Skip to main content

Dancing with Russian Mennonites: A Short History

Russian Mennonites have traditionally had a dim or mixed view of dancing. Below is a brief history.

When it comes to moral infractions, the diaries or chronicles of Mennonite ministers are our best sources. In 1797 in Tiegenhagen, West Prussia—around the time that hundreds of Mennonite families left Prussia for Russia—the respected Frisian Elder Heinrich Donner noted that he would not baptize two young people because the one played a violin at a wedding, and the sister to the bride danced to this music together with Lutherans (note 1).

New disciplinary rules were confirmed by the congregation in 1805: “No Mennonite innkeeper shall allow music in his guesthouse.” And regarding dancing: “With a first offence, the person must come before the ministerial and apologize. The second time, they will be brought before the congregation. The third time, if there is no intention to amend behaviour, he will be excluded from the congregation” (note 2).

His Flemish colleague Gerhard Wiebe was no friend of dancing either. His diary mentions congregants “bartending at ‘the Kruge’ with music and all manner of “wicked things”; leading a “immoral” lifestyle, and dancing in “the Lame Hand” pub (note 3).

When you start to play the fiddle, it's only a matter of time before you start to dance ... and that's "flirting with the devil." After the first Mennonite colony in Russia was stabilized, leadership (and power) was seized from the land scouts Höppner and Bartsch, and lodged firmly in the hands of Chortitza’s first elder David Epp—by all accounts a polarizing figure. Epp and his ministerial ordered the powerless land scout Johann Bartsch to destroy several family musical instruments including his violin, because playing instruments was seen to be flirtation with the demonic. Bartsch reportedly broke his violin in two and threw the pieces at the feet of “the guardians of the purity of faith” (note 4).

In the Molotschna Colony in the 1830s, the esteemed schoolmaster of Johann Cornies’ Agricultural Society private high school in Ohrloff—Heinrich Heese--“even encouraged the children to learn to dance,” for which the school “suffered great damage” with regards to donations and new admissions (Heese was raised Lutheran and had married into the Mennonite fold; note 5) 

Ministers’ diaries from Russia mention dancing at weddings as a perpetual problem.

“Immorality seems to have the upper hand. Adultery, unethical behaviour, dances at weddings, and annual fairs—all this seems to be the order of the day. Separation from the congregation [excommunication] is supposed to control ethical behaviour. There is no thought of repentance and conversion. Little attention is paid to spiritual life. … Why is this happening? Because we do not enforce our own regulations through church discipline.” (Note 6)

The Mennonite Colonies had a few taverns, and in the 1860s the Molotschna successfully petitioned the Guardianship Committee for Foreign Settlers to direct tavern owners to “ban playing music and dancing at taverns to avoid beatings and crimes” (note 7).

The “enthusiastic wing” of the new Mennonite Brethren movement saw a lot of "holy" dancing in church. As one Brethren leader complained, “Becker does not regard it as sin, when brothers and sisters [‘in the Lord’] dance a waltz [in a ‘worship service!’] till the sweat goes through their clothes! Brother, this foolishness is breaking my heart” (note 8).

In 1869, a Chortitza minister was angry about dance rumours implicating him!

“January 13: Isaac Friesen told me that Isaac Klassen was spreading rumours that a fiddle had been played and there had been dancing at a wedding at brother Diedrich’s place. I had supposedly defended these goings-on in a sermon. What lies!” (Note 9)

Minutes of the annual meeting of Mennonite elders in 1893 record their “deep sadness” with the moral level in the Forestry camps (Alternative Service), especially concerning after-hours music making. Elders “urgently advise” the young men to “avoid dance music altogether, which our congregations consider to be contrary to the Confession.” In 1895 elders—now clearly exasperated—requested that all donated instruments come with the proviso: “For music, with the exception of all dance music” (note 10).

In the early 1900s, youth dancing at weddings was still a recurring problem--“wedding-eve party games with ridiculous performances,” and social games with “the goal of mutual contact between the sexes.” Ministers are instructed instead to “recommend more library reading rooms, singing groups and the establishment of Christian youth groups, etc.” (note 11).

