Turning Weapons into Waffle Irons!

Turning Weapons into Waffle Irons: Heart-Shaped Waffles and a smooth talking General

In 1874 with Mennonite immigration to North America in full swing, the Tsar sent General Eduard von Totleben to the colonies to talk the remaining Mennonites out of leaving (note 1). He came with the now legendary offer of alternative service. Totleben made presentations in Mennonite churches and had many conversations in Mennonite homes.

Decades later the women still recalled how fond Totleben was of Mennonite heart-shaped waffles. He complemented the women saying, “How beautiful are the hearts of Mennonites!,” and he joked about how “much Mennonites love waffles (Waffeln), but not weapons (Waffen)” (note 2)!

His visit resulted in an extensive reversal of opinion and the offer was welcomed officially by the Molotschna and Chortitza Colony ministerials. And upon leaving, the general was gifted with a poem by Bernhard Harder (note 3) and a waffle iron (note 4).

Harder was an influential Neu-Halbstadt minister and itinerant evangelist, and years earlier he had composed a hymn dedicated “in deepest reverence to General Totleben," “the revered hero of and benefactor of the Mennonites”— for use in congregations for royal birthdays and anniversaries (note 5). The different kind heart-felt hymn praises Totleben for his role in the Crimean War (1853-56):

“Though confusion and fearful ferment reigned, he [Totleben] called out to us: ‘Children, stay home! The Tsar, rich in grace and wisdom, wishes that you stay put. His care is over you.’”

Totleben not only knew Mennonites from the Crimean War [trivia: his troops slaughtered 1500 British troops in one battle!] but was trusted by them too. This was both good and bad. The problem: Totleben was all-too familiar with the less than peaceful disagreements between Mennonites in dealing with the landless issue in the 1860s. After his 1874 visit he suggested cynically to the Minister of the Interior that not-merely religious reasons are at play with emigration:

“[T]here are three parties among the Mennonites: those fanatics who have already decided to move at all costs, the more enlightened who want to stay in Russia but are afraid to speak out[,] and those who intend to remain but are inciting others to leave so as to be able to buy their farms cheaply!” (Note 6).

Totleben visited many of the central villages like Rudnerweide (note 7) and was invited to “deliver actual sermons from the pulpit” to “clarify the true state of affairs,” according to his biographer. Totleben’s many explanations and demonstrations of the Tsar’s favour were repeatedly met “with quotes from the gospel and the dogmas of their confession” (note 8).

Despite his kind words about Mennonites and their heart-shaped waffles, Rudnerweide Elder Benjamin Ratzlaff (retired) found the final offer for alternative service unacceptable, and he left for America with his adult children a month later. Two weeks later he was followed by two Pordenau ministers (note 9).

Pordenau Elder Isaak Peters and others were convinced that the Tsar’s offer of alternative service was “an unevangelical association with the ‘Beast,’ the state, hostile to God”--and he was exiled from Russia and settled in Nebraska (note 10).

The Kleine Gemeinde Elder Peter Töws had been summoned three times to meet Totleben, and was finally blessed by the latter: “Go in the name of God!” (note 11).

Military exemption, the approval to establish a Mennonite-run forestry service, and the availability of exit visas to those wishing to emigrate were, according to James Urry, “remarkable acts of tolerance on the part of the Russian government” that “reflected how important the state saw the Mennonites” (note 12). The new accommodations or privileges for Mennonites “on account of their exemplary industriousness” were ratified later in the year (note 13); and for his efforts Totleben was awarded the Order of St. Vladimir, First Class, with the rights of hereditary nobility, August 1874 (note 14).

---Arnold Neufeldt-Fast

---Notes---

Note 1: "Totleben, Eduard Ivanovich von (1818-1884)," GAMEO, https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Totleben,_Eduard_Ivanovich_von_(1818-1884).

Note 2: Karl Lindemann, Von den deutschen Kolonisten in Rußland. Ergebnisse einer Studienreise 1919–1921 (Stuttgart: Ausland und Heimat, 1924), 33 n1, https://media.chortitza.org/pdf/?file=Buch/Lind.pdf.

