We have seen that the immigrants arrived in Krasna in several groups between the fall of 1814 and the spring of 1816. Arriving at the new settlement did not end the worries and miseries of the immigrants. First, one was totally at the mercy of already promised support by the Russian government, as the paragraph above outlines.

The Russian support was there in the form of absolute necessities ¹⁾), but not available on the first day of arrival and with severe limitations.
Each family received the bare necessities to build a primitive shelter: Four corner posts, doors, windows and a piece of wood for a bench and eight rubles. (See 4.7, Monetary and Banking Services) For the rest of the necessities the settlers had to provide themselves.
Each family received a wooden cart as operating equipment, which was replaced by a metal cart a year later. Furthermore, they received a harrow, 2 scythes, 2 sickles, a metal shovel, a hoe, a dangling iron and other small implements
As pulling stock each family received a pair of oxen and a cow.
For planting, they were given 4 Tschetwert of wheat, 2 tschetwert of potatoes. (See 4.6, Russian and Rumanian Weights and Measures)
Additionally, each person could take a pud of flour per month from a warehouse in Tarutino.

The Russian government in general kept the promises met in the announcement of 1813. But as is the case everywhere, one had to contend with hucksters and scoundrels. Money and farm implements were late, food was spoiled, and animals were sick and skinny. The allotted farm implements were insufficient. We can read about this situation in Prochnow’s ²⁾ writings, who lived through the initial years of the colonies himself. He writes:
The first colonies endured many hardships. Although the Russian government kept its promises, by the time the support funds reached the steppes of Bessarabia, it had dwindled through mismanagement and greed of the delivery agent Polner and his subordinates. In Tarutino, a warehouse … was established, a supply facility where each family, at least according to name and manifest, was supposed to pick up 15 rubels currency or 4 2/7th rubels silver, building payment, 1 plain cart, 1 plow, 1 harrow, 2 scythes, 2 sickles, 1 iron spade, 1 hoe, dangling equipment and other items. Livestock: a pair of oxen, 1 cow and for the 1st crop planting 4 tschetwert wheat and 2 potatoes, also each soul was supposed to receive 1 pud of flour a month for supplemental supplies to live on.
What was not mentioned in the paperwork is that the supplies were sub-standard. The implements were poor; many received a partial cart, where the rims fell of the spokes and the spokes off the hub. Where one received instead of two oxen just one or two calves instead, and the flour was often mildewed and full of worms in sacks all balled up, so it had to be either thrown away or taken apart with an axe to make some use of it, and that the 5 kopeks per diem were never distributed.

The situation in Krasna was the same, as we can see in the community report of 1848 (text See 10, Documents and Reports about and of Krasna. We can read in Eduard Ruscheinsky’s writings. ³⁾

With the beginning of spring of 1815, the building of houses began. It took a lot of time and muscle power to erect the living and farming structures. The land also had to be worked. Many a colonist was forced to live in primitive sod houses (Semljanki) as described in the preceding segment. Father Paschowsky, for instance, lived in his sod house for over two years, as can be gleaned from a letter dated December 5, 1822, from the Russian Department of the Interior.

To build a crown’s hut, so named because of the crown’s land it was built on, the state supplied the wood. (See above, Support of the Government) The blueprint for the crown’s hut was identical for all and quite simple. Four corner posts were sunk into the dirt, a mesh between, covered with clay inside and out and smoothed, round beams over it and rafters of round wood placed on top, the roof over that, made of thatch, straw or grass. The crown’s hut was the transition to the colonist house of later years. In comparison to the latter, they were still poor structures but an improvement over the sod hut.
In spite of the crown’s assistance the beginning was quite harsh. They were supposed to feed themselves off the land and they wanted to do that. They did everything they could to eat their own bread as soon as possible. The first Krasna harvest came earliest in 1815, but happened most likely in 1816.
In the beginning the Krasna people had sufficient land. It was hard work to cultivate the steppe land, which had never seen a plow. Usually several families worked together and hitched 6 to 8 oxen to a plow. One or the other also owned a horse and wagon from the journey there from Poland. Others planted laboriously with the hoe on foot.
The circumstances only allowed them to work a portion of the land, since they had limited supplies of seed, 4 tschetwert of wheat. (See above, Basic Supplies) In spite of the energy and effort of the settlers, their possibilities for the first 10 to 15 years were limited. They had to learn through experience that the soil conditions and the climate there differed from what they were used to in Poland. The unfamiliar steppe climate with the Russian cold winters and very hot summers did not measure up to the agents’ promises.

Krasna had a good location in the center of the region, only a few kilometers distant from Tarutino, where as early as 1815 a one-day market was held every two weeks to supply the colonists. But what to buy? They hardly had any money. If they wanted to sell their grain, they had to go to Odessa. (See 4.1, Agriculture in Krasna) Poor road conditions also made travel there and to the colonies difficult. (See 4.5, Traffic Infrastructure, Postal and Telephone Service) Eduard Ruscheinsky: One could certainly not establish model farms in these circumstances. One had to adjust living accordingly, it was simple.

In summary, one can say that just like other colonies, Krasna had to overcome many difficulties in the beginning and battle severe need. Father Keller ⁴⁾ writes: During the first decades the development of the colony (Krasna) faced obstacles and adverse circumstances: there were illnesses, which brought a large number of the new settlers to their graves. Then there were epidemics, taking the last cow, the last draft animal.
The settlers could not sell their few crops easily for an acceptable price, because they were too far away from a selling point, therefore the lack of money forced them to trade items.

