When I was a freshman in college, I had to read Paul Fussell's The Great War and Modern Memory in 1975 (the title of this post plays on this book). This book explores how World War I was remembered in through novels, poems, and other types of literature. Since there had not been a large scale war in Europe for about century, most the old ways of talking about war, such as romanticizing ancient Roman and Greek style bravery, did not work to describe trench warfare and mustard gas. While I found the book relatively boring to read then, I realize how important Fussell's argument about how war is remembered through collective conscience is shaped by post-war literature.
In Volga-German history it is no different. There are two major narratives that are used to describe why the Volga-Germans immigrated to the United States. The first is economic. The tsar was taxing the land they were farming and revoking special privileges they had before, so it made sense to move somewhere else. The second is searching for religious freedom. With this narrative, this group, especially Catholics, were persecuted against and forced to leave the country. Now, both these narratives are compelling and, from the evidence presented, both played a role in the migration.
However, the latter reason for immigration gets emphasized more. There are two reasons for this. First, much of the recorded history is written by Capuchin Priests, especially Matthew Peraki. The second reason is that it sounds better to tell children and grandchildren. Saying you left your home country for cheap land is not as compelling as saying you left to flee religious persecution. Just looking at anniversary Masses emphasizes this point with readings from Exodus and talking about coming to the promise land. This is not to say there is anything wrong with this narrative, but sometimes it can cloud other reasons for migration and limit historical perspective.
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