Remmick-Hubert Web Site - Borodino / Bessarabia, S. Russia:  A brief history of Borodino from 1814 to 1940

Last Update 7 March 2014

Borodino Bessarabia Home Site Page 4

A BRIEF  HISTORY OF BORODINO

Deportation of German-Russians from Borodino to Germany

Borodino from Heimatbuch der Bessarabiandeutschen -English Translation

COMMUNITY CHRONICLES OF BESSARABIA, 1848 -English Translation

Borodino.Bess.Genealogy Web Site - Lists Colonists Genealogy 1814 to 1940 plus Des.

Christina, nee Schweikert, Hein Remembers -English Translation

Memories of Borodino Bess. by Regine, nee Hess,  Hein as told to Flossie Libra

Stories of Deporation in 1940

List of Borodinoians Deported in 1940

Migration List of Borodinoians, In and Outside of Russia After 1814

Borodino, A List of Historical Dates from Pre Roman Times to 1991

List of Photogaphs of Borodino

A Time to Remember by Allyn Brosz

Bessarabian History Home Site Index Page

Before 1812

Soak Creek - A Turkish Village in Bessarabia, Moldavia before it became a German colony known as Borodino

Location is south of the Bessarabian capital of Kischnev and north of the Black Sea and west of the sea port city of Odessa

1812

Russian troops took control of area around Soak Creek

• 16 May 1812 Treaty of Bucharest signed which separated Bessarabia from  the Turkish Moldavia and Walachia

Turkish villagers were removed in 1812 by Russian troops

German emigrants discovered Soak Creek

• A few German soldiers who had entered Russia as part of Napoleon's army fled south by foot, dog cart or wagons while Moscow burned and settled in Soak and their families arrived later or they married girls from other German villages.

1814

100 German emigrant families, who were mostly Lutherans, migrated to Russia under the leadership of Herr Krueger and sought possession of land which included the village of Soak in Bessarabia that the Russians had assigned them.

• There were a number of women who's husbands were still   fighting in the Tsar's Army against  Napoleon who had taken control of German states in 1806-7 or were widows.

• Germans who arrived found the village was still inhabitated by the Moldavian families, who had returned.  The Moldavians were given 3 months to leave.   Meanwhile,   Germans were provided with living quarters in other villages.  Report tells us it was 13 weeks before they reentered Soak.  (Day and months are not given in report.)

• Those who did not want to live in the Moldavian empty dwellings constructed huts of wickerwork from the nearby marshes and used clay for plaster.  These poor dwellings were to be their winter shelters of that year.

1815

15 families arrived to join the 100 plus.  The plus were the children born in the village.

The huts were replaced with a foundation and adobe brick with thatched roofs and this improved their living quarters.

Advanced loans provided by the Russian government gave the 117 colonists an allowance that paid for "a yoke of oxen", "a cow", "some farm equipment", "seed-grain".  Thosse who had the funds purchassed horses and wagons.

Village renamed Alexander after Tsar Alexander I

Village, again,  renamed and called Borodino after the famous Battle of Borodino of 1812 fought between the Russians and Napoleon in 1812.before Napolton entered Moscow as the Russian army retreated.  One should no confuse the Borodino near Moscow with our Borodino in Bessarabia.  

1817

Another wave of German emigrants settle in Borodino in 1817 and were known as the Seventeeners, according to my grandmother, Christina, nee Schweikert, Hein, who said that as children they used to tease the "Seventeeners" as being the "late comers".

• Records indicate that 320 families were granted three horse driven flour mill, and, each adult male was granted 60 desitanes [a quarter] of land along with a sod house, barn pair of oxen, a wagon and plow.  See Jack Wagner's letter in Bessarabian Newslerter, January 2000, Volume 3, Issue3..... @ Bessarbian Website by Debbie Beick : Some families did not need aid from the Russian government
• By this time the colonists had discovered on a nearby hill's sumit stones which werebetter suited for building foundations.  The stones were nine feet down and had to be dug up, therefore, quarries were established.
• The art of making adobe bricks had improved and were used for their improved dwellings and would become the common material for future dwellings.  
  • See Alfred Hein's photos on making the adobe bricks:  Photos #218, #219, #220 plus many many more photos of Borodino in modern times.
  • See Pfaff section on the materials and "how to" section.

