Locations

This is a gazetteer of the geographic locations that are important to the history of the Volga Germans worldwide. It is intended to help researchers identify a locale regardless of the names by which it has been known throughout the years.

Most of the settlements in Russia have been known by a variety of names in both the Russian and German languages, and these names have had a variety of spellings throughout the years. Russian uses the Cyrillic alphabet while German uses the Latin alphabet. Translation/transliteration between these two alphabets is further complicated by the fact that today there are at least five primary languages spoken by the Volga Germans and their descendants: German, Russian, English, Spanish, and Portuguese. While the primary language of this website is English, it is hoped that this gazetteer will be useful in all languages.