The admonitions met with only limited success, as Jacob P. Janzen observed in his diaries in the early 1900s.

“He [the minister] also asked us to conduct ourselves in such a way that the Lord Jesus could remain to the end of the celebrations. Nevertheless, in the evening some games were played.” Janzen records the same moralistic tone in two preachers at another wedding, who “spoke so seriously and sternly to the congregation that I began to feel as if I was attending a funeral. It was as if I almost expected a funeral song at the casket after the sermon.” (Note 12)

"Things were really bad with German occupation of Ukraine in 1918: they brought not only guns but also “tactless familiarity with the occupation army … and moral surrender of our youth,” including beer-drinking and dancing to the music of the military band" (note 13).

Soviet Mennonite youth in the 1930s were without church and had had more than their share of grief in the 1930s; but what also stands out in almost each of their village reports is band music and dancing on Saturday and Sunday nights. Altonau: "Every Sunday a dance took place in the theatre auditorium. This no longer exists, since most of the band members have been abducted …" Friedensfeld, Neu Schönsee, Nikolaifeld, Schönau and Tiege--all in Sagradovka--confirm the same in their village reports: dancing every Saturday and Sunday night! (But only Sunday night in Steinfeld--also in Sagradovka; note 14)

In 1941 with German occupation, the churches opened for their first Christmas in almost a decade. The S.S. commander addressed the Christmas worshipers in Gnadenfeld. Members of the S.S. then invited the youth to the school to dance into the night. Despite years of no church, at least some young Mennonite women told the German men: “We do not like it” (note 15)!

In the last quarter of the twentieth century in Canada and the USA, attitudes were changing rapidly. In my own memory in the Niagara United Mennonite Church, sparks flew when a retired “Prussian / Uruguayan” elder danced with his granddaughter at her wedding. For Prussians this was not unusual, but the congregation’s ministerial also included a 1920s Canadian elder, one retired Russian/Paraguayan elder and a row of other ministers, each with strong opinions!

In a 1989 survey of five North American Mennonite denominations, “9 per cent of respondents said they participated in social dancing regularly, and another 24 per cent participated occasionally. These are double the percentages of a similar 1972 survey. By 1999 the percentages would have continued to increase” (note 16).

(Full disclosure: my daughter enjoyed competitive dance for many years).

            ---Arnold Neufeldt-Fast

---Notes---

Note 1: Heinrich Donner and Johann Donner, "Orlofferfelde Chronik," transcribed by Werner Janzen, 2010, p. 54. From Mennonite Library and Archives, Bethel College, Newton, KS. https://mla.bethelks.edu/Prussian%20Polish%20Mennonite%20sources/orlofferfeldechronik.html.

Note 2: Ibid., 65.

Note 3: Gerhard Wiebe, “Verzeichniß der gehaltenen Predigten samt andern vorgefallenen Merkwürdigkeiten in der Gemeine Gottes in Elbing und Ellerwald von Anno 1778 d. 1. Januar.” Transcriptions from the original by Willi Risto, http://chort.square7.ch/Buch/Risto1.pdf.

Note 4: David G. Rempel, “From Danzig to Chortitza: The First Mennonite Migration,” Preservings 20 (June 2002), 3–18; 18, https://www.plettfoundation.org/files/preservings/Preservings20.pdf. Also in Nick J. Kroeker, Erste Mennoniten Doerfer Russlands 1789–1943: Chortitza–Rosental (Vancouver, BC: Self-published, 1981), 49.

Note 5: Transformation on the Southern Ukrainian Steppe: Letters and Papers of Johann Cornies, vol. 2: 1836–1842, translated by Ingrid I. Epp; edited by Harvey L. Dyck, Ingrid I. Epp, and John R. Staples (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2020), 355,  https://tspace.library.utoronto.ca/bitstream/1807/100164/1/Southern_Ukrainian_Steppe_UTP_9781487538743.pdf.

Note 6: David Epp, Diaries of David Epp: 1837–1843, translated and edited by John B. Toews (Vancouver, BC: Regent College, 2000), p. 165.

