Krasna was pretty much centrally located within the German mother colonies of Ackerman District. There were no cities among these colonies. Cultural life and trade took place in the rural communities.

In the beginning the main villages of the area districts, called Wolosts, were Wittenberg/Alt-Posttal, Klöstitz and Sarata. (See 4.8, Administration) Tarutino, the largest and oldest of the villages with the oldest and largest market and seat of the welfare inspector until 1871, came to the foreground. It was long in competition with Arzis, which was situated in the center of the German settlement area, had better traffic connections which made it more easily accessible from the outlying communities. Sarata also played an important role, for it had a hospital, doctors and a retirement home.

Image 44: The German Mother Colonies of the Akkerman District

After the turn of the century Tarutino became the undisputed main village of the Bessarabian German. There all the major institutions had their seat and the German newspapers of Bessarabia were printed there. Only the farm association (See 5.4 Associations, Councils and Clubs) moved its seat to Arzis a few years after its founding, for traffic reasons, since Arzis had a train station and Tarutino did not.

Tarutino had about 6,000 residents, Sarata 3,000. In the 20th century all three places had a considerable non-German population, as well.

A comparison: In 1940 Krasna had 3,511 Germans and 89 others. ¹⁾ Krasna was the second largest German settlement in Bessarabia. The largest community, Tarutino at this point had 3,746 German residents and 2,151 non-Germans.

Krasna was surrounded by the German colonies of Tarutino, Alt-Posttal, Katzbach, Alt-Elft, Paris, Friedenstal, Neu-Paris, Beresina and Klöstitz. The only non-German settlement, the Bulgarian village of Ciuleni (Tschemlek) was in the west.

Image 45: Market in Tarutino

Image 46: Katzbach (Neighboring Village of Krasna) Church and Village Street