Eric J Schmaltz, Ph.D. | Northwestern Oklahoma State University (original) (raw)

Book Projects (Works in Progress) - Author/Editor by Eric J Schmaltz, Ph.D.

This study examines the political and cultural development of the USSR’s ethnic German minority g... more This study examines the political and cultural development of the USSR’s ethnic German minority group since Stalin’s death in 1953. Following Stalin, this group represented the largest of the Soviet deported and repressed peoples and the largest of all Soviet nationalities not to hold any formal form of autonomy.

Two generations of German activists, born amid the tribulations of two world wars and Stalinist repression, led this surge in ethnic self-consciousness at the end of the twentieth century. Torn between their fading ethnic heritage and emerging modern Russo-Soviet identity, they guided the national movement in an effort to prevent the further loss of language and culture. The autonomy movement appeared in the 1960s following the Soviet Germans’ formal “rehabilitation.”

In agreement with scholar Viktor Krieger's recent analysis, this study holds that later phases in the group's history qualify to some extent the relative passivity and at times legitimate victimhood of a deported and exiled people under Stalin. This study also affirms the ethnic group's attempts within, and even sometimes outside of, the Soviet system to shape its own national destiny.

After 1972, an emigration dissident movement arose after the failure of this large minority group’s push for complete national rehabilitation and the reestablishment of formal ethnic autonomy within the post-Stalinist system. Based in the Soviet Baltic and Central Asia, such efforts received impetus from the earlier Soviet Jewish emigration rights movement. Besides licit and illicit activities and networks both inside and beyond Soviet borders, including West Germany and the United States, ethnic German activists produced different political pressures on Brezhnev’s and his successors’ domestic and foreign policy decisions. The movement underscored international concerns over human rights, the right of return to historical homelands, and postwar family reunification efforts, while demanding that Moscow conduct legitimate “Leninist” nationality policies for repressed peoples at home (i.e., cultural and autonomy concessions). Notable personalities like Soviet physicist Andrei Sakharov, U.S. Senator James L. Buckley of New York, and others lent moral and political support to this far-flung network. The Kremlin sometimes responded to dissident demands through a combination of repression and accommodation, what scholar Hanya Shiro calls the “carrot and stick” approach to the nationalities problem. Though the movement’s achievements during this period appeared limited and mixed, later policy changes under Gorbachev, especially concerning transnational networks and emigration rights, unleashed growing political forces inside the USSR.

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, unresolved nationality problems reached their pinnacle, holding significant economic and demographic consequences for the former Soviet Union and united Germany. After first engaging the regime with underground political dissent, the ethnic Germans soon took advantage of Gorbachev’s reforms to create mass-based organizations. The rapid unfolding of events in the euphoria of the immediate post-Cold War period initially suggested that ethnic activists might yet attain the cherished goal of territorial statehood and cultural autonomy.

After confronting the Soviet government for years with a combination of legal and illegal or illicit dissident activities, the ethnic German autonomy movement in 1988 and 1989 achieved organizational consolidation and legal recognition. From 1990 to 1993, the national movement reached its organizational zenith and carried out its most intensive engagement with the Soviet, Russian, and various breakaway former Soviet governments. It was at this final, long-awaited, unexpectedly successful culmination of all its efforts, however, that the national movement suffered a devastating rupture. From 1991 to 1993, as the Soviet Union collapsed, schism and controversy plagued the new national movement. In the early 1990s, new political fissures erupted, especially between so-called "maximalists" or "populists" and "moderates" of the old establishment, despite considerable efforts by members to mend their political divide. At this time, ethnic Germans no longer simply blamed various governmental authorities for all their troubles, but even fellow ethnic compatriots. Besides the admittedly hard geopolitical realities and public resistance to German autonomy in the region, legitimate differences of opinion and personality conflicts contributed to the problem of the group’s political disunity. As later revealed, though, numerous KGB informants of German background working inside the national movement also helped plant the seeds of discord. In this sense, compared with certain other Soviet repressed peoples, the ethnic German autonomy movement by the end of the Soviet era exhibited relatively weak forms of internal cohesion and national unity, leading to its disintegration.

The group’s initial optimism about reform and rebirth in the former USSR has now mostly vanished, only to be followed by more bitter reflections, self-criticisms, and expressions of regret. The “rebirth” for the former USSR’s Germans developed into what prominent ethnic activist and journalist Eugen N. Miller later called the “stillbirth.” Meanwhile, the one Soviet-era reform that succeeded was the legal right to leave for the now united “historical homeland” of Germany, a human flood during the 1990s which deflated the group’s once extensive demographic presence across Eurasia. However, this presentation must conclude with the acknowledgment of that old German tenacity to survive in the former Soviet regions, above all in Kazakhstan, despite these setbacks.

Based in part on the author’s 1996 master’s thesis and 2002 doctoral dissertation (including the incorporation of previously deleted sections and chapters), as well as relying on his extensive personal archival collection and contacts both here and abroad cultivated over the past quarter century, this expanded and revised study utilizes English, German, and Russian primary materials, a few of which remain relatively rare and obscure.

LONG-TERM BOOK PROJECT, WORK IN PROGRESS: Editor and co-translator of the memoirs of late-ninete... more LONG-TERM BOOK PROJECT, WORK IN PROGRESS:

Editor and co-translator of the memoirs of late-nineteenth-century Oklahoma immigrant Arnold Biberdorf: "The Life Story of a Volhynian German."

BOOK AND RELATED PUBLISHING PROJECTS IN PROGRESS. Eric J. Schmaltz, ed. "Letters to Pauline: V... more BOOK AND RELATED PUBLISHING PROJECTS IN PROGRESS.

Eric J. Schmaltz, ed. "Letters to Pauline: Volga German Family Correspondences from Russia to Oklahoma, 1913-1937." Comp. Pauline (Schlegel) Lehl, Elvest L. Lehl, Ella (Lehl) Frederick, and Eugenia Felton. Trans. Eugenia Felton.

See information link: http://www.nwosu.edu/schmaltz-gives-talk-in-washington-dc-on-soviet-era-letter-exchanges-to-family-in-ingersoll-alva

November 28, 2016 Northwest Oklahoma State University Press Release

In the last half of 2016, Dr. Eric Schmaltz, professor of history at Northwestern Oklahoma State University and co-executive director of the endowed NWOSU Institute for Citizenship Studies, presented at a number of conferences from coast to coast.

Following discussions related to national minority policies in the former Soviet Union at international conferences held this past summer in Concord, California, and Rapid City, South Dakota, Schmaltz presented in mid-November at the Annual Convention of the Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies (ASEEES) hosted in Washington, D.C. His paper titled “Letters to Pauline (Schlegel) Lehl: Family Correspondences from Russia to Oklahoma, 1913-1937” was invited as part of a special academic panel concerning early Soviet-era letter exchanges from Russia and the Soviet Union to North America.

Schmaltz has been investigating a large corpus of 180 handwritten letters mailed between 1913 and 1937 from Russia’s Saratov Province in the Volga Region and elsewhere to rural Ingersoll and Alva.

“Though now virtually forgotten, Ingersoll, which was Volga German immigrant Pauline (Schlegel) Lehl’s initial place of residence, claimed a post office until 1942,” he explained. “Original envelopes stamped and delivered from Russia show that her relatives’ early letters arrived in Ingersoll, and later on in Alva after she was married to her husband, William.”

