5.2 The development of the colony until 1843

We have the first official data on the development of the Krasna colony from 1818: “Statistical news about the Warsaw colonies settled in Bessarabia proper or Budshak” (State Historical Archive of St. Petersburg, Fond 383, Inventory 29, File 417). They contain data on the development of the colonies established until 1818. Here are the data on Krasna:

Abb. 28: Fig. 28: Statistical news on Krasna as of 1818

There are thus to each family: 80 dessjatines and 512 5/11 fathoms of arable land; consequently to each family 20 d. 512 5/11 F. more than according to the regulation (60 Deßjatinen were fixed by the government).
In livestock the colonists own: 228 horses, 1,103 head of cattle, 289 pigs; among them have been given by the Crown: 242 oxen and 147 cows.
On this colony there are three leased dairies¹⁾.

The report already gives us an idea of the state of the colony in the same year:

• From nothing, after three years, houses for a good 130 families were practically finished or almost finished, even if they were still very simple ones made of wickerwork.
• There was already quite a large livestock.
• There was a prayer house
• A simple mill

The beginning of the agricultural work could not have been before 1815. At the beginning there was the clearing of the ground, i.e. if anything could be harvested at all in 1815, it was very meager. And yet: already three years after the beginning of the clearing work on the steppe and the beginning of the village construction there were increasing successes. The figures show a great dynamic in the development of the colony in less than two years after the arrival of the last group of settlers.

The following report describes the situation after the departure of the Protestant settlers in 1824/1825 (see section 5.3.3 Protestant families from Krasna resettle in Katzbach in 1824/1825). The report of the Bessarabian Office for Foreign Settlers for the year 1825, dated Jan. 29, 1826, contains the following data for Krasna:

Source: Deutsche Bauernleistung am Schwarzen Meer: Bevölkerung und Wirtschaft 1825 / bearb. von Hans Rempel Ausgabe 2. Aufl. Ort/Verlag Leipzig: Hirzel Jahr 1942

A similar list as the one from 1818 is available again from the year 1827
“Statistical description of Bessarabia and the so-called Budshak”.

The colony of Krasna: in 1827 it counted a total of 136 families witht 280 M + 255 W = 535

The total amount of land was considerably higher in 1818 with 10872 dessjatines than in 1827 with 6948 dess. As stated in the above document of 1818, not all possible agricultural positions were occupied at that time. 3924 dess. were therefore added to the neighboring colony of Katzbach, a part at its foundation in 1822, another part when the 19 Lutheran families moved to Katzbach in 1825 (see section 5.3.3 Lutheran families from Krasna resettle to Katzbach in 1824/1825).

The remaining land minus the parish land was only enough for 114 farms of 60 dessj each. After the departure of the Lutheran families in 1825 the number of 114 farms is also mentioned (see above). The other families had no land. Since the land could not be divided, the number of landless inhabitants increased (see also section 6 Schlussbetrachtung).

Here are some more annual figures showing the development of Krasna's population:

• In a listing from 1831 (Wittenberg Regional Office), 124 families are counted with 293 males and 284 females, for a total of 577.
  363 horses, 1224 cattle, 812 sheep, 172 pigs, 103 plows, 103 harrows, 103 wagons (source: State Archives of the Odessa Region, Odessa, Fond 383, Inventory 29, File 630).
• In a list from 1832 about the parish of Krasna, 114 families with farmsteads and 10 other families are mentioned with 305 males and 301 females (source State Archives of St. Petersburg Fond 383, Inventory 29 File 622 Pages 147,148).
• Finally, we have a list of the population on 01.01.1834: according to it, there were 318 males and 305 females living in Krasna, a total of 623
  Source (State Archives of the Odessa Region, Odessa, Fond 6, Inventory 1, File 3151).

There are some more statistics, which show how arable farming, livestock, fruit-growing developed in the first thirty years.
Of course, there was not only this pleasant development. Natural disasters and war burdens caused great burdens. Epidemics among people and livestock, drought, hailstorms, earthquakes, locusts put a strain on the colonists. The Krasna Municipal Report of 1848 lists these ills in detail.

As a result of these tribulations and high infant mortality, the population remained largely at the same level from 1825-1835, i.e. between 535 and 635 persons, despite high birth rates. When living conditions began to improve noticeably, the number of inhabitants rose steadily: by 1850 there were already 209 households with 1019 persons.

After difficult early years, Krasna, like most other colonies, stabilized economically toward the end of the 1830s; orderly structures of community life began to emerge.
The period until about 1850 was the time of dynamic development of the colony. There were always severe setbacks: But the people did not let it get them down, and thirty years after the founding of the colony they had achieved a certain prosperity, as we can read in the Gemeindebericht 1848: “The colony owes its prosperity not only to God and the authorities, but also to the diligence in agriculture, viticulture and animal husbandry.

One point in this more than thirty-year development remains to be dealt with: the fluctuation of colonists (see next section).