It took more than a decade for Michael Brown, a German-Russian professor and director of graduate studies at the University of Wyoming (UW) in the United States, to trace his family roots in Kazakhstan.
His connection with Kazakhstan began in 2012, when he came to Almaty as a visiting professor at Al-Farabi Kazakh National University. Over the years, a strong academic partnership and lasting personal ties have developed between UW and KazNU.
From the Volga to the steppe
Many ethnic Germans settled in Russia’s Volga region in the mid-1700s, invited by Catherine the Great to develop agriculture. They were allowed to preserve their language, religion, and culture, were exempt from taxes for years, and were not required to serve in the czar’s army.
But by the late 1800s, these privileges were revoked, prompting many Volga Germans to emigrate.
“My relatives were Volga Germans who lived in the village of Bauer, or Karamyshevka, starting in 1766. Because of changes in the status of Germans in Russia, my great-grandfather and his children came to the United States in 1912, while most relatives stayed behind,” said Brown.
Those who stayed endured the First World War, the Bolshevik Revolution, and the famine of the early 1920s. During Stalin’s collectivization in the late 1920s, many German farmers were labeled kulaks and exiled to Kazakhstan. When Hitler invaded the Soviet Union in 1941, all ethnic Germans were deported to Kazakhstan and Siberia. Many were sent to special settlements or Gulag labor camps under the NKVD (People’s Commissariat for Internal Affairs) system. The Karlag camp in Dolinka near Karagandy became a central administrative site for exiled peoples.
“By the late 1920s, we lost contact with our German-Russian family when the Soviets restricted communication and began a campaign of repression against them. We know some starved during the famine, some were executed, and others were exiled to ‘Western Siberia’, which included northern Kazakhstan. I did not know any of this when I first visited KazNU in 2012,” said Brown.
Discovering a hidden past
In 2014, Brown visited the Dolinka Museum of Victims of Political Repression near Karagandy, housed in the former Karlag administrative building. The experience was eye-opening.
“I was shocked to learn that more than 440,000 Germans were sent to Kazakhstan,” he said.
Michael Brown, a German-Russian professor and director of graduate studies at the University of Wyoming visited Karamyshevka village, now called Shubaragash in 2024. Photo credit: Myssayeva’s personal archive
On a return visit in 2016, Brown discovered that Karagandy had been one of the main centers of German settlement. With the help of Askhat Yerkimbai, a former UW graduate student and now a faculty member at Suleyman Demirel University in Almaty, he learned about a village called Karamyshevka in northern Kazakhstan, founded by Germans in 1906, before the Soviet era.
“I was surprised because I did not expect that any of my relatives would be among those Germans exiled after 1906. Now I suspected my relatives might have been among those who started this village, but I was unsure how to find information,” said Brown.
To learn more, Brown joined the American Historical Society of Germans from Russia (AHSGR), an organization dedicated to preserving the history of Germans in Russia. Most AHSGR members are descendants of those who immigrated from Russia and want to learn about their family history and the fate of their relatives.
He later became editor of the AHSGR journal, which led him to collaborate with Professors Arailym Mussagaliyeva and Roza Mussabekova from the Eurasian National University, who study the history of Germans living in Kazakhstan both as exiles and settlers.
“During my conversation with Professor Mussagaliyeva, I mentioned my family name, Bruch or Brug, and said that if she went to Karamyshevka village, she might look for that name. At the time, she was working with archives about Karamyshevka and sent me a 1920 census with the names of several Bruch relatives. It was quite an exciting moment for me. I hoped to visit the village on one of my trips to Kazakhstan, but travel restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic delayed my visit to the village,” said Brown.
Preserving a shared history
In September 2024, Brown returned to Kazakhstan with his colleague Professor Cindy Price Schultz to strengthen ties between the UW and KazNU. This time, he was offered a trip to Karamyshevka village, now called Shubaragash, where no Germans remain today.
“We visited the cemetery and found many graves of my relatives. The grave markers had pictures, names, and the dates my relatives lived in the village. It was a powerful personal experience to realize I was standing among relatives that my current family never knew existed,” said Brown.
“I found over 20 graves. Parts of the cemetery were too old to have visible markers, so I know there are many more of my relatives buried there. A resident talked to us and remarked that the Bruch name was particularly prominent in the village,” he added.
Karamyshevka is just one of many settlements that once held Kazakhstan’s large German population. Interest in the German population is increasing both within Kazakhstan and among descendants abroad.
“The visit was more than I expected. It completed a missing piece of my family puzzle. I share my experience with many German-Russian organizations in the United States. Many asked if I encountered the names of their relatives, and some have asked if it is possible to visit, and I say ‘yes, it is possible’. For me I have a better understanding of my family background and a stronger feeling of connection to Kazakhstan. I had no idea this would be the outcome of my visits to Kazakhstan that started 13 years ago,” said Brown.
Brown’s story is more than an academic exchange. It is a personal quest for identity, memory, and belonging.
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