The congregation in Zürich was part of the Lutheran parish headquartered in Bettinger. A new church was built of stone in Zürich in 1877. It was called Church of Jesus Lutheran parish.
During Soviet times, the structure was used for the storage of grain. It fell into disrepair and was rebuilt in 1990. A fire destroyed the interior in 1997.
The church building is currently (2013) under reconstruction.
Zürich was founded on 1 August 1767 by Baron Caneau de Beauregard as a Lutheran colony. It was moved to a new location in 1770. In 1915, the colony became known as Zorkino.
Zürich was located 269 versts from the provincial capital of Samara, 119 versts from the regional administrative offices, and 5 versts from the local administration headquarters in Bettinger.
|
Year
|
Households
|
Population
|
||
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Total
|
Male
|
Female
|
||
| 1769 |
42
|
146
|
77
|
69
|
| 1773 |
56
|
193
|
104
|
89
|
| 1788 |
49
|
256
|
125
|
131
|
| 1798 |
53
|
326
|
172
|
154
|
| 1816 |
84
|
550
|
275
|
275
|
| 1834 |
132
|
966
|
480
|
486
|
| 1850 |
176
|
1,321
|
646
|
675
|
| 1857 |
181
|
1,589
|
793
|
796
|
| 1859 |
162
|
1,485
|
780
|
705
|
| 1889 |
|
2,006
|
|
|
| 1897 |
|
2,639*
|
1,316
|
1,323
|
| 1905 |
|
4,610
|
|
|
| 1910 |
615
|
5,109
|
2,686
|
2,423
|
| 1912 |
|
5,254
|
|
|
| 1920 |
459**
|
3,093
|
|
|
| 1922 |
|
2,671
|
|
|
| 1923 |
|
2,559
|
|
|
| 1926*** |
531
|
2,292
|
1,184
|
1,108
|
| 1931 |
|
3,198****
|
|
|
*Of whom 2,612 were German.
**Of which 456 households were German.
***Of whom 2,279 (1,172 male & 1,107 female) were German living in 523 households.
****Of whom 3,191 were German.
Lutheran
Censuses for Zürich are available for the following years: 1798, 1834, & 1857.
Beratz, Gottieb. The German colonies on the Lower Volga, their origin and early development: a memorial for the 150th anniversary of the arrival of the first German settlers on the Volga, 29 June 1764 . Translated by Adam Giesinger (Lincoln, NE: American Historical Society of Germans from Russia, 1991): 349.
Diesendorf, V.F. Die Deutschen Russlands : Siedlungen und Siedlungsgebiete : Lexicon. Moscow, 2006.
Dietz, Jacob E. History of the Volga German Colonists . Lincoln, NE: American Historical Society of Germans from Russia, 2005.
Klaus, A.A. Our Colonies (Saint Petersburg, Russia, 1869): 52-53.
List of Populated Places of the Russian Empire , v.36 - Samara Province (St. Petersburg, 1864): 82.
List of the Populated Places of the Samara Province (Samara, Russia, 1910): 251.
Orlov, Gregorii. Report of Conditions of Settlements on the Volga to Catherine II , 14 February 1769.
Pallas, P.S. Reise durch verschiedene Provinzen des Russischen Reichs. Theil 3,2, Reise aus Sibirien zurueck an die Wolga im 1773sten Jahr (St. Petersburg: Kaiserl. Academie der Wissenschaften, 1776): 614.
Pleve, Igor R. The German Colonies on the Volga: The Second Half of the Eighteenth Century . Lincoln, NE: American Historical Society of Germans from Russia, 2001.
Preliminary Totals of the All-Union Population Census of 1926 of the ASSR of the Germans of Volga Region (Pokrovsk, Russia, 1927): 28-83.
Reith, Andreas. Bettinger Lutheran Church, 2009 ( online - in Russian).
"Settlements in the 1897 Census." Journal of the American Historical Society of Germans from Russia (Winter, 1990): 17.
Stumpp, Karl. The Emigration from Germany to Russia in the Years 1763 to 1862 (Lincoln, NE: American Historical Society of Germans from Russia, 1973): 77.
Zürich (wolgadeutsche.net) - in Russian.