This large body of correspondences from family and friends spanned the period preceding the First World War’s outbreak to Soviet Communist dictator Joseph Stalin’s Great Terror. The preserved letters offer a glimpse into daily life during one of the most transformative and violent eras in modern world history. Sometimes through subversive writing techniques and coded language to avoid official censors, they related to the outside what was happening inside the old country.

Schmaltz noted that part of the family story is tied to the University of Kansas in Lawrence.

“Between 1988 and 1992, this branch of the Lehl family in Kansas was able to enlist the professional services of Dr. Eugenia Felton, a noted Russian linguist of Estonian background who had worked for many years at the university and who is now passed away,” he said. “In 1994, the family reproduced her handwritten translations on typewriter for a self-publication. Around this time, after the Cold War, the family had the good fortune through a Russian pen pal to reconnect with surviving relatives in the former Soviet Union. After both sides of the family reunited, most of the original letters were returned as a gift to family in Russia.”

In October 2013, immigrant Pauline (Schlegel) Lehl’s granddaughter, retired educator Ella Marie (Lehl) Frederick of Wichita, Kansas, generously donated to Schmaltz one of only two original typed sets of the entire letter collection for the expressed purpose of historical preservation. He has now completed a digital scan of all original typed and translated manuscripts, as well as the handful of remaining original documents such as envelopes and letters, for further editing as part of an anticipated published book compilation and related projects.

“This collection represents one of my larger, long-term projects,” Schmaltz said. “It is an enormous honor and privilege to be involved with sharing to the public this incredible family treasure that still bears witness to major historical events nearly one century ago and that embodies the enduring power of the human spirit across space and time.”

During spring term and beyond, Schmaltz plans to present other talks on the Lehl letter collection, including at the Cherokee Strip Regional Heritage Center in Enid and the 2017 Annual Meeting of the Oklahoma Historical Society (OHS) held at the Cherokee Nation’s Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Catoosa. He also hopes eventually to publish his findings as an article in the Society’s quarterly journal, “The Chronicles of Oklahoma.”

For more information on Schmaltz’s upcoming talks contact him at (580) 327-8526 or ejschmaltz@nwosu.edu.

Book, Journal, Newspaper & Online Articles by Eric J Schmaltz, Ph.D.

Russian Germans on Four Continents: Histories of a Global Diaspora, 2023

Eric J. Schmaltz. “The Transnational Exchange of Ideas: The Russian German Dissident and Emigra... more Eric J. Schmaltz. “The Transnational Exchange of Ideas: The Russian German Dissident and Emigration Movement’s Impact on Soviet Domestic and Foreign Policy (1972-1987).” In Russian Germans on Four Continents: Histories of a Global Diaspora. Eds. Anna Flack, Jan Musekamp, Jannis Panagiotidis, and Hans-Christian Petersen. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc., 2023.

Off to Sea!: German-Speaking Emigration from Eastern Europe around 1900, 2019

CIVITAS’ MISSION STATEMENT "Civitas: The Journal of Citizenship Studies" is an annual, interdis... more CIVITAS’ MISSION STATEMENT

"Civitas: The Journal of Citizenship Studies" is an annual, interdisciplinary, peer reviewed publishing venue aimed at promoting scholarship concerning the Humanities and Social Sciences as they relate to citizenship matters. The Journal, which is facilitated by the NWOSU Institute for Citizenship Studies and Department of Social Sciences, draws upon the talents and perspectives of a diverse Review Board from the United States and abroad. It welcomes both qualitative and quantitative submissions by faculty and advanced undergraduate and graduate students from Oklahoma’s regional universities, two-year community colleges, and other institutions of higher education and beyond.

Website: http://www.nwosu.edu/school-of-arts-and-sciences/social-sciences/civitas

Germans from Russia Heritage Society - Heritage Review, 2018

Eric J. Schmaltz. “Los alemanes de Rusia (The Germans from Russia): Other Immigrant Destinies i... more Eric J. Schmaltz. “Los alemanes de Rusia (The Germans from Russia): Other Immigrant Destinies in South America." Heritage Review, Vol. 48, No. 2 (June 2018): pp. 10-23.

Revised and expanded article reprinted with permission from the American Historical Society of Germans from Russia (AHSGR): Eric J. Schmaltz. “Other Immigrant Destinies: An Overview of South America’s Germans from Russia.” Journal of the American Historical Society of Germans from Russia 39:1 (Spring 2016): pp. 1-13.

Eric J. Schmaltz. “What’s in a Name?: Russian Germans, German Russians, or Germans from Russia,... more Eric J. Schmaltz. “What’s in a Name?: Russian Germans, German Russians, or Germans from Russia, and the Challenges of Hybrid Identities.” In Schriften des Bundesinstituts für Kultur und Geschichte der Deutschen im östlichen Europa. Band 68: Jenseits der “Volksgruppe”. Neue Perspektiven auf die Russlanddeutschen zwischen Russland, Deutschland und Amerika. Eds. Victor Dönninghaus, Hans-Christian Petersen, and Jannis Panagiotidis. Berlin, Boston, and Oldenbourg: De Gruyter Publishing, 2018. Pp. 41-72.

The international conference on which the forthcoming compilation was based was entitled "Russian Germans in a Comparative Context: New Research Perspectives" and took place on 17-18 November 2015 in Berlin, Germany.

In 2018, the revised and expanded version of this article appeared in a published compilation of conference presentations anticipated by the Bundesinstitut für Kultur und Geschichte der Deutschen im östlichen Europa (Federal Institute for Culture and History of the Germans in Eastern Europe) in Oldenburg, Germany.

See the conference link:
https://networks.h-net.org/node/73374/announcements/90074/russian-germans-comparative-context-new-research-perspectives

CONFERENCE PAPER ABSTRACT

What’s in a name? The seemingly odd juxtaposition of the words “German” and “Russian” in this significant German diaspora’s identity has long challenged officials, scholars, and observers about how multiple historical homelands, transnational attachments, competing state claims over the group, complex interactions between ascribed and prescribed group definitions, and a collective memory of triumph and tragedy over two centuries have formed a people who have made a tremendous cultural, demographic and economic impact on the former USSR, united Germany, and the Western Hemisphere. Just what exactly, however, is a “Russian German,” “German Russian,” or “German from Russia?” Following a cursory overview of the group’s evolving identity in Russia, the ex-USSR and Germany, the presentation traces the historical development behind the group’s generally accepted designation today of “German from Russia” or “German Russian” across North America, along with brief consideration of the diaspora in parts of South America. Particularly for outsiders, the notion of immigrants “being German, but not Russian” despite coming from the Russian Empire sometimes generated in North America broad misconceptions, confusion and even negative stereotypes about these “other Germans.” Besides the natural course of acculturation or assimilation after a few generations, the dark legacy of anti-German attitudes arising from the two world wars against Germany, as well as anti-Russian sentiments following the Communist takeover in 1917 and later the Cold War, created in North America a “double stigma” that compelled many of these “other Germans” to downplay their East European roots and connections. Twentieth-century geopolitical developments only built upon earlier native stereotypes about these “other Germans” as “dumb Russians” or “inferior” East Europeans. In time, a hybrid identity evolved out of these various experiences. Determining a more suitable and accurate unifying name for this large diaspora community that settled primarily on the North American prairies was negotiated and only took shape in the late 1960s and early 1970s amid the broader “ethnic renaissance” (multiculturalism) phenomenon that emerged in both Canada and the United States. At this time, it became more acceptable in this case to celebrate one’s ethnic heritage openly within mainstream political culture.

