From living on a farm and then a ranch in Wyoming I have a passion for good food and recipes. I also am immersed in the history and personal stories of the Volga Germans. All my grandparents came from Russia, but were of German descent. This places me in a small, but unique group of people within the United States. I would like to introduce you to these wonderful, hardworking people who still cling to their values, tradition, and religion.
I decided to combine my Volga German upbringing with stories and recipes from my childhood and beyond.
I now reside in Cave Creek, AZ with my husband David and new AZ Rescue A Golden, Dudley DoRight.
I work in the food and beverage department for a 5 diamond resort in Scottsdale, AZ. I continue to research the Volga Germans through my family tree and I still cook and bake our special german foods from ''scratch''.
There Is Always Room For One More at Our Dinner Table
Volga German Stories and RecipesBy Rebecca Nab YoungAuthorHouse
Copyright © 2011 Rebecca Nab Young
All right reserved.ISBN: 978-1-4567-2893-9Chapter One
Dedication
My soul was born in Russia next to the Volga River. I am not Russian, however. My ancestors came to Russia from Germany in the 1760s to homestead on land given to them by Tsarina Catherine who was also German born. Catherine had become Empress of all Russia when her husband Tsar Peter III was deposed and assassinated in 1762. She needed help taming the Russian Steppes, which were open prairie lands like our North and South Dakota. She knew her people to be hardworking and tenacious. My great, great, great, great grandfather was Wilhelm Nab, born in 1743. He was a miller from Darmstadt and arrived in the German village of Kraft, Russia in 1766.
It took my grandfather almost one year to get from Germany to Saint Petersburg on a ship named the Elephant, and then by wagon to Kraft. Many, many Germans died making the long trek to the Steppes. Many more died that first winter because they had no homes or crops. It was a harsh life with long winters filled with death. Only the strongest survived to flourish and establish more villages and farms. The new German homesteaders did not mingle with the Russian people much. They kept to themselves and their own ways.
My people lived in Russia for about 250 years before revolution and persecution became inevitable. When revolution arrived in 1874 and subsequent years, more began migrating; however, this time it was mostly to America. My grandparents came to America between 1901 and 1912. My mother's mother Anna Marie Bauer was only 1 year old when she arrived in America, but my father's mother Susanna Nab was thirty-one. Grandma Nab always missed her home in Russia, and she continued to speak German and dress in smocks worn over a long dress. She had very long white hair that she wore in a bun on the top of her head. She never learned to speak or write English. I never saw her in a pair of pants. Grandma Bauer, on the other hand, was modern. She wore her hair short, she wore pants, and she spoke English. My mother Helen didn't speak German until she was 18 and married my father Harold. Mom and Dad lived with his parents on their farm for over a year, so because Grandma Nab couldn't speak English, my mother learned German. My mother and father spoke German quite a lot at home when I was a child, but mother wanted us to be "real" Americans, so speaking German eventually stopped in our household. My mother is one of the last people I know who still speaks the ancient German dialect brought from Russia.
I grew up on many farms that my father rented. We grew corn, pinto beans, white beans, sugar beets, and alfalfa. Even though we were poor by today's standards, we had plenty to eat. We had three milk cows and dozens of chickens. Mom also had a big garden, and she and I spent a lot of the summer canning and freezing corn, tomatoes, peas, and so on. Mom bought lugs of apricots, peaches, pears, and cherries for us to can. We had a room in the basement where we stored jars of fruits, jellies, pickles, and vegetables. It was a wonderful sight—all the rows of food for the winter. We called this room the fruit room.
My grandmothers, mother, and aunts were all great cooks; everything was cooked from scratch from recipes handed down from the Russian villages. Each woman in the family had her own specialty and no one else would bring that dish to our family gatherings. Aunt Esther Wagner made the best grebbles or sugared doughnuts. Aunt Esther Schmidt made a delicious vegetable soup. My mother made the great cabbage buns and still does.
I wrote down my family recipes so that they will not be lost for all time. Some of the recipes I learned how to make over the years from watching my mother, grandmothers, and aunts. Some have become family favorites. This book is dedicated to all the brave Volga German women who made the journey to Russia and then to America. I especially dedicate it to my grandmothers Anna Marie Bauer and Susanna Kinsfather Nab, to my Mother Helen Bauer Nab, and to my daughter Nikki Innes Alford who asked me to write this book. I want to thank my grandmothers for all the great food and recipes and my mother for teaching me how to cook and keep the ways of Unserer Leute, which means, our people.
With my best wishes for eating well and enjoying a walk back in time.
Important Dates in the Lives of German Russians
April 21, 1729 Sophia Augusta Frederica of Anhalt-Zerbst was born in Germany. She later ruled Russia with the name of Catherine II, better known as Catherine the Great.
1756–1763 The Seven Years' War takes place. It is an important factor in bringing Germans to the Lower Volga to establish colonies.
June 28, 1762 Catherine II, or Catherine the Great, ascends to the throne of Russia.
December 4, 1762 The first Manifesto is issued by Catherine II. She invites foreigners to come to Russia to live. The invitation brings few to the country.
July 22, 1763 Catherine II issues a second manifesto. It spells out in detail the conditions under which foreigners can immigrate and grants them special privileges and rights. Large numbers of German peasants accept the invitation to live in the country.
1764–1767 German colonies are founded along the lower Volga River.
1771–1774 Kirghiz raids during Pugachev's rebellion in what is called the Pugachevshchina. The Volga colonies are decimated as a result.
1786 Mennonites from West Prussia begin coming to Russia because the 1772 Partition of Poland threatens military exemptions that the Mennonites make use of as conscientious objectors. The Mennonites settle primarily in the Taurida region in southern Russia.
1793 The second partition of Poland grants an area of Volhynia to Russia. Polish landowners invite the German peasants to lease land for farming.
November 6, 1796 Catherine II dies at the age of 67.
1796–1801 The son of Catherine II Czar Paul I reigns.
1801–1825 Tsar Alexander I, the beloved grandson of Catherine II, reigns.
February 20, 1804 Alexander I modifies and reissues the Manifesto of Catherine II, inviting foreigners to settle in New Russia.
1825–1855 Tsar Nicholas I, who is the grandson of Catherine II and a brother of Alexander I, reigns.
1830 A Polish insurrection brings the immigration of many Polish Germans to the Bessarabia...
