“Unsre UN’ die Andre:” In-Group affiliation Among the Volga germans Of Russia and The Great plains

Abstract

Isolated from their German homeland for a century and a half, the Volga Germans of prerevolution Russia displayed unusual provincialism in their dealings with fellow villagers, neighboring colonists, Russian peasants, and the world at large. Traditional allegiances greatly influenced not only the Volga Germans' existence in Russia but also the nature of their settlement patterns and adaptation on the Great American Plains. A hypo thetical model, based on five distinct levels of in-group affiliation, is offered in order to better understand the complexities and important sociocultural context of Volga German ethnicity in the Old World and the New.