Biberstein
Biberstein was founded on 20 August 1767 by colonists who had been recruited by Baron Caneau de Beauregard.
The colony was named after its first mayor (Vorsteher) Karl August Marschal von Biberstein.
The 1767 census does not include a list of the original colonists in Biberstein as they were residing in other colonies at that time.
Originally, the colony of Biberstein was located along the banks of the Malenkiy Karaman (Little Karaman) River. Because the soil was not suitable for farming there, the colony was moved to a new location between Bettinger and Schaffhausen along the banks of the Volga River in 1770.
Today, what remains of the former colony of Biberstein is known as Georgiyevka.
Biberstein was part of the Lutheran parish headquartered in Bettinger. A new church was built of wood in Biberstein in 1862.
|
Year
|
Households
|
Population
|
||
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Total
|
Male
|
Female
|
||
| 1767 |
|
|
|
|
| 1769 |
25
|
107
|
76
|
31
|
| 1773 |
46
|
176
|
102
|
74
|
| 1788 |
40
|
221
|
112
|
109
|
| 1798 |
44
|
310
|
156
|
154
|
| 1816 |
85
|
480
|
239
|
241
|
| 1834 |
109
|
813
|
408
|
405
|
| 1850 |
146
|
1,017
|
523
|
494
|
| 1857 |
132
|
1,065
|
535
|
530
|
| 1859 |
116
|
1,029
|
529
|
500
|
| 1883 |
|
1,854
|
|
|
| 1889 |
|
1,896
|
|
|
| 1894 |
|
|
|
|
| 1897 |
|
1,899
|
942
|
957
|
| 1905 |
|
2,898
|
|
|
| 1910 |
289
|
2,992
|
1,574
|
1,418
|
| 1912 |
|
3,036
|
|
|
| 1920 |
363*
|
2,440
|
|
|
| 1922 |
|
2,023
|
|
|
| 1926** |
271
|
1,535
|
750
|
785
|
| 1931 |
|
2,330***
|
|
|
*Of which 361 households were German.
**Of whom 1,534 (749 male & 785 female) were German, living in 270 households.
***Of whom 2,321 were German.
Glarus (Wolgadeutsche.net) in Russian
- Beratz, Gottieb. The German colonies on the Lower Volga, their origin and early development: a memorial for the 150th anniversary of the arrival of the first German settlers on the Volga, 29 June 1764. Translated by Adam Giesinger (Lincoln, NE: American Historical Society of Germans from Russia, 1991): 348.
- Diesendorf, V.F. Die Deutschen Russlands : Siedlungen und Siedlungsgebiete : Lexicon. Moscow, 2006.
- Pallas, P.S. Reise durch verschiedene Provinzen des Russischen Reichs. Theil 3,2, Reise aus Sibirien zurueck an die Wolga im 1773sten Jahr (St. Petersburg: Kaiserl. Academie der Wissenschaften, 1776): 614.
- Preliminary Results of the Soviet Census of 1926 on the Volga German Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (Pokrovsk, 1927): 28-83.
- Reith, Andreas. Bettinger Lutheran Church, 2009 (online - in Russian).
- Report of Conditions of Settlements on the Volga to Catherine II by Count Orlov, 14 February 1769.
- "Settlements in the 1897 Census." Journal of the American Historical Society of Germans from Russia (Winter, 1990): 16.Stumpp, Karl. Die Auswanderung aus Deutschland nach Rußland in den Jahren 1763 bis 1862 (Landsmannschaft der Deutschen aus Rußland, 2004): 68.
Map redrawn from one that was created in 1764. It shows the original location planned for the colony of Biberstein (No. 67) on the banks of the Malenkiy Karaman (Little Karaman) River.
Source: Andreas Reith.
Map showing Biberstein - in the center (1935).
Interior photos of the Biberstein church.
Source: Jorge Bohn.
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