Volga Germans in the context of "Jezkazgan"

The 1921–1922 famine in Tatarstan was a period of mass starvation and drought that took place in the Tatar ASSR as a result of the Russian Civil War, in which 500,000 to 2,000,000 peasants died. The event was part of the greater Russian famine of 1921–22 that affected other parts of what became the Soviet Union, in which up 5,000,000 people died in total. According to Roman Serbyn, a professor of Russian and East European history, the Tatarstan famine was the first man-made famine in the Soviet Union and systematically targeted ethnic minorities such as Volga Tatars and Volga Germans.

Saratov (UK: /səˈrɑːtɒf/ sə-RAH-tof, US: /-təf/ -⁠təf; Russian: Саратов, pronounced [sɐˈratəf] ) is the largest city and administrative center of Saratov Oblast, Russia, and a major port on the Volga River. As of the 2021 Census, Saratov had a population of 901,361, making it the 17th-largest city in Russia by population. Saratov is 389 kilometres (242 mi) north of Volgograd, 442 kilometres (275 mi) south of Samara, and 858 kilometres (533 mi) southeast of Moscow.

The city stands near the site of Uvek, a city of the Golden Horde. Tsar Feodor I of Russia likely developed Saratov as a fortress to secure Russia's southeastern border. Saratov developed as a shipping port along the Volga and was historically important to the Volga Germans, who settled in large numbers in the city before they were expelled before and during World War II.

Reichsdeutsche (German: [ˈʁaɪ̯çsˌdɔɪ̯t͡ʃə] , literally translated 'Germans of the Reich') is an archaic term for those ethnic Germans who resided within the German state that was founded in 1871. In contemporary usage, it referred to German citizens, the word signifying people from the German Reich, i.e., Imperial Germany or Deutsches Reich, which was the official name of Germany between 1871 and 1949.

The opposite of the Reichsdeutsche is, then, depending on context and historical period, Volksdeutsche, Auslandsdeutsche (however, usually meaning German citizens living abroad), or a more specific term denoting the area of settlement, such as Baltic Germans or Volga Germans (Wolgadeutsche).