Krasnoyar was founded on 20 July 1767 by the Government as a Lutheran colony. It was located 410 versts from Samara and 30 versts from Saratov.
According to Christian August Tornow, the colony was also known as Walter during its early years, in honor of Christoph Walter its first mayor (Vorsteher).
In 1878, 156 people immigrated to America.
In 1909, about 400 Krasnoyar colonists moved to Siberia and settled there.
Today, what remains of the former colony of Krasnoyar is called Krasnyy Yar.
Originally the congregation in Krasnoyar was part of the Rosenheim parish which had been established in 1767. Krasnoyar became an independent parish in 1906.
A new church built of wood was completed in 1861 and dedicated on 9 July 1861. It was called Trinity Lutheran Church and is said to have seated 1,500 worshipers.
The church bells were removed from the belfry in 1929 during a celebration honoring the October (1917) Revolution. They were taken to Katharinenstadt and melted down to become parts for the manufacture of the first Soviet tractor called the "Dwarf". The cross on the church spire was removed in 1933 and later the entire steeple was removed. Adolescents stole the organ pipes. In the mid 1930s, the church building was turned into a community entertainment center, and after World War II, it became a cinema. In the late 1980s, the building was completely demolished.
Today, there is a new Russian Orthodox church in the former colony of Krasnoyar. It is located across the street from where the original Lutheran church once stood.
The congregation in Krasnoyar was served by the following pastors:
- 1767-1785 Ludwig Helm
- 1777-1787? Daniel Willi
- 1786-1788 Laurentius Ahlbaum
- 1788-1791 Klaus Peter Lundberg
- 1792-1815 Mag. Christian Friedrich Jäger
- 1816-1820 Franz Hölz
- 1820-1831 Johann Heinrich Buck
- 1831-1866 Alexander Karl August Allendorf
- 1867-1879 Friedrih Wilhelm Meyer
- 1881-1905 Karl Blum
- 1897-1897 Julius George Philipp Schilling
- 1898-1900 Johannes Nikolaus Blum
- 1905-1914 Johannes Stenzel
- 1916-1918 Albert Arthur Schön
- 1919-1924 Wilhelm Feldbach
|
Year
|
Households
|
Population
|
||
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Total
|
Male
|
Female
|
||
| 1767 |
120
|
353
|
|
|
| 1769 |
112
|
375
|
190
|
185
|
| 1773 |
115
|
460
|
218
|
242
|
| 1788 |
105
|
537
|
277
|
260
|
| 1798 |
114
|
684
|
354
|
330
|
| 1816 |
127
|
1,036
|
534
|
502
|
| 1834 |
199
|
1,792
|
878
|
914
|
| 1850 |
294
|
2,552
|
1,244
|
1,308
|
| 1857 |
310
|
3,004
|
1,500
|
1,504
|
| 1859 |
|
3,131
|
|
|
| 1883 |
|
4,343
|
|
|
| 1889 |
|
4,484
|
|
|
| 1894 |
|
|
|
|
| 1897 |
|
4,721*
|
2,391
|
2,330
|
| 1905 |
|
7,514
|
|
|
| 1910 |
1,081
|
7,345
|
3,360
|
3,985
|
| 1912 |
|
7,923
|
|
|
| 1920 |
979
|
6,569
|
|
|
| 1922 |
|
4,724
|
|
|
| 1923 |
|
4,008
|
|
|
| 1926** |
847
|
4,546
|
2,177
|
2,369
|
| 1931 | 5,145*** | |||
| 1939 | 4,631 | |||
*Of whom 4,622 were German.
**Of those, 834 households were German (4,464 people: 2,128 male & 2,336 female).
***Of whom 5,129 were German.
Krasnoyar (George Valko)
Krasnyi Yar (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): 351.
- Diesendorf, V.F. Die Deutschen Russlands : Siedlungen und Siedlungsgebiete : Lexicon. Moscow, 2006.
- Erbes, Johannes. Deutsche Volkszeitung (23 August 1906).
- Klaus, A.A. Our Colonies (Saint Petersburg, Russia, 1869): II p.14; IV pp. 56-57.
- List of the Populated Places of the Samara Province (Samara, Russia, 1910): 325-326.
- Litzenberger, Olga. "Germans of Konstantinovskaya Volost: From the Kingdom of Poland to Samarskaya Gubernia (1864-1917) Part 2." Journal of the American Historical Society of Germans from Russia 42:1 (Spring 2019): 1-7.
- 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): 612.
- 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.
- Preliminary Totals of the All-Union Population Census of 1926 of the ASSR of the Germans of Volga Region (Pokrovsk, Russia, 1927): 28-83.
- Schnurr, Joseph. Die Kirchen und das religiöse Leben der Russlanddeutschen – Evangelischer Teil (Stuttgart: AER Verlag Landsmannschaft der Deutschen aus Rußland, 1978): 198.
- "Settlements in the 1897 Census." Journal of the American Historical Society of Germans from Russia (Winter, 1990): 16.
51.632667, 46.421333
Migrated From
Immigration Locations
Map showing Krasnoyar (1935).
Krasnoyar Church
Source: Anna Beller.
Krasnoyar Street Scene
Source: Volksfreund Kalender, 1911.
Former Krasnoyar Church in the background (center left), after steeple was removed, being used as a cinema (1960s).
Source: Anna Beller.
Krasnoyar panorama.
Source: wolgadeutsche.net
Krasnoyar Church (1974).
Source: Waldemar Schleicher.
Map of Krasnoyar as of 1941.
by Alexander Groh
Source: George Valko
This mill in Krasnoyar was built in 1907.
It was expropriated by the Soviet government in 1931.
Source: livejournal.com