Note 3: See letters in Franz Isaac, Die Molotschnaer Mennoniten. Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte derselben (Halbstadt, Taurien: H. J. Braun, 1908), 323-327, https://mla.bethelks.edu/books/Molotschnaer%20Mennoniten/.

Note 4: Gerhard Lohrenz, ed., Damit es nicht vergessen werde. Ein Bildband zur Geschichte der Mennoniten Preussens und Russlands (Winnipeg, MB: Canadian Mennonite Bible College Press, 1974), 59.

Note 5: Geistliche Lieder und Gelegenheitsgedichte von Bernhard Harder, edited by Heinrich Franz, vol. 1 (Hamburg: A-G, 1888), I, no. 532, 580f., https://media.chortitza.org/pdf/?file=Pis/Hard1.pdf. See General Totleben's History of the Defence of Sebastopol, 1854-55 (English), pp. 201, 203, 274. https://archive.org/details/generaltodlebens00russuoft/page/n5.

Note 6: In P. Albert Koop, “Some Economic Aspects of Mennonite Migration. With special Emphasis on the 1870s Migration from Russia to North America,” Mennonite Quarterly Review 55, no. 2 [1981], 151; cf. also James Urry, “None but Saints”: The Transformation of Mennonite Life in Russia, 1789–1889 (Winnipeg, MB: Hyperion, 1989), 215.

Note 7: John B. Toews, “A Russian Mennonite: The Diary of Diedrich Gaeddert (1860–1876),” Mennonite Life 33, no. 4 (December 1978), 13, https://mla.bethelks.edu/mennonitelife/pre2000/1978dec.pdf; cf. Dietrich Gaeddert, Diary: 1860–1871, from Mennonite Library and Archives-Bethel College, MS. 7, https://mla.bethelks.edu/archives/ms_7.

Note 8: Cf. Nikolai Schilder, Ego zhizn’ i’ deyatelnost’ [Count Eduard Ivanovich Totleben: Life and Works], volume 2 (St. Petersburg: Tikhanov, 1886), 709, https://media.chortitza.org/pdf/?file=Dok/Totleben.pdf; and https://books.google.ca/books?id=UkdDAAAAYAAJ&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&dq=Shilder%2C%20Graf%20Eduard%20Ivanovich%20Totleben&pg=PA709#v=onepage&q&f=false.

Note 9: Cf. Dietrich Gaeddert, Diary: 1860–1871, from Mennonite Library and Archives-Bethel College, MS. 7, https://mla.bethelks.edu/archives/ms_7; J. Toews, “A Russian Mennonite Diary, 13.

Note 10: Cf. Peter M. Friesen, The Mennonite Brotherhood in Russia 1789–1910 (Winnipeg, MB: Christian, 1978), https://archive.org/details/TheMennoniteBrotherhoodInRussia17891910/.

Note 11: Mennonitische Rundschau 41, no. 12 (March 20, 1918), 4, https://archive.org/details/sim_die-mennonitische-rundschau_1918-03-20_41_12/page/n3/mode/2up?q=totleben.

Note 12: James Urry, “The Russian State, the Mennonite World and the Migration from Russia to North America in the 1870s,” Mennonite Life 46, no. 1 (March 1991), 14, https://mla.bethelks.edu/mennonitelife/pre2000/1991mar.pdf.

Note 13: Hallesches Tageblatt 75, no. 281 (December 2, 1874), 1614, https://digitale.bibliothek.uni-halle.de/zd/periodical/pageview/8861006.

Note 14: Cf. Schilder, Graf Eduard Ivanovich Totleben, 710. See also the following informative online article on Totleben from the British National Army Museum: https://web.archive.org/web/20160311004111/; https://www.nam.ac.uk/exhibitions/online-exhibitions/enemy-commanders-britains-greatest-foes/eduard-totleben. I also looked at: “Memorandum of General Adjutant Todleben Concerning the Mennonites.” David G. Rempel Papers. Box 7, File 12. From Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library, University of Toronto. Toronto, ON.

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History of the Russian Mennonites

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