“Dear Reich Chancellor Mr. Hitler”: About anti-Soviet sentiments in German colonies in the USSR in 1932– 1933

Abstract

The article analyzes an original historical document, a letter from a Soviet German, Jacob Martins, who lived in the village of Velikoknyazhesky in the North Caucasus Region of the RSFSR in the early 1930s. This letter, introduced into scholarly circulation for the first time, was extracted from “On the political state of the German colonies of the North Caucasus Region,”, a memorandum by the plenipotentiary representative of the OGPU (the Joint State Political Directorate), E. G. Evdokimov, to the head of the political sector of OGPU, A. M. Shteyngart. Dated December 15, 1933, the memorandum is stored in the Center for Documentation of Contemporary History of the Rostov Region. The letter by J. Martins contains an account of the catastrophic situation in the Soviet countryside during the mass famine of 1932–1933. It was addressed to German Chancellor Adolf Hitler, whose support the author hoped for, who offered to organize a “correspondence” in order to “get better acquainted” with the work of the social fascists and begin a joint struggle against communism. J. Martins’ letter perfectly illustrates the public mood of part of the German community in the USSR in the early 1930s and helps to better understand the reaction of Soviet citizens to the policies of the Stalinist leadership during the period of modernization.