Eric J. Schmaltz. "Carrots, Sticks...and Demonstrations: Yuri Andropov's Failed Autonomy Plan f... more Eric J. Schmaltz. "Carrots, Sticks...and Demonstrations: Yuri Andropov's Failed Autonomy Plan for Soviet Kazakhstan's Germans, 1976-1980." Journal of the American Historical Society of Germans from Russia (Lincoln, Nebraska), Vol. 39, No. 3 (Fall 2016): pp. 1-21. (Revised and expanded reprint version.)

The original article appeared in the Eurasia Studies Society Journal of Great Britain and Europe, Vol. 3, No. 1. (Jan. 2014):

https://eurasiahistory.files.wordpress.com/2013/12/eric-schmaltz-tess-eurasia-studies-soc-journal-vol-3-no1-jan-20141.pdf

Copyright permission is granted from original journal publisher. This revised version contains updates, additions, and minor modifications. Research on the topic grew out of one of the author’s dissertation chapters completed in 2002 for the fulfillment of his Ph.D. at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. German- and Russian-language translations are the author’s unless otherwise noted. The author included some of these findings in his presentations at the 2016 AHSGR Convention, held in July in Concord, California.

Many scholars are unaware of the resources available at the AHSGR. See link to AHSGR Website for this and so many other fine research materials:

https://ahsgr.site-ym.com/store/default.aspx?

Eric J. Schmaltz. “Personal Travel Report on New Hope (Neue Hoffnung/Nueva Esperanza): A Tradit... more Eric J. Schmaltz. “Personal Travel Report on New Hope (Neue Hoffnung/Nueva Esperanza): A Traditional Mennonite Colony in La Plata Province, Argentina.” Heritage Review (Bismarck, ND) 46:1 (Mar. 2016): pp. 15, 42.

CIVITAS’ MISSION STATEMENT "Civitas: The Journal of Citizenship Studies" is an annual, interdi... more CIVITAS’ MISSION STATEMENT

Website: http://www.nwosu.edu/school-of-arts-and-sciences/social-sciences/civitas

VETTER AND HUMMEL FAMILY NORTH DAKOTA HOMESTEAD PHOTOS Submitted by Dale Vetter of East Grand Fo... more VETTER AND HUMMEL FAMILY NORTH DAKOTA HOMESTEAD PHOTOS

Submitted by Dale Vetter of East Grand Forks, Minnesota
Compiled and edited by Dr. Eric J. Schmaltz

NOTE: This photo compilation first appeared in Heritage Review, Vol. 46, No. 2 (June 2016): pp. 23-24. Reprinted here with permission of the Germans from Russia Heritage Society (GRHS) in Bismarck, North Dakota.

For more information on the Vetter and Hummel families of central North Dakota in the first half of the twentieth century, see Eric J. Schmaltz, ed., “‘The Pick of the Litter’: A Bessarabian-German Family Remembers Growing Up in North Dakota,” Heritage Review, Vol. 33, No. 3 (Sept. 2003): pp. 17-36. The online version of this article is also available courtesy of the Germans from Russia Heritage Collection at the North Dakota State University Libraries in Fargo:

https://library.ndsu.edu/grhc/articles/journals/files/litter.pdf

For additional online materials on the Vetter, Hummel, and related families, again consult the Germans from Russia Heritage Collection at the North Dakota State University Libraries in Fargo:

https://library.ndsu.edu/grhc/history_culture/photo/vetter.html

https://library.ndsu.edu/grhc/history_culture/family/vetter.html

Journal of the American Historical Society of Germans from Russia, 2016

Eric J. Schmaltz. “Other Immigrant Destinies: An Overview of South America’s Germans from Russ... more Eric J. Schmaltz. “Other Immigrant Destinies: An Overview of South America’s Germans from Russia.” Journal of the American Historical Society of Germans from Russia 39:1 (Spring 2016): pp. 1-13

Many scholars are unaware of the resources available at the AHSGR. See link to AHSGR Website for this and so many other fine research materials:

https://ahsgr.site-ym.com/store/default.aspx?

Eric J. Schmaltz. "Soviet 'Paradise' Revisited: Genocide, Dissent, Memory and Denial -- Part I.... more Eric J. Schmaltz. "Soviet 'Paradise' Revisited: Genocide, Dissent, Memory and Denial -- Part I." Journal of the American Historical Society of Germans from Russia, Vol. 38, No. 1 (Spring 2015): pp. 1-11. [PDF sample version downloaded here.] This is Part I of a short article series. See also Part II in the listing below.

Many scholars are unaware of the resources available at the AHSGR. See link to AHSGR Website for this and so many other fine research materials:

https://ahsgr.site-ym.com/store/default.aspx?

Eric J. Schmaltz. "Soviet 'Paradise' Revisited: Genocide, Dissent, Memory and Denial -- Part II... more Eric J. Schmaltz. "Soviet 'Paradise' Revisited: Genocide, Dissent, Memory and Denial -- Part II." Journal of the American Historical Society of Germans from Russia, Vol. 38, No. 3 (Fall 2015): pp. 22-31. [Journal PDF uploaded.] This is Part II of a short article series. See also Part I in the listing above.

Many scholars are unaware of the resources available at the AHSGR. See link to AHSGR Website for this and so many other fine research materials:

https://ahsgr.site-ym.com/store/default.aspx?

Eric J. Schmaltz. ,,Deutsche aus Russland in Amerika—Eine Geschichte der Selbstbehauptung und Tr... more Eric J. Schmaltz. ,,Deutsche aus Russland in Amerika—Eine Geschichte der Selbstbehauptung und Transformation.” In: Nach Übersee—Deutschsprachige Auswanderer aus dem östlichen Europa um 1900. Potsdam: Deutsches Kulturforum östliches Europa e.V., 2015. S. 172-187.

ISBN 978-3-936168-70-9.

Aus der Neumark, aus Böhmen, aus der Bukowina, aus Galizien, von der Donau, aus Siebenbürgen und aus verschiedenen Regionen des Russischen Reichs stammte eine große Zahl der Auswanderer, die an der Wende vom 19. zum 20. Jahrhundert ihr Glück in Übersee suchten. Um Armut, Arbeitslosigkeit, Landknappheit, religiöser oder politischer Unfreiheit in der Heimat zu entrinnen, machten sich auch viele deutschsprachige Bewohner dieser Gebiete auf den Weg – nach Amerika, Australien, Neuseeland, Südamerika oder Kanada. Die Beiträge dieses Bandes zeichnen ihre Emigrationsgeschichten nach und verdeutlichen damit verbundene wirtschaftliche, kulturelle und politische Phänomene.

https://library.ndsu.edu/grhc/order/general/sinnerreview2.html

The Church and the Russian Germans in the Siberian Homeland Today: A Personal Interview with His... more The Church and the Russian Germans in the Siberian Homeland Today: A Personal Interview with His Excellency, The Most Reverend Joseph Werth, Bishop of Siberia

Interview and Translation by Eric J. Schmaltz

Published by the Germans from Russia Heritage Collection
North Dakota State University Libraries, Fargo, ND, 1996, xiv + 23 pages, softcover (English).

Available in English, German, and Russian texts.

In 1993, President Boris Yeltsin appointed Bishop Joseph Werth to help write the new Russian constitution. At the constitutional convention, Bishop Werth served in a minor capacity as a representative of the Catholic Church and the ethnic Germans in the former Soviet Union.

