"The future of the Mennonite Church is not in Prussia but in Russia."

The 1788-89 start for Mennonites in New Russia was disastrous, and after four years colonists begged for ministerial leaders from Prussia to come and establish order (note 1).

On Good Friday, April 18, 1794, a Flemish church elder and a minister--Cornelius Regier of Heubuden and Cornelius Warkentin of Rosenort-- arrived in Chortitza to assist. After only three weeks of moderating, reconciling, teaching, ordaining and baptizing, Regier contracted an illness and died; Warkentin finished their work and returned to Prussia on July 10.

Warkentin’s Prussian ministerial colleagues were skeptical. Would order last in that rag-tag group? But Warkentin returned with the conviction “that the future of the Mennonite Church was not in Prussia but in Russia” (note 2). Why?

During his visit to Chortitza, Warkentin met Russian State Counsellor Samuel Contenius—the son of a German Westphalian Protestant pastor—responsible for the oversight and care of foreign colonists. Warkentin was convinced of the counsellor’s deep commitment to the Mennonite settlement (note 3).

And importantly, Warkentin was struck by the empire’s ecumenical peace, respect and protection—quite foreign to Prussia!—for minority religious groups like the Mennonites. On his return, Warkentin had inter-church encounters in New Russia that helped to strengthen that conviction (note 4).

First, around Vyshenka he stopped and met with German Lutheran, Catholic, and Hutterite leaders. The Lutheran pastor offered coffee, long conversation and a polite farewell. The Catholic priest extended similar hospitality to him, and “as we parted we were both convinced that we would meet again in that place of eternal bliss.” While in the middle of their harvest, the Hutterites too gave Warkentin a “warm welcome,” invited him to preach twice and were “deeply moved” by his reflections on conversion, new birth and Christian service. This was complemented by a friendly invitation for a tour of the Tsarina’s summer palace and conversation with the Orthodox countess in Vyshenka.

Then another German group immigrating to Russia but held up in Riga “made me preach to them in a large room in their hotel where people from various religious backgrounds attended. They all expressed their satisfaction to me, and a rich merchant invited me to have dinner with his family in his garden.” Additional lengthy conversations “on many topics” over coffee and meals were held with the mayor and the governor of Riga and the latter’s guests “of very high rank.” Finally, two evangelical pastors saw Warkentin off at the harbour in Riga. This was not Prussia: the unique climate of hospitable ecumenism and official support solidified Warkentin’s vision for a thriving Mennonite future in the Russian empire.

For the next twenty-five years, Warkentin actively negotiated “with a great deal of circumspection” (note 5) with Contenius and other Russian officials to promote emigration, especially as land restrictions tightened for Mennonites in Prussia under Friedrich Wilhelm III in 1801.

On August 22, 1802, Contenius wrote Warkentin regarding the request for some two hundred families of Mennonite faith to settle in the region. He indicated that Governor Count von Miklashevsky was prepared to welcome not only two hundred, but several thousand Mennonite families, and that he would set aside the best available land for them. Moreover, they would receive the same privileges and better crown loans than those Mennonites who had immigrated earlier, and be given even more generous terms than any other settler group.

“[I]f necessary, a half million Morgen [125,000 hectares] of land will be divided and held in readiness for them,” Contenius wrote encouragingly. “In order to take advantage of the generous terms offered by the state we must move as quickly as possible.” Contenius added that Warkentin should understand that the contents of the letter “must be guarded with caution and not broadcast too widely. I do not wish to promote misunderstandings or anger elsewhere by appearing to entice strangers into leaving their fatherland” (note 6).

In the next year, as thousands prepared for emigration with detailed recommendations for would-be settlers sent by Contenius, Warkentin’s highly secret Russian correspondence was in fact confiscated and, in turn, he was silenced. Warkentin responded to Russian officials that “the Prussian government continues threatening those who want to leave. It has promised to confiscate half of all property and possessions of every emigrant” (note 7).

Historically Russia’s religious policies and accommodations for non-Orthodox minority groups had proven to be more successful in minimizing religious violence than in the west—which Warkentin understood.

Because of his ongoing efforts and accomplishments, Alexander I recognized Warkentin in 1804 with a solid gold medal with the inscription: “To Warkentin, the Elder of the Mennonites” (note 8 ).

