Galladzheva, Amalia (Löbsack)

Profession: 
Clergy
Biography: 

Amalia Löbsack, daughter of Heinrich Löbsack & Maria Katharina Löbsack, was born 21 May 1891 [some sources record this date as 5 May 1891] in the Volga German colony of Frank.

Her father was an ordained minister in the Seventh-Day Adventist Church and served as an organizational leader and missionary of the Seventh-Day Adventist movement in Russia and later in the early years of the Soviet Union. She and her brother Georg Samuel Löbsack were educated in Germany. Georg became a wealthy journalist / publisher in Germany, but in 1920 Amalia returned to Russia to join her father's Adventist missionary efforts.

She married in 1928 to Alexi Galladzhev, another Seventh-Day Adventist minister and missionary of Armenian descent, and they served several congregations and mission posts primarily in Siberia and Kazakhstan.

Pastor Alexi Galladzhev had been arrested during a sweep of clergy in 1939. In 1941, Amalia received word from the German consulate that she was to inherit part of her brother's estate [Georg Samuel Löbsack had died in Germany in 1936]. Russia was at war with Germany, and since she was receiving information from the German consulate, local officials determined that Amalia was a spy and potential saboteur. She was arrested and evidently convicted of crimes. Her husband later was informed that she had been executed on 4 February 1942 not far from Tbilisi [Georgia] where she had been arrested.

Source(s): 

- Heinz, Daniel & Dmitry O. Yunak. "Galladzheva-Löbsack (Lebsak), Amalia (1891–1942)." Encylopedia of Seventh-Day Adventists. [Online]
- Parish register of Frank.

Volga Colonies: 
Immigration: 
Related Surnames: 

Alexi and Amalia Galadzhev.
Source: Nina and Pavel Kulakov via the Encyclopedia of Seventh-Day Adventists.

Amalia Lobsack's death certificate that her husband later obtained.
Source: Nina and Pavel Kulakov via the Encyclopedia of Seventh-Day Adventists.