European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - February 22, 1986, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 18 the stars and stripes saturday february 22,1986 today s crossword soviet ethnic germans kept on hold by Jack Redden United press International d keep in the Shadow of the Well spotlighted plight of soviet jews Are thousands of soviet germans who also have faced years of official harassment an rejection. According to West German figures 2 million residents of the soviet Union have declared themselves germans and about 5 percent of those have asked for permission to emigrate. Few Are making it. Al last year s rate less than half the Pace of jewish emigration it would take 240 years to approve All the known applications. No one knows How Many More would apply if their chances of Success were better. Normally the soviets Don t give explanations said a Western expert. But when they do talk they say family reunification has been fulfilled and there Are no grounds for further  German emigration began a decade after the trauma of world War ii. Thousands left during the late 1950s, but the flow tapered off during the 60s. Like jewish emigration it Rose again in the detente of the 1970s, then again started to slide. The Peak came in 1976, when 9,629 germans were allowed to emigrate. By 1980 the number was Down to 6,653. And then it plunged 3,695 in 1981, 1,379 in 1983 and just 417 in All of last year. The number of germans who left through the years for both East and West Germany is listed at More than 60,000, but Western figures show that 100,000 applications Are still pending. Ii circumstances were different we would expect More than 100,000," said a Western Diplomat. The history of these misplaced germans dates Back More than two centuries to the time of Catherine the great. She began an immigration policy in 1762 that continued to attract German peasants until the next Century. Most settled around the Black sea or on the lower reaches of the Volga River giving them their still used Label of the Volga germans. After the Community revolution the germans were the first soviet minority Given official separate status. But the autonomous soviet socialist Republic of Volga germans became an Early victim of world War ii. With the German Blitzkrieg rolling across the soviet Union Joseph Stalin abolished the special status and ordered the German residents deported to Remote regions. From 650,000 to 700,000 germans were uprooted. Although they were officially rehabilitated by government decrees in .1955 and 1964, they have not been permitted to return to their former Homes. They Are scattered across the wildest parts of the soviet Union Siberia Central Asia and especially the arid and windswept Gral lands of Kazakhstan. Despite their generations in the country they have preserved their ancient German traditions to a remarkable extent resisting integration into first Russia and now the soviet Union. The russian word for germans Nye Tsi is derived from a word meaning unable to speak or foreign. They clump in German villages speaking and writing an archaic German laced with russian words. They follow their old religious beliefs 75 percent Are protestant and 25 percent Are roman Catholic in an officially atheist country. There Are 2 million germans and their influence on soviet life is non existent said a Western Diplomat. Either they Are not willing or not allowed to  that partly explains their Lack of publicity. Jews who according to soviet figures number slightly less than germans Are prominent in National life and live in cities where they maintain contacts with westerners. Germans Are Farmers. But Tho German suffer the same problems As jews. They Are not taught their ancestral language their religion is discouraged and children with mixed parents Are advised to adopt the nationality of the non German. They can integrate into soviet life and be accepted or they can apply to leave and face official Wrath. There Are germans in jail there Are germans who lose their jobs after applying to emigrate said the Diplomat. All those things you read about jews also apply to  As with jews German emigration is possible Only to reunite parents grandparents sons and daughters. Those that Don t fit even Brothers and Sisters Are not judged close enough relatives by soviet authorities cannot ask to leave. The Only Strong advocate for the soviet German cause is West Germany which presses soviet officials for More exit permits. But it is having Little Impact on new soviet Leader Mikhail Gorbachev. During his 10 months in Power German emigration has shrunk to insignificance and said a Diplomat the Good words of Gorbachev have borne no  res Nar Faua the Rueus shout Kauai met  Vuxta Hunch   the Mairim