Rusch, Konstantin

The Rev. Konstantin Rusch, son of Jakob & Tamara Rusch, was born in 1894 [other sources record 1893] in the Volga German colony of Huck.

He studied at the University of Basel in Switzerland from 1909 to 1914. He returned to Huck where he served as a school teacher. From 1914-1917, he served in the tsarist army as a clerk, and from 1917-1921, as a clerk in the Red Army. In 1921, he served as an elementary school teacher in the colony of Kolb. From 1924-1927, he was a teacher in the colony of Kolpino (Leningrad region).

From 1925 to 1928, he was a seminary student in Leningrad, and was ordained in 1928.

He was sent to serve the Lutheran congregation in Sarepta in 1929, and was its last pastor. He was arrested in 1929, convicted "for supporting the kulak elite and comparing life in the USSR and abroad", and sentenced to 10 years of hard labor. He was imprisoned until 16 October 1937. He was arrested again on 19 October 1941 for "anti-Soviet agitation," and sentenced to death on 29 August 1942. He was executed on 3 October 1942 while in prison. [He was "rehabilitated" on 3 May 1989.]