Kratzke

The first group of German 34 colonist families arrived in Kratzke on 7 August 1767. They came from the Pfalz, Prussia, Hanover, and Sweden and had been recruited by Baron de Boffe. The colony is named after Adam Kratzke, the first mayor (Vorsteher) of the colony, who later moved to Katharinenstadt.

In August 1774, rebel leader Pugachev raided the colony. Gottlieb Beratz, Volga German historian, reports the following:

Soon after his arrival in the colony, Pugachev erected gallows and strung up four strangers thereon. “Thereupon these monsters,” reported the witness Dewald, “ransacked the few houses of our then still very small village, took what pleased them, struck old men and women, as well as children, with their whips and rods, but without killing anyone, and then camped near the village. Before dawn was visible on the horizon, a few houses in the village here and there began to burn. At the same time the whole pack of brigands with their leaders got up and left our village. As there was no wind that morning, the fire did not spread and even in the farmyards where it had broken out, much could still be saved. All the grain, hay, and straw on the threshing floors, however, fell prey to the flames. Also, everything that the robbers came across in the fields was completely destroyed. The livestock that they could catch also was partly butchered on the spot, partly driven away with them.”

Along the northern edge of the colony, there was a mill on the banks of the Karamysh River.

In 1855, families from Kratzke, along with several from the neighboring colonies of Dietel, Kautz, and Merkel founded the daughter colony of Ährenfeld.

Today, what remains of the former colony of Kratzke is known as Podchinnoye.

School

There was a parochial school located in Kratzke from the earliest years.

The following served as teachers in the school in Kratzke:

Johann Michael Kaiser