Dobrinka was founded on 29 June 1764 by colonists who had been recruited by the Government. It was the first Volga German colony to be founded, and the site selected was along the Dobrinka River where it enters the Volga River.
In 1774, as Pugachev was making his way south through the Volga German territory, he traveled through Dobrinka. According to historian Jacob Dietz, Pugachev had the body of the government astronomer Lovitz, who was visiting in the colony at the time, impaled on a stake.
Today, the former colony of Dobrinka is known as Nizhnyaya Dobrinka.
The original colonists who settled in Dobrinka were mostly of the Lutheran faith practice. The Lutheran congregation in Dobrinka was part of the Galka parish which was founded in 1767.
Ruins of the Lutheran Church in Dobrinka stand today.
The congregation in Dobrinka was served by the following pastors:
- Pastor Bergstrom (1774?)
- Johann Kaspar Brauns (1774-1778)
- Jakob Alexander Topelius (1782-1788)
- Mag. Johann Dorn (1792-1794)
- Philipp Jakob Hiemer (1796-1804)
- Friedrich Wilhelm Schmieder (1807-1825)
- Johann Hasthoffer (1826-1847)
- Eugen Friedrich Georg Hinsch (1849-1856)
- Samuel Theophil Bonwetsch (1858-1874)
- Moses Asnaworjanz (1874-1881)
- Leonhard Karl Wilhelm Hesse (1884-188)
- Liborius Behning (1889-1901)
- Eduard Lehmkul (1901-1911)
- Alfred Schneider (1912-1918)
- Alfred Rudolf Kleindienst (1918-1921)
Immigrated to the following locations
|
Year
|
Households
|
Population
|
||
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Total
|
Male
|
Female
|
||
|
1767 |
94
|
307
|
|
|
|
1769 |
85
|
323
|
168
|
155
|
|
1773 |
83
|
353
|
185
|
168
|
|
1788 |
73
|
382
|
195
|
197
|
|
1798 |
83
|
552
|
276
|
276
|
|
1816 |
119
|
856
|
431
|
425
|
|
1834 |
158
|
1,687
|
844
|
843
|
|
1850 |
202
|
2,601
|
1,307
|
1,294
|
|
1857 |
290
|
2,779
|
1,393
|
1,386
|
|
1859 |
197
|
2,866
|
1,441
|
1,425
|
|
1886 |
321
|
2,534
|
1,290
|
1,244
|
|
1891 |
292
|
3,620
|
1,855
|
1,765
|
|
1894 |
296
|
4,071
|
2,066
|
2,005
|
|
1897 |
|
2,737*
|
1,387
|
1,350
|
|
1904 |
|
4,661
|
|
|
|
1911 |
|
5,619
|
|
|
|
1912 |
|
5,400
|
|
|
|
1920 |
584**
|
3,719
|
|
|
|
1922 |
|
3,296
|
|
|
|
1926*** |
670
|
3,418
|
1,643
|
1,775
|
|
1931 |
|
3,660****
|
|
|
|
1939 |
|
4,262
|
|
|
*Of whom 2,709 were German.
**Of which 576 households were German.
***Of whom 3,364 were German (658 households: 1,604 male & 1,760 female).
****Of whom 3,636 were German.
Dobrinka (wolgadeutsche.net) (in Russian)
Village of Dobrinka (Gary Martens)
Kabobel Family (Romina Kabobel) (in Spanish)
- 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): 349.
- Diesendorf, V.F. Die Deutschen Russlands : Siedlungen und Siedlungsgebiete : Lexicon. Moscow, 2006.
- Dietz, Jacob E. History of the Volga German Colonists (Lincoln, NE: American Historical Society of Germans from Russia, 2005): 65, 87-88.
- List of Settlements in the Russian Empire in 1859, vol. 38: Saratov Province (St. Petersburg, 1862): p.59.
- Mink, A.N. Historical and Geographical Dictionary of the Saratov Province [in Russian] (Saratov, Russia, 1898): 231-234.
- 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. Einwanderung in das Wolgagebiet, 1764-1767 Band 1 (Göttingen: Der Göttinger Arbeitskreis, 1999): 313-339.
- 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.
- "Settlements in the 1897 Census." Journal of the American Historical Society of Germans from Russia (Winter, 1990): 18.
50.312471, 45.704846
Migrated From
Immigration Locations
Map showing Dobrinka (1935).
Supposedly a drawing of the Dobrinka church on its 130th anniversary. This is not, however, a rendering of the church in Dobrinka.
Dobrinka in 1912.
Source: Dobrinka Web Site.
Dobrinka Lutheran Church (1992).
Source: Germans from Russia Heritage Collection, North Dakota State University.
Dobrinka Lutheran Church (2008).
Source: Yevgeni Diamondidi.
Originally posted at wolgadeutsche.net
Dobrinka Lutheran Church (2008).
Source: Yevgeni Diamondidi.
Originally posted at wolgadeutsche.net
Dobrinka (2008).
On the left, old school built in 1780.
On the right in the background are the ruins of the Lutheran Church.
Source: Yevgeni Diamondidi.
Originally posted at wolgadeutsche.net
Old school in Dobrinka - built in 1780.
Source: Yevgeni Diamondidi (2008).
Originally posted at wolgadeutsche.net
Dobrinka (2007).
Source: Andrew Shvidko
originally posted at dobrinka.org
Dobrinka (2007).
Source: Andrew Shvidko
originally posted at dobrinka.org