Bishop Joseph Werth visited North Dakota in 1993 and in June 1995. The NDSU Libraries was pleased and honored to host Bishop Werth during his visit to Fargo. Eric J. Schmaltz interviewed Bishop Werth in the German language, transcribing the text for this publication. Eric has prepared manuscripts for publication for the Germans from Russia Heritage Collection.

Eric completed his undergraduate studies at St. Olaf College, Northfield, Minnesota, majoring in German and history. He completed his master's degree in history at the University of North Dakota in May 1996. His thesis deals with the contemporary ethnic German nationalist movement in the former Soviet Union. He began his doctoral studies at the University of Nebraska in Lincoln in the fall of 1996 perusing further research on the Germans from Russia.

The interview with Bishop Werth provides information about the Catholic Church in Siberia and aspects pertaining to the ethnic Germans in the former Soviet Union. He gives us a brief, yet insightful, glimpse into a region filled with many troubles and possibilities. He notes the social, political, and economic issues that have made it difficult to reclaim lost churches and build new ones. Bishop Werth describes the assistance received from fellow Catholics in Germany and America, not to mention the economic aid coming from Germany. He acknowledges the annual emigration of 200,000 ethnic Germans to Germany and how he is losing part of the "solid foundation" of his Catholic community.

Bishop Werth tells us how it really is in Siberia in the hope that American Catholics and non-Catholics alike will better understand how they can help him and others. As the bishop emphasizes, he is a "servant" to the Catholics in Siberia, and while in America, he was their spokesman. With this appreciation of his mission in mind, we can then understand that this interview is also an important part of his message. As the bishop remarks at the end, he is following the responses to the interview with great interest. The interview, including many photographs of Bishop Joseph Werth, has been published in the English, German, and Russian languages.

As Father Al Bitz of Wimbledon, ND, states in the dedication, "We dedicate this published interview to all the "Grandmothers" who kept the faith alive in the midst of the Communist persecution and to Bishop Joseph Werth for his untiring efforts in promoting faith, unity, and cooperation amongst the German-Russians throughout the world."

Bishop Werth's diocese encompasses 4.2 million square miles (10.3 per cent of all the land on earth) and extends through nine of the world's twenty four time zones. He was named Bishop of Siberia by Pope John Paul II in 1991. Born in Karaganda, Kazakhstan, in 1952, Joseph Werth is the second oldest of eleven children. His father was Volga German and his mother is Black Sea German born near Odessa, Ukraine. In 1984 Joseph Werth was the first Catholic priest ordained since the 1930s in the Asian region of the former Soviet Union.

Bishop Werth is fluent in Russian, German, Lithuanian, Latin and speaks some Italian.

Michael M. Miller, NDSU's Germans from Russia Bibliographer states, "Bishop Werth, born on the steppes of Kazakhstan, traveled to the prairies of North Dakota where thousands of his brothers and sisters live today. Before 1991, in the former Soviet Union, a visit by a Catholic Bishop from Siberia to North Dakota and America would have been only a dream."

Die Kirche und die Rußlanddeutschen heute in der sibirischen Heimat: Ein persönliches Interview ... more Die Kirche und die Rußlanddeutschen heute in der sibirischen Heimat: Ein persönliches Interview mit Seiner Exzellenz, dem ehrwürdigsten Bischof Joseph Werth, Bischof von Sibirien

Interview by Eric J. Schmaltz

Published by the Germans from Russia Heritage Collection

North Dakota State University Libraries, Fargo, ND, 1996, xiv + 20 pages, softcover (German).

Available in English, German, and Russian texts.

Bishop Werth's diocese encompasses 4.2 million square miles (10.3 per cent of all the land on earth) and extends through nine of the world's twenty-four time zones. He was named Bishop of Siberia by Pope John Paul II in 1991. Born in Karaganda, Kazakhstan, in 1952, Joseph Werth is the second oldest of eleven children. His father was Volga German and his mother is Black Sea German born near Odessa, Ukraine. In 1984 Joseph Werth was the first Catholic priest ordained since the 1930s in the Asian region of the former Soviet Union.

Bishop Werth is fluent in Russian, German, Lithuanian, Latin and speaks some Italian.

Церковь и российские немцы на своей cибирском pодина: Интервью с Его Превосходительством, Eпископ... more Церковь и российские немцы на своей cибирском pодина: Интервью с Его Превосходительством, Eпископом Сибири Иосифом Вертом (Tserkov’ i rossiyskie nemtsy na svoey sibirskoy rodine: interv’yu s Ego Prevoskhoditel’stvom Episkopom Sibiri Iosifom Vertom)

Interview by Eric J. Schmaltz

Russian translation by Natalya Kornfeld

Published by the Germans from Russia Heritage Collection

North Dakota State University Libraries, Fargo, ND, 1996, viii + 19 pages, softcover (Russian).

Available in English, German, and Russian texts.

Bishop Werth is fluent in Russian, German, Lithuanian, Latin and speaks some Italian.

“Decree of the Presidium of the USSR Supreme Soviet ‘On the Resettlement of Germans Residing in t... more “Decree of the Presidium of the USSR Supreme Soviet ‘On the Resettlement of Germans Residing in the Volga Region’ (August 28, 1941)” and “The 1948 and 1952 ‘Special Settlement’ Decrees.” Trans. and ed. by Eric J. Schmaltz. Journal of the American Historical Society of Germans from Russia, Vol. 39, No. 2 (Summer 2016): pp. 23-25, 26-27.

Many scholars are unaware of the resources available at the AHSGR. See link to AHSGR Website for this and so many other fine research materials:

https://ahsgr.site-ym.com/store/default.aspx?

The Story of Franz Bäumer’s Wartime Emergency Landing in Grossliebental (Ukraine), Circa Early 19... more The Story of Franz Bäumer’s Wartime Emergency Landing in Grossliebental (Ukraine), Circa Early 1944

By Edgar Seibel of Hallenberg, Germany

Translated and edited by Dr. Eric J. Schmaltz

NOTE: This article translation first appeared in Heritage Review, Vol. 46, No. 2 (June 2016): pp. 40-44. Reprinted here with permission of the Germans from Russia Heritage Society (GRHS) in Bismarck, North Dakota.

EDGAR SEIBEL'S ABSTRACT: I held conversations in August 2010 with Günter-Franz Bäumer (1923-2012) of Hallenberg in the Hochsauerlandkreis in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, writing down some of his life stories before his passing in April 2012. He was our family’s former landlord and neighbor from 1998, the year of our entry into the Federal Republic of Germany, until 2002.

Bäumer told me about the ethnic German settlers of Grossliebental (today Velikodolinskoye) in Ukraine. During the Second World War, he had to make an emergency landing with his transport plane in the Black Sea area. Germany had already known of the ethnic Germans (“Volksdeutsche”) residing in Ukraine. The story went that he landed his aircraft filled with wounded soldiers directly into this colony. He explained how the ethnic Germans gave him provisions (bread and much bacon). He had to hurry, however, because Red Army troops were only thirty kilometers away from him. The wintry ground conditions at the time kept the plane grounded, but Grossliebental’s local German population helped him with “horses and boards” to break the aircraft out from the ice.

“At the Press Conference of Dr. Heinrich Groth on the Occasion of Resigning from His Leadership P... more “At the Press Conference of Dr. Heinrich Groth on the Occasion of Resigning from His Leadership Position (Moscow, Russia, December 20, 1993).”

Translated and edited by Eric J. Schmaltz.

