As the result of seeing a posting on the Volga List by VeraBeljakova-Miller, giving the address of Dr. Professor Alexander I. Ehrlichof Moscow, I wrote a letter to Dr. Ehrlich on 10 July 1998, askiing if hemight possibly have any connection to my Ehrlich ancestors, and requestingany information he might have on our lower Volga Villages. On 10 Nov 1998,I received an e mail reply with an article in Russian which was prepared byhis colleague, Dr. Victor F. Diesendorf. He says that Dr. Diesendorf isthe Chairman of Russian Society "Viedergeburt" (Revival) and great expert inhistory of our folk. Dr. Ehrlich's parents were from the Black Sea area,and he is 55 years of age, and the President of Russian Germans Academy ofSciences. His fields of activity are applied math, theory of systems,computer science, and artificial intelligence.
I forwarded the Russian article to our Russian Research Contact, FayeSchantz. After much effort, she was able to get the document downloaded andtranslated. The article includes Catholic as well as protestant colonies onthe lower Volga. Spelling varies-e.g. Golshtein for Holstein. The articleis about the Dobrinskiy Kanton, administrative territory. "Kanton" inGerman is roughly equivelant to the English "County." "ACCP" refers to aparticular "Soviet Socialist Republic" or the old USSR equivelant to a USstate.
The bibliography includes works in both German and Russian, includingHome book of the Germans in Russia, Stuttgart 1995/1996 by DurovWassenmuller. ("Muehlberg" of which we have a complete copy, with 40 pagestranslated and available;) and also the following works in German: 1)Contributions to economic and cultural achievements of the Volga Germans, 2)The churches and the religious lives of the Russian Germans--EvangelicalArea, and Catholic Area. 3) German Architecture on the Volga, 4) Records onthe German Settlers in the Region from Homebook of the Eastern settlers, 5)Between Reform and Revolution, 6) The Germans on the Volga 1860-1917. TheRussian list of bibliography works has not been translated.
Our thanks to these two distinguished professors in Moscow who took thetime to answer our letter, to Vera, and to Faye and her friends who allhelped bring this article to our readers.
