The first «German settlements» have appeared in the cities of Russia during the rule of Ivan IV. Peter the Great issued a Manifesto in 1702, according to which the military experts, scientists, merchants and craftsmen were invited to Russia. Mass resettlement of the Germans in Russia started after the Manifestos of Catherine the Great in 1762 and 1763. The result was the formation of the German colonies in different regions of Russia, mainly in the Volga region, Novorossia, Volyn. In 1941 all Germans were deported from the European part of the USSR in Siberia and Kazakhstan. Dynamics of the number of Germans over 250 years is analyzed in the article. The main source is the population census. Since the release of Manifests up to the collapse of the USSR the number of Germans was constantly growing: in 1796 the number of Germans is 237 thousand people, in 1897 – 1 million 790 thousand, in 1989 – 2 million 40 thousand (in Russia – 842 thousand). In the 1990s, began a rapid decrease the number of Germans in Russia: in 2002 – 597 thousand, in 2010 – 394 thousand. The main reason for this is the mass emigration of Russian Germans to Germany.