Stephan was founded on 24 August 1767 by colonists recruited by the Tsarist Government. The original 31 families came from Darmstadt, Prussia, Württemberg, and Mecklenburg. The colony was named Stephan after its first leader.
According to Christian August Tornow, the colony was also called Stephenov during the first few years of its existance.
By official decree dated 26 February 1768, the colony received the Russian name of Vodyanoi Buyerak which means "water gully."
In 1841, a fire destroyed 22 homes in Stephan.
Since 1770, there was a parochial school in the colony. A government (Russian) school was built in the colony in 1874, and in 1898 a private school was established by L. F. Schneider. There was also an orphanage called "Salem" located in Stephan.
In 1856, several families moved to the daughter colony of Oberdorf. From 1859 and 1886, an additional 78 families (total of 671 people - 351 male & 320 female) resettled to daughter colonies on the Wiesenseite. Between 1863-1868, three families (29 people) moved to the Stavropol Province.
Immigration from Stephan to America began in 1886.
There was a hospital in the village as of 2003.
Today, what remains of the former Volga German colony of Stephan is known as Vodnobuyerachnoye.
The Lutheran parish in Stephan was founded in 1771 when a wooden church was constructed.
A new Lutheran church was built of brick in 1872. Some residents of Stephan were Baptist.
The congregation in Stephan was served by the following pastors:
- 1771-1778 Johann Kaspar Brauns
- 1778-1778 Laurentius Ahlbaum
- 1779-1782 Klaus Peter Lundberg
- 1782-1788 Jakob Alexander Topelius
- 1798-1811 Karl Adolf Günther
- 1812-1834 Ludwig Heinrich Dietrich
- 1835-1838 Ernst Theodor Hellmann
- 1839-1861 Robert Collins
- 1863-1872 Georg Gottlieb Kayser
- 1875-1879 Richard Heinrich Walker
- 1882-1915 Johannes Schneider
- 1917-1918 Alfred Kleindienst
- 1927-1929 Max Maier
- 1929-1930 David Kaufmann
The following served in Stephan as vicar:
- 1898-1899 Emil Friedrich Busch
|
Year
|
Households
|
Population
|
||
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Total
|
Male
|
Female
|
||
| 1767 |
|
93
|
|
|
| 1769 |
31
|
98
|
51
|
47
|
| 1773 |
32
|
144
|
70
|
74
|
| 1788 |
36
|
242
|
129
|
113
|
| 1798 |
38
|
294
|
153
|
141
|
| 1816 |
63
|
510
|
285
|
225
|
| 1834 |
101
|
923
|
484
|
439
|
| 1850 |
158
|
1,496
|
735
|
761
|
| 1857 |
176
|
1,713
|
841
|
872
|
| 1859 |
130
|
1,756
|
868
|
888
|
| 1886 |
202
|
1,539
|
787
|
752
|
| 1891 |
183
|
1,949
|
1,015
|
934
|
| 1894 |
182
|
2,210
|
1,125
|
1,085
|
| 1897 |
|
1,607*
|
806
|
801
|
| 1905 |
|
2,840
|
|
|
| 1911 |
|
3,447
|
|
|
| 1912 |
|
2,910
|
|
|
| 1920 |
319**
|
2,047
|
|
|
| 1922 |
|
1,641
|
|
|
| 1923 |
|
1,700
|
|
|
| 1926*** |
316
|
1,656
|
801
|
855
|
| 1931 |
|
2,081****
|
|
|
*Of whom 1,597 were German.
**Of which 318 households were German.
***Of whom 1,653 were German (1,656 households: 798 male & 855 female).
****Of whom 2,054 were German.
Stephan (wolgadeutsche.net) in Russian
Village of Stephan (Don Kutchera)
- 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): 353.
- Diesendorf, V.F. Die Deutschen Russlands : Siedlungen und Siedlungsgebiete : Lexicon. Moscow, 2006.
- Erbes, Johannes. Deutsche Volkszeitung (23 August 1906).
- Mink, A.N. Historical and Geographical Dictionary of the Saratov Province [in Russian] (Saratov, Russia, 1898): 128-131.
- Mittheilungen und Nachrichten fuer die evangelische Geistlichkeit Russlands: 1841, p. 295.
- 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 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.
- Schnurr, Joseph. Die Kirchen und das Religiöse Leben der Russlanddeutschen, Evangelischer Teil.
- "Settlements in the 1897 Census." Journal of the American Historical Society of Germans from Russia (Winter, 1990): 18.
50.538333, 45.640333
Migrated From
Immigration Locations
Map showing Stephan (1935).