"Hardship to Homeland" recounts Volga Germans' unique story in a saga that stretches from Germany to Russia and across the Atlantic. In 1763, Russian empress Catherine II invited Europeans to immigrate. Colonists became Russian citizens, yet kept their language and culture, founding 104 Volga River communities. By 1871, facing poor economic conditions and an army draft, 100,000 Volga Germans poured into the New World, eventually spreading throughout the Pacific Northwest and influencing agriculture, religion, politics, and social development in their new homeland. First published as "The Volga Germans" in 1985, this revised and expanded edition offers a new introduction and collection of folk stories illustrated by Jim Gerlitz.

This book covers the emigration of the "Catherine the Great" Germans into the Volga River area in the mid to late 1700's, the movement of the Volga German-Russians further east of the Volga River into Russia's Steppes, the western exodus of the Volga German-Russians to the United States, Canada, Germany, Brazil and Argentina in the late 1800's and early 1900's, the Stalin ordered deportation of all Volga German-Russians to Siberia in the 1940's, and their final emigrations back to Germany and their long gone Volga River Colonies. This is my fourth book on the history of the Volga Colonies. See all my books at my websites, www.Volga-Germans.com & www.DarrelKaiserBooks.com