DISTRICT / AIMAG
German National District
REGION
Altai Krai
Polevoye
The village of Polevoye in the German National District of Altai Krai was founded in 1908.
A historical photograph, village view, landscape, or related heritage object will be displayed here at a later date.
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German National District
Altai Krai
Historical background
The village was founded in 1908 by Mennonite settlers from the Black Sea region and was part of the Orlovskaya volost of the Barnaul district of the Tomsk province. In the 1950s–1980s, Polevoye became the center of the collective farm named after Thälmann, where residents of the liquidated small villages (Chertezh, Dyagilevka, Uglovoye) were resettled. In 1991, the village definitively became part of the restored German National District; currently, Polevoye has a secondary school, a kindergarten, a House of Culture, and agricultural enterprises.
Place, memory, heritage
Historical and cultural legacy
The village is home to the E. Thälmann Museum (founded in 1974) with the exhibition "House of the Russian German" and an album of questionnaires of labor army soldiers, a House of Culture, a rural library, and the Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, consecrated in 2023. On the territory of Polevoye, there is a monument to Ernst Thälmann, the Memorial to the memory of the victims of the Great Patriotic War and the labor army, a memorial cross to the victims of repression, and the Alley of Glory, opened in 2015, where the names of 377 local labor army soldiers are immortalized.
Natural surroundings
The village is located in the steppe zone of the Kulunda Plain; the landscape is represented by open fields and forest shelterbelts, there are no rivers, lakes, or mountains near the settlement.
Historical and cultural legacy
The village is home to the E. Thälmann Museum (founded in 1974) with the exhibition "House of the Russian German" and an album of questionnaires of labor army soldiers, a House of Culture, a rural library, and the Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, consecrated in 2023. On the territory of Polevoye, there is a monument to Ernst Thälmann, the Memorial to the memory of the victims of the Great Patriotic War and the labor army, a memorial cross to the victims of repression, and the Alley of Glory, opened in 2015, where the names of 377 local labor army soldiers are immortalized.
Living culture and memory
Lutheran traditions and family customs of Mennonites are preserved in the village, including the celebration of Christmas, Trinity, the Harvest Festival, and the Pumpkin Ball; the older generation partially uses the German dialect in everyday life. Creative groups work in the local House of Culture: "Kalinushki", "Polevchanka", "Baby Dance", "Step Forward", and the drummer group "Era". At culinary events, local residents prepare traditional dishes: stewed potatoes with meat, homemade cottage cheese, and liver sausage.