1824

• Losses due to livestock epidemics

1825

• Damages to crops due to grasshoppers and locusts

1827

• Losses due to livestock epidemics

1828

• Army troops passed through Borodino at harvest time which caused some of the colonists grain fields to be ruined

1827

• Army troops , once again, passed through (foreward then back) Borodino at harvest time which caused many  of the colonists grain fields to fall to ruin, again,  which in turn caused many of the colonists to fall into state of poverty

1831

• Cholera epidemic occured and a number of families fell victim and farther deterioration of the farms were added to the already stricken farms just recovering from the army troops problems back int 1828 and 1829
• Those colonists not stricken with the hardships were to prove as being generous and gave assisstance to their unfortunate neighbors and the community began to recover.  This would continue whenever a family suffered from sickness, fire, cloud burst and fllood waters. Many believe this attitude is what turned the village into what was to become a very prosperous community.  There was, also, the experience from "what not to do" and being able to afford better matrials, seeds and livestock.

1833

• Losses due to livestock epidemics

1836

• Damages to crops due to grasshoppers and locusts

1838

• Crops failed by hailstrom

1839

• Crops failed by hailstrom

1845

• Losses due to livestock epidemics

1847

• Damages to crops due to grasshoppers and locusts

1850

Lutheran Church, which would hold 750 people, was built. It was connected to the Lutheran church in Kloetitz / Besssarabia. See picture.

1856

Village remained a  German-Russian Colony from 1814 to 1856 under the Tsars of Russia

1856-1878 Congress of Berlin united Bessarabia, Moldavia and Walachia and Borodino falls under the rule of Rumania

• Charles of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen, Prince [1866] & King of Rumania [1881] which incorporated Borodino/Bess. for a time before it was returned to Russia
  • Parents: Charles Anrthony, Pr. of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen and Josephine d. of Charles G.D. of Baden

1878

Borodino and Bessarabia were  reunited with Russia

1914

Great War began against Germany

1940

Invasion of German Troops

Most German-Russians of Borodino were  deported to Germany

• All human rights were ignored

• Picture above show some of the Heins on this forced trek to Germany

• During deportation they suffered losses by attacks of planes, tanks, artillery fire from Soviet troops plus starvation and hostility from German troops

• A Time to Remember by Allyn Brosz

• See the following linke title "Duai Exodus: A Golyo Beszedes Aramlatai"  or "The Danube Exodus: The Rippling Currets of the River"  http://www.danube-exodus.hu/index.php3  Chose the sectionon German Exodus [of B essarabian German-Russians from Russia].

1997

German-Russians who left Borodino in 1940 have been helping the present day villagers to rebuild Borodino and have completed a museum in memory of their ancestors

No German-Russian families of orginal German colonists presently live in Borodino, Rebublic of Ukraine....

More Dates to See - A List of Historical Dates from Pre Roman Times to 1991

Transportation:  Up to WW I,  the roads through and around Borodino were not paved.  Otterstaetter's report [translated by google] on Borodino, page 1,  gives us the following description:  "They were all-including the village streets-unpaved.  This meant that in late autumn, in winter, were impassable if they were not frozen, and in early spring.  In those years... were passageways and the steets of village so muddy that the traffic, only with two wheel tractors (horse cart) or on horsebak was possible.  In summer, the dust was 5 to 10 inches thick on the street."  His web site can be found at:  http://www.otterstaetter.de/home 

RemMick@aol.com

Borodino.Bess.Genealogy

Hein Genealogy

Remmick

Borodino/Bess.Site

Hubert

Schweikert Genealogy