Moreover, a half century later Mennonites confessed that “Contenius, was the man whom God gave us at this time, so that we would be led towards our destiny in the new Fatherland. Imbued with a Christian love of humanity, he dealt with matters of the community with rare faithfulness and great circumspection. No branch of business that could become important went unnoticed by him” (note 9).

---Arnold Neufeldt-Fast

---Notes---

Photo (close up of coin) https://mla.bethelks.edu/archives/numbered-photos/pholist2.php?num=2004-0215.

Note 1: Cf. related post.

Note 2: Cf. Johannes van der Smissen, The History of the Church in Chortitza. Towards an Understanding of the History of the Church in the Mennonite Colonies in South Russia (1856), translated and edited by William Schroeder (Winnipeg, MB: Schroeder, 1992), 28. Also published in Preservings no. 15 (1999): 3–10, https://www.plettfoundation.org/files/preservings/Preservings15.pdf.

Note 3: David G. Rempel, “The Mennonite Migration to New Russia (1787–1870): II. The Emigration to Russia,” Mennonite Quarterly Review 9, no. 3 (July 1935), 120. On Contenius, see E. Schmid-München, Die deutschen Bauern in Südrußland (Berlin: Deutsche Landbuchhandlung, 1917), 15, https://chortitza.org/0v937.pdf.

Note 4: Cf. van der Smissen, History of the Church in Chortitza, 23–28; Peter M. Friesen, The Mennonite Brotherhood in Russia, 1789–1910 (Winnipeg, MB: Christian, 1978), 163-165, https://archive.org/details/TheMennoniteBrotherhoodInRussia17891910/.

Note 5: Rempel, “Mennonite Migration to New Russia (II),” 120.

Note 6: Samuel Contenuis to Cornelius Warkentin, Rosenort, West Prussia, August 22, 1802, Letter, California Mennonite Historical Society Bulletin 35 (January 1998), 7–10. https://fpuscholarworks.fresno.edu/bitstream/handle/11418/335/cmhs035-7.pdf. On problems finding land suitable to meet the state mandate (model farming) for new settlers, cf. David G. Rempel, “The Mennonite Migration to New Russia (1787–1870): I. The Colonization Policy of Catherine II and Alexander I,” Mennonite Quarterly Review 9, no. 2 (April 1935), 88f.

Note 7: C. Warkentin, correspondence cited in Andrey Ivanov, “Emigration to New Russia: Complications and Challenges,” California Mennonite Historical Society Bulletin 37 (December 1999), 7f., https://fpuscholarworks.fresno.edu/handle/11418/350.

Note 8: Van der Smissen, History of the Church in Chortitza, 28.

Note 9: Johann Peters, “Eine einfache Erzählung der Auswanderung der Chortitzer Mennoniten,” 1857 (from Chortitza: Mennonitische Geschichte und Ahnenforschung, https://chortitza.org/pdf/0v751.php).

---

To cite this page: Arnold Neufeldt-Fast, "The Future of the Mennonite Church is not in Prussia but in Russia," History of the Russian Mennonites (blog), September 16, 2022, https://russianmennonites.blogspot.com/2022/09/the-future-of-mennonite-church-is-not.html.

Comments

The Executioner of Dnepropetrovsk, 1937-38

Naum Turbovsky likely killed more Mennonites than anyone in the longer history of the Anabaptist-Mennonite movement. This is an emotionally difficult post to write because one of those men was my grandfather, Franz Bräul, born 1896. In 2019, I received the translation of his 30-page arrest, trial and execution file. To this point my mother never knew her father's fate. Naum Turbovsky's signature is on Bräul's execution order. Bräul was shot on December 11, 1937. Together with my grandfather's NKVD/ KGB file, I have the files of eight others arrested with him. Turbovsky's file is available online. Days before he signed the execution papers for those in this group, Turbovsky was given an award for the security of his prison and for his method of isolating and transferring prisoners to their interrogation—all of which “greatly contributed to the success of the investigations over the enemies of the people,” namely “military-fascist conspirators, spies and saboteurs.” T

