Skip to main content

Merkel

Names
Merkel
Makarovka
Makarowka
Меркель
Макаровка
Beckmann
Бекман
Magarofker
History

Merkel was established on 28 August 1766 by colonists fom the Baden and Dresden regions of present-day Germany who had been recruited by Baron de Boffe. It is located along the Makarovka Creek where it joins the Karamysh River.

Merkel was named after Johann Georg Merkel, the first mayor (Vorsteher) of the colony. In an edict dated 26 February 1768, Merkel was given the official Russian name of Makarovka. According to Christian August Tornow, the colony was called Beckmann during the first couple of years after it was founded.

At the 8th Revision in 1834, the colony was allocated 15 desyatina per male inhabitant for a total of 2,340 desyatina. By the 10th Revision in 1857, this allotment measured out to only 4.5 desyatina per male inhabitant.      

According to the information of the Central Statistical Committee in 1859, the colony there were a Lutheran church, a school, a mill. All were German Lutherans except for one Catholic, one Baptist, and one Reformed.      

According to Minkh, between 1861 and 1879, 224 colonists moved to Friedenfeld, in the Novouzensk District, Samara Province. In 1876, 6 colonists and in 1877, 1 additional colonist immigrated to America. In 1886 another 2 families received passports and immigrated.      

As of 1886, there were 134 habitable houses, of which 58 were built of rock and 75 of wood. Of them, 64 had wood-shingled roofs and 64 had thatch. There were 5 industrial businesses, and 1 saloon. The colony inventory includes 159 plows, 1 wooden plow, 36 winnowing machines, 1 threshing machine, 605 horses, 130 oxen, 726 cows and calves, 1,105 sheep, 500 pigs, and 300 goats. The land allotment of good soil was 3,332.5 desyatina, of which 2,503 desyatina is cultivated. The poor land amounted to 676 desyatina, for a total of 4,008.5 desyatina. Of this total, 2,188½ desyatina of good land and 591¼ of poor land is located near the colony, and 528¼ desyatina of good land and 18¼ of poor land is located 12 versts away. Pasture located west of the colony amounts to 200 desyatina.      

There is a parish German school that as existed since the establishment of the colony. There is also a government school. There are 135 habitable structures made of wood, native stone, and brink. Most are covered with thatched roofs. Most inhabitants are farmers, but 100 people are employed in the sarpinka (textile) factory.      

After the establishment of the worker’s commune system in October 1918, Merkel was placed under the jurisdiction of the Kamyenski Rural Council in the Balzer Kanton of the Volgograd Province. In 1926, the Village Soviet system was set up, and with the establishment of the Volga German Autonomous Republic on 1 January 1935, Merkel became part of the Frank Kanton. With the liquidation of the Volga German Autonomous Republic in 1941, Merkel became known as Makarovka, in the Zhirnovsk Region of the Volgograd Province.

Today, what little remains of the former colony of Merkel is known as Makarovka.

Church

The congregation in Merkel belonged to the Dietel parish, later becoming an indepedent parish. A Lutheran Church building, built of wood with wood shingles, was constructed there 1826. Today, nothing remains of this building.

Immigration
Population
Year
Households
Population
Total
Male
Female
1767
 
110
 
 
1769
30
115
68
47
1773
36
141
83
58
1788
26
166
88
78
1798
30
213
117
96
1816
41
361
184
177
1834
83
606
327
279
1850
92
1,010
527
483
1857
110
1,199
626
573
1859
106
1,236
651
585
1886*
138
1,176
583
593
1891
186
1,700
858
842
1894
135
1,785
898
887
1897
 
1,208**
591
617
1904
 
2,137
 
 
1910
 
2,422
 
 
1912
 
2,458
 
 
1920
186***
1,301
 
 
1922
 
1,212
 
 
1926****
245
1,437
714
723
1931
 
1,664
 
 

*Not including 82 absent families and another 8 families (38 individuals) who live outside the colony. In total, there are 315 male and 326 female colonists who no longer live in the colony.
**Of whom 1,195 were German.
***Of which 185 households were German.
****Of these 243 households were German, 1,435 people (712 male and 723 female).

