LeRoy and Pictet was a co-operative company which recruited

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

s to settle in Russia in the 18th century, under commission by

Tsar Tsar (; also spelled ''czar'', ''tzar'', or ''csar''; ; ; sr-Cyrl-Latn, цар, car) is a title historically used by Slavic monarchs. The term is derived from the Latin word '' caesar'', which was intended to mean ''emperor'' in the Euro ...

ina

Catherine the Great Catherine II. (born Princess Sophie of Anhalt-Zerbst; 2 May 172917 November 1796), most commonly known as Catherine the Great, was the reigning empress of Russia from 1762 to 1796. She came to power after overthrowing her husband, Peter I ...

. The company was formed by LeRoy, a Frenchman, Pictet, a Swiss from

Geneva Geneva ( , ; ) ; ; . is the List of cities in Switzerland, second-most populous city in Switzerland and the most populous in French-speaking Romandy. Situated in the southwest of the country, where the Rhône exits Lake Geneva, it is the ca ...

, and Sonntag, a German. There were two other corporations active in the field of recruiting settlers to Russia, one formed by the Frenchman Baron Caneu de Beauregard with Major Otto Friedrich of Monjou and the other, with no independent funding, by Jean de Boffe, Meusnier de Precour, and Quentin Benjamin Coulhette d'Hautervive. To settlers wearied by wars and economic crises, Catherine promised freedom of religion, exemptions from taxes and military service, and the right to dispose of their land as they wished. Thousands of German craftsmen and farmers responded to these recruitment efforts and founded 103 German villages on both sides of the

Volga The Volga (, ) is the longest river in Europe and the longest endorheic basin river in the world. Situated in Russia, it flows through Central Russia to Southern Russia and into the Caspian Sea. The Volga has a length of , and a catchment ...

; they are thus known as the

Volga Germans The Volga Germans (, ; ) are ethnic Germans who settled and historically lived along the Volga River in the region of southeastern European Russia around Saratov and close to Ukraine nearer to the south. Recruited as immigrants to Russia in the ...

. Le Roy and Pictet established 25

colonies A colony is a territory subject to a form of foreign rule, which rules the territory and its indigenous peoples separated from the foreign rulers, the colonizer, and their '' metropole'' (or "mother country"). This separated rule was often or ...

comprising 1,530 families with 5,339 people, along the Volga south of

Saratov Saratov ( , ; , ) is the largest types of inhabited localities in Russia, city and administrative center of Saratov Oblast, Russia, and a major port on the Volga River. Saratov had a population of 901,361, making it the List of cities and tow ...

and to the east on its left tributaries the

Karaman Karaman is a city in south central Turkey, located in Central Anatolia, north of the Taurus Mountains, about south of Konya. It is the seat of Karaman Province and Karaman District.Tarlyk, for example the

colony A colony is a territory subject to a form of foreign rule, which rules the territory and its indigenous peoples separated from the foreign rulers, the colonizer, and their ''metropole'' (or "mother country"). This separated rule was often orga ...

of Lauwe, now Yablonovka, founded as a Lutheran colony on 19 August 1767.Ray Heinle
Lauwe: A German Village on the Volga River
Germans from Russia Heritage Society, retrieved 4 December 2012. Le Roy and Pictet later became managers of the colonies.

References

External links

Gazetteer of Volga German colonies
The Center for Volga German Studies,

Concordia University (Oregon) Concordia University was a private school, private Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod (LCMS) university in Portland, Oregon, that closed in spring 2020. One remaining program, the accelerated bachelor's degree in nursing, continues to operate und ...

Geschichte der Russlanddeutschen

at wolgadeutsche.net (facsimile)

at wolgadeutsche.net {{in lang, ru

historical newsletter published by Bernice Geringer Madden, at Germans from Russia Heritage Society # Human migration History of ethnic groups in Russia

References

Further reading

External links