3.4 The perimeters of the colony of Krasna

The area assigned to Krasna (Number 7) forms a slightly askance quadrangle. (See Map of the Parcels of the Colony, 1.2) Considering the given value of 6,948 Desjatines (roughly 7,590 hectares) and the given distances to the neighboring colonies, one can assume a length of 10-12 kilometers and a width of 6-7 kilometers.

The Kogälnik flowed through the Krasna region from north to south, just a bit off-center. Antschiokrak Creek, coming from Tarutino, flowed into the Kogälnik just north of the village. Both bodies of water formed individual ponds. The village itself was located pretty much in the center of the area.

After Katzbach separated in 1824/1825, the colony was bordered by the community fields of Katzbach, Ciuleni, Tarutino, Beresina, Klöstitz, Paris, and Alt-Elft. The borders were straight lines.

Image 32: Map of the Krasna region by Eduard Ruscheinsky, Heimatbuch, 20 years after the resettlement, page 26

The land area assigned to the colonists of Krasna in 1814 measured 8,012 Desjatines. After the removal of the property of the Evangelical settlers who went to Katzbach, 6,948 desjatines remained. ¹⁾) See below

The area was originally laid out for 133 farms at 60 desjatines, each. After the 19 Evangelical families left, it left 114 and a statistic of 1825 reports 114 farms. ²⁾

Land of the colony of Krasna and use of it in 1827.
See 4.6 for Russian measures and conversions

Newer documents refer to 6,910.2 Desjatines

• A document dated May 29, 1885 ⁵⁾ records how much land the former colony of Krasna had on July 1, 1871 (The date colonial land converted to private property.).

The settlement has 6,641.3 desjatines of cultivated land and 268.9 desjatines of uncultivated land for a total 6,910.2 desjatines.

• A document about Krasna, dated January 27, 1913 ⁶⁾) reports:

The ancestors of the current German colonists came from Germany to Russia in 1816, swore their citizenship oath and founded the village of Krasna, commemorative of an event from 1812 (Victory over Napoleon at Krasnoje). At the time of the settlement the community was presented with a total of 6,910 desjatines of land.

The land area did not change by 1940, as additional documents show:

• Keller states in 1912 ⁷⁾ The community land of the colony of Krasna amounts to 6,910.2 desjatines and contains 114 farmsteads.
• In 1940 the land area belonging to the community of Krasna (Krasna area) amounted to 7,532 hectares. ⁸⁾ This equals almost exactly 6,910.2 desjatines (with a conversion factor of 1.09)

The region was used for farm, bastane, vineyard, forest, pasture, hayfields, cabbage fields, and fruit and vegetable gardens. The community of Krasna divided its land at foundation into three categories, as did all other colonies:

1. Farmhouse
   Each farmer (host) received a building lot of roughly one desjatine within the village to use as a lot for his house, yard and garden as permanent property.
2. Farmland and Meadows
   Each family was given equal shares of field and meadow for their own use.
3. Community pasture
   A portion of the land was designated as a common livestock grazing area (the farmers had to set aside a portion of their land for this). These were located all around the village. Each farm had the right to graze a certain number of horses, cattle, young livestock and small farm animals. From about 1875 on more and more smaller and larger pieces were parcelled off the pastureland and converted to farmland.

Eduard Ruscheinsky ⁹⁾ Currently (ca 1935-1040) the land is distributed as follows: Farm land 5,670.69 hectares, grazing pastures 1,363.44 hectares, paths and farmyards 357,980 hectares.

The land area outside of the village (farming fields and haying sections, not the livestock pasture) was divided into farm field parcels/areas

Field areas were often named by either their location or shape, sometimes with a clue of distinctive landmarks or land formations, for instance the following names and descriptions point at Krasna: Tarwan Hole, Tarwan Mountain, Judetal (Jew Valley), Judeberg (Jew Mountain) Netjetal (Netje Valley), Stojan, Eichwald (oak forest) Heuschlag (haying fields) Kesselloch (Kettle Hole), Antschiokrak Valley, Mittelberg (Middle Mountain), etc. It is not documented if these were all Krasna fields and if there were any others.

Field parcels/areas were usually long and narrow, for instance up to several kilometers in length. Within those, a farmer received a “ticket or lot” (called this because earlier these areas were raffled off). Sometimes there were several of them but not next to each other. The land area of the individual farmer was located all over the region of the village in strips of 1-2 desjatines per field. It was possible for the land of a settler to be located in 12-15 places. Although the colonists thus received a fair share of the land of the areas, varying from excellent production to mediocre yield, they accepted this arrangement, even though it meant long travel times and a lot of loss in productive time. The distance to the farthest parcel could be 8-10 kilometers. ¹⁰⁾

The land area was undulating and had several side valleys. According to an old Austrian military chart of about 1910, the western mountain was 147 meters high, the eastern one 129. The bottom of the valley of the Kogälnik was about 3 kilometers wide and the difference in height between mountain and valley was roughly 70 meters.

Kurgans were cone shaped formations, containing hill graves from ancient times. According to some tests, they were established circa 400 BC, sometimes even earlier.

Image 33: Kurgans looked like this, from a photo taken in the area of Sarata

At the turn of the century, one found human and horse bones in digs for instance around Alt-Elft. There were also clay pots and pitchers, knives and rings. The vernacular referred to these hill graves as “cannon hills,” since it was believed that these hills were places for cannons in earlier wars. Kurgans around Krasna were at the Judeberg, Antschiokrak Valley and the Mittelberg.

The land was very productive especially in the valley of the Kogälnik. On the slopes of the hills there were some areas containing saltpeter, where the harvest was poorer, especially in years with little rainfall. These areas stemmed from salt veins coming from the Black Sea. Dölker finds: ¹¹⁾ According to its soil composition, Bessarabia belongs to the south Russian Black Soil Area. The layers vary from 30 centimeters to a thickness of 1.5 meters and the land is considered some of the best yielding soils available.

Good farmland was a superior trademark of Krasna. The community report of 1848 states: In the valley the black soil reaches 2 feet, followed by saltpeter soil. On the slopes the soil is 2 feet deep, but mixed with sand. It yields good crops of winter wheat, rye, oats, barley, hirsute, corn, legumes and potatoes.

The Krasna area had no quarries like some of the neighboring colonies.
See 3.6, Building and Heating Materials

Fauna and flora around Krasna were abundant, although trees were scarce. There were acacia and robinia trees, fruit, lilac and elder trees. Forests as such were nonexistent, just small groves planted by the colonists. According to a regional map of 1940, there were two small forests, called the upper and the lower forest, but it is not clear when they were established. There were productive vineyards on the Krasna land; they were located especially on slopes of both sides of the river and on the Heuschlager Mountain.

The fields produced mostly winter wheat, barley, corn, oats and rye. For personal use, potatoes were planted and beets and pumpkins for livestock feed.
See 4.1, Agriculture in Krasna

Erwin Heer describes the avian world, but also other sorts of animals and plants as found in 1940. ¹²⁾) There is more literature about Bessarabia’s flora and fauna in the literature list for Bessarabia. Mention should be made of the white stork, which used to be common in early Bessarabia. It found much food on the Kogälnik River, but in later years, the number of stork nests dwindled.