Moor was founded on 1 July 1766 by recruiters of the Russian Government . It is located about 65 kilometers southwest of Saratov. The 64 founding families came from the Pfalz, Isenburg, and Hessen regions of present-day Germany.
It was named after the leader of the founding group, Jakob Moor. According to Christian August Tornow, the colony was also called Zimmermann during the early years of its existence.
In 1855, many colonists from Moor resettled to the daughter colony of Gnadenfeld.
Today, what remains of the colony of Moor is known as Klyuchi.
The congregation in Moor was originally part of the Reformed parish headquartered in Messer. A wooden church was constructed in 1856. Some residents were Baptists.
The congregation in Moor was served by the following pastors:
- 1767-1777 Aloysius Jauch
- 1778-1799 Johannes S. Janet
|
Year
|
Households
|
Population
|
||
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Total
|
Male
|
Female
|
||
| 1767 |
70
|
240
|
|
|
| 1769 |
64
|
251
|
137
|
114
|
| 1773 |
61
|
276
|
149
|
127
|
| 1788 |
62
|
420
|
218
|
202
|
| 1798 |
70
|
510
|
271
|
239
|
| 1816 |
92
|
866
|
446
|
420
|
| 1834 |
165
|
1,513
|
741
|
772
|
| 1850 |
178
|
2,181
|
1,064
|
1,117
|
| 1857 |
221
|
2,527
|
1,271
|
1,256
|
| 1859 |
240
|
2,653
|
1,356
|
1,297
|
| 1886 |
399
|
3,069
|
1,554
|
1,515
|
| 1891 |
353
|
4,022
|
2,065
|
1,957
|
| 1894 |
381
|
4,154
|
2,116
|
2,038
|
| 1897 |
|
3,109*
|
1,564
|
1,545
|
| 1905 |
|
5,370
|
|
|
| 1910 |
|
5,557
|
|
|
| 1912 |
|
5,710
|
|
|
| 1920 |
619
|
4,822
|
|
|
| 1922 |
|
3,599
|
|
|
| 1923 |
|
3,333
|
|
|
| 1926** |
612
|
3,719
|
1,821
|
1,898
|
| 1931 |
|
3,842***
|
|
|
*Of whom 3,103 were German.
**Of whom 3,716 were German (610 households: 1,819 male & 1,897 female).
***Of whom 3,836 were German.
Moor (wolgadeutsche.net) in Russian
Moor, A German Village in the Volga Valley of Russia (Irma Waggoner)
Village of Moor (Herb Femling)
- 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).
- Mink, A.N. Historical and Geographical Dictionary of the Saratov Province [in Russian] (Saratov, Russia, 1898): 486-489.
- 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 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): 319.
- 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.
50.969667, 45.698333
Migrated From
Immigration Locations
Map showing Moor (1935).