About 3.5 million people with roots in the post-Soviet space live in Germany. It is not an official figure, just estimates based on a microcensus by the Federal Statistical Office in 2016. Most of this post-Soviet diaspora, mostly Russian-speaking, comes from RussiaKazakhstan and Ukraine. The current war in the latter country has placed this important migratory minority in an uncomfortable situation, between two lands.
Around 2.5 million of the Russian-speaking residents of the Federal Republic also make up a community with a special status: the so-called ‘Russlanddeutsche’ (Germans from Russia), descendants of German-speaking settlers who settled at the end of the 18th century and early nineteenth century in the Volga River basin and on the northern coast of the Black Sea, then part of the Russian Empire and today territory under Russian siege in southern Ukraine.
These German colonies responded to the invitation of Empress Catherine II and Emperor Alexander I, who thus intended to populate empty territories of their Empire. As the Federal Central for Political Formation explains, the settlers received the promise of benefits: free land, tax benefits, exemption from military service and religious worship, the right to administrative autonomy and to return to their origin if they so wished at some point.
wave of complaints
With the triumph of the Russian Revolution in 1917, the German ethnic minority even had its own republic within the USSR: the Volga German Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. The outbreak of the First World War, of the Second and the Stalinist purges ended up cornering the German minority, likely to be a collaborationist with the Nazis. The descendants of the Germans in Russia gradually returned to their territories of origin before and after the end of the Cold War.
Even today, the authorities of the Federal Republic grant German citizenship to those who can prove descent from the settlers who settled in the Russian Empire two centuries ago. These last people receive the adjective ‘spätaussiedler’, which is used to name returned migrants from the post-Soviet space throughout the 20th and 21st centuries. The concept of Russlanddeutsche –who in many cases do not speak German or do so with a Russian accent– may today have a pejorative connotation in Germanya phenomenon accentuated by the war in Ukraine.
Since the beginning of the Russian invasion, the German authorities have registered more than 1,700 war-related crimes, mostly hate crimes, verbal aggression, threatening graffiti and even physical violence. The Russian-speaking minority is the main protagonist of these incidents, either in the role of victim or aggressor. The organization Mediendienst Integration, specialized in migration issues, confirms that there has been an increase in reports of attacks against the Russian-speaking community in Germany. At this juncture, the Russian embassy in the Federal Republic does not miss the opportunity to denounce a surge of russophobia.
May 9
It is difficult to get an idea of what is the predominant position within this Russian-speaking minority regarding the war in Ukraine. The fear of expressing themselves publicly and of being described as a follower of Putin surely plays an important role. The visit to the Treptow Park Soviet Memorial in Berlin on May 9 is thus a golden opportunity: this place becomes a pilgrimage center for citizens of Soviet roots on the day that Russia celebrates the victory over Nazi Germany. Some 5,000 Soviet soldiers who fell in World War II are buried here.
The event this year was charged with tension. The Berlin authorities took a Solomonic measure to avoid clashes between Russian and Ukrainian nationalists: ban any kind of national symbol of both countries, as well as the former USSR. Igor, Artur and Alex, however, bring out a flag of the Russian Federation before the imposing monument depicting a liberating Soviet soldier with a destroyed swastika at his feet and a girl in his arms.
This group of Russians of Kazakh origin come every year to celebrate May 9, which this time is especially important: they are tired of their country of origin being criminalized, they say. “If the press here is telling the truth, why are they banning the Russian media?” Alex asks, referring to the blocking of RT and Sputnik in the European Union. “The war is not against the people of Ukraine at all, it is against the fascism. And that’s half of Ukraine”, assures Igor. Everyone listened to President Vladimir Putin’s speech before coming to the monument. They all support it. Putin only wants peace, they say,” he added in statements to El Periódico.
“I live in Germany. I am a returned German from Russia. But actually, we are the children of the soviet union and that is sacred,” says Vladimir, wearing a T-shirt with the Cyrillic initials of the USSR. “I don’t like what is happening at all, this harassment of Russia, the hatred against Russia. I am a Soviet, a communist, and I don’t like that Soviet times are now dirty, spit on, the same everywhere.”
Ludmila holds a photo of her father Andrei, a Soviet military hero who defended Stalingrad and Moscow. She is here today with her daughter Svetlana to honor the memory of those who fell doing what he did. Originally from Moldova, they deny suffering from Russophobia in Germany, reject the war in Ukraine and claim to help Ukrainian refugees. Ludmila clings to the divine to scare away the ghosts of a Third World War: “I hope that God returns reason to the presidents of both countries and that the war between Ukraine and Russia ends soon.”