From what I've been able to find out, Field Marshall Prince Christian August offered these refugees a choice, they could either go to Russia, where there was plenty of farmland and not a lot of warfare, or they could leave Anhalt-Zerbst and take their chances with the various armies that were marching through the area.
Thank you for claryfing this. When I’ve just read your message, I thought that he presented those people as a Roman slaveowner would do. Or a Russian or Polish landlord.
Catherine II was made popular in Russia by a novel by Valentin Pikul’ “The Favorite”. He wrote that she had to wear darned tights in childhood so poor was her father.