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The Kleinliebental Liman Story

In the year 1868 Freeman Michail Kukuli¹⁾ turned to the Welfare Commitee with the request to give him permission to build salt mines, so called "Salinen", at the northwestern part of the Kleinliebental Liman, without any payment for it but with the condition that, after 25 years, all the buildings that he would built on this land would be handed over to the citizens of the Liman.

This request was given to the community of Kleinliebental to examine and decide and on March 5, 1869, the community made two decisions. The first decision was: "1) that the community cannot give up the land that would be necessary for this purpose since the land gets less every year, but the number of people increases every year; 2) that the Liman water was not to be reduced so much that the community would be at a disadvantage when renting apartments to guest bathers; 3) That Mr. Kukuli has to commit himself to pay to the community 8 kopeks silver for each pud²⁾ of salt that he removes or 500 rubles silver for each 100,000 pud that he removes ".
For the second decision, which was signed by 26 colonists, it can be said: "After the case about the salt removal in the Liman has been presented and explained to us, we have decided after careful consideration that we will give our approval to the plan of Mr. Kukuli. Hereby, we completely renounce this request since we fear that we will be at a disadvantage from this project on our land that is situated on the Liman".

Both decisions were, in spite of the few signatures, presented to be examined. But, of course, none of them was accepted, but the case had to be presented again to the community, which decided on March 24, with a majority, to fulfill Mr. Kukuli’s request under the conditions that were stated in the first decision of March 5.

The whole case was now presented to the Ministry of "Reichsrumänen" [Romanians] by the committee. Instead of a decision, the committee got an instruction that made the whole case take an unexpected turn since according to this instruction, the community of Kleinliebental is not owner of the Liman, but the crown was. The instruction concerning this reads as follows:

"M.G.I. Department for General Affairs. Division for Colonies, December 18, 1869 with No. 40715. To the Welfare Committee for foreign settlers of the southern areas of Russia. According to the presentation with the No. 8745 to the Welfare Committee from August 21 of this year, Freeman Michail Kukuli has reached an agreement with the Minister of Finance concerning the agreement with the community of the colony Kleinliebental about building a salt mine on the so called "Dal’nickij Suchoj Liman". The Minister of Finance now announced that, in view of the circumstances of the named case and according to valid laws, he is of the opinion that on the basis of articles 136, 137 and 139 of the Ustav Law Book, the land that was allocated to the colonies as a perpetual and hereditary possession together with all the goods that are on this land as they are enumerated in article 156 of the Ustav, but that among these goods, salt lakes and salt sources are not enumerated, and that only "Solontschaki" are enumerated, and that those "Solontschaki" are nothing else than layers of earth interspersed with different kinds of salts and not salt water reservoirs where salt is taken, since those can not be counted as salt sources. Meanwhile, the "Suchoj Liman" on which Mr. Kukuli would like to build a salt factory is a inflow of the Black Sea and that the Liman is separated from the sea only by a low sandy dam which is sometimes even flooded by the sea. It contains salty water that is much saltier than the water in the sea itself and therefore is an excellent source for salt removal. (Evidence, therefore, is the project of Mr. Kukuli). Therefore, it would be quite possible to call the "Suchoj Liman" a salt source. But according to article 669 of the valid salt decree (Ustav), all the salt sources of the Novorossijskij District that are situated on state-landed property or on landed property of the settlers and colonists, belong to the state, and that the right of the state on the Suchoj Liman, which is situated on the territory that was made available to the community Kleinliebental may not be contested. Concerning this, the Minister of Finance stated that, even if he cannot see any obstacles to the decision of the above mentioned case of Mr. Kukuli concerning the building of a salt business on the named Liman, this may not happen in any way other than it is defined and confirmed in an orderly way by the agreement between Mr. Kukuli and the local administration. Mr. Kukuli and the community of Kleinliebental are being informed about this for further comment.
Signatures: Bar. Medem, A. Klassa"

After the community was given notice of this decision, they decided on June 17, 1870, to sue against it, and therefore they gave the power of attorney to the community secretary at that time, Ludwig Häußer*, as well as the initiator of the salt project, M. Kukuli. Mr. Kukuli contracted himself legally to conduct the case free of charge.

On September 4, 1870, a map of the Liman was made in the presence of mountain engineer Schoftat, the representatives of the community L. Häußer, J. Dobler and J. Imbery as well as Mr. Kukuli and the Captain of the Armed Forces Corps. According to this map, the Liman has an area of 227 dessatines [= about 227 ha]. The suit of the community representatives for return of this illegally taken away part of the Liman remained without the desired success, as can be seen from the following letter:

"M.G.I. Department for General Affairs, Division for Colonies, August 12, 1871, No. 1993. To the Welfare Committee for foreign settlers of the southern areas of Russia.
As a result of the request of the Welfare Committee of December 31, 1870, with the No. 11471, and according to the request of the representative of the colony Kleinliebental, L. Geiser, concerning the restoration of the rights of the named colony on parts of the "Dal’nickij Liman", there was a statement from the Department for Non-income Related Taxes. The named department declares now: The above named part of the Liman which is located in the Cherson Government, near the city of Odessa, belonging to the colony of Kleinliebental, is counted to be among those salt sources which have to be owned by the crown according to article 669 of the Sol. Ustav (salt law). Thus after the Ministry of Finances received the request of the brothers Kukuli concerning building a salt business in the "Dal’nickij Liman" in 1869, it got in touch with the governing senate concerning the permission to give the Liman to the Kukuli brothers for 25 years. With the resolution of the senate from January 14, 1871, No. 1127, permission was given to let the named persons have the part of the "Dal’nickij" that belongs to the crown, for a time of 25 years to build a salt business on it. Among other things, it was decided that the Kukuli brothers can use the water of the part of the Liman that is made available to them, as well as the dry riverbed of this part of the river, for the production of cooking salt as well as soda. The Department for Non-income Related Taxes added that, according to the named resolution of the senate and according to the Ministry of Finance, the part of the "Dal’nickij Liman" that belongs to the crown was already given to the brothers Kukuli on March 1^st, of this year. The Kleinliebental community representative L. Geiser is being informed about this for further announcement by the department.
Director B. Medem, Head of the Department O. Tschernjavskij."

If it had not been tried to make profit out of the very salty water of the Liman, maybe it would still be the property of the community Kleinliebental today. Here it should also be said that the eastern part of the Liman was the property of the city Odessa, and the western part was the property of the Greek colony Alexandrowka. That only one-fourth part of this water, and especially this part that belonged to German colonists was declared to belong to the crown, is certainly noticeable, for sure, and very strange. Here the old proverb, well-known in Russian history, has again proved to be true: "You should not go to court with the rich and you should not fight with the strong".

G. Georgesohn

* Häußer also was the one who pointed on these documents, but not until the measuring of the land in 1906.

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¹⁾ hereditary title of honorary citizen
²⁾ 1 Pud = 40 pounds or 16.38 kg

Note:
My grandfather told me in 1998 that the place where salt was taken out of the Liman could still be seen when he was a child in the 1930s, although it was not in use anymore. Today the water-level of the Liman is made much higher than in the past so that this place is flooded and can not be seen anymore.

Peter Mock

 

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Source: Odessaer Zeitung, March 30 (April 12) 1912;
Library of the Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen, Stuttgart, Germany
Found and arranged by Peter Mock (pmulm@hotmail.com) 1998
Translated by Doris Dickenson and Peter Mock - 1999

Comments and suggestions are always appreciated!
kleinliebental@hotmail.com
© 1998 Peter Mock
Version 3.0