There were early attempts to support the colonists in certain emergency situations. This mainly concerned orphans, fire issues, emergency supplies and the elderly. Later, association regulations were added. One can also not leave out the free services to be provided for the common good.

Soon after the colonies were founded, it became necessary to deal with an orphan situation, as there was no state protection available to them. The high mortality rate of the colonists created many orphans. The village administrations first took responsibility for their care. Soon, guardians who handled the property of the orphans until they reached adulthood were appointed by the community. ¹⁾ If the widow and grown children could not take care of the farm, moveable inventory and the livestock were auctioned off and the land leased out. At maturity, the orphans received their money and the interest that money had earned. Guardians were obligated to account for the money to the community. ²⁾

Usually, the guardians did a good job, but as soon as the orphan came of age, problems surfaced when creditors wanted to collect money. In order to prevent this from happening and to have a better administration of the money, several colonies founded orphan banks. ³⁾ These banks paid the orphan at the time they reached maturity their money plus interest. It is not clear when the first orphan banks were introduced. There are documents that the Liebental district near Odessa founded an orphan bank already in 1830. Efforts were made in 1869 when the Welfare Committee instructed the colonists to establish Orphan, Loan and Savings banks modeled after the Liebental institution. The Welfare Committee’s “regulations for a communal orphan, loan and savings bank” were provided as statutes. These statutes were certified in 1871 in the process of re-arranging the administrative new rule. ⁴⁾ Complying with the order of the Welfare Committee the district office, then Malojaroslawetz II, founded an orphan bank in 1869 for the colonies in its district. Initially, Krasna belonged to this district. After becoming its own district in 1871 Krasna remained a member of the orphan bank of Malojaroslawetz II.

The orphan bank was not its own corporation, but an institution of the district office. Its administration consisted of three people, elected and sworn in by the district office and certified by the Welfare Committee (later by the bailiff): a director and two members. Each community in the district elected a so-called orphan father, who represented the issues concerning orphans and the orphan bank of his community. All orphan fathers of the member communities also helped with the administration of the orphan bank.

Examiners were used to check the books. State officials could also examine the orphan bank. The orphan bank had no full time employees; the district secretary handled the written communications. (Office manager, bookkeeper) ⁵⁾

The orphan bank had three important functions:

• Administration of the orphan wealth, the security of which was guaranteed by the communities. The orphans were able to deal freely with their money, including the interest it had earned, once they were of age.
• Making loans to credit worthy citizens against securities (bonds).
• Accepting and administering deposits from private persons or communities.

In Russian times deposits earned 5% interest and the bank charged 6% for loans. ⁶⁾ Annual payments were set at 10% of the loan plus the interest. This 1% covered expenses and accumulated a capital reserve. All amounts over the limit were used for community projects, benefiting all. Deposits were secured by the total community capital.

Orphan banks were actually the first credit institutions of Bessarabia and remained in operation as such until shortly before World War I.

See also 4.7, Monetary and Banking Services

Initially, the orphan banks remained in operation and conducted business according to the old statutes. In the 1920's, the orphan money of Krasna was withdrawn from Malojaroslawetz II and deposited into the local Krasna bank the peoples’ bank Koncordia. It has not been determined exactly when this took place. According to the chronicle of Alt-Posttal, page 237, in the year of 1923 the orphan bank of Malojaroslawetz II served the communities of Alt-Posttal, Wittenberg, Katzbach, and Krasna. It is conceivable that the reason for the withdrawal of the Krasna funds was that after the dissolution of the district offices on January 1, 1924, it was necessary to have a direct administration of the bank and Krasna people believed it was able to handle that matter. Beginning January 1, 1925, the administration of the orphans was handled by the comuna. (See also 4.8, The administration) Details of the administration of the Krasna bank are not available. According to Alois Leinz ⁷⁾ Thomas Schäfer was the last administrator of the bank.

The Rumanian government ordered all orphan funds to be deposited into the state bank “Casa de depunari” in 1928. Dissolution of a cherished institution was a threat. The ministries in Bucharest intervened several times and the order was postponed. In 1933 the Rumanian government decreed that no more orphan funds could be accepted.