Note 7: “Guardianship Committee for Foreign Settlers in South Russia,” Odessa Archives Fund 6, Inventory 5 (Part I), 189, 379, 1867. From Mennonite Heritage Centre, Winnipeg, MB. http://www.mennonitechurch.ca/programs/archives/holdings/organizations/OdessaArchivesF6.htm.

Note 8: Peter M. Friesen, The Mennonite Brotherhood in Russia 1789–1910 (Winnipeg, MB: Christian, 1978), 435. https://archive.org/details/TheMennoniteBrotherhoodInRussia17891910/ .

Note 9: Jacob D. Epp, A Mennonite in Russia: The Diaries of Jacob D. Epp, 1851–1880, translated and edited by Harvey L. Dyck (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2013).

Note 10: Heinrich Ediger, ed., Beschlüsse der von den geistlichen und anderen Vertretern der Mennonitengemeinden Rußlands abgehaltenen Konferenzen für die Jahren 1879 bis 1913 (Berdjansk: Ediger, 1914), 53, 62, 87;  https://chortitza.org/Buch/MJ/MK1.pdf; https://chortitza.org/Buch/MJ/MK2.pdf; https://chortitza.org/Buch/MJ/MK3.pdf.

Note 11: Ediger, ed., Beschlüsse, 12 (Minutes 1884); 138 (Minutes 1910); 39 (Minutes 1890).

Note 12: Jacob P. Janzen, “Diary 1911–1919. English monthly summaries,” edited and translated by Katharina Wall Janzen. Jacob P. Janzen fonds, 1911–1946, vol. 2341, May 1912; April 1912. From Mennonite Heritage Centre, Winnipeg, MB.

Note 13: J. Janzen, “Diary 1911–1919,” August 31, 1918.

Note 14: “Village Reports Commando Dr. Stumpp.” Prepared for the German Reichsminister for the Occupied Eastern Territories, 1942. In Bundesarchiv Koblenz, BArch R6_GSK, files 620 to 633; 702 to 709. State Electronic Archive of Ukraine, https://tsdea.archives.gov.ua/deutsch/.

Note 15: Susanna Toews, Trek to Freedom: The Escape of Two Sisters from South Russia during World War II, translated by Helen Megli (Winkler, MB: Heritage Valley, 1976), 19.

Note 16: Ann Weber Becker, “Dance,” Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online (1990). https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Dance.


Print Friendly and PDF
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The End of Schardau (and other Molotschna villages), 1941

My grandmother was four-years old when her parents moved from Petershagen, Molotschna to Schardau in 1908. This story is larger than that of Schardau, but tells how this village and many others in Molotschna were evacuated by Stalin days before the arrival of German troops in 1941. -ANF The bridge across the Dnieper at Chortitza was destroyed by retreating Soviet troops on August 18, 1941 and the hydroelectric dam completed near Einlage in 1932 was also dynamited by NKVD personnel—killing at least 20,000 locals downstream, and forcing the Germans to cross further south at Nikopol. For the next six-and-a-half weeks, the old Mennonite settlement area of Chortitza was continuously shelled by Soviet troops from Zaporozhje on the east side of the river ( note 1 ). The majority of Russian Germans in Crimea and Ukraine paid dearly for Germany’s Blitzkrieg and plans for racially-based population resettlements. As early as August 3, 1941, the Supreme Command of the Soviet Forces received noti...
Post a Comment
Read more

1929 Flight of Mennonites to Moscow and Reception in Germany

At the core of the attached video are some thirty photos of Mennonite refugees arriving from Moscow in 1929 which are new archival finds. While some 13,000 had gathered in outskirts of Moscow, with many more attempting the same journey, the Soviet Union only released 3,885 Mennonite "German farmers," together with 1,260 Lutherans, 468 Catholics, 51 Baptists, and 7 Adventists. Some of new photographs are from the first group of 323 refugees who left Moscow on October 29, arriving in Kiel on November 3, 1929. A second group of photos are from the so-called “Swinemünde group,” which left Moscow only a day later. This group however could not be accommodated in the first transport and departed from a different station on October 31. They were however held up in Leningrad for one month as intense diplomatic negotiations between the Soviet Union, Germany and also Canada took place. This second group arrived at the Prussian sea port of Swinemünde on December 2. In the next ten ...
1 comment
Read more

