Population of the Volga German Republic: Life and labour in June – September 1941 (for the 80th anniversary of the events)

The author of the article examines the changes that occurred in the life and work of the population of the Volga German Republic under the state of emergency caused by the outbreak of the war. The article examines the transformation of the state’s policy towards the Volga German: from emphasized loyalty to deaf hostility and their eviction from the region. Special attention is paid to the reaction of the Volga German population to the beginning of the war, the participation of the population in activities caused by the war: military mobilization, reception and placement of evacuated enterprises and refugees, the creation of fighter detachments and militia. The most important event that required great efforts of citizens was the harvesting of a rich harvest. The article reveals the participation of the Volga German in a counter-propaganda campaign aimed at the armed forces and the population of Germany. Due to major failures at the front as a reinsurance company in September 1941 the German population of the Volga region was evicted to Siberia and Kazakhstan.

The Projects of Agricultural Diversity (The Lower Volga Region, the Kalmyk Region and the German Republic in the 20–30-s of the 20th c.)

Introduction. The analysis of agricultural diversity projects made on the materials of studies in the Lower Volga region, the Kalmyk Region and the German Republic allows to solve 2 problems. Firstly, it defines the possibilities of expanding the species of industrial crops, medicinal and aromatic herbs. Secondly, it suggests the idea to increase the distribution of certain farmlands (namely of the Volga-Akhtuba floodplain) by means of elaborating the directions of their development. The article contains the results of research works performed during the 20–30s of the 20th century on the territory of current Astrakhan, Volgograd, Saratov regions and the Republic of Kalmykia. The work evaluates the opportunities of using these territories for increasing gross regional product. Methods and materials. The methods of the research: the principles of historicism and objectivity, analysis, synthesis, the historical and genetic method, the systematic approach. The works of N.I. Anisimov, V.P. Danilov, V.A. Ilinykh and others study collectivization, strengthening of agricultural material and technical resources. Since 90s of the 20th century the representatives of non-historical sciences have been studying the conditions of flora in different regions of Russia, the specifics of economic use of unique natural objects. Analysis. The article gives the analysis of projects on cultivating new species of industrial, medicinal, aromatic crops, sericulture. The paper considers the plans of developing the Volga-Akhtuba flood plain as well. Using the previous experience improves modern developments. Results. The authors came to the conclusion on the possibility of cultivating new industrial crops (sunflower, mustard, linen, tobacco, hemp, cotton, soy, castor bean, kenaf, peanut, poppy), medicinal and aromatic herbs and carried out zoning of planting, including with ensuring the complex use of the Volga-Akhtuba flood plain. An increased acreage for sericulture was planned. The population was distrustful to plans for cultivating new cultures. This was due to the lack of knowledge in agronomy and errors in the choice of planting material. The productivity became lower than at pilot farms. The reduction in research financing did not give the chance to overcome these negative factors. Besides, obtaining good results demanded irrigation, which passed in the Lower Volga region in the middle of the 20th century. Now using specified developments can become one of the directions of developing the agriculture of the Lower Volga region as the problems of conducting agriculturalproduction stated above become more surmountable on current material and technical resources. Earlier the crops under consideration were grown up in Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan. Now these states are independent, so it is reasonable to produce a larger range of agricultural products in Russian regions to improve food security.

The Flux of Transmigrant Identities in Thomas Arslan’s Brothers and Sisters

The paper investigates Brothers and Sisters (Geschwister-Kardeşler, 1995), the first piece of Thomas Arslan’s Berlin-trilogy. While putting the film into the socio-historical context of the newly united German Republic, the study aims to highlight the characters’ struggle and constant shift between their Turkish and German identity. Through the narrative and textual analysis of Brothers and Sisters, the paper reveals the visual forms of social exclusion and concludes that in Arslan’s film, the characters bear with no social identity but various stages of identification, which keep them in an in-between, insecure position.

HOW TO SABOTAGE A SECRET SOCIETY: THE DEMISE OF CARL FRIEDRICH BAHRDT'S GERMAN UNION IN 1789

In 1789 in Leipzig, a slim pamphlet of 128 pages appeared that sent shock waves through the German republic of letters. The pamphlet, bearing the title Mehr Noten als Text (More notes than text), was an ‘exposure’ whose most sensational element was a list naming numerous members of the North German intelligentsia as initiates of a secret society. This secret society, known as the German Union, aimed to push back against anti-Enlightenment tendencies most obviously manifest in the policies promulgated under the new Prussian king Frederick William II. The German Union was the brainchild of the notorious theologian Carl Friedrich Bahrdt (1741–92). But who was responsible for the ‘exposure’? Using material culled from several archives, this article pieces together for the first time the back story to Mehr Noten als Text and in doing so uncovers a surprisingly heterogeneous network of Freemasons, publishers, and state officials. The findings prompt us to reconsider general questions about the relationship of state and society in the late Enlightenment, the interplay of the public and the arcane spheres and the status of religious heterodoxy at this time.