Thunder on the Steppe

Thunder On the Steppe: Volga German Folklife in a Changing Russia

by Dr. Timothy J. Kloberdanz and Rosalinda Kloberdanz
Paperback

The authors collected numerous examples of modern Volga German folk traditions in Russia, and many of these are described in Thunder on the Steppe folksongs, folk medicine, proverbs, nicknames, poetry, dialect stories, drinking toasts, and food ways including recipes for Volga style vegetable soup, Gatletta (meat patties), Grebbel, Trockne Nudel, Riwwelkuche, Petschenya (cookies), and other dishes. Shortly after their arrival in Russia, the Kloberdanzes witnessed a country undergoing rapid political and social changes, culminating in a frightening military coup and thunderous collapse of Soviet Communism. A vivid description of the events surrounding the Second Russian Revolution as personally experienced by the two authors in a Volga German village also is included in the book.