Having seen this intensity about 20 years ago, he should be surprised when he looks at it now. How much can be accomplished by the energy of a person who takes up a task intelligently and conscientiously! Once a den of fugitives and thieves, the Stralin ravines became unrecognizable by the grace of the Nobel brothers; along their slopes there are convenient stone slopes paved, about which Tsaritsyna has no idea; in the former hangouts of the naked fish, proper life was in full swing, traces of labor and energy were visible everywhere... The area of the Nobel town just 20 years ago was quite remote from Tsaritsyn, but some 6-7 years passed by the activities of the “non-natural kings”, and the city of Tsaritsyn reached out to it so that its buildings began to almost adjoin Nobel town.
A very interesting settlement on the Volga in all respects is represented by the colony of the Saratov province of Sarepta, located below Tsaritsyn on the right bank, which currently has over six thousand inhabitants. Its population belongs to the religious-economic association known under the name of the Herrnhuters, otherwise the Evangelical Brotherhood (BraegaiA®). This association was originally formed from the followers of Toann Huss. In the famous work of A. Klaus (Sectarian Colonists of Ross) one can glean information about the past of the Herrnhuters.
Defending their religious convictions, the Hussites were subjected to terrible persecution from the Roman-German emperors and the Catholic clergy; many of them were exterminated in Bohemia and Moravia, the meager remnants were scattered across different states. One of these groups of Oeglets founded in 1722 the Gerngut colony in the vast estate of Count Zinzendorea (in Saxony), a popular patron of all kinds of sectarians at that time. In the very first five years of its existence, the community grew so large and attracted so many residents who belonged to one or another renegade from the Catholic religion that people belonging to three sects immediately found themselves in Gerngut: Moravian, Lutheran and Reformed. All these colonists rushed to accept the newly drafted statute and thus the evangelical brotherhood of the Herrnhuters was born. Its initial goal was to bring to earth the pious life of Christ and his apostles. The management of the new sect was entrusted to the synodal assembly, which was obliged to meet once in 7 or 8 years, and executive power was concentrated in the hands of the director. Community property, according to the statute, was established independently of personal property, and the population of Gerngut was divided by gender; age and other conditions were divided into separate corporations; thus there were corporations: boys, girls, single brothers, unmarried sisters, widowers, widowers; Each corporation had its own hostel, its own housekeeper, a separate trustee who monitored the morality of the members and a separate old man who was in charge of the affairs of the corporation and its management.
The Herrnhuter brotherhood, with its impeccable morality and hard work, attracted many followers who spread their settlements not only in northern and central Germany; but penetrated even into England and North America. How much it grew during one hundred years of its existence can be judged from the fact that about 40 years ago, up to 800 miss1uners worked for the brotherhood, who converted, for example, in 1850 up to 70 thousand pagans to Christianism. Members of the fraternity have established their reputation everywhere
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the most honest, peaceful, conscientious and demanding people. Their trading firms, secured by constant mutual security, always enjoyed such general trust, such wide credit, which in themselves constituted the wealth of the society. Our Sarepta is one of the members of this very association.