The old orphan funds were loaned out for a period of 10 years (with a re-payment of 10% plus interest annually). This law of 1869 remained a de facto law until the Resettlement of 1940. It no longer applied to orphans as of July 1933.

During the summer months fire dangers were high in the hot steppe climate.
The way in which the structures of South Besarabia were built was conducive to fires. A fire would ruin the affected colonist, so precautions were taken for communal efforts without great bureaucratic measures. When a house burned, everyone pitched in to rebuild it.

This was not enough in the long run and as early as 1849 the Welfare Committee ordered the fire fund to be established. (Fire insurance institutions were opened in the three district offices of the villages of Klöstitz, Sarata and Malojaroslawetz II. Krasna belonged to this district.
Initially there were no uniform regulations, and each district office initially handled the procedures itself. In 1866 a colonist congress suggested a uniform solution and developed the necessary statutes. The Minister of the Realm’s Domains signed this into law on June 14, 1867.

The fire fund was structured simply but functioned excellently. The buildings of each district community were assessed by the local fire fund elder and tax assessors under the direction of the mayor. The value of each structure was entered into the so-called mortgage book. The assessments were updated every ten years and necessary corrections were made. Members paid into the fund only after a fire had occurred in the district. The tax assessors of the individual communities in the presence of the chief mayor assessed the damages. As a fire tax, the community then raised the amount equal to the damage. The amount of each individual’s contribution depended on the assessed value of his own buildings.

In 1871 Krasna received its own district office, but did not establish its own fire fund. Instead, the community remained a member of the fire fund of Malojaroslawetz II.
According to the Chronicle of Alt-Posttal ⁸⁾, in 1923 only the communities of Alt-Posttal, Wittenberg, Katzbach and Krasna still belonged to it. Katzbach and Krasna decided they no longer wanted to belong to this institution, as well. The reason most likely was due to the fact that after the district offices were dissolved in 1924 and the fire funds combined with the orphan funds and from then on, Krasna had its own orphan fund. See also orphan fund

Oral sources and newspaper reports ⁹⁾ show that the fire fund of Krasna was continued voluntarily based on Rumanian law.
See also Fire Department, further below

By order of the Welfare Committee grain supply warehouses were established in the colonies in 1834, due to the disastrous failed harvests and other plagues of the previous years. When harvests were good, the farmers had to place a certain amount of grain into these warehouses, so that in times of need grain for bread and seeding could be available. In the better years, people brought back the amounts they had withdrawn.

Colonist law stipulated the precise amounts of grain which had to be delivered, who was in charge of supervision and protection of it. The old grain had to be exchanged for a fresh supply every year. Storage and accounting of the grain supply was the responsibility of one of the mayor’s associates, who also had the key to the warehouse. The mayor sealed the doors and thus both parties were responsible for the grain supply.

A schedule from the responsible district office in 1846 shows the amount of grain stored by Krasna, broken down into grain types and acknowledges that storage conditions in the warehouse are excellent. ¹⁰⁾

Over time, probably after 1871, people no longer stored grain. The colonists sold the grain instead and deposited the money in the district Lease Office. Mutschall ¹¹⁾ writes: In cases of need, the community was supposed to receive the necessary sums of money, but this never happened. At the time of the first unrests all interest bearing notes went under and people never saw a cent of this capital.

Grain warehouses and other such facilties did not exist in Rumanian times.

Note: For the location of the grain warehouse of Krasna, see also 3.1, The Village of Krasna, its Location and Appearance

The communities of our Bessarabian homeland also created laws to care for the aged. The community assembly decided what amounts of food the children had to provide for their elderly parents. An older parent was entitled to room and board or some land.

The parents of poor children often had hard times. In such cases, the community had to help. Usually, a collection was taken up to assist in the matter. There were no retirement homes or nursing homes. In 1932, a small, one-family home was made available for that purpose in Tarutino, but Krasna had no such facility.

From the turn of the century on consumer associations, which took over the care of the colonists, were founded in many German colonies. Reasons for these institutions were progressive restrictions in the field of economics from outside. The Germans tried to countermand this somewhat by having their own self-help organizations. The first ones were created after the turn of the century. They developed on a broader basis only after the Stolypin Law was enacted in 1907 during the reform. Initially, there were community stores. Later, other associations developed, such as banks, dairies, etc. Krasna had a community store, called a consumer’s store and an association bank at this time.
See also 4.4, The Guilds, Trade and Bank Management in Krasna.

