Although he had married a Volga German, his family was spared being transported en masse to Siberia or Kazakhstan along with the other Volga Germans.

ECONOMIST: Alfred Schnittke

During the second world war, the mix of nationalities was further increased when Volga Germans, Crimean Tatars, Chechens and others from the Caucasus were deported to Central Asia.

ECONOMIST: Central Asia

These divisions, imperfect to start with, were subsequently blurred further by heavy Russian immigration and Stalin's eastward push in the 1930s to ethnic groups such as the Volga Germans and Tatars.

ECONOMIST: Central Asia