice clearly when she spoke of her mother and some of the things she did when she was a child. I only wish I could remember the stories.

My next goal will be to finish Stalin's biography, even though the material is at best repugnant. It seems that while the Germans in Russia were painted with a large target, his scope of assasinations, repression, and imprisonment weren't limited to the Germans. It is difficult to read the accounts of cruelty, but I must perservere to understand the society from whence my ancestors came.