German colonies in Poltava region

Abstract

The purpose of the research is to analyze the preconditions and the circumstances of the settlement of the German colonists in Poltava region; to reveal the role of the ethnic Germans in the political, socio-economic and spiritual development of the region. The methodology of the research is based on the principles of historicism, systemicity, scientism, verification, the author’s objectivity, as well as the use of general scientific (analysis, synthesis, generalization) and special-historical (historical-genetic, historical-typological, historical-systemic, historical and chronological) methods. The scientific novelty – on the basis of the published sources and the scientific works, the reasons, the preconditions for the emergence of the German settlers in Poltava region have been determined; their role in the political, economic, social, cultural and spiritual life of the region has been highlighted; the contribution of the people of German nationality to the Russian army and health care in the first half of the ХІХth century has been researched. Conclusions. The revealed documents and the literary sources, despite their scarcity, still allow us to analyze the life and the activities of the German colonies in Poltava region. The settlement of Poltava region by the German settlers took place in the context of the general-imperial resettlement policy of the Russian government in the late XVIIIth – the early ХІХth century with the corresponding imperial tendencies. The Germans-settlers, who arrived in Poltava region on the invitation of the duke Olexiy Kurakin, made a lot for the development of the region. Thanks to them, the sheep breeding developed at a very high pace, because the Russian army and the fleet, and the construction industry were provided with a good quality cloth. The Germans-settlers began the development of the landed feudal factories, taught and prepared many masters for them. With the genesis of the bourgeois relations in the Russian Empire, the construction of the large factories with the significant capital and machines for the manufacture of cloths, a hand-made production of the German weaving settlers was not on time. They worked hard, but this work did not bring the desired profits and did not allow them to have a good life. That fact explains the reduction of such «home factories» of the German settlers, and hence the reduction of the masters-workers. The reduction subsequently led to the elimination of these small enterprises. The German settlers in Poltava region had their own special socio-economic characteristics: a significant potential and the propensity to entrepreneurship, wealth, responsibility, honesty in business. The economic development of the colonies depended on the raw materials, the skills of the settlers, and the relations with the local authorities.