Wednesday, July 9, 2008

Volga Famine of 1921-1922

While drought and poor harvests may have triggered the horrendous Volga Famine of 1921-22, documents from the era tell a more complete story. Millions of persons across Russia died in this travesty. Work on the Volga Famine of 1921-1922 Documents is highlighted in a workshop at the International Convention of Germans from Russia in Casper, Wyoming this summer.

The convention runs from July 28th through August 3rd and will bring attendees from across the Americas and the world. Parkway Plaza Hotel and Convention Center will be headquarters for the nearly 1,000 persons expected to attend.

Dr. Robert Meininger of Lincoln, Nebraska, will guide the Volga famine workshop. It runs from 8:30-9:30 a.m. on Saturday, August 2nd in Ballroom A of the Parkway. A descendant of Volga German settlers in Nebraska, Wyoming and Colorado, Meininger went to school at the University of Nebraska, where he earned a Ph.D. in Romance Languages. After teaching at NU for six years, he joined the faculty at Nebraska Wesleyan, where he remained for 30 years – 20 of them as Chairman of the Foreign Language Department. He is a Professor Emeritus at Nebraska Wesleyan.

Meininger has traveled and studied extensively in Europe. As a student, he conducted Fulbright studies in Belgium and in 1988 was in Germany as a Fulbright Professor of German. He has participated in summer institutes in France, Germany, Russia, and at the University of Virginia. He was also in St. Petersburg as a Humanities scholar in Russian culture.

Meininger is now working with a translating team at the Nebraska State Historical Society.

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