The original German source: “Zur Pressekonferenz von Dr. Heinrich Groth anlässlich der Niederlegung seiner Vollmachten,” St. Petersburgische Zeitung (Russia), No. 1 (Feb. 1994): pp. 1-3.

https://library.ndsu.edu/grhc/research/scholarly/non_peer/press.html

A translation of this document with revised and expanded commentary was later published as: “At the Press Conference of Dr. Heinrich Groth on the Occasion of Resigning from His Leadership Position (Moscow, Russia, December 20, 1993).” Trans. and ed. Eric J. Schmaltz. Journal of the American Historical Society of Germans from Russia 37:3 (Fall 2014): pp. 27-30.

Also, one point of clarification or correction in the AHSGR article: Dr. Heinrich Groth was born to exiled Volga German parents in Soviet Central Asia in 1951, but later his family moved to the Volga Region and eventually settled in Berdyansk, Ukraine, along the Sea of Azov. Groth spent his later youth and most of his adulthood in Berdyansk, becoming a professional biologist and ultimately an ethnic activist.

Many scholars are unaware of the resources available at the AHSGR. See link to AHSGR Website for this and so many other fine research materials:

https://ahsgr.site-ym.com/store/default.aspx?

"Soviet Documents in German-Russian History Series: Decree of the Presidium of the USSR Supreme ... more "Soviet Documents in German-Russian History Series: Decree of the Presidium of the USSR Supreme Soviet ‘Concerning the Removal of Restrictions in the Choice of Place of Residence Stipulated in the Past for a Separate Category of Citizen’ (November 3, 1972).” Trans. and ed. Eric J. Schmaltz. Heritage Review (Bismarck, ND) 42:1 (Mar. 2012): pp. 40-42.

“Soviet Documents in German-Russian History Series: Decree of the Presidium of the USSR Supreme ... more “Soviet Documents in German-Russian History Series: Decree of the Presidium of the USSR Supreme Soviet ‘Concerning the Submission of Changes to the Decree of the Presidium of the USSR Supreme Soviet from August 28, 1941 ‘On the Resettlement of Germans Residing in the Volga Region’ (August 29, 1964).” Trans. and ed. Eric J. Schmaltz. Heritage Review (Bismarck, ND) 41:4 (Dec. 2011): pp. 38-42.

Declaration on the Charter of Germans Expelled from Their Homelands from 5 August 1950 (Stuttgart... more Declaration on the Charter of Germans Expelled from Their Homelands from 5 August 1950 (Stuttgart, West Germany, 6 August 1960)

Revised translation by Eric J. Schmaltz, Ph.D.

The original German source: “Deklaration zur Charta der deutschen Heimatvertriebenen vom 5. August 1950,” in F. Dörr and W. Kerl, Ostdeutschland und die deutschen Siedlungsgebiete in Ost- und Südosteuropa: in Karte, Bild und Wort (Munich: Südwest Verlag, 1991), p. 65.

The English translation first appeared in Eric J. Schmaltz, An Expanded Bibliography and Reference Guide for the Former Soviet Union’s Ethnic Germans: Issues of Ethnic Autonomy, Group Repression, Cultural Assimilation, and Mass Emigration in the Twentieth Century and Beyond (Fargo, ND: Germans from Russia Heritage Collection, North Dakota State University Libraries, 2003), pp. 209-210.

A revised translation of this document with brief commentary was published as:
“Declaration on the Charter of Germans Expelled from Their Homelands from August 5, 1950 (Stuttgart, West Germany, August 6, 1960).” Trans. and ed. Eric J. Schmaltz. Heritage Review 41:4 (Dec. 2011): pp. 16-17.

This version can be ordered through the Germans from Russia Heritage Society (GRHS) in Bismarck, North Dakota. The GRHS Website: http://www.grhs.org/research/publications/hr.html

Charter of Germans Expelled from Their Homelands (Stuttgart, West Germany, 5 August 1950) Revis... more Charter of Germans Expelled from Their Homelands (Stuttgart, West Germany, 5 August 1950)

Revised translation by Eric J. Schmaltz, Ph.D.

The original German source: “Charta der deutschen Heimatvertriebenen,” in F. Dörr and W. Kerl, Ostdeutschland und die deutschen Siedlungsgebiete in Ost- und Südosteuropa: in Karte, Bild und Wort (Munich: Südwest Verlag, 1991), p. 64.

A translation of this document with brief commentary was published as:
“Charter of Germans Expelled from Their Homelands (Stuttgart, West Germany, August 5, 1950).” Trans. and ed. Eric J. Schmaltz. Heritage Review 41:3 (Sept. 2011): pp. 10-12.

This version can be ordered through the Germans from Russia Heritage Society (GRHS) in Bismarck, North Dakota. The GRHS Website: http://www.grhs.org/research/publications/hr.html

“Soviet Documents in German-Russian History Series: Decree of the Presidium of the USSR Supreme ... more “Soviet Documents in German-Russian History Series: Decree of the Presidium of the USSR Supreme Soviet ‘Concerning the Removal of Restrictions in the Legal Status of Germans and Their Family Members Situated in the Special Settlement’ (December 13, 1955).” Trans. and ed. Eric J. Schmaltz. Heritage Review (Bismarck, ND) 41:3 (Sept. 2011): pp. 38-41.

“Soviet Documents in German-Russian History Series: Declaration of the USSR Supreme Soviet ‘On D... more “Soviet Documents in German-Russian History Series: Declaration of the USSR Supreme Soviet ‘On Declaring the Repression of the Forcibly Resettled Peoples as Illegal and Criminal, as well as Concerning the Guarantee of Their Rights’ (November 14, 1989).” Trans. and ed. Eric J. Schmaltz. Heritage Review (Bismarck, ND) 40:3 (Sept. 2010): pp. 35, 43.

Walter Hornbacher. “Removal from the Homeland: A Surviving Eyewitness Documentary Report on the ... more Walter Hornbacher. “Removal from the Homeland: A Surviving Eyewitness Documentary Report on the Evacuation of Ethnic Germans from the Black Sea Region of Ukraine to Germany in Early 1944 (Part I).” Trans. and ed. by Eric J. Schmaltz. Heritage Review (Bismarck, ND) 38:1 (Mar. 2008): pp. 9-25, 38.

Walter Hornbacher. “Removal from the Homeland: A Surviving Eyewitness Documentary Report on the Evacuation of Ethnic Germans from the Black Sea Region of Ukraine to Germany in Early 1944 (Part II).” Trans. and ed. by Eric J. Schmaltz. Heritage Review (Bismarck, ND) 38:2 (June 2008): pp. 35-39.

Yearbook of the Society of German American Studies , 2018

Book Review by Eric J. Schmaltz. A Time for Reflection: The First One Hundred Years (Reprint an... more Book Review by Eric J. Schmaltz. A Time for Reflection: The First One Hundred Years (Reprint and Update of the Hundredth Anniversary of the Germans from Russia in Sheboygan, Wisconsin). Pp. 44. Sheboygan, WI: Sheboygan County Historical Research Center, 2016. In Yearbook of German American Studies, Vol. 52 (2017) (Society for German American Studies) (Lawrence, KS: University of Kansas, 2018): pp. 258-260.

Book Review by Eric J. Schmaltz. “Were the Soviets Racist?”: Jon K. Chang. Burnt By the Sun: ... more Book Review by Eric J. Schmaltz. “Were the Soviets Racist?”: Jon K. Chang. Burnt By the Sun: The Koreans of the Russian Far East. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 2016. Pp. x + 273. In Academic Questions (National Association of Scholars), Vol. 31, No. 3 (Fall 2018): pp. 351-355.

