The Volga German colony of Frank was founded on 16 May 1767 by 117 families from the Mecklenburg, Pfalz, Saxony, and Darmstadt-Isenburg regions of present-day Germany. It was located along the left bank of the Medvyeditsa River from which its Russian name of Medvyeditskii Krestovyi Buyerak was developed. Medvyeditsa means "she bear" in Russian.
By 1859, there were in Frank a Lutheran church, a parochial school, a market, 3 seed-oil producing factories, and one mill.
In the 1850s, colonists from Frank moved to the Wiesenseite to found the daughter colonies of Brunnental and Langenfeld.
A Regional government school was built in Frank in 1871.
Today, what remains of the colony of Frank is known as Medvyeditza and is relatively prosperous for the area. It has survived in part because of its proximity to the Russian oil town of Zhirnovsk to the south.
Following the release of the Volga Germans from the "Special Settlements" of Siberia and Kazakhstan in 1956, a number of Volga German families moved back to the Volga region and settled in Frank. A particularly large group of these families had previously lived in the colonies of Sewald and Rothammel. Today, in the post-1946 cemetery of Frank one finds the graves of many of these families.
The Lutheran parish of Frank was established in 1768, and there was a resident pastor in Frank. A new church building was constructed in 1842.
During the Soviet era, this building was torn down, and today a park is located where the church formerly stood.
Following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1990-1991, the local residents of Frank were given the former parsonage to use for worship services. The two large rooms on the east end of the building were used by the Lutherans and the large room on the west end was used by the Catholics (formerly from Sewald & Rothammel).
Today, most of the ethnic Germans who had resettled to Frank after 1956 have gone back to Germany, and all religious services for them have been discontinued.
A small Russian Orthodox Church is located elsewhere in the village today.
The parish headquartered in Frank was served by the following pastors:
- 1768-1770 Johann Friedrich Mittelstädt
- 1771-1776 Johann Friedrich Heitzig
- 1778-1782 Laurentius Ahlbaum
- 1782-1786 Samuel Traugott Büttner
- 1788-1817 Franz August Flittner
- 1818-1820 David Flittner
- 1820-1837 Franz Bernhard Hölz
- 1838-1868 Jakob Würthner
- 1867-1878 Ernst Theophil David
- 1879-1882 Samuel Petrus Dittrich
- 1884-1901 Karl Rudolf Roos
- 1901-1914 Michael Somelt
- 1917-1920 Arthur Julius Kluck
- 1925-? Konrad Staab
|
Year
|
Households
|
Population
|
||
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Total
|
Male
|
Female
|
||
| 1767 |
117
|
335
|
|
|
| 1769 |
115
|
425
|
215
|
210
|
| 1773 |
115
|
525
|
282
|
243
|
| 1788 |
109
|
704
|
367
|
337
|
| 1798 |
138
|
861
|
443
|
418
|
| 1816 |
191
|
1,415
|
768
|
647
|
| 1834 |
305
|
2,552
|
1,344
|
1,208
|
| 1850 |
314
|
3,775
|
1,905
|
1,870
|
| 1857 |
412
|
4,620
|
2,343
|
2,277
|
| 1859 |
303
|
4,684
|
2,383
|
2,301
|
| 1885 |
|
4,682
|
|
|
| 1897 |
|
5,080*
|
2,595
|
2,485
|
| 1905 |
|
5,454
|
|
|
| 1912 |
614
|
4,592
|
2,281
|
2,311
|
| 1920 |
654**
|
4,872
|
|
|
| 1922 |
|
4,999
|
|
|
| 1923 |
|
5,129
|
|
|
| 1926 |
861
|
5,374***
|
2,612
|
2,762
|
| 1931 |
|
5,485****
|
|
|
*Of whom 5,072 are German.
**Of which 643 households were German.
***Of whom 5,288 (2,561 male & 2,727 female) were German living in 832 households.
****Of whom 5,467 were German.
Frank and Kolb, Russia (Kelly Horst)
History of the Village Frank (Clarence Kissler)
Frank (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): 349.
- Diesendorf, V.F. Die Deutschen Russlands : Siedlungen und Siedlungsgebiete : Lexicon. Moscow, 2006.
- The German Settlements in the USSR before 1941 [in Russian] (Moscow, 2002): 125.
- Mink, A.N. Historical and Geographical Dictionary of the Saratov Province [in Russian] (Saratov, Russia, 1898).
- Orlov, Gregorii. Report of Conditions of Settlements on the Volga to Catherine II, 14 February 1769.
- 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): 623.Pleve, Igor R. The German Colonies on the Volga: The Second Half of the Eighteenth Century, translated by Richard Rye (Lincoln, NE: American Historical Society of Germans from Russia, 2001): 318.
- Schnurr, Joseph, Die Kirchen und das Religiöse Leben der Russlanddeutschen - Evangelischer Teil (Stuttgart: Landsmannschaft der Deutschen aus Russland, 1972): 344.
- "Settlements in the 1897 Census." Journal of the American Historical Society of Germans from Russia (Winter, 1990): 18.
51.083333, 44.816667
Migrated From
Immigration Locations
Map showing Frank (1935).
Lutheran Church in Frank.
Lutheran Church in Frank. School is visible in the background.
Map of Frank (1900)
Source: David Eisenach.
Church in Frank (2006).
School in Frank.
Grain storage building in Frank.