Krasnojar, Krasnojarowka, Krasnoyar, Krasnoyarovka, Krasny Yar, Krasnyi Yar, Krasnyj Jar
51º38' N 46º25' E
Krasnoyar was founded on 20 July 1767 by the Government as a Lutheran colony. It was located 410 versts from Samara and 30 versts from Saratov.
Originally the congregation in Krasnoyar was part of the Rosenheim parish which had been established in 1767. Krasnoyar became an independent parish in 1906.
A new church built of wood was completed in 1861. It was called Trinity Lutheran Church and is said to have seated 1,500 worshipers.
The church bells were removed from the belfry in 1929 during a celebration honoring the October (1917) Revolution. They were taken to Katharinenstadt and melted down to become parts for the manufacture of the first Soviet tractor called the "Dwarf". The cross on the church spire was removed in 1933 and later the entire steeple was removed. Adolescents stole the organ pipes. In the mid 1930s, the church building was turned into a community entertainment center, and after World War II, it became a cinema. In the late 1980s, the building was completely demolished.
The congregation in Krasnoyar was served by the following pastors:
**Of those, 834 households were German (4,464 people: 2,128 male & 2,336 female).
- Beratz, Gottieb. The German colonies on the Lower Volga, their origin and early development: a memorial for the 150th anniversary of the arrival of the first German settlers on the Volga, 29 June 1764. Translated by Adam Giesinger (Lincoln, NE: American Historical Society of Germans from Russia, 1991): 351.
- Diesendorf, V.F. Die Deutschen Russlands : Siedlungen und Siedlungsgebiete : Lexicon. Moscow, 2006.
- Klaus, A.A. Our Colonies (Saint Petersburg, Russia, 1869): II p.14; IV pp. 56-57.
- List of the Populated Places of the Samara Province (Samara, Russia, 1910): 325-326.
- Orlov, Gregorii. Report of Conditions of Settlements on the Volga to Catherine II, 14 February 1769.
- Pallas, P.S. Reise durch verschiedene Provinzen des Russischen Reichs. Theil 3,2, Reise aus Sibirien zurueck an die Wolga im 1773sten Jahr (St. Petersburg: Kaiserl. Academie der Wissenschaften, 1776): 612.
- Pleve, Igor R. The German Colonies on the Volga: The Second Half of the Eighteenth Century, translated by Richard Rye (Lincoln, NE: American Historical Society of Germans from Russia, 2001): 318.
- Preliminary Totals of the All-Union Population Census of 1926 of the ASSR of the Germans of Volga Region (Pokrovsk, Russia, 1927): 28-83.
- Schnurr, Joseph. Die Kirchen und das religiöse Leben der Russlanddeutschen – Evangelischer Teil (Stuttgart: AER Verlag Landsmannschaft der Deutschen aus Rußland, 1978): 198.
- "Settlements in the 1897 Census." Journal of the American Historical Society of Germans from Russia (Winter, 1990): 16.
Last updated 31 May 2013.