From Encyclopaedia Britannica. Halifax, Kingdom of Canada, 1989
Volkstadt
The Volkstadt (from German Volk- People/Aryan people; Stadt-Town) is a fortified or semi-fortified community of Germanic settlers planted in The Ostland (Vol VIII, pp 320-331). They are the predominant settlement type in the Reichskommisariats of Ostland (with the exception of Estonia and Latvia where they are largely absent), Ukraine and Moscow. In addition to this, they are, or have been, present in the Crimean Land, in the former Polish and Czech territories of the Reich, and in the Ural Military District. They are often colloquially known as Stetls.
Composition
A volkstadt typically consists of between 20 and 400 families of settlers residing in a walled compound, though larger Ukranian and Muscovite Volkstadt can have up to 4000 residents. In these larger polities, the community may maintain fortified outposts to facilitate easier agricultural exploitation of peripheral territories, though these outposts are not occupied by families but maintained with a system of guard shifts.
Economically, the Volkstadt are usually dedicated to the agricultural exploitation of the surrounding area; although in certain Ruthenian, Polish and Lithuanian Volkstadt, the Stetlers dedicate themselves to forestry or the maintenance of reforested zones and protection of ecological hunting reserves.
The Volkstadt typically operates as a co-operative Capitalist enterprise, in which the profits accrued from the sale of agricultural produce are divided amongst the settlers and reinvested in the business, in a ratio decided by the stadtfuhrer. The Reichskommisariats (the Reich itself in Poland) are responsible for providing medical facilities and support infrastructure to the volkstadt.
Relations with aborigines
Whilst for strategic reasons, Volkstadt are often located in locally marginal locations, such as hilltops, the majority of fertile economically viable land in The Ostland is controlled by the Volkstadters. Outside of the small Ukrainian Free-State, the Slavic and Lithuanian populations own only marginal land. Because of this, even despite the deportations and the Germanisation programs, the land available to the Ostland Aborigines is not sufficient to support the population, meaning many seek seasonal or full time work in the Volkstadt. The Slavs and Pseudo-Slavs employed by the Stetlers are usually housed in barracks within, or just outside, the main compound and are segregated by gender in larger Volkstadt.
The Aborigines are employed in a variety of physical and manual roles, with females often given work as domestics. Wages are very low, often merely symbolic, but housing and food are usually provided. That notwithstanding, the fact that Stetlarbeit allows Aborigines to maintain contact with their communities and is less dangerous and arduous than alternatives, means that it is preferred over work in the Reich’s mines, factories and steelworks.
Excepting employees, Non-Aryans are prohibited from crossing Volkstadt territory, except on certain approved highways. It is considered permissible to kill Slavs entering Volkstadt without permission, a rule stemming from the Volkstadt’s military function.
Military Function
The volkstadt was initially expected to provide an effective self-defence force capable of protecting its area from Slavic banditry and freiuntermensch incursions. All volkstadt maintained fully stocked armouries, and radio communications with their neighbours and the Reichskommisariat. The much reduced Slavic populations of Poland and the western segment of Ostland have made this aspect less prominent in the last 20 years, but stetlers are still frequently involved in military operations alongside the SS in Muscovy and the Urals.
Non-German Volkstadts
The Reich has consistently encouraged the settlement of Non-German Speaking Racial Germans in The Ostland volkstadts, an approach which has met with a certain degree of success.
There is a group of 6 Dutch-speaking stetls in the Rostov Generalbizerke, founded in the late nineteen-fifties and seven more scattered over the Ukraine Reichskommisariat. Three volkstadts of Finnish Swedes can be found in Lithuania, and a further two each in Moscow and Ukraine Reichskommisariats. In addition to these agricultural concerns, the three Norwegian forestry stetls of Moscow have a combined population of eleven thousand.