Kamenka was founded on 6 July 1765 along the banks of the Ilovlya River by colonists who had been recruited by officials of Catherine the Great's government and was therefore known as a Crown Colony.
For some time in the early years, the colony was also called Bähr in honor of Samuel Bähr, one of the first mayors (Vorstehers) of the colony.
Peter Simon Pallas in his travels through the Volga region in 1793 and 1794 for Catherine the Great writes,
"Kamenka is one of the most flourishing and opulent among the Catholic colonies; it possesses upwards of sixty fire-places; and has, besides the brook, excellent water in wells, sunk through loam and other strata, about nine feet deep. We reposed here during the night, having suffered much inconvenience the preceding day, from the intensity of the heat, occasioned by the reflection of the sun-beams from the snow, accompanied with a keen northwest, wind, which continued during the whole of our journey from Saratov. The Volga is no more than fifteen versts distant, in a straight line from this place."
Today the former colony of Kamenka is still known as Kamenka.
St. Mary's Catholic Church was built in 1906-1907. Reflecting the influence of neogothic architecture, the red brick house of worship included a choir loft and an organ. Murals painted on the walls were said to have been the work of Italian craftsmen. The church was gutted during the Stalinist era. The carved oak door and ornate railings were removed and it was converted into a warehouse and tractor garage. Until just a few years ago, the steeple was still standing.
Today, only the ruins of the former church remain.
The following priests have served the St. Mary's parish in Kamenka:
- Johannes Müller 1765-1774
- Melchior Trenker 1774-1778
- Johannes Dedukla 1778-1785
- Thomas Majewski 1785-1788
- Sebastiani 1788-1792
- Thaddaeus 1792-1795
- Valerianus 1795-1797
- Thaddaeus 1797-1802
- Anton Postoll 1803-1807
- Franziskus Cornet 1807-1810
- Peter Jacobs 1810-1819
- Franz Xavier Asum 1819-1820
- Kyrillus Mieluzki 1820-1823
- Vincent Szrednizki 1823-1826
- Thomas Konzewitsch 1826-1827
- Romuald Woitkewitsch 1827-1828
- Georg Nakutowitsch 1828-1868
- Kasper Batschewski 1868-1872
- Joseph Baranowski 1872
- Andreas Brungardt 1872-1873
- Nikolaus Mitzig 1876-1881
- Johannes Beilmann 1885
- August Gabel 1885-1894
- Johannes Schönfeld 1894-1898
- Josef Paul (senior), vicar 1898
- Alexander Staub 1898-1906
- Peter Glassmann 1906-1912
- Leonhard Eberle 1912-1928
|
Year
|
Households
|
Population
|
||
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Total
|
Male
|
Female
|
||
| 1767 |
|
329
|
|
|
| 1769 |
69
|
378
|
187
|
191
|
| 1773* |
103
|
453
|
229
|
224
|
| 1788 |
97
|
535
|
268
|
267
|
| 1798 |
99
|
615
|
301
|
314
|
| 1816 |
170
|
897
|
448
|
449
|
| 1834 |
222
|
1,406
|
717
|
689
|
| 1850 |
258
|
2,219
|
1,104
|
1,115
|
| 1857 |
321
|
2,456
|
1,234
|
1,222
|
| 1859 |
205
|
2,508
|
1,274
|
1,234
|
| 1886 |
445
|
3,155
|
1,659
|
1,496
|
| 1891 |
399
|
4,454
|
2,237
|
2,217
|
| 1894 |
391
|
4,318
|
2,268
|
2,050
|
| 1897 |
|
3,036**
|
1,498
|
1,538
|
| 1904 |
|
|
|
|
| 1911 |
399
|
3,098
|
|
|
| 1912 |
|
3,342
|
|
|
| 1920 |
525***
|
3,197
|
|
|
| 1922 |
|
2,454
|
|
|
| 1923 |
|
2,662
|
|
|
| 1926 |
560
|
2,940****
|
1,447
|
1,493
|
| 1931 |
|
3,312*****
|
|
|
*Beratz reports the following numbers for 1773: 42 families; 148 total colonists (73 male & 75 female).
**Of whom 2,964 were German.
***Of which 509 households were German.
****Of whom 2,917 were German (548 households: 1,437 male & 1,480 female).
*****Of whom 3,289 were German.
Kamenka (Wolgadeutsche.net)
Kamenka History by Rosemary Larson
- 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): 350.
- Diesendorf, V.F. Die Deutschen Russlands : Siedlungen und Siedlungsgebiete : Lexicon. Moscow, 2006.
- List of Settlements in the Russian Empire in 1859, vol. 38: Saratov Province (St. Petersburg, 1862): p.59.
- 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): 623.
- Pleve, Igor. Einwanderung in das Wolgagebiet, 1764-1767 Band 2 (Göttingen: Der Göttinger Arbeitskreis, 2001): 215-242.
- Pleve, Igor R. The German Colonies on the Volga: The Second Half of the Eighteenth Century (Lincoln, NE: American Historical Society of Germans from Russia, 2001): 313.
- 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, Katholischer Teil (Stuttgart, 1980), p. 248.
- "Settlements in the 1897 Census." Journal of the American Historical Society of Germans from Russia (Winter, 1990): 18.
1767 Census of Kamenka in: Pleve, Igor. Einwanderung in das Wolgagebiet, 1764-1767 Band 2 (Göttingen: Der Göttinger Arbeitskreis, 2001): 215-242.
50.693333, 45.424667
Migrated From
Immigration Locations
Map showing Kamenka (1935).
Architectural rendering of St. Mary's Catholic Church in Kamenka.
Source: "Немцы Поволжья" website.
St. Mary's Catholic Church in Kamenka (1955).
Source: Ignacio Schwerdt.
Interior of St. Mary's Catholic Church in Kamenka (1994).
Source: North Dakota State University.
St. Mary's Catholic Church in Kamenka (1979).
Source: Heimatbuch der Deutschen aus Russland, 1996.
St. Mary's Catholic Church in Kamenka.
Kamenka Catholic Church.
Source: Ted Gerk.
Religious fresco in the ruins of St. Mary's Catholic Church in Kamenka.
St. Mary's Catholic Church in Kamenka.
St. Mary's Catholic Church in Kamenka.