Sorry halpark but I must dispute one historical comment in your response. There is absolutely no connection (other than similarity) between the name of Arbat street and the German word, arbeiter nor have I found any indication that Germans were living there. There is no doubt that German tradesmen, lawyers, doctors, and other professionals as well as nobility were living in Moscow and its suburbs, many of them there even before the time of Catherine's reign. If a legitimate claim can be made to a Germanic origin for the street / district name, I would like to read it and determine the veracity of its source.
One response (consistent with other historical commentary) to the supposed "German" connection can be found at
http://www.russian-moscow.com/the-origin-of-the-name-arbat/ .
Otherwise the historical summary is accurate but sometimes people take a summary like that and apply it all to their family history. That is not necessarily the correct thing to do so I would also like to add this clarificaiton:
The region of Rypin was never, ever associated with Catherine the Great or her Manifesto. It was part of Prussia prior to the boundary changes of 1815. The ethnic Germans were already living there long before this change and became Russian nationals by default with the boundary changes. So if your historical roots track through Rypin, do not include Catherine as part of the story of the migration.
It is important to distinguish between nationalilty and ethnicity, Though ethnic mixing did occur on occasion, it was very unusual. Research shows that the vast majority of ethnic Germans in the Rypin region were Lutheran. Those ethnic Germans would be classified as Russian after 1815.
Jerry