Abstract: The article is focused on Russia's historical experience of settling vast land territories at the end of the 18th – 19th centuries by means of attracting labour resources from European countries. Based on the key provisions laid down in the Manifestos of Catherine II in 1762 and 1763, the authors investigate on a documental basis the participation of German peasants in realising the Empire's colonisation policy in the Volga and Novorossiysk regions. The authors highlight the role of the Russian Germans as a powerful labour resource in restoring the Soviet economy in the course of the 20th century, after its devastation during the period of resistance to the Fascist aggression in 1941–1945, as well as the Germans' active role in reviving USSR's economy in 1940–1980s and in the cultural rebirth.