Schöntal means "Pleasant Valley" in German. It was located on the left bank of the Yeruslan River about 60 miles southeast of Saratov. It was founded in 1856 [perhaps 1857] by settlers from Yagodnaya Polyana. An additional 162 colonists from Pobochnaya resettled there in 1857.
Today, little remains of Schöntal. It was administrativesly merged with neighboring Neu-Yagodnaya-Polyana and those living in Neu-Yagodnaya moved to Schöntal. Today, the village is called Dolina a name which it had originally received in 1916 during a time of anti-German sentiment.
In September 1941, all inhabitants were deported from the colony.
The Lutheran parish in Schöntal was founded in 1864 as an independent parish with a resident pastor. Schöntal served as the lead parish for four surrounding congregations.
There were also Reformed parishners in Schöntal.
The colony of Schöntal was served by the following pastors: Karl Zimmer (1908-1911)
Johann Georg Schwartz (1914-?)
|
Year
|
Households
|
Population
|
||
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Total
|
Male
|
Female
|
||
| 1857 |
|
|
|
|
| 1859 |
|
873
|
|
|
| 1883 |
|
1,453
|
|
|
| 1889 |
|
1,652
|
|
|
| 1897 |
|
2,037*
|
1,019
|
1,018
|
| 1905 |
|
2,728
|
|
|
| 1910 |
|
2,897
|
|
|
| 1920 |
385
|
2,573
|
|
|
| 1922 |
|
1,990
|
|
|
| 1923 |
|
1,708
|
|
|
| 1926 |
366
|
1,981**
|
981
|
1,000
|
| 1931 |
|
2,498***
|
|
|
*Of whom 1,996 were German.
**Of whom 1,956 were German (355 households: 966 male & 990 female).
***Of whom 2,444 were German.
- Schöntal (wolgadeutsche.net) [in Russian]
- Diesendorf, V.F. Die Deutschen Russlands : Siedlungen und Siedlungsgebiete : Lexicon. Moscow, 2006.
- German Settlements in the Years 1917-1941 [in Russian] (wolgadeutsche.net)
- Preliminary Results of the Soviet Census of 1926 on the Volga German Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (Pokrovsk, 1927): 28-83.
- Schnurr, Joseph. Die Kirchen und das religiöse Leben der Russlanddeutschen – Evangelischer Teil (Stuttgart: AER Verlag Landsmannschaft der Deutschen aus Rußland, 1978): 197.
- "Settlements in the 1897 Census." Journal of the American Historical Society of Germans from Russia (Winter, 1990): 17.
51.1455, 47.4185
Migrated From
Immigration Locations
Map showing Schöntal (1935).
Photo of the church in Schöntal.
Source: Jorge Bohn.