SPLAVNUKHA, HUCK
This is a German colony of the Kamyshinskii
Uyezd, Norksk Volost, ten versts to the southeast of the colony of Norka. It
lies along the river Elkhovka, near the river of Splavnukha, from which it
acquired its name. It lies 51.4 degrees north
and 15.3 degrees east of Pulkova. According
to the testimony of Klaus, it was founded between the years 1764 and 1766. By
the testimony of the Volost administration, it was settled in 1764 by a group
of German Reformed Protestants, emigrants from various territories in Germany,
at the invitation of Czarina Catherine II. According to the testimony of
foreign settlers (Klaus Our
Colonies), in 1859 the Splavnukha colony,
belonging to the Norksk Okrug had, by the 5th revision of 1788, a total of 78
families, with 282 men and 288 women. According to the 6th revision of 1798, it
had 87 families, 325 men and 318 women. According to the
7th census of 1816, there were 126
families, 592 men and 617 women. The 8th census
of 1834 lists 210 families, 1078 men and 1042 women. The ninth census of 1850
lists 228 families, 1752 men and 1739 women. According to the 10th revision of
1857, there were 372 families, 2110 men and 2131 women. In the publication of
settlements made by the Central Statistical Committee, 1862 edition, the German
colony of Splavnukha Huck is
described as being a colony along the banks
of the river Elkhovka, 100 versts from the Uyezd city of Kamyshin and it had,
in 1860, 322 households consisting of 2110 men and 2131 women, or a total
population of 4328 persons. There was one reformed church, a school, an oil
mill and 22 windmills. According to the rural census of 1886, the colony of
Splavnukha contained 535 households, with 2565 men and 2626 women, for a total
resident German Reformed Protestant population of 5191 persons. In addition to
this, there were 172 families [from this group] continuously living elsewhere
and another five families, with 25 members living some distance away. Of the
total population, 1457 men and 1519 women were literate. In the 1880's, many of
the families left the area for resettlement in America. There were 440
residential structures in the colony at this time. Of these, 153 were stone,
286 were wood, one was brick, 129 were covered with boards, 309 were covered
with straw [thatched huts] and 2 with earth. There were 78 productive
establishments, 3 drinking houses, and 4 general stores. For crop cultivation
purposes, there were 486 ploughs, 1863 working and non‑working horses,
596 oxen, 1668 cows and calves, 5904 sheep, 987 pigs, and 854 goats. The total
annual pay for the year 1885 consisted of 17,452 rubles, while the amount of
available working capital consisted of 760 rubles. The land allotment consisted
of 13,165 dejatins of useful land (including 8906 desjatins of ploughed land
and 4163 desjatin of unproductive land. According to the ownership lists of the
colonists, 8906.1 desjatins were used for ploughing, 226.6 desjatins were used
for farmstead, 316.7 desjatins were used for growing hay, 2962.7 desjatins were
used for pasture, 528.5 were left as forest, 214.6 remained as shrubbery, with
the unusable land totaling 4163.2 desjatins. The majority of the soil in this
region was of the Black‑Soil type, Ownership of land began at the time of
the revisions. This system existed until 1874, however , over the course of
time, many of the family parcels had become divided into smaller and smaller
pieces. Aside from this, the members of some families who had attained working
age were left entirely without land. It was then decided to divide land
according to the numbers of the male population, in anticipation that a new
revision would not take place. In accordance with the agreement made
at that time, persons not involved in tillage could give their lands and
properties over to others for a specified period of time. In 1875 a land
redivision was made on the basis of the population present at that time and
this remained in force for nine years, up to 1883. In that year the land was
again divided according to the number of male residents and for a term of six
years. By this division, the per person land allotment was set at a total of
3.1 desjatins. In the kitchen gardens were planted primarily, potatoes and
cabbage and secondarily, cucumbers, both for home consumption. The economy of the
time consisted almost entirely of ploughing fields, though the output of a
certain section of each parcel was taken away for taxes, or other obligations
generally in the amount of five rubles per person. Privately controlled lands
were rented out during that period. In 1887 the following 470 people engaged in
individual trades in this location, 107 of which were adult males: 119 joiners,
72 weavers, 35 blacksmiths, 9 tanners, 34 wheelwrights, 4 painters, 31 millers,
1 butcher, 47 carpenters, 12 tailors, 55 shoemakers. The remainder consisted of
farm hands, day and hourly laborers, etc. Of the trade and industrial
establishments, there were 2 shops selling manufactured goods, 1 general goods
grocer, 3 wineries, 1 dye‑works, 1 textile plant , 19 windmill millers, 3
slaughterhouses, 6 wheel making establishments, 18 farriers, 1 cloth maker, 30
joineries and 6 tanneries. (Record of the Gubernia, Zevstvo [District Council]
of 1891, volume XI)
According
to the testimony of the gubernial statistical committee of 1891, in Splavnukha
there existed 400 households with 3688 men and 3696 women, for a total of 7384
people of both sexes. According to the Norksk Volost Administration of 1894,
the colony of Sp lavnukha, Huck, lying along the river Splavnukh, had a wooden church
covered with boards which was dedicated in the 1840's, a German religious
school established at the time of the formation of the colony and a local
Russian trade school which was first opened in 1865.
In
1894 there were 387 households here, living in buildings of the following
types: 4 brick, 150 of common stone, 299 of wood, 4 with iron tops, 106 with
boards covering them and 339 with straw coverings. The number of residents in
1894 was 3677 men and 3632 women, for a total of 7309 settled proprietors,
German Reformed Protestants, together comprising one Splavnukhian Society. With
the exception of the following who were inside the village, these settlers were
engaged [exclusively] in agriculture: there were 7 tailors, 20 shoe‑makers,
32 carpenters, 6 stone‑smiths, 78 joiners, 27 wheel‑wrights, 1
cooper, 18 blacksmiths, 1 binder, and 184 weavers. The land allotment of the
colony consisted of 226.6 desjatins of farmstead, 8906.1 desjatins of arable
fields, 214.6 desjatins of shrubbery, 528.5 desjatins of forest, 316.7
desjatins of meadows, 2962.7 desjatins of pasture and 4163.2 desjatins of
unusable land, for a total of 17318.4 desjatins of usable and unusable land.
Russians were 10 versts away from the colony in the volost administrative
headquarters of Norksk The village of Tonevka was five versts away, while the
town of Tonovka was 10 versts away. The colony of Gololobovka was 5 versts
away, and the Russian village of Bobrovka was 7 versts distant. The city of
Saratov was 76 versts and the Ujezd city of Kamyshin was 110 verst away.
Translated from:
Minkh, A N
Istoriko‑geograficlieskii
slovar Saratovskoi gubernii.
Saratov, Tip. Gubernskago zemstva, 1898, vol. 1, p. 970‑972