Samuel Nikel as a First Soviet Researcher of the History of Volyn Germans

Abstract

The biography of a first Soviet researcher of the history of the Volyn Germans, Samuel Nickel, is presented and analyzed on the basis of the materials of the archives and judicial investigation. The main focus is made on the circumstances of his arrest, his “crime” investigation and Nickel’s long struggle for his justification, including against the blame about the content of his book «Germans in Volyn». Samuel Nickel came from background of the German colonists of Eastern Volyn. In the early 1920s he joined the Komsomol, that helped him get higher education at the Zhytomyr Institute of Public Education. It was the basis of his rapid career development in the field of education and in the local bodies of Soviet power. In 1927 he became a member of the Communist Party of the Bolsheviks of Ukraine. In 1931–1935 S. Nickel worked in Kharkiv at the important positions in the editions of the German speaking Soviet journals. In 1935 he finished his book about the history of the Volyn Germans and it was published under the title «Die deutschen in Wolhynien» («Germans in Volyn»). In October 1935 he was arrested by NKVD. He was accused of anti-Soviet propaganda and campaigning. A separate point of accusation was against his book «Germans in Volyn». The investigation was not fair, and there was lack of evidences against the author. S. Nickel bravely fought for himself, but in 1936 he was convicted by the court. He was trying to defend his book and his honest name for many years. He was exonerated in 1960.