Merkel

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.