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Soviet Union [USSR] Germans
About 2 million Germans lived in the Soviet Union in 1989. The
Kazakh Republic had the largest concentration of Germans (over
956,000), followed by the Russian Republic (841,000) and the Kirgiz
Republic (101,000). Prior to World War II, many Germans lived in
their own autonomous republic on the Volga River and were referred
to as Volga Germans. Stalin ordered their dispersal into Soviet
Central Asia and Siberia when Germany attacked the Soviet Union in
1941. Unrepatriated German prisoners of war further increased the
German population in the Soviet Union. Since World War II, however,
a considerable number of Germans have returned to German territory.
In 1989 only 49 percent of the Germans claimed German as their
first language.
Data as of May 1989
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