The consumer association and other associations were a useful support to the Germans in the crisis years of the 1920's.

After the annexation to Rumania, the association system reached an even higher rank in the new economic situation (Odessa was eliminated as a market.). Associations, marketing excess production of agricultural commodities, were quickly restored after the war years, but had to adapt their statutes to Rumanian law.

In 1921, the associations had combined into a Farm Association.
See 5.4, Associations, Councils and Clubs

It could happen very quickly in Krasna for a family to become destitute. Poverty struck, for instance, when people became disabled or required expensive medical care, such as surgery, etc. There was no health insurance or retirement insurance. Neither in Russian nor in Rumanian times were there any state welfare offices, (social assistance) or some such. Krasna did, however, always have charitable residents willing to help, who helped wherever they could. In cases of accidents or of need, the communities collected money, grain and other items to ease the burdens.

The villagers were also engaged in other community efforts (voluntarily or involuntarily). Colonist law dictated that they also pay in produce. Similar regulations even existed after the laws of 1871 were passed. The following obligations were mandatory:

• Construction and repair of streets, bridges and dams on community property (compulsory labor).
  Community obligations, such as water and roadways, care for the pasture, upkeep of public buildings, etc., were handled by compulsory labor.
  Compulsory labor days were declared several times a year and each farm had to supply a certain number of wagons and people. The number depended upon the size of the farm. Sotski and herd mayors would supervise the work. Compulsory Day was a village affair. Several hundred people, mostly young people, met at the chancellery with their wagons and each had his own tools. Aside from working together, meeting other people and exchanging of village news were also important.

The church community also required free community labor, such as construction of the church and just shortly before the Resettlement, the building of “Our Home” was done by volunteers.

• Obligatory housing of army troops passing through, See also 4.11, Military Service and War Times
• Postal driving tasks, See also 4.5, Traffic Infrastructure, Postal and Telephone Service
• Fire Protection/Fire Department

Using reed-thatched roofs on the houses, the long periods of drought and the large amount of straw on the farms, all offered up a great fire danger.
Fire protection became a community task early on. In the beginning years, people practically had just buckets with which to douse fires. One can imagine how effective this was at a major fire.

People began to look for better fire fighting methods and gradually a system developed, which in 1886 was integrated into an order pertaining to fire departments in the colonies issued by the Minister of State Domains on January 1, 1868.
It dictated a large number of rules to prevent fires and the chief mayor had to assure compliance with these rules. Regular inspections were made and people found not in compliance with the rules were fined and the money paid into the fire fund.

Each community was obliged to have on hand …medium sized fire hose, iron bound barrels on carts, fire hooks, shields and lanterns. A special shed to store this equipment was built.

The Wolost Assembly dictated what equipment the homeowner had to have with him at the site of the fire: bucket, pitchfork, axe, fire hook, etc. Deliberate absences of any of these brought fines.

Fire Elders had to assure that the orders were followed and that the equipment was always functional. Twice a year they had to inspect all fire fighting equipment in official buildings and private homes and assure that all equipment related to (fighting) fires is closely inspected. In the case of a fire, the churchbells were rung in a prescribed sequence.

When the fire alarm was sounded, all citizens were required to immediately rush to the place of the fire and obey the orders and instructions of the village and fire elders without resistance.

Neighboring communities were also obliged to assist in a major fire.

These rules remained in effect until the severance from Russia. Equipment was upgraded in the course of technological development. Several chronicles from neighboring communities of Krasna mention that modern fire hoses were acquired around 1890.

There are no details about the Krasna fire department, for instance, how it was organized and equipped and who the fire elders were. There is no written material about the subject. One can assume, though, that the firefighting efforts there were comparable to that of the neighboring communities. Krasna fire fighting equipment was stored in the chancellery.
See also Chancellery 3.1, The Village of Krasna, its Location and Appearance

Beginning in 1938 there was mandatory fire duty for all adult males.

• Keeping the order, cleaning, self-protection and watch duties.
  These were up to the colonists themselves. They organized these services in a practical manner.
  See also 4.9, Judicial Practices, Public Order and Safety