Sources

- 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.
- Dietz, Jacob E. History of the Volga German Colonists (Lincoln, NE: American Historical Society of Germans from Russia, 2005).
- Erbes, Johannes. Deutsche Volkszeitung (23 August 1906).
- Klaus, A.A. Our Colonies (Saint Petersburg, Russia, 1869): 48-49.
- List of the Populated Places of the Samara Province (Samara, Russia, 1910): 60.
- Minkh, A.N. Historical-Geographical Dictionary of the Saratov Province (Saratov, 1901): 602-605.
- 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): 622.
- Pleve, Igor. Einwanderung in das Wolgagebiet, 1764-1767 Band 3 (Göttingen: Der Göttinger Arbeitskreis, 2005): 119-129.
- Preliminary Results of the Soviet Census of 1926 on the Volga German Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (Pokrovsk, 1927): 28-83.
- "Settlements in the 1897 Census." Journal of the American Historical Society of Germans from Russia (Winter, 1990): 18.

Resources

1767 Census of Merkel
1798 Census of Merkel
1834 Census of Merkel
1857 Census of Merkel

50.883333, 45.287167

Migrated From

50.581667, 8.298333
49.631944, 8.365278
55.676111, 12.568333
51.333333, 12.383333
51.333333, 12.383333
54.333333, 10.133333

Immigration Locations

38.894221, -101.751763
38.883333, -98.85
40.4, -104.716667
40.466667, -104.9
39.025008, -99.879566
45.783286, -108.50069
45.669116, -108.771533
42.866632, -106.313081
44.797194, -106.956179
40.19667, -100.624874
38.060833, -97.92972
40.586258, -98.389873
40.65, -97.283333
40.216667, -100.833333
38.466667, -99.55
38.433333, -99.683333
38.516667, -98.766667
40.825763, -96.685198
40.808056, -91.11583
41.235659, -103.662983
38.266944, -104.6202
37.688889, -97.33611
45.523062, -122.676482
41.809122, -103.503369
38.71194, -98.91194
41.826362, -103.657762
39.392222, -101.0475
38.364457, -98.764807
47.0425, -122.893056
42.054414, -104.95275
42.136354, -104.345508
42.093024, -102.870201
41.667778, -103.0988
38.37, -93.771667
40.230278, -104.073333
47.252877, -122.444291
40.015, -105.270556
43.475278, -110.769167
41.139981, -104.820246
40.280833, -100.9741
35.8625, -101.966944
43.232222, -99.430278
43.183056, -99.291111
40.606667, -97.85861
42.460833, -98.646944
43.115278, -99.190556
38.466667, -101.75
37.940278, -101.2586
37.043333, -100.928
37.975278, -100.8641
38.046667, -97.345
44.620833, -103.4033
44.714708, -103.420744
44.410278, -103.518611
39.5625, -95.128333
45.899401, -108.301517
45.959962, -108.160954
43.616667, -116.2
46.378889, -120.3119
39.353056, -112.573611
42.062465, -104.184394
46.602071, -120.505899
44.016901, -107.955372
41.9325, -104.146389
37.821111, -96.85833
38.038611, -96.638333
41.916944, -104.0397
38.516667, -99.183333
41.998333, -104.046667
43.051944, -83.31638
44.052069, -123.086754
39.527222, -119.8219
47.688056, -114.156667
48.197778, -114.316111
48.488611, -99.204444
40.641667, -102.628889
45.333611, -97.51944
40.779444, -99.74388
43.483333, -112.033333
38.917222, -97.21388
38.583333, -99.566667
40.625556, -103.211667
40.258137, -103.6321
40.758889, -103.0658
36.330228, -119.292059
35.640833, -120.653889
41.963298, -103.926336
39.116667, -100.85
39.061667, -101.245
Images

Map showing Merkel (1935).

Merkel bell tower, city hall, and school taken by Alexander Bauer in 1927.

Panorama of Merkel (2009).
Source: Georgi Spach.