Village Reports Commando Dr. Stumpp, 1942: List and Links

Each of the "Commando Dr. Stumpp" village reports written during German occupation of Ukraine 1942 contains a mountain of demographic data, names, dates, occupations, numbers of untimely deaths (revolution, famines, abductions), narratives of life in the 1930s, of repression and liberation, maps, and much more. The reports are critical for telling the story of Mennonites in the Soviet Union before 1942, albeit written with the dynamics of Nazi German rule at play. Reports for some 56 (predominantly) Mennonite villages from the historic Mennonite settlement areas of Chortitza, Sagradovka, Baratow, Schlachtin, Milorodovka, and Borosenko have survived. Unfortunately no village reports from the Molotschna area (known under occupation as “Halbstadt”) have been found. Dr. Karl Stumpp, a prolific chronicler of “Germans abroad,” became well-known to German Mennonites (Prof. Benjamin Unruh/ Dr. Walter Quiring) before the war as the director of the Research Center for Russian Germans

Prof. Benjamin Unruh as a Public Figure in the Nazi Era

Professor Benjamin H. Unruh (1881-1959) was a relief and immigration leader, educator, leading churchman, and official representative of Russian Mennonites outside of the Soviet Union throughout the National Socialism era in Germany. Unruh’s biography is connected to the very beginnings of Mennonite Central Committee in 1920-1922 when he served as a key spokesperson in Germany for the famine-stricken Mennonites in South Russia. Some years later he again played the central role in the rescue of thousands of Mennonites from Moscow in 1929 and, along with MCC, their resettlement in Paraguay, Brazil, and Canada. Because of Unruh’s influence and deep connections with key German government agencies in Berlin, his home office in Karlsruhe, Germany, became a relief hub for Mennonites internationally. Unruh facilitated large-scale debt forgiveness for Mennonites in Paraguay and Brazil, and negotiated preferential consideration for Mennonite relief work to the Soviet Union during the Great Famin

"Women Talking" -- and Canadian Mennonites

In March 2023 the film "Women Talking" won an Oscar for "Best adapted Screenplay." It was based on the novel of the same name by Mennonite Miriam Toews. The conservative Mennonites portrayed in the film are from the "Manitoba Colony" in Bolivia--with obvious Canadian connections. Now that many Canadians have seen the the film, Mennonites like me are being asked, "So how are you [in Markham-Stouffville, Waterloo or in St. Catharines] connected to that group?" Most would say, "We're not that type of Mennonite." And mostly that is a true answer, though unnuanced. Others will say, "Well, it is complex," but they can't quite unfold the complexity. Below is my attempt to do just that. At the heart of the story are things that happened in Ukraine (at the time "New" or "South" Russia) over 200 years ago. It is not easy to rebuild the influence and contribution of "Russian Mennonite" women and th

The Shift from Dutch to German, 1700s

Already in 1671, Mennonite Flemish Elder Georg Hansen in Danzig published his German-language catechism ( Glaubens-Bericht für die Jugend ) as preparation for youth seeking baptism. Though educational competencies varied, Hansen’s Glaubens-Bericht assumed that youth preparing for baptism had a stronger ability to read complex German than Dutch ( note 1 ). Popular Mennonite preacher Jacob Denner (1659–1746), originally from the Hamburg-Altona Mennonite Church, lived in Danzig for four years in the early 1700s. A first volume of his Dutch sermons was published in 1706 in Danzig and Amsterdam, and then in 1730 and 1751 he published two German collections. Untrained preachers would often read Denner’s sermons: “Those who preached German—which all Prussian preachers around 1750 did, with the exception of the Danzig preachers—had no sermons books from their co-religionists other than this one by Jacob Denner” ( note 2 ). In Danzig and the Vistula Delta region there were some differences

Invitation to the Russian Consulate, Danzig, January 19, 1788

B elow is one of the most important original Mennonite artifacts I have seen. It concerns January 19. The two land scouts Jacob Höppner and Johann Bartsch had returned to Danzig from Russia on November 10, 1787 with the Russian Immigration Agent, Georg von Trappe. Soon thereafter, Trappe had copies of the royal decree and agreement (Gnadenbrief) printed for distribution in the Flemish and Frisian Mennonite congregations in Danzig and other locations, dated December 29, 1787 ( see pic ; note 1 ). After the flyer was handed out to congregants in Danzig after worship on January 13, 1788, city councilors made the most bitter accusations against church elders for allowing Trappe and the Russian Consulate to do this; something similar had happened before ( note 2 ). In the flyer Trappe boasted that land scouts Höppner and Bartsch met not only with Gregory Potemkin, Catherine the Great’s vice-regent and administrator of New Russia, but also with “the Most Gracious Russian Monarch” herse

