Trip to the Frank Kanton by Alexander Spack in May 2009

176. Walter

View of the German Lutheran church in Walter, now Gretchichino.

The Volga German colony of Walter was founded in 1767. In 1913 it had 277 households and 2291 residents; it also had its own church building (Lutheran). During the Tzars' reign the village's official Russian name was Gretchinaya Luka. After the Autonomous Republic of the Volga Germans was established, the village was officially called by its German name of Walter. By the start of WWII there were some 400 households and about 2,500 residents in the village. After the deportation of the local Germans in the fall of 1941 the settlement's official name was changed to Gretchichino. Today there are about 100 people living here.
*) Gretchinaya derives from the Russian word gretchicha that means buck wheat.

The red brick building of the Lutheran church in Walter was built in 1903.

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