Shcherbakovka was founded as a Lutheran colony on 15 June 1765 by the Government. The first colonists came from the areas of Durlach, Württemberg, and Darmstadt in Germany. It was named in honor of Michael Shcherbatov, a Russian noble and well-known writer during the time of Catherine the Great.
According to Christian August Tornow, the colony was called Stricker during the first few years of its existance.
During the period of the Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic of the Volga Germans (roughly 1924-1941), the colony was called Mühlberg.
Today, the former colony of Shcherbakovka is known as Shcherbatovka.
The congregation in Shcherbakovka was part of the Stephan parish which had been founded in 1771.
The congregation in Shcherbakovka was served by the following pastors:
- 1771-1778 Johann Kaspar Brauns
- 1778-1778 Laurentius Ahlbaum
- 1779-1782 Klaus Peter Lundberg
- 1782-1788 Jakob Alexander Topelius
- 1798-1811 Karl Adolf Günther
|
Year
|
Households
|
Population
|
||
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Total
|
Male
|
Female
|
||
| 1767 |
51
|
171
|
|
|
| 1769 |
48
|
196
|
109
|
87
|
| 1773 |
49
|
229
|
114
|
115
|
| 1788 |
50
|
348
|
179
|
169
|
| 1798 |
61
|
403
|
208
|
195
|
| 1816 |
78
|
668
|
353
|
315
|
| 1834 |
101
|
1,331
|
672
|
659
|
| 1850 |
205
|
2,065
|
1,032
|
1,033
|
| 1857 |
162
|
2,486
|
1,295
|
1,191
|
| 1859 |
129
|
2,543
|
1,256
|
1,286
|
| 1886 |
202
|
1,793
|
929
|
864
|
| 1891 |
|
|
|
|
| 1894 |
194
|
3,145
|
1,612
|
1,533
|
| 1897 |
|
1,584*
|
776
|
808
|
| 1905 |
|
3,927
|
|
|
| 1911 |
273
|
4,164
|
|
|
| 1912 |
|
4,448
|
|
|
| 1920 |
366**
|
2,402
|
|
|
| 1922 |
|
1,862
|
|
|
| 1926*** |
276
|
1,536
|
720
|
816
|
| 1931 |
|
2,071****
|
|
|
*Of whom 1,578 were German.
**Of which 364 households were German.
***Of whom 2,525 were German (272 households: 714 male & 811 female).
****Of whom 2,067 were German.
The Ehrlich-Laubhan Families (L.J. Ehrlich)
Mühlberg (wolgadeutsche.net) in Russian
Village of Shcherbakovka (Janet Flickinger)
- 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): 352.
- 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): 1379-1382.
- 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): 621.
- 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): 318.
- 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: Landsmannschaft der Deutschen aus Russland, 1972): 193.
- "Settlements in the 1897 Census." Journal of the American Historical Society of Germans from Russia (Winter, 1990): 19.
50.489167, 45.687167
Migrated From
Immigration Locations
1935 map showing both Shcherbakovkas. German Shcherbakovka (aka Deutsche Shcherbakovka) is on the left; Russian Shcherbakovka is on the right on the bank of the Volga River.
Shcherbakovka Lutheran Church.
Courtesy of Shcherbakovka web site.
Map of Shcherbakovka ca.1941.
Source: Kathy Stahlman.