Michaelsdorf (North Caucasus)

The first German colony in the North Caucasus (today called North Ossetia) was founded in 1861 on the north outskirts of Vladikavkaz on the right bank of the River Terek. It was called Vladikavkaz German Colony. There were 40 families in the original settlement of Michaelsdorf consisting of 148 men and 143 women. Of those, 37 familes came from the Bergseite, 1 family from the Wiesenseite, 1 from the Novgorod District, and one "foreigner" August Brenz. There were also Germans living in the town of Vladikavkaz itself. As of 1874, there were 248 Germans living there.

On 13 November 1876, at the request of the inhabitants, Vladikavkaz German Colony was renamed Mikhaylovskaya Colony (in German - Michaelsdorf).

The colony's original location in the Petro-Pavlovskaya Soldatskaya Sloboda (town part of Vladikavkaz) proved to be very unfavorable and in 1887 at the request of the colonists it was moved to a new place in 9 versts beneath Vladikavkaz, close to the former Potemkin bridge. At the end of 1889 Michaelsdorf counted 513 inhabitants (83 families), they had 1250 Desyatin agricultural land, had 316 cows, 287 horses, 194 sheep etc. Colony had 3 blacksmith shops, 2 mills and 1 factory. In 1882, a college had been founded in Vladikavkaz by the local Evangelical Lutheran Church.

In 1888, Germans from the Kuban Region founded the colony of Emmaus close to the town Zamankul. In 1896, Emmaus had 29 houses with 160 inhabitants. In 1908, the inhabitants of Emmaus moved to Michaelsdorf. Another German colony Novy Lars (Dzakhontov-Lars) had been founded in 1887 close to the fortress Beslan by 54 colonists from the Districts of Bessarabia, Taurien, and Stavropol. In 1918, all the inhabitants of Novy Lars also moved to Michaelsdorf. 

Population