Russian Mennonites and Expressions of Loyalty on eve of World War I

How did Mennonites understand their commitment to non-resistance and to the Tsar?

Russia declared war on Germany on July 20, 1914. The following primary document from Bachmut / Memrik Mennonite Church Elder Peter Wilhelm Janzen to government officials a few days later (translated below) offer us a sense of how different their world was from ours.

It too had a context. Was the state suspicious about Mennonite loyalties in an impending war with Germany? Indeed. Did Mennonites feel pressured to prove their patriotism in positive and tangible ways in order to retain privileges, including property rights? Yes.

Here is a translation of Janzen's statement on behalf of 20 Mennonite villages, and addressed to the Central Committee of the "Union" [Octobrists] (note 1). At the end of this post I offer a few comments.

"We, the Mennonite landowners in 20 villages of the Bachmut District, address authorities, institutions, and the whole of society with the following words:

Yesterday on July 22 [1914], we learned that the Emperor called on all his subjects to fight against Germany, which had the audacity to declare war on Russia [Russia declared war on Germany on July 20]. We read the Tsar’s manifesto with tenderness of soul and tears in our eyes. For our part, we are eager to proclaim loudly that we have only one fatherland—Russia. The enemies of the Russian Tsar and Russian State are our enemies, and the friends of Russia are our friends as well.

For over a hundred years we have been honoured to be subjects of His Imperial Majesty the Russian Sovereign, Emperor of Russia. Our past has clearly shown that in every national crisis, every distress experienced by Russia was also our own personal grief and misfortune. We were glad to bring our wealth, our labour, and our means to the common altar of our Fatherland—the Russian State. With the example of how we acted in the Sevastopol [Crimea], Russian-Turkish, and Japanese wars, now too we will work for the benefit of the Russian army.

We serve our [alternative] military duty in forest brigades and do not wield weapons. But as the experience of the past has shown, we can be useful by means of our organization at our own expense. We are prepared to help with the arrangement of infirmaries at our own expense. We can supply wagons without cost to transport the materials needed for the war effort, and we can help support soldiers’ families, etc.

In the next days we expect to receive instructions from local authorities about what we could do at this moment that would be useful for our soldiers and their families, and we will not hesitate to get to work for the benefit of our united and great Fatherland.

We offer our prayers for the invincibility of the Russian State, and for the spiritual strength of our Sovereign, who has taken on the great task to defend His state against this formidable and daring enemy.

While we cannot look into the future, we know that we always have been, always will be and remain forever and ever loyal subjects of His Imperial Majesty, the Russian Sovereign Emperor.

On behalf of the Mennonites of the Bachmut District, Province of Ekaterinoslav, Mennonite Church Elder Peter W. Janzen."

The statement attempts to articulate and show clearly Mennonite loyalties to Russia even in war with Germany. In a note to the text, Prof. Lindemann wrote: “German Mennonites from the colonies of Halbstadt and Gnadenfeld [Molotschna] donated 150,000 rubles for military needs, of which 20,000 rubles were put at the disposal of the Emperor, and the rest at the disposal of the local committee, as well as for the construction of an infirmary with 75 beds".

The Central Committee responded to this statement by sending the following message to Elder Janzen:

“The Central Committee of the Union of the 17th of October [Octobrist Party] conveys to you its sincerest gratitude for your message to us declaring the loyalty of the German Mennonites to our beloved sovereign, Emperor Nicholas Alexandrovich, their loyalty to our dear homeland Russia, and their readiness to take all measures to alleviate the plight of wounded Russian army soldiers, and to provide food for the families of all those called upon for the defense of the homeland.”

Mennonite ministers and civic leaders met on July 22, 1914 and called for the extension of their community’s alternative service agreement beyond forestry service: to form complete medical units to gather the wounded from the front and to transport them by hospital trains to interior hospitals; to establish special hospital facilities for the wounded in the colonies; to fundraise large sums for the Red Cross; and to grant financial aid to families of soldiers (note 2).

Peter Wilhem Janzen (b. 1857) was ordained as elder in 1887 of the Memrik and Kalinovo Mennonite Church, in the Memrik Settlement of the Bachmut District, Province of Ekaterinoslav (Dnipropetrovsk), later Donetsk Oblast. He served in that capacity for thirty years until his death from typhoid fever in 1918. He was familiar with Mennonite alternative service, serving as chaplain and forestry manager at the Anadol Forestry Service Camp, near Mariupol, for several years. Janzen was born and raised in Rudnerweide, Molotschna. He was an original settler of the Memrik Colony in 1885 and ordained as a minister the first year of settlement (note 3).

--Arnold Neufeldt-Fast

---Notes---

Note 1: Memrik/ Bachmut Elder P. W. Janzen, Letter compiled in "Report of the Central Committee of the Union of October 17 [Octobrists] on its activities, from October 1, 1913, to September 1, 1914," compiled by the Assistant Chairman of the Central Committee, Professor K. E. Lindeman, Moscow. Typographers K. L. Menshov. Arbat, Nikolsky Lane, No. 21, 1914, https://chortitza.org/pdf/0v762.pdf. 
Note 2: Lawrence Klippenstein, “Mennonites and Military Service in Russia,” in Mennonite Alternative Service in Russia: The Story of Abram Dück and his Colleagues 1911–1917, edited by Lawrence Klippenstein and Jacob Dick, 1–39 (Kitchener, ON: Pandora, 2002), 24.
Note 3: On Peter Wilhelm Janzen, cf. GRanDMA no. 654449. On the Memrik church, cf. GAMEO, https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Memrik_and_Kalinovo_Mennonite_Church_(Donetsk_Oblast,_Ukraine). Photograph of Peter W. Janzen from: https://chortitza.org/FB/BF240.php. 

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History of the Russian Mennonites

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