Skip to main content

Hartwig, Valentin

Profession
Politician
Biography

Valentin Hartwig, son of Andreas Hartwig, was born in 1894 in an unknown Volga German colony.

In January 1920, he was elected chairman of the Union of Soviet Workers and a member of the presidium of the regional council of trade unions. From May 1920 to February 1921, he served as chairman of the trade unions. From February-September 1921, he served as Deputy Chairman of the Regional Council of the National Economy.

During the famine of 1921, he actively worked to help the starving in the Volga German Region. From 3-10 December 1923, together with V. Kurtz who was the chairman of the regional executive committee, Hartwig negotiated with the Central Committee of the People's Commissariat for Foreign Affairs and the Central Executive Committee of the RSFSR for the establishment of the ASSR of the Volga Germans.

At the first congress of the Soviets of the Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic of the USSR (6-10 January 1924), Hartwig was elected from the ASSR of the Volga Germans to serve as a member of the Central Executive Committee of the USSR.

In the middle of 1924, he contracted tuberculosis and had to leave his post. He sought treatment in Yalta (Crimea) where he died on 26 September 1925.

Source(s)

- ГАРФ, ф. 1318, оп. 15, д. 43, л. 25-27 via Alexander Spak.
- Hartwig, Valentin Andreyevich (wolgadeutsche.net) [in Russian]

Images

Delegates to the 10th All-Russian Congress of the Soviets (23-27 December 1922).
Standing: Hartwig, Mohr, Gross, Unknown.
Seated: Grohmann, Fuchs, König, Kurtz, Grioryev, Persidskii.
Front: Schönfeld, Irma Fuchs.
Source: Unsere Wirtschaft 1 (15 January 1924).

Delegates of the 11th All-Russian Congress of Soviets (19-29 January 1924)
Standing: Hartwig, Gross, Kolotilov, Leiser.
Seated: Pyatnitzin, Schwab, Vishnevskaya, Kurtz, Welsch.
Source: A. A. Herman. German Autonomy on the Volga. 1918-1941 (Moscow: IGMN-Press, 2007): 539.