Academic Questions
A Publication of the National
Association of Scholars
ISSN 0895-4852
Volume 31
Number 3
Acad. Quest. (2018) 31:351-355

The final publication is available at <linkspringer.com>.
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12129-018-9710-8

Civitas: The Journal of Citizenship Studies, 2018

Book Review by Dr. Eric J. Schmaltz of Jon K. Chang. Burnt By the Sun: The Koreans of the Russian... more Book Review by Dr. Eric J. Schmaltz of Jon K. Chang. Burnt By the Sun: The Koreans of the Russian Far East. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 2016. Pp. x + 273. ISBN#: 978-0-8248-5678-6. Hardcover.

Appeared in: Civitas: The Journal of Citizenship Studies, Vol. IV (2015-2017): pp. 125-128. Published by Northwestern Oklahoma State University, 2018.

Yearbook of German American Studies, 2016

Book Review of Kurt E. Kinbacher. Urban Villages and Local Identities: Germans from Russia, Oma... more Book Review of Kurt E. Kinbacher. Urban Villages and Local Identities: Germans from Russia, Omaha Indians, and Vietnamese in Lincoln, Nebraska. Pp. xiv + 265. Lubbock, TX: Texas Tech University Press, 2015. In Yearbook of German American Studies, Vol. 51 (2016) (Society for German American Studies) (Lawrence, KS: University of Kansas, 2017). Pp. 207-211.

By Dr. Eric J. Schmaltz

http://sgas.org/publications/

Yearbook of German American Studies, 2016

Book Review of Ron Vossler. Hitler's Basement: My Search for Truth, Light, and the Forgotten Ex... more Book Review of Ron Vossler. Hitler's Basement: My Search for Truth, Light, and the Forgotten Executioners of Ukraine's Kingdom Of Death. Oakbrook Terrace, Illinois: Green Ivy Publishing, 2016. In: Yearbook of German American Studies, Vol. 51 (2016) (Society for German American Studies) (Lawrence, KS: University of Kansas, 2017). Pp. 247-252.

By Eric J. Schmaltz

http://sgas.org/publications/

Book Review of Alan Ball, ed. and trans. Liberty's Tears: Soviet Portraits of the "American Way... more Book Review of Alan Ball, ed. and trans. Liberty's Tears: Soviet Portraits of the "American Way of Life" during the Cold War. New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016. Pp. xxviii + 369. In Civitas: The Journal of Citizenship Studies (Alva, OK: Northwestern Oklahoma State University), Vols. 4-5 (2015-2016). (Forthcoming.)

By Eric J. Schmaltz (Civitas Co-Editor).

http://www.nwosu.edu/civitas

Book Review Albert W. Wardin, Jr., On the Edge: Baptists and Other Free Church Evangelicals in T... more Book Review

Albert W. Wardin, Jr., On the Edge: Baptists and Other Free Church Evangelicals in Tsarist Russia, 1855-1917, Foreword by Gregory Nichols (Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock Publishers, 2013), x + 533 pp., paperback. ISBN# 978-1-62032-962-7.

Reviewed by Dr. Eric J. Schmaltz, Northwestern Oklahoma State University. Dr. Schmaltz is editor of the quarterly Heritage Review published by the Germans from Russia Heritage Society in Bismarck, North Dakota. This review appeared in Heritage Review, Vol. 45, No. 2 (June 2015): pp. 35-37.

Yearbook of German American Studies, 2012

“Review Essay: Germans in the Soviet Union [Multiple review of five books].” In Yearbook of Ger... more “Review Essay: Germans in the Soviet Union [Multiple review of five books].” In Yearbook of German American Studies, Vol. 47 (2012) (Society for German American Studies) (Lawrence, KS: University of Kansas, 2014): pp. 101-112.

By Eric J. Schmaltz

Eric J. Schmaltz
Review Essay: Germans in the Soviet Union

Samuel D. Sinner
The Open Wound: The Genocide of German Ethnic Minorities in Russia and the
Soviet Union, 1915-1949 and Beyond/Der Genozid an Russlandeutschen 1915-
1949

Ronald J. Vossler, editor
We’ll Meet Again in Heaven: Germans in the Soviet Union Write Their American
Relatives, 1925-1937

Ronald J. Vossler and Joshua J. Vossler, editors
The Old God Still Lives: German Villagers in Czarist and Soviet Ukraine Write Their
American Relatives, 1915-1924

Ruth Derksen-Siemens, editor
Remember Us: Letters from Stalin’s Gulag (1930-37): Volume One: The Regehr
Family

Janice Huber, editor
Collectivization in the Soviet Union: German Letters to America, 1927-1932

Yearbook of German American Studies, 2013

Book Review of Hans Werner. The Constructed Mennonite: History, Memory and the Second World War... more Book Review of Hans Werner. The Constructed Mennonite: History, Memory and the Second World War. Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada: University of Manitoba Press, 2013. Pp. viii + 205. In Yearbook of German American Studies, Vol. 48 (2013) (Society for German American Studies) (Lawrence, KS: University of Kansas, 2015): pp. 249-252.

By Eric J. Schmaltz

Book Review of Martin Shaw. What Is Genocide? Cambridge, England: Polity Press, 2007. Pp. vii... more Book Review of Martin Shaw. What Is Genocide? Cambridge, England: Polity Press, 2007. Pp. viii + 222. In Ethnic and Racial Studies 31:7 (Oct. 2008): pp. 1352-1354.

Book Review of Jonathan Judaken. Jean-Paul Sartre and the Jewish Question: Anti-Antisemitism an... more Book Review of Jonathan Judaken. Jean-Paul Sartre and the Jewish Question: Anti-Antisemitism and the Politics of the French Intellectual. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press, 2007. Pp. xi + 390. In Ethnic and Racial Studies 31:3 (Mar. 2008): pp. 639-640.

Book Review of Wilbur Rich, ed. African American Perspectives on Political Science. Philadelphi... more Book Review of Wilbur Rich, ed. African American Perspectives on Political Science. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press, 2007. Pp. xi + 444. In Ethnic and Racial Studies 31:2 (Feb. 2008): pp. 439-440.

Eric J. Schmaltz. Reform, "Rebirth," and Regret: The Early Autonomy Movement of Ethnic Germans ... more Eric J. Schmaltz. Reform, "Rebirth," and Regret: The Early Autonomy Movement of Ethnic Germans in the USSR, 1955-1989 (Ph.D. Dissertation in History, University of Nebraska at Lincoln – August 2002).

http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/dissertations/AAI3064570/

Eric J. Schmaltz. "Soviet-German 'Rehabilitation' and the Ethnic German Nationalist Wiedergeburt... more Eric J. Schmaltz. "Soviet-German 'Rehabilitation' and the Ethnic German Nationalist Wiedergeburt in the USSR and CIS, 1987-1995" (M.A. Thesis in History, University of North Dakota at Grand Forks - December 1996)

https://arts-sciences.und.edu/history/theses-dissertations.cfm#ninety-one-two-thousand

http://library.ndsu.edu/grhc/research/scholarly/book_reviews/schmaltz_review.html

Soviet-German “Rehabilitation” and the Ethnic German Nationalist Wiedergeburt in the USSR and CIS, 1987-1995

By Eric J. Schmaltz
Master of Arts Thesis, Department of History
Graduate Faculty, University of North Dakota, Grand Forks, ND, 1996, 180 leaves.

