From Far Away Russia

Lured to Kansas

These immigrants were promised exemption from military service, freedom from taxation, and free land.

After nearly a century of independence, Germans in Russia began to lose these privileges. The loss of military exemption especially disturbed the Mennonites, who objected to military service on religious grounds.

Volga German youths wear Imperial Russian Army uniforms in this historic photograph (left).

Meanwhile, railroads, newspapers, and businesses began a major campaign to recruit new settlers to Kansas.

There is German text at the bottom of this handbill (right) referring to C. B. Schmidt. An employee of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad, Schmidt traveled to Russia to recruit emigrants among the Russian-Germans.

In 1872 two railroads mounted huge advertising campaigns to sell land they owned along their railways. The Kansas Pacific and the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe printed circulars in the German language and sent agents to Russia.

Kansas railroads were anxious to sell land to farmers who would soon ship grain on their lines.

Railroads lured emigrants by offering free sleeping cars on express trains leaving Kansas City. They also granted land for churches and schools, and supplied some farmers with seed wheat for their first crop in Kansas.

These men (left) were sent by their Volga German neighbors to investigate Kansas land in 1874. Members of their community eventually settled in Ellis and Rush counties. Left to right: Peter Stoecklein, Jacob Ritter, Nicholas Schamme, Peter Leiker, and Anton Wasinger.

Many Russian-Germans responded to the railroads' campaign. They sought good farm land with convenient access to markets via the rails. An added attraction in Kansas was a state law granting exemption from military service on religious grounds.

One-third of all Russian-Germans left Russia, many of them settling in Kansas. By 1879 about 12,000 Russian-Germans lived in the state.

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