Russia: A Refuge for all True Christians Living in the Last Days

If only it were so. It was not only a fringe group of Russian Mennonites who believed that they were living the Last Days. This view was widely shared--though rejected by the minority conservative Kleine Gemeinde. In 1820 upon the recommendation of Rudnerweide (Frisian) Elder Franz Görz, the progressive and influential Mennonite leader Johann Cornies asked the Mennonite Tobias Voth (b. 1791) of Graudenz, Prussia to come and lead his Agricultural Association’s private high school in Ohrloff, in the Russian Mennonite colony of Molotschna. Voth understood this as nothing less than a divine call upon his life ( note 1; pic 3 ). In Ohrloff Voth grew not only a secondary school, but also a community lending library, book clubs, as well as mission prayer meetings, and Bible study evenings. Voth was the son of a Mennonite minister and his wife was raised Lutheran ( note 2 ). For some years, Voth had been strongly influenced by the warm, Pietist devotional fiction writings of Johann Heinrich Ju...
Post a Comment
Read more

What were Molotschna Mennonites reading in the early 1840s?

Johann Cornies expanded his Agricultural Society School library in Ohrloff to become a lending library “for the instruction and better enlightenment of every adult resident.” The library was overseen by the Agricultural Society; in 1845, patrons across the colony paid 1 ruble annually to access its growing collection of 355 volumes (see note 1 ). The great majority of the volumes were in German, but the library included Russian and some French volumes, with a large selection of handbooks and periodicals on agronomy and agriculture—even a medical handbook ( note 2 ). Philosophical texts included a German translation of George Combe’s The Constitution of Man ( note 3 ) and its controversial theory of phrenology, and the political economist Johann H. G. Justi’s Ergetzungen der vernünftigen Seele —which give example of the high level of reading and reflection amongst some colonists. The library’s teaching and reference resources included a history of science and technology with an accomp...
Post a Comment
Read more

Mennonites in Danzig's Suburbs: Maps and Illustrations

Mennonites first settled in the Danzig suburb of Schottland (lit: "Scotland"; “Stare-Szkoty”; also “Alt-Schottland”) in the mid-1500s. “Danzig” is the oldest and most important Mennonite congregation in Prussia. Menno Simons visited Schottland and Dirk Phillips was its first elder and lived here for a time. Two centuries later the number of families from the suburbs of Danzig that immigrated to Russia was not large: Stolzenberg 5, Schidlitz 3, Alt-Schottland 2, Ohra 1, Langfuhr 1, Emaus 1, Nobel 1, and Krampetz 2 ( map 1 ). However most Russian Mennonites had at least some connection to the Danzig church—whether Frisian or Flemish—if not in the 1700s, then in 1600s. Map 2  is from 1615; a larger number of Mennonites had been in Schottland at this point for more than four decades. Its buildings are not rural but look very Dutch urban/suburban in style. These were weavers, merchants and craftsmen, and since the 17th century they lived side-by-side with a larger number of Jews a...
Post a Comment
Read more

Penmanship: School Exercise Samples, 1869 and 1883

Johann Cornies recommended “penmanship as the pedagogical means for [developing] a sense of beauty” ( note 1 ). Schönschreiben --calligraphy or penmanship--appears in the handwritten school plans and manuals of Tobias Voth (Ohrloff, 1820), Jakob Bräul (Rudnerweide, 1830), and Heinrich Heese (Ohrloff, 1842). Heese had a list of related supplies required for each pupil, including “a Bible, slate, slate pencil, paper, straight edge, lead pencil, quill pen, quill knife, ink bottle, three candlesticks, three snuffers, and a container to keep supplies; the teacher will provide water color ( Tusche ) and ink” ( note 2 ). The standard school schedule at this time included ten subject areas: Bible; reading; writing; recitation and composition; arithmetic; geography; singing; recitation and memory work; and preparation of the scripture for the following Sunday worship—and penmanship ( note 3 ). Below are penmanship samples first from the Molotschna village school of Tiege, 1869. This student...
Post a Comment
Read more