In order to sell their grain, they had to go to Odessa, which was 140 Werst distant and the trip took a week. It was also quite dangerous, since one had to fear to be robbed by traveling nomadic gypsies.

The strange climate, horrid housing conditions and the unhealthy nutrition caused illnesses in the beginning years and contributed to an extremely high death rate. There were hardly any physicians. The colonial doctor lived far away (See 6.3, Health Department). In Alt-Elft (a neighboring colony of Krasna) for instance, about a hundred people died of a fever then, a large number, compared to the population there.
There was also much sickness in Krasna. We have a sick list from the colony from 1819. ⁵⁾ According to it, there were 51 sick people from the middle of August to the end of October.

Drought, animal pests, earthquakes and epidemics affecting people and animals made life hard for the German colonists of Bessarabia. This held true for their entire stay, but the beginning years were the worst. In the 1920’s there was hardly a year without a plague/epidemic for the settlers and the thirties were not much better. (See 6.1, Catastrophes, Plagues, Failed Harvests, Animal Pests, Earthquakes)

In spite of the initial difficulties and problems facing the colonists, already in 1818 a stone house of prayer was constructed, thatched with reeds, barely two years after the first group of settlers had arrived. (See 3.1, The village of Krasna, Its Location and Appearance). In contrast to many Lutheran colonies, Krasna had a pastor from the beginning and its own parish since the foundation.
See 5.1, Church and Religion

Generally, the Russian government brought only people of the same confession into a colony, in Krasna, there had also been Evangelical settlers. 19 Evangelical-Lutheran families left Krasna in 1825 and moved to the newly-founded colony of Katzbach, where a majority of Lutherans lived. A major reason for this was the church holidays, which differed for each confession and this could cause friction.
See 7.4, The move to Katzbach by Evangelical Settlers

We have further evidence of disharmony between the confessions in the first years. A document from 1824/1825 is preserved, where Evangelical pastors from neighboring villages complained that Krasna forced the Evangelical women to convert to Catholicism when they were married. ⁶⁾) The statements of the women, that this was done of their free will and without coercion, are also preserved.

In spite of government support and tremendous efforts on their own, the Krasna people, like other colonists of the time, made only little progress at first. The government was not pleased with these slow developments. ⁷⁾)

In the thirteen years of their being here they only progressed moderately in agriculture, livestock and garden cultivation. In spite of vineyards evident in every colony, the colonists are not working hard and the vineyards are virtually of no use.

When we evaluate the economic development of the colonies we cannot ignore the events and circumstances mentioned above. Life was cruelly tough. If one took ill or was otherwise put down, he had a bitter fate.

Wagner ⁸⁾ describes the misery of the weak farmers (for instance they did not have children and therefore no workers). Such folks considered themselves lucky, if they found a taker for their farm, at the beginning against the existing debts, so-called prestations, (it means debts such as advances, labor-in-kind, crown’s debts), later for small wages. (See Prices of Economical Goods, 4.7, Monetary and Banking Services). Gone poor, many colonists moved on. Some returned to their former homelands, where they were not always welcomed back, sometimes not accepted, at all.

People also wanted to go back from Krasna. Colonists Oberlyn and Paul filed petitions in 1820 to be allowed to return to Poland with their families. The document is preserved. ⁹⁾
Most of them stayed in spite of the hardships, simply because they had no means to turn back and because circumstances began to get better.

One can see the achievements of the Krasna colonists in the first 13 years of their stay in the figures for 1827. ¹⁰⁾ Housing had improved, there were already 2 homes built of stone, 37 from unfired bricks, called Batzen, 68 were still of woven material. There were 71 wells for water, a windmill, a regular mill and a water mill at the Kogälnik River produced flour.

The numbers of livestock had grown in the meantime, as well. At the beginning, the farmers had hardly any horses. Oxen, a pair per farm, served as draft animals. Now there were 265 horses, 1,335 head of livestock and 367 sheep in the village. There were 114 orchards planted. The colonists of Krasna had begun cultivating vineyards.

One can interpret the slow upward trend in development in the pricing of a farmstead. When one had been able to get a farm dirt-cheap at the beginning, in 1829 one had to pay 1,000 Rubles for a farm with a house and barnyard. (See Pricing for Economic Goods, under 4.7, Monetary and Banking Services) As soon as there was a vacancy, new colonists vied for it, as the hunger for land was great. (See 7.5, Fluctuations among the Krasna Colonists)

According to existing economical data of 1827, matters were improving, but the following years brought set-backs again in the form of epidemics, livestock epidemics and failed harvests.

With no medical services, a farmer often had to watch helplessly when his family or his herds perished. (See 6 .1, Catastrophes, Plagues, Failed Harvests, Animal Pests, Earthquakes)

Additionally, the colonists had been burdened by their war contributions in the Russian-Turkish war of 1828/1829 by supplying animal feed for the Russian army traveling through, and providing transportation. It prevented the farmers from doing the necessary work in the fields.
(See 4.11, Military Service and War Times)

The Russian government had assumed that the colonies would be established in a few years and set the freedom of taxation for a period of ten years. Ute Schmidt ¹¹⁾ has concluded that in view of the the initial difficulties, the time to repay the so-called crown’s debts without interest was extended from 10 to 20 years. From the end of the thirties, taxes and contributions had to be paid and the crown’s debt repaid in installments.
(See 4.10, Taxes, Fees and Payments in Produce)