Volga German

A Volga German is a German descendant living near the Volga River, maintaining German culture, German language, German traditions and religions: Evangelist Lutheran, Roman Catholic.

After she displaced Peter III from the Russian throne, German princess Sophie Fredericke Auguste von Anhalt-Zerbst, a native of Stettin, took the vacant imperial throne, under the name of Catherine II the Great. Catherine II published some manifestos inviting Germans to immigrate and farm Russian lands, maintaining their language and culture.