safe from wars and raids thanks to potemkin, who founded new cities and seaports, kherson nikolaev sevastopol ekaterinad development began here industry and land in these shots, nicholas ii examines the first biosphere reserve in europe, askania nova, created in the kherson province by the german colonist friedrich falzfein. here , 2,000 species of animals were collected by its owner. including very rare some of them, the false wine proudly demonstrates to the russian emperor, shocked by what he saw, nicholas ii appropriated the false wine. the title of hereditary nobleman. already at the beginning of the 19th century. there were about 200 german colonies in the kherson, ekaterinoslav and taurida provinces. in total , almost 2.5 million germans lived in russia on the eve of the first world war, thanks to frugality, hard work and a sober lifestyle. they made a huge contribution to the development of the southern provinces of the russian empire, for example, the odessa firm of johann hoehn became the largest manufacturer of agricultural machinery in the south, and the german entrepreneur gustav hartmann