Religious Toleration in New Russia and the "Warkentin Affair," 1842

The document below is from the "Peter J. Braun Archives Russian Mennonite Archive"-- a veritable treasure trove of yet-to-be-read primary documents. To date this document has not yet been used in the telling of the "Warkentin Affair." While it does not add new information per se, it brings out well the dynamics and tone of official engagements of government actors with "their" Mennonites and the Mennonite church leaders.

In the early 19th century, there was no question that Russia was among the most religiously tolerant nations that side of the Atlantic. But there was a framework with policies for that to work. How it played out was not always pretty. Here is an example and a helpful primary text.

In 1842, Pure Flemish Elder Jacob Warkentin complained to the President of the Guardianship Committee for Foreign Settlers Eugen von Hahn about Johann Cornies’ “dictatorial” manner and disregard of the church’s approach to discipline and reconciliation in accordance to Matthew 18.

Von Hahn knew of Warkentin’s opposition to Cornies’ reforms and leadership—it had started with Warkentin’s reaction against Cornies’ introduction of more attractive, brick building material (note 1). Warkentin’s interpretation of the Mennonite Privilegium’s requirements and community mission as “model colonists” was as a fixed, unchanging and withdrawn community; however for Cornies it was a dynamic responsibility requiring “model colonists” to innovate and adapt to changing state policies and economic needs (note 2)–and von Hahn stood with Cornies.

Von Hahn personally dismissed the interfering elder from his church office, and forbade him to speak or participate in community events (note 3). Other elders, moreover, were not to acknowledge him as a ministerial colleague, and his congregation was to be divided into three, with three newly elected elders.

When von Hahn returned from the capital to Odessa in August 1842, he learnt that his warnings and personal reprimands had been ignored by certain members of the former “Warkentin congregation,” and that the congregation chose to tarry with their election. Here’s his letter to the elders of the Molotschna churches, which I have transcribed and translated (note 4; pic).

To the Church Elders of the Molotschna Mennonite District

From the reports by local colony officials provided to me upon my return from St. Petersburg, I noted with great regret that, notwithstanding all warnings and personal reprimands, some members of the former “Warkentin Congregation” acted disobediently and rebelliously during the recent election for district chair, especially Fürstenwerder’s village mayor Thun, who with his highly illegal and punishable acts displayed before subordinate residents enticed them to disobey, thereby wreaking disorder and harm in the community.

Respectively I have built upon the influence of the church elders, and thus until know have had the confident hope that the latter would not fail to use every means possible to ensure that peace and quiet develop on their own. Now I feel compelled to use the most severe measures in order to bring this scourge to a complete halt, and to put the guilty ones into a position that will render them completely innocuous in the future. It is very hard for me to come as one who must judge and punish, when with all my heart I want only to be father and guardian to you. My duties are above all sacred to me, and I would sin against my authority if I were to put up any longer with the spirit reigning in some of the Mennonite colonies [villages].

Accordingly, in very short order I will personally arrange a local investigation of everything that has occurred, and the guilty may then only blame themselves if they have brought misfortune upon themselves.

Once again I declare officially that Warkentin has been irrevocably discharged, and likewise, that Peter Toews of Tiege cannot become head of the District Office, and that every act which is or will yet be directed against these orders will be punishable.

Insofar as I hereby publicize this notice to the church elders, whose good sentiments for the well-being of their congregations are sufficiently known to me, I also request of you, that you mobilize all of your available church resources, so that through your cooperation not only will the scourge be removed, but also that what is good and the best generally will be promoted. This cooperation could not be demonstrated any better than if the church elders would leverage their total influence not only to bring any new growth [of the scourge] in the congregations to a complete halt, but also to bring those who are already guilty to genuine repentance; for only deep, openhearted contrition can bring into motion a softening of the deserved punishment.

[Signed] Vice-Chair of the Guardianship Committee, v. Hahn, Odessa, 26 August, 1842.

“Cornies’ men” duly informed the Large Congregation’s leaders that Warkentin would be exiled and subject to corporal punishment by the military should they not comply by a certain date (note 5).

Von Hahn’s reluctant intervention in colony religious and political affairs for “disobedience” or “rebelliousness” towards authorities was not unique in the Warkentin case. Similar occurrences are documented in the Lutheran, Pietist Separatist and Catholic colonies as well (note 6), and were entirely consistent with Russia’s otherwise broad protections and freedoms within its self-understanding and mission to serve and rule nobly over many peoples (note 7).

While the principle of complete religious toleration was inviolable, this was balanced by a second principle: “upon the interference of religion in the affairs of the state, the latter not only may, but must itself interfere in the affairs of the church and indicate to [that church] its true purpose and limits” (note 8).

Local administrators judged which acts of faith had political content “in accordance with the particular spirit of each” (note 9), and they were authorized to intervene.

