Vaschkau to address G-R convention

Dr. Nina Vaschkau, who chairs Russian History at Volgograd State University in Russia, will be a keynote speaker at the International Convention of Germans from Russia later this month in Casper, Wyoming.

Nearly one thousand persons are anticipated at the convention, which opens next Monday, July 28th at the Parkway Plaza Hotel and Convention Center. The week-long gathering is a rare joint session of the Germans from Russia Heritage Society (Bismarck, ND) and the American Historical Society of Germans from Russia (Lincoln, NE). The convention concludes Sunday, August 3rd.

Dr. Vaschkau, a graduate of Chelyabinsk State University, has been a professor at Volgograd State University since 1985. Her message to the Casper group is entitled Deportation of Russian Germans in 1941 and Its Consequences. Her remarks are scheduled for 11:45 a.m., Thursday, July 31st, during the Foundation Luncheon in the Ballroom of the Parkway Plaza.

Nina Vaschkau earned her Ph. D. in 1984. In 1998, she defended her dissertation – Spiritual Culture of the Volga Germans: Problems of Schools and Education -- for a History doctorate at Saratov State University. In addition to chairing the Russian History program at Volgograd University, she is a member of the Russian-German Board on Modern History and serves as Head of the Center of Studies in German History at Volgograd University. She has authored more than 80 publications, including four monographs, based on materials from archives in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Saratov, Volgograd, Bonn, Freiburg and Stuttgart. Dr. Vaschkau has been doing research in the area of the history of Russian Germans for more than 20 years. She has a daughter, a senior at the Law School of the Russian State Humanities University in Moscow.

In addition to her Thursday luncheon address, Dr. Vaschkau will also present a workshop on how to restore a family history – History of a Colony. It will be offered at 2:00 p.m., Friday, August 1st in the Tiffany Room of the Parkway Plaza Hotel. It will be repeated Saturday, August 2nd at 2:00 p.m. in the American Room.