ABSTRACT
After 1955, the Soviet Germans and other Soviet minority groups struggled to preserve their ethnic identities. The Stalin years had witnessed the abolition of the limited territorial, political, and cultural concessions provided by Lenin. The most opportune moment for them to act politically was during the Gorbachev and Yeltsin eras.

Inspired by post-Stalinist “rehabilitation” policies, the Germans established the Wiedergeburt (“Rebirth”) nationalist movement in 1989. Claiming to represent the ethnic Germans’ national interests, the Wiedergeburt made demands that rested on Lenins notion of self-determination—namely, a people’s right to determine its own political status. Formerly a peasant people, many ethnic Germans during the Soviet era began articulating radical democratic and nationalist demands in the wake of their own socio-economic modernization and growing political awareness.

The Wiedergeburt was an unintended outgrowth of Soviet nationalities policies. Originally attempting to provoke an international socialist revolution, the Soviet Union based its nationalities policies on Marxist-Leninism, an ideology advocating political equality and socio-economic modernization. Soviet nationalities policies had politicized ethnicity to the point of breaking up the Soviet Union.

The regime failed to live up to its ideological principles by refusing to grant autonomy to the Soviet Germans, and the Wiedergeburt was unable to unify the ethnic German community. The Germans’ political and regional antagonisms, the differences of opinion between German progressives and traditionalists, and German mass emigration also adversely affected this ethnic group’s chances for autonomy in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS).

During the late 1980s and early 1990s, the Soviet-German elite and its supporters were the last best hope for an ethnic group that has lived in the East for more than two hundred years. Tragically, at the very moment the Soviet Germans achieved political consciousness, the ethnic German community and the Soviet Union were disintegrating. After an unsuccessful struggle for self-determination, the ethnic German community must acknowledge that it still lacks the two major prerequisites for an independent nation-state: territory and people. Without a modern state, the ethnic German community will inevitably perish within the next generation. Socio-economic modernization and political integration, initiated by the Soviet system, will erode the last traces of German ethnicity in the CIS.

With the Rebirths’ political decline, the ethnic Germans must either emigrate to the ancestral homeland of Germany and assimilate into ‘West’ German society, or they must assimilate into the post-Soviet republics. For the German minority staying in the East, its current assimilation into the non-Asian republics will be the preferable solution to national self-determination. The realistic decision to adopt a new homeland or nation-state, either in Germany or the CIS, will improve their long term socio-economic and political prospects as national citizens.

(Abstract reprinted with permission of the author.)

German Scholars and Ethnic Cleansing, 1919-1945

"Chapter 3. The Nazi Ethnographic Research of Georg Leibbrandt and Karl Stumpp in Ukrain... more "Chapter 3. The Nazi Ethnographic Research of Georg Leibbrandt and Karl Stumpp in Ukraine, and Its North American Legacy" by Eric J. Schmaltz and Samuel D. Sinner. [This reprint version includes a handful of updates or revisions following the initial publication in Holocaust and Genocide Studies. The most significant change is verified documentation of Dr. Karl Stumpp's membership in the SS.] In: German Scholars and Ethnic Cleansing, 1919-1945 Edited by Ingo Haar and Michael Fahlbusch With a Foreword by Georg G. Iggers New York and Oxford: Berghahn Publishers, 2005.

Oklahoma Politics, 2012

Relying on the theoretical frameworks of the tragedy of the commons and the tragedy of the anti-c... more Relying on the theoretical frameworks of the tragedy of the commons and the tragedy of the anti-commons, we argue: 1) the water management approach pursued by Oklahoma's government is likely to contribute to the tragic overuse of groundwater resources and 2) the involvement of large and opposing groups that operate within an environment of competing access rights undermine the emergence of an efficient water management regime for Sardis Lake. Some people call water the oil of the 21st century. While this description may not be exact, one thing is clear: the availability of water will be a key factor in the development of the world's economy and government policies in the next decade (Alexandra Cousteau, 2011).

Oklahoma Politics, 2008

The globalization issue today remains complicated, generating as many questions as it does answer... more The globalization issue today remains complicated, generating as many questions as it does answers. This transfonnative phenomenon, however, contains the powerful countervailing trends of socioeconomic disintegration and integration, ethnic nationalism and globalization, cultural diversity and homogenization, and the particular and the universal. Such forces are often contradictory in nature, creating economic, political, and cultural convergence and pluralism at the same time. Burning questions on the status of nation-states and even sub-national political entities in an increasingly interconnected world actually represent nothing new. Serious and thoughtful debates already had emerged as early as the first half of the nineteenth century about the rise of global economic and political trends and their impact on local and national identities. Both classical economists and classical Marxists had set the tone for various profound discussions that still resonate today. Though the current body of research regarding the globalization process is impressive, it mostly concentrates on countries' economic, political, and cultural characteristics in response to such trends. Based on both a broader perspective and a comparative approach, this study explores the distinctive sociopolitical and cultural features of the states of Oklahoma, United States, and Bavaria, Germany, in relation to the globalization phenomenon. In the context of their political ideology, constitutional setting, policies, customs, and religion, this paper examines how the conservative underpinnings of these sociopolitical features can be positioned in the debates on globalization trends and political culture. Our hypothesis holds that these

Nationalities Papers, 1998

In early 1989, the Soviet Germans established the Wiedergeburt (“Rebirth”) All-Union Society. An ... more In early 1989, the Soviet Germans established the Wiedergeburt (“Rebirth”) All-Union Society. An umbrella-organization originally designed to protect and advance ethnic-German interests in the USSR, the “Rebirth” Society adopted the most effective legal means by which it could confront the regime—namely, political dissent based on Lenin's notion of national self-determination. The “Rebirth” movement evolved in this context and represented the fifteenth-largest Soviet nationality numbering more than two million in the 1989 Soviet census. By 1993, official membership in the “Rebirth” Society included nearly 200,000 men and women. Ironically, at the very moment the Soviet Germans became more politically conscious, the Soviet Union and the ethnic-German community were disintegrating.

Journal of Genocide Research, 2009

This article seeks to examine the mass violence unleashed by Joseph Stalin and his regime against... more This article seeks to examine the mass violence unleashed by Joseph Stalin and his regime against the USSR's ethnic Germans. It endeavors to comprehend how Soviet policies of repression progressed and intensified to the extreme detriment of this nationality group. It covers the tumultuous period between 1928 and 1948, when Soviet policies overall coarsened considerably, from the implementation of Stalin's First Five-Year Plan to the government decree banishing several Soviet peoples in their virtual entirety, including the ethnic Germans, to “eternal” exile east of the Urals. This process shifted from class-based reasons to ethnic ones as the 1930s progressed. The increasingly racialized nature of Soviet mass violence targeted the ethnic Germans as a large diaspora community ethnically linked to Nazi Germany, a country perceived as an ideological and military threat. During Stalin's war against the Soviet countryside in the early 1930s, ethnic German villagers at times felt compelled to conduct mass protests and even revolts against the authorities. Meanwhile, both an emerging ethnic German elite and ordinary German farmers and workers wrote about worsening conditions under Stalin. Besides petitioning the Soviet government, they delivered letters and various writings to friends and relatives by way of a vast underground network at home and abroad, and their relatives sometimes answered in return. A growing body of Soviet archival records and academic literature treating the Stalinist period has generally validated and expanded upon what the ethnic group as early as the 1920s and 1930s had exposed about mass terror under Stalin's regime.

