Within the framework of escalating events, leading to World War I, Germany declared war on Russia on August 1, 1914. The Germans in Russia had already faced discriminations, but now the Russian politicians and the Russian press spouted open hatred against anything German, making the Russian Germans victims of bullying, restrictions, injustices and in many cases brutal force.

This national attack made the Germans in Russia feel endangered for the first time. The words of the Russian vice president Goremykin ¹⁾ speak for themselves:
We are at war not only against the German Reich, but against Germanism in general.
From day one of this war, the Germans were drafted into the Russian Army. They stood faithfully by the Russian Empire and fullfilled their obligations in spite of all the hatred. After the first losses in the year of 1914, suspicions were voiced that it was the fault of the Russian Germans (including the Bessarabian Germans). Most of the Russian Germans in the tsar’s army were then withdrawn from the Western Front against Germany and Austria and placed on the Turkish Front in the Caucasus. There, 40,000 Russian Germans perished, among them many people of Krasna. (See 4.11, Military Service and War Times)
The situation changed rapidly with the start of World War I, even in the German villages of Bessarabia and with it in Krasna, as well. Reprisals began.

• The German schools were closed (14 July, 1915, Decree 2013 by the Inspector General of Schools in Akkerman) and remained closed for two years.
• Teachers were drafted into the army.
• It was forbidden to use German speech in church (homily, burial and death services) or to read a sermon in German (1916). Only German prayers and songs were allowed.
• The German press was stopped.
• German speech (spoken or written) was outlawed.
• Where more than three Germans gathered, they were threatened with high fines.
• Purchase of farming items was forbidden.

From a Krasna letter to the Staats Anzeiger newspaper in North Dakota, dated December 11, 1914, we can get an idea of the situation in Krasna back then: (See 4.11, Military Service and Times of War)
Dear Children! We received your letter and see that you are well…yes, dear children, thank the loving God that you have left Russia and the misery here. Yes, all have gone to the front into the war…wherever one looks, there are sad women with their children. ….Dear children, in a word, it is sad… I cannot write more about it. We are also not sure that we will be allowed to stay, all is in uproar. Dear children, we Germans are not even allowed to speak German anymore, either in the village or at market. If three or four men gather and speak German, they are punished severely…“

One has to point out, however, that not all Russians were filled with hatred against the Germans. There were people who resisted the draconian measures against the Germans and were still favorable to them.

The peak of the discimination practices were doubtlessly the Liquidation Laws of February 15 and December 2 of 1915. ²⁾ They factually contain the disownership of all settlers in South Russia, including Bessarabia. The colonists were ordered to sell or auction off their property within 10 to 16 months.

Herbert Gäckle writes: ³⁾ On December 14, 1915 the Russian Governor auctioned off our village (Alt-Posttal), which then reverted to the Farmland Bank. The rest of the liquidations stopped only after the start of the Revolution of March 1917.
We can assume that the situation in Krasna was similar.

Additionally, the Germans faced the threat of deportation to Siberia. Preparations for this were already made in 1916. ⁴⁾ Only because supplying the front took precedence did the government allow the farmers to complete their harvest. The forced resettlement was scheduled for the winter of 1916/1917. The imminent deportation was announced to the farmers in Bessarabia on November 8, 1916. Albert Rüb writes: ⁵⁾ The target date was January 17, 1917. Preparations for the event began in November 1916. The orders to make ready shocked the German population. The exodus in winter without the men, who were still on the front, would have been a disaster. A strong snowfall beginning in the night of December 24, 1916 and as it continued into the following day brought hope to the Bessarabian Germans. In the middle of January they received word that the deportation was postponed for an indefinite time. The breakdown of the Russian front on the Cernovic-Ismail line caused retreating troops to confiscate the railroad coaches readied for the deportation of the Bessarabia Germans. The outbreak of the Russian Revolution of March 1917 finally buried the inhumane idea of the tsarist leadership of Russia.

It is not evident how far the relevant preparations for Krasna had gotten. One can assume that they are identical with those of other villages. It is kind of astonishing that nothing is preserved in writing about Krasna referring to this important aspect for the villagers there. There is a small hint in a German newspaper in the USA ⁶⁾ …. As we hear, currently it is planned in the department of foreign affairs to sort of disown us Germans in Bessarabia. Let us hope this does not come to pass…..

The deportation of the Bessarabian Germans did not happen only because of the escalating events toward the end of WW I. On March 16, 1917 (according to the Russian calendar, March 3), ⁷⁾ ) Nikolaus II had to abdicate because of the February (March) Revolution.

The provisional Kerenski government, although anti-German as well, placed these laws on hold but did not rescind them. The Rumanian King did this later, but the Germans took years to recover from the effects of this disownership.
See 2.4.1, Rumanian Bessarabia between the Wars (1918-1940)
May 14, 1917 the opening of the German schools was allowed and so was German as the official language.

On October 10, 1917 the Bolshevists came to power (October Revolution), the Bolshevists plundered German villages (but not only there), requisitioned and confiscated property. A national peoples’ council was formed, a state council (Sfatul Tarei) in the Bessarabian capital of Kischinev at the beginning of the October Revolution. The state council took charge of the government in November of 1917 and on December 2nd it declared Bessarabia as an autonomous Moldavian Republic. The situation in the country was chaotic, because the Russian front of WW I had dissolved and army units crossed Bessarabia on their way home and they plundered as they went. The Bolshevists also occupied Kischinev January 5, 1918. The state council asked Rumania for military aid and Rumanian troops marched in and restored order (January 1918). After the Rumanian troops liberated Kischinev and the district capital of Akkermann (March 18), the Bessarabian population could breathe easier again.

February 7, 1918, the state council opted for a separation from Russia and declared an independent Moldavian Republic, in view of the situation. On April 9, 1918 (Russian calendar March 27), Bessarabia declared the annexation to Rumania.
See 2.4.1, Rumanian Bessarabia between the Wars (1918-1940)

Looking at the situation of the Bessarabian Germans and the people of Krasna at the end of the war, it presents a sad picture. The Germans faced economic ruin, the fields were barren, many stables no longer held livestock, the providers dead in the war or still in captivity.