International Center for German-Russian Studies
Representatives from CSU and SSU exchange university flags to mark the signing of the university strategic partnership agreement in December 2008.
The International Center for German-Russian Studies was created in 2008. As an international academic center with offices at both Colorado State University and Saratov State University, it exemplifies the joint partnership undertaken by the two institutions. The purpose of the Center is to advance the study of German-Russian history and culture worldwide. See About SSU for more information about Saratov and its resources.
German-Russian partnership members with with SSU Rector Leonid Kossovich and CSU Interim President Tony Frank at CSU, December 2008
German-Russians in Colorado
Russia’s Saratov province is the historic home of a culturally distinct ethnic group known in Russia as “Russian Germans” and in the U.S. as “Germans from Russia.” Many German-Russians emigrated from Saratov’s Volga River region to the Midwestern Plains of the United States during the 1870s and 1880s. In the early 1900s, German-Russians came to Colorado as day laborers in the sugar beet industry and later formed distinctive wheat farming communities. Examples of German-Russian farming techniques, buildings, and cuisine can be found in many areas of Colorado, Nebraska, Kansas, and the Dakotas.
Researchers at CSU have worked with members of the German-Russian community to document the history of Colorado’s second largest ethnic group. Their work can be viewed in the Morgan Library digital collection of oral histories, documents, and research materials.
Saratov State University Special Collections
Through its partnership with Saratov State University, researchers of German-Russian history and culture will now have greatly increased access to original data, including document, photographs, and film footage. Foreign researchers will also have access to Russian Federation archival records of German-Russian settlements in Russia. Documents include family immigration lists with names and ages, community census and tax lists, church records of christenings, weddings, and burials, and formerly classified documents of Soviet government official and Communist Party offices, including GULAG and NKVD files. CSU plans to partner with Saratov in building a digital archive to make key documents, photographs, maps, and other artifacts globally accessible.
