The congregation in Kraft was part of the Stephan parish which had been established in 1771. A new church building was completed in 1865.
Kraft was founded on 18 August 1767 as a Lutheran colony by the Government.
In 1876, immigration began to North America. These families settled in Kansas. Between 1879-1880, about 100 families moved to the Kuban region and settled in Orlovskaya and Michaelovskaya. In 1881, about 20 families returned because of the poor harvests.
|
Year
|
Households
|
Population
|
||
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Total
|
Male
|
Female
|
||
| 1767 |
|
211
|
|
|
| 1769 |
62
|
202
|
108
|
94
|
| 1773 |
63
|
246
|
132
|
114
|
| 1788 |
58
|
362
|
180
|
182
|
| 1798 |
68
|
432
|
223
|
209
|
| 1816 |
103
|
670
|
334
|
336
|
| 1834 |
142
|
1,336
|
663
|
673
|
| 1850 |
202
|
2,036
|
1,018
|
1,018
|
| 1857 |
215
|
2,514
|
1,280
|
1,234
|
| 1859 |
173
|
2,531
|
1,275
|
1,256
|
| 1886 |
348
|
2,779
|
1,399
|
1,380
|
| 1891 |
291
|
3,967
|
2,017
|
1,950
|
| 1894 |
300
|
4,593
|
2,347
|
2,246
|
| 1897 |
|
2,664*
|
1,345
|
1,319
|
| 1904 |
|
6,387
|
|
|
| 1911 |
|
6,101
|
|
|
| 1912 |
|
6,572
|
|
|
| 1920 |
492**
|
3,391
|
|
|
| 1922 |
|
2,518
|
|
|
| 1926 |
492
|
2,821
|
1,370
|
1,451
|
| 1931 |
|
3,454***
|
|
|
*Of whom 2,650 were German.
**Of which 491 households were German.
**Of whom 3,412 were German.
Schultheiss, David R. "Kraft, My Birthplace and Hometown as I Remember It." AHSGR Journal 10:1 (Spring 1987).
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): 350.
Diesendorf, V.F. Die Deutschen Russlands : Siedlungen und Siedlungsgebiete : Lexicon. Moscow, 2006.
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): 623.
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 Results of the Soviet Census of 1926 on the Volga German Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (Pokrovsk, 1927): 28-83.
Schnurr, Joseph, Die Kirchen und das Religiöse Leben der Russlanddeutschen - Evangelischer Teil (Stuttgart: Landsmannschaft der Deutschen aus Russland, 1972): 193.
"Settlements in the 1897 Census." Journal of the American Historical Society of Germans from Russia (Winter, 1990): 18.