Plague and Pestilence in Danzig, 1709

Russian and Prussian Mennonites trace at least 200 years of their story through Danzig and Royal Prussia, where episodes of plague and pestilence were not unfamiliar ( note 1 ). Mennonites arrived primarily from the Low Countries and in large numbers in the middle of the 16th century—approximately 750 families or 3,000 refugees and settlers between 1527 and 1578 to Danzig and Royal Prussia ( note 2 ). At this time Danzig was undergoing tremendous demographic, cultural and economic transformation, almost tripling in population in less than 100 years. With 80% of Poland’s foreign trade handled through this port city ( note 3 ), Danzig saw the arrival of new people from across Europe, many looking to find work in the crammed and bustling city ( note 4 ). Maria Bogucka’s research on Danzig in this era brings the streets of the maritime city to life: “Sanitation facilities were inadequate … The level of personal hygiene was low. Most people lived close together: five or six to a room, sle

The Tinkelstein Family of Chortitza-Rosenthal (Ukraine)

Chortitza was the first Mennonite settlement in "New Russia" (later Ukraine), est. 1789. The last Mennonites left in 1943 ( note 1 ). During the Stalin years in Ukraine (after 1928), marriage with Jewish neighbours—especially among better educated Mennonites in cities—had become somewhat more common. When the Germans arrived mid-August 1941, however, it meant certain death for the Jewish partner and usually for the children of those marriages. A family friend, Peter Harder, died in 2022 at age 96. Peter was born in Osterwick to a teacher and grew up in Chortitza. As a 16-year-old in 1942, Peter was compelled by occupying German forces to participate in the war effort. Ukrainians and Russians (prisoners of war?) were used by the Germans to rebuild the massive dam at Einlage near Zaporizhzhia, and Peter was engaged as a translator. In the next year he changed focus and started teachers college, which included significant Nazi indoctrination. In 2017 I interviewed Peter Ha

“First Arrival of German Troops in Halbstadt” (Volksfreund, April 20, 1918)

“ April 19, 1918 will always remain significant in the history of the Molotschna German Colony. That which until recently could hardly be imagined has occurred: the German military has arrived to free us from the despotism, rape and pillaging of barbarous people and to reestablish the order and security of life and property--something desperately necessary for our land. For this we give thanks above all to the One in whose hands the peoples and nations and also individuals rest. ...” ( Note 1 ) Mennonites greeted their “guests and liberators” with festivities that included baked goods (Zwieback), meats and even the German anthem “ Deutschland, Deutschland über alles "—all before the watchful eyes of their Russian /Ukrainian neighbours. The troops arrived by train; and to the shock of most present, three bound prisoners—all well-known bandits and terrorists—“were brought out of one of the railway cars without any prior notice, lined up and shot right in front of us” as an exampl

“The way is finally open”—Russian Mennonite Immigration, 1922-23

In a highly secretive meeting in Ohrloff, Molotschna on February 7, 1922, leaders took a decision to work to remove the entire Mennonite population of some 100,000 people out of the USSR—if at all possible ( note 1 ). B.B. Janz (Ohrloff) and Bishop David Toews (Rosthern, SK) are remembered as the immigration leaders who made it possible to bring some 20,000 Mennonites from the Soviet Union to Canada in the 1920s ( note 2 ). But behind those final numbers were multiple problems. In August 1922, an appeal was made by leaders to churches in Canada and the USA: “The way is finally open, for at least 3,000 persons who have received permission to leave Russia … Two ships of the Canadian Pacific Railway are ready to sail from England to Odessa as soon as the cholera quarantine is lifted. These Russian [Mennonite] refugees are practically without clothing … .” ( Note 3 ) Notably at this point B. B. Janz was also writing Toews, saying that he was utterly exhausted and was preparing to

History of the Russian Mennonites

Search This Blog