World War I and Identity Crisis of Russian Germans

Abstract

The authors consider the position of Russian Germans in the empire, who during World War I became victims of the foreign policy circumstance. There is analyzed the process of the transformation of the state-ethnic identity of the Germans through the identification of factors that had a psychological impact on them and contributed to the formation of a “negative” identity in their environment. The sources for the study are the letters of military doctor F.O. Krause and Russian Germans who served on the Caucasian front, as well as German colonists from various provinces of the Russian Empire; decrees and orders of the military and civil administration, periodical materials; office correspon- dence between ministries and other materials stored in the central and regional archives of the Russian Federation. The study shows that the rise in nationalist sentiments in Russian society and the implementation of anti-German policy in the country exerted significant psychological pressure on Russian Germans. Due to this, during World War I they found themselves in a “new reality.” The authors come to the conclusions that influenced by numerous factors, Russian Germans had to choose various ways to preserve their identity: changing the name, emigrating, completely immersing themselves in their professional activities.

Keywords

• ethnophobia
• friend or foe
• anti-german campaign
• german question
• russian empire