Journal of Genocide Research, 2002

Page 1. Journal of Genocide Research (2002), 4(3), 327356 You will die under ruins and snow: t... more Page 1. Journal of Genocide Research (2002), 4(3), 327356 You will die under ruins and snow: the Soviet repression of Russian Germans as a case study of successful genocide ERIC J. SCHMALTZ and SAMUEL D. SINNER Introduction ...

Journal of Environmental Assessment Policy and Management, 2014

Based on longitudinal data, and relying on the tragedy of the commons and the tragedy of the anti... more Based on longitudinal data, and relying on the tragedy of the commons and the tragedy of the anti-commons theoretical frameworks, we argue: (1) groundwater permit patterns in Oklahoma are likely to contribute to the tragic overuse of groundwater resources; and (2) involvement of large and opposing groups that operate within an environment of fragmented access rights undermines the emergence of an efficient water management regime for Sardis Lake on Native American land in southeastern Oklahoma. Based on quantitative and qualitative research approaches, this study seeks to reveal patterns of groundwater overexploitation and deconstruct the complex processes surrounding the water dispute over Sardis Lake so that policymakers understand the relevant dangers and are able to identify sound policy solutions to manage common pool resources.

Holocaust and Genocide Studies, 2000

Scholars have recently debated the topic of German academics who directly or indirectly served th... more Scholars have recently debated the topic of German academics who directly or indirectly served the Nazi machinery of death and who then went on to successful professional careers after the war. This article examines the activities of two prominent émigré scholars, Drs. Georg Leibbrandt (1899-1982) and Karl Stumpp (1896-1982). These Ukrainian Germans emigrated to Germany after World War 1. In America, most members of the Russian-German ethnic community never knew that Leibbrandt had represented Alfred Rosenberg's Ministry for the Occupied Eastern Territories, or that under his supervision Stumpp led a Sonderkommando in Ukraine. This unit classified hundreds of villages, indirectly documenting the annihilation of Jews and others. The authors conclude that one consequence of Leibbrandt's and Stumpp's "return to normalcy" after the war was the growing fascination with genealogical research that affected the Russian-German ethnic community in North America-research partly based on 1930s and 1940s Nazi racial record-keeping.

graumann.us

Page 1. 1 Soviet Paradise Revisited: Genocide, Dissent, Memory and Denial By Dr. Eric J. Schmal... more Page 1. 1 Soviet Paradise Revisited: Genocide, Dissent, Memory and Denial By Dr. Eric J. Schmaltz Remembering Victims of Communism Worldwide As a part of the September Heritage Review's focus on Soviet-era repression ...

The dissertation traces the development of the national movement of the USSR's two million G... more The dissertation traces the development of the national movement of the USSR's two million Germans. The movement advocated the restoration of autonomy lost during Stalin's 1940s mass deportations to Central Asia. Between 1955 and 1987, the Soviet government pursued a ...

cvgs.cu-portland.edu

Greetings, Portland, fellow Germans from Russia, and various guests! Thank you very much for atte... more Greetings, Portland, fellow Germans from Russia, and various guests! Thank you very much for attending this special commemoration event for the Volga German diaspora community. I truly appreciate and am honored by this rare opportunity to speak before you on this significant day of remembrance. Thanks to the many fine efforts of the Oregon Chapter of the American Historical Society of Germans from Russia and the Center for Volga German Studies at Concordia University in Portland, we remember the sixty-seventh anniversary of Stalin's mass deportation of Volga Germans to Soviet Siberia and Central Asia in the late summer of 1941 during the darkest days of World War II. Today, I wish to discuss the historical context and provide a brief overview of the Soviet deportation of the Volga Germans in 1941, as well as consider its historical consequences. In addition, I seek to offer some perspectives on the more important and broader issue of history and its relationship to memory and the future. So much could be said about the group's long history, many accomplishments and sufferings, but my primary focus today is on the deportation experience of the 1940s and its legacy. First of all, we should consider the political status of the Volga Germans by the time of Stalin's mass deportation in 1941. A year after the Bolshevik Revolution, in October 1918, Vladimir Lenin's new Soviet government established the German Autonomous Workers' Commune. In 1922, non-German villages were included in this political arrangement. Between December 1923 and February 1924, during which time Lenin died, the Central Executive Committee in the Kremlin went one step further. It altered the Commune's status by establishing the Volga German Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (ASSR). In addition to incorporating the German nationality into the Soviet political system, the new Volga republic was intended to serve as an inspirational political model for Moscow's much-anticipated "international socialist revolution" in politically unstable Weimar Germany at the time. Soviet hopes to spread the revolution abroad in Germany soon faded, however, after the last unsuccessful Communist uprising in Bavaria was crushed in late 1923. Various Soviet resolutions concerning the broader nationality question generally coincided with the Volga German republic's formation at this time. In 1923, the Soviet leadership was still trying to reconcile socialist goals with powerful national sentiments. Nationalism's apparent

Ethnic and Racial Studies, 2008

This article seeks to examine the mass violence unleashed by Joseph Stalin and his regime against... more This article seeks to examine the mass violence unleashed by Joseph Stalin and his regime
against the USSR’s ethnic Germans. It endeavors to comprehend how Soviet policies of
repression progressed and intensified to the extreme detriment of this nationality group. It
covers the tumultuous period between 1928 and 1948, when Soviet policies overall
coarsened considerably, from the implementation of Stalin’s First Five-Year Plan to the
government decree banishing several Soviet peoples in their virtual entirety, including the
ethnic Germans, to “eternal” exile east of the Urals. This process shifted from class-based
reasons to ethnic ones as the 1930s progressed. The increasingly racialized nature of Soviet
mass violence targeted the ethnic Germans as a large diaspora community ethnically linked
to Nazi Germany, a country perceived as an ideological and military threat. During Stalin’s
war against the Soviet countryside in the early 1930s, ethnic German villagers at times felt
compelled to conduct mass protests and even revolts against the authorities. Meanwhile,
both an emerging ethnic German elite and ordinary German farmers and workers wrote
about worsening conditions under Stalin. Besides petitioning the Soviet government, they
delivered letters and various writings to friends and relatives by way of a vast underground
network at home and abroad, and their relatives sometimes answered in return. A growing
body of Soviet archival records and academic literature treating the Stalinist period has
generally validated and expanded upon what the ethnic group as early as the 1920s and
1930s had exposed about mass terror under Stalin’s regime.

Co-authored with Eric Schmaltz. “The Nazi Ethnographic Research of Georg Leibbrandt and Karl Stu... more Co-authored with Eric Schmaltz. “The Nazi Ethnographic Research of Georg Leibbrandt and Karl Stumpp in Ukraine and Its North American Legacy,” Holocaust and Genocide Studies. (Published by Oxford University Press for the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, DC) 14 no. 1 (Spring 2000): pp. 28-64.

With Eric Schmaltz, “The Nazi Ethnographic Research of Georg Leibbrandt and Karl Stumpp in Ukrain... more With Eric Schmaltz, “The Nazi Ethnographic Research of Georg Leibbrandt and Karl Stumpp in Ukraine, and Its North American Legacy.” In German Scholars and Ethnic Cleansing, 1919-1945. Eds. Ingo Haar, Michael Fahlbusch, Georg Iggers (Oxford/New York: Berghahn Books, hardback 2004, paperback 2006), pp. 51-85.