---Arnold Neufeldt-Fast

---Notes---

Note 1: Cf. Delbert Plett, Golden Years: The Mennonite Kleine Gemeinde in Russia, 1812–1849 (Steinbach, MB: Self-published, 1985), 286 https://www.mharchives.ca/download/1216/. See also John Staples, “Afforestation as Performance Art: Johann Cornies’ Aesthetics of Civilization,” in Minority Report: Mennonite Identities in Imperial Russia and Soviet Ukraine Reconsidered, 1789–1945, edited by Leonard G. Friesen, 61–81 (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2018), 73. Also Staples, “Religion, Politics, and the Mennonite Privilegium in the Early Nineteenth Century: Reconsidering the Warkentin Affair,” Journal of Mennonite Studies 21 (2003), 72–88, https://jms.uwinnipeg.ca/index.php/jms/article/view/886/885.

Note 2: Cf. Staples, “Afforestation as Performance Art: Johann Cornies,” 70; 74.

Note 3: Heinrich Neufeld, “Report Regarding the Exile of Jakob Warkentin, Altona, Molotschna,” 1 [1/2]. Translated by Ben Hoeppner. From Mennonite Library and Archives, Bethel College, SA. 2, 1171, https://mla.bethelks.edu/archives/sa_2_1171/.

Note 4: Evgenii von Hahn, “An die Kirchen-Aeltesten des Molotschner Mennonniten Bezirks,” in Peter J. Braun Russian Mennonite Archive, file 805, reel 31, translated by Arnold Neufeldt-Fast. From Robarts Library, University of Toronto. On von Hahn, cf. the helpful piece by David H, Epp, "Hahn, Eduard von (19th century)," Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online (1956), https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Hahn,_Eduard_von_(19th_century)&oldid=145375.

Note 5: H. Neufeld, “Report Regarding the Exile of Jakob Warkentin, Altona, Molotschna,” 5 [6/7]; 7 [9]; 11 [13].

Note 6: Cf. Evgenii von Hahn, “An den Oberschulzen des Berdjanschen Kolonisten-Bezirks Friedrich Prinz Nr. 3031” (May 13, 1843), in Jakob Stach, ed., Grunau und die Mariupoler Kolonien (Leipzig: Hirzel, 1942), viii–ix, fn. 24; https://chortitza.org/Buch/Grunau.pdf. Cf. also Paul Werth, The Tsar’s Foreign Faiths, Toleration and the fate of religious freedom in imperial Russia (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014), 108f.

Note 7: Cf. “Memorandum des Ministers des Innern (1804),” in Josef A. Malinowsky, Die Planerkolonien am Asowschen Meere (Stuttgart: Ausland und Heimat Verlag, 1928), Anhang III; https://chortitza.org/kb/malinows.pdf. See also Robert Crews, For Prophet and Tsar: Islam and Empire in Russia and Central Asia (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2009), 10.

Note 8: This implicit or operational principle was in a Special Commission Memorandum in 1866; cited in Werth, The Tsar’s Foreign Faiths, 108.

Note 9: According to instructions by the empire’s police chief, Aleksandr Benkendorff, to subordinates in 1837; cited in Werth, The Tsar’s Foreign Faiths, 110.

Comments

Swiss and Palatinate Connections

Sometime after 1850 Andreas Plennert and his family immigrated to South Russia from the Culm Region of West Prussia. Though there was at least one Mennonite “Plehnert” who had already immigrated to Russia in 1793, it is not a very common Prussian-Russian Mennonite name. As such, however, it is easier to trace than many and offers a minority narrative and identity within the longer and broader Russian Mennonite story. The account below is adapted largely from information in Horst Penner, Die ost- und westpreußischen Mennoniten , vol. 1, though I have expanded upon his work to offer a slightly different narrative. In 1724 there was a group of Mennonites forced out of the Memel region in East Prussia for political and religious reasons and were given assistance to resettle back to West Prussia in areas populated by Mennonites. Among the 23 households that went to the Stuhm region there is one Plenert listed, namely Christian Plenert. We know that Mennonites entered the Memel region ...

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...

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...

Mennonite-Designed Mosque on the Molotschna

The “Peter J. Braun Archive" is a mammoth 78 reel microfilm collection of Russian Mennonite materials from 1803 to 1920 -- and largely still untapped by researchers ( note 1 ). In the files of Philipp Wiebe, son-in-law and heir to Johann Cornies, is a blueprint for a mosque ( pic ) as well as another file entitled “Akkerman Mosque Construction Accounts, 1850-1859” ( note 2 ). The Molotschna Mennonites were settlers on traditional Nogai lands; their Nogai neighbours were a nomadic, Muslim Tartar group. In 1825, Cornies wrote a significant anthropological report on the Nogai at the request of the Guardianship Committee, based largely on his engagements with these neighbours on Molotschna’s southern border ( note 3 ). Building upon these experiences and relationships, in 1835 Cornies founded the Nogai agricultural colony “Akkerman” outside the southern border of the Molotschna Colony. Akkerman was a projection of Cornies’ ideal Mennonite village outlined in exacting detail, with un...

Snapshots of Danzig Mennonites, late 1600s & early 1700s

A picture can be worth a thousand words. We do not have photographs, but we have a few colour paintings of life in and around Danzig in the late 1600s and early 1700s, as well as maps. We also have a limited number of "textual snapshots" of Mennonites at this time and place, which offer an instructive window into that foreign world. These snapshots of work, worship, health, education, community relationships, smaller repressions, and security can contribute to the creation of a larger collage of Mennonite life in Danzig and Polish Prussia. Snapshot 1 : In 1681 there were approximately 180 Mennonite families who lived in the “gardens” or villages outside Danzig, with 113 of those families within the jurisdiction of the city. At this time Mennonites were barred from owning houses within the walls of the city. Of these 113 family heads, we know: 43 were retailers of spirits, 24 merchants, 9 lacemakers, 7 dyers, 3 silk dyers, 3 pressers, 2 brokers, 2 treasurers, 2 waitresses, et...

Polish-Prussia? Royal Prussia? West Prussia? Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth? Notes for Clarification

The historical jurisdictions, names and political powers under which Mennonites lived since their arrival in lands that are today Poland are difficult to keep straight. However they are important for telling the story right. This post simply provides some notes for orientation with reference to the late sixteenth-century map below. Polish- or Royal Prussia comes into being with the defeat of Teutonic Knights by the Polish Crown in 1466. See the pink-shaded area of the map below. Ducal Prussia is a fiefdom of the Kingdom of Poland after 1525 (see stiped on map). In 1618, this duchy (voivodeship) is inherited by Hohenzollerns of Brandenburg, who separated it from the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1657. After 1701, the Elector of Brandenburg is the “King of Prussia” when in that territory. With the First Partition of Poland in 1772, it becomes East Prussia . By 1569 Polish- or Royal Prussia was fully integrated into Kingdom of Poland and part of the larger Polish-Lithuanian...

Jews and Mennonites Together in Danzig's Suburbs

There has been very little reflection on the relationship of Jews and Mennonites in the suburb of Schottland (or Alt-Schottland or Stare Szkoty) where Mennonites first settled in the mid-1500s. Here Mennonites and Jews lived in the small community together for two centuries, quite literally on the margins outside the gates of the city of Danzig. Many historic maps that include Alt Schottland have become available in recent years ( note 1; pic ). H.G. Mannhardt’s book on the Danzig Mennonite church community plus some archival membership lists are our best sources for the Mennonite experience, while illustrations from the day bring many of those episodes of prosperity, repressions, war, plague, emigration, flooding etc. in an urban environment to life ( note 2 ). Peter J. Klassen’s writings on Mennonites in Poland and Prussia also present newer research on Mennonite life in and around Danzig in helpful ways ( note 3 ). There is one small sentence in Klassen’s larger volume that sugg...

Why Danzig and Poland?

In the late 16th century, Poland became a haven for a variety of non-conformists which included Jews, Anti-Trinitarians from Italy and Bohemia, Quakers and Calvinists from Great Britain, south German Schwenkfelders, Eastern Orthodox, Armenian, and Greek Catholic Christians, some Muslim Tatars, as well as other peaceful sectarians like the Dutch and Flemish Anabaptists. Unlike the Low Countries and most of western Europe, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth was a “state without stakes,” and as such fittingly described as “God’s playground” ( note 1 ). In the view of 17th-century Dutch dramatist Joost van den Vondel, it was “the ‘Promised Land,’ where the refugee could forget all his sorrow and enjoy the richness of the land” ( note 2 ). Over the next two centuries an important strand of Mennonite life and spirituality evolved into a mature tradition in this relatively hospitable context ( note 3 ). Anabaptists from the Low Countries began to arrive in Danzig and region as early as 15...

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...

What is the Church to Say? Letter 4 (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 Preparing for your next AGM: Mennonite Congregations and Deportations Many U.S. Mennonite pastors voted for Donald Trump, whose signature promise was an immediate start to “the largest deportation operation in American history.” Confirmed this week, President Trump will declare a national emergency and deploy military assets to carry this out. The timing is ideal; in January many Mennonite congregations have their Annual General Meeting (AGM) with opportunity to review and update the bylaws of their constitution. Need help? We have related examples from our tradition, which I offer as a template, together with a few red flags. First, your congregational by-laws. It is unlikely you have undocumented immigrants in your congregation, but you should flag this. Model: Gustav Reimer, a deacon and notary public from the ...

History of the Russian