Abstract: The subject of this research is the main achievements and deceptions of the foreign historiography with regards to the problem of reforming of the Russian Germans colonies during the period of 1860’s – 1870’s. The author carefully examines such aspects as popularity of the topic of Russian Germans associated with the World War I in the works of German authors; period of silence of the 1930’s – 1950’s; activity of the Russian German community in the Federal Republic of Germany; German fundamentalist research of the 1980’s – 2000’s. Special attention is given to the leading woks of the American and French historiography. The scientific novelty is defined by the fact that the author is first to carry out a scientific research of the coverage of the reform of 1871 in works of the foreign historians, in which the reform attained controversial evaluation, and who often patterned the opinion of Russian historians or intentionally polemicized with them. Some of the authors became hostages of the specific ideology or political conjuncture, which predetermined their non-scientific character of such publications. Not having access to the Russian archive sources, German, American, and French scholars often came to the contradictory conclusions. Thus, the questions about the reform of 1871 remains its relevance for the further research.