Something I'm thinking about: Katharina the Great (born as princess of Anhalt-Zerbst-Dornburg, now Germany), also known as Jekaterina Alexejewna, wanted foreigners to come to Russia. Therefore, in July 1763 she appealed to thousands of German farmers to come to Russia promisssing religious liberty, tax exemption and free land on both sides of the river Wolga. Those people later on were called "Wolgadeutsche". In 1941, after the German attack against the Soviet Union, they were forced to leave the Wolga region and were deported to other parts of the Soviet Union, amongst them Kasachstan. After all that I know life was very hard and poor for them and although being forced to work in kolkhozes, they tried to grow something for their own just to survive, because as Andrey said above, everything that was commercially produced in those kolkhozes was produced for the state. So don't you think that it might be possible that those poor people did save seeds just to have something for their survival? I don't remember the exact date, but due to a terrible dearth/famine at the end of the 1920th, even Stalin allowed people to grow something in very, very small places - and there, they produced a quarter of the complete production...
As to Manfred and Reinhard: I'm absolutely conviced that they don't "create" a history just for getting more chances to sell their seeds, no, no, no! You can't get their seeds in Germany if you don't know both - their seeds are NOT commercially available, in no shop! Only by email contact! Manfred sells at a really low price, just to cover his own costs. And what you buy in German shops are mostly hybrid varieties, about 20 - 25, that's all! Why are there NOT more good varieties? Because in Germany, every variety you can to buy in shops has to be licensed, and getting this license costs several hundred Euros for each variety!
That's why I'm very pleased about getting in contact to so many great tomato aficionados on this site - otherwise my garden would look very poor! And yes, I will grow Ludmilla's Red Plum and Ludmilla's Pink Heart due to a very appreciated member of this forum! Thank you again, Ami!
clara
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