Fraktur (or Gothic) font and Kurrent- (or Sütterlin) handwriting: Nazi ban, 1941

In the middle of the war on January 1, 1942, the Winnipeg-based Mennonitische Rundschau published a new issue without the familiar Fraktur script masthead ( note 1 ). One might speculate on the reasons, but a year earlier Hitler banned the use of the font in the Reich . The Rundschau did not exactly follow all orders from Berlin—the rest of the paper was in Fraktur (sometimes referred to as "Gothic"); when the war ended in 1945, the Rundschau reintroduced the Fraktur font for its masthead. It wasn’t until the 1960s that an issue might have a page or title here or there with the “normal” or Latin font, even though post-war Germany was no longer using Fraktur . By 1973 only the Rundschau masthead is left in Fraktur , and that is only removed in December 1992. Attached is a copy of Nazi Party Secretary Martin Bormann's official letter dated January 3, 1941, which prohibited the use of Fraktur fonts "by order of the Führer. " Why? It was a Jewish invention, apparent...
1 comment
Read more

A Mennonite Pandemic Spirituality, 1830-1831

Asiatic Cholera broke out across Russia in 1829 and ‘30, and further into Europe in 1831. It began with an infected battalion in Orenburg ( note 1 ), and by early Fall 1830 the disease had reached Moscow and the capital. Russia imposed drastic quarantine measures. Much like today, infected regions were cut off and domestic trade was restricted. The disease reached the Molotschna River district in Fall 1830, and by mid-December hundreds of Nogai deaths were recorded in the villages adjacent to the Mennonite colony, leading state authorities to impose a strict quarantine. When the Mennonite Johann Cornies—a state-appointed agricultural supervisor and civic leader—first became aware of the nearby cholera-related deaths, he recommended to the Mennonite District Office on December 6, 1830 to stop traffic and prevent random contacts with Nogai. For Cornies it was important that the Mennonite community do all it can keep from carrying the disease into the community, though “only God knows...
Post a Comment
Read more

1920s: Those who left and those who stayed behind

The picture below is my grandmother's family in 1928. Some could leave but most stayed behind. In 1928 a small group of some 511 Soviet Mennonites were unexpectedly approved for emigration ( note 1 ). None of the circa 21,000 Mennonites who emigrated from Russia in the 1920s “simply” left. And for everyone who left, at least three more hoped to leave but couldn’t. It is a complex story. Canada only wanted a certain type—young healthy farmers—and not all were transparent about their skills and intentions The Soviet Union wanted to rid itself of a specifically-defined “excess,” and Mennonite leadership knew how to leverage that Estate owners, and Selbstschutz /White Army militia were the first to be helped to leave, because they were deemed as most threatened community members; What role did money play? Thousands paid cash for their tickets; Who made the final decision on group lists, and for which regions? This was not transparent. Exit visa applications were also regularly reje...
Post a Comment
Read more

What is the Church to Say? Letter 3 (of 4) to American Mennonite Friends

Irony is used in this post to provoke and invite critical thought; the historical research on the Mennonite experience is accurate and carefully considered. ~ANF Mennonite endorsement Trump the man No one denies the moral flaws of Donald Trump, least of all Trump himself. In these next months Mennonite pastors who supported Trump will have many opportunities to restate to their congregation and their children why someone like Trump won their support. It may be obvious, but the words can be difficult to find. To help, I offer examples from Mennonite history with statements from one our strongest leaders of the past century, Prof. Benjamin H. Unruh (see the nice Mennonite Encyclopedia article on him, GAMEO ). I have substituted only a few words, indicated by square brackets to help with the adaptation. The [MAGA] movement is like the early Anabaptist movement!  In the change of government in 1933, Unruh saw in the [MAGA] movement “things breaking forth which our forefathe...
Post a Comment
Read more