"Whoever has ever tried to learn something about birthplaces, organizations, publications or simply German Russian history, will know why this handbook was written. Special articles and books addressing specific questions on the history of the Germans from Russia can indeed be found – if only after extensive research. Those who do not want to find every last detail but rather have quite simple and basic everyday questions usually, however, search without success and virtually indefinitely in the difficult-to-grasp specialized literature, so far as they have the means at all for the purchase or the time for interlibrary loan, because a lexicon or an encyclopedia on the history of the Germans from Russia does not exist."--Introduction by the author, Ulrich Mertens.The German-Russian Handbook includes: Explanations; Addresses; Deportation and Resettlement; Units of Weights and Measures; States; Miscellaneous; Geographical and proper names with their former and current names; Timetable; Secret Service and Secret Police; Publications; Organizations; Places; Sources; Historic Photographs; and Maps.