Hardship to Homeland: Pacific Northwest Volga Germans

Hardship to Homeland recounts the Volga German saga from Germany to Russia and across the Atlantic. Burdened by war and debt, impoverished European peasants suffered until a former German princess came to power in Russia. Seeking to increase borderland population, provide a buffer against Ottoman Empire incursions, and bring agricultural ingenuity to her country, Russian Empress Catherine II issued a remarkable 1763 manifesto inviting Europeans to immigrate. Their passage paid, colonists wo...