The author analyzes a short Saratov period of the course of life of a well-known German social democrat Ernst Reuter. According to the directive of the RSFSR Council of Peoples Commissars Chairman V. I. Lenin and Peoples Commissar on Nationalities J. V Stalin a German war prisoner and communist Ernst Reuter was sent to Saratov Volga Region in April 1918 where he became the leader of the Volga Region Commissariat on the Germans. He was in charge of establishing the Soviet power in German colonies and participated in the creation of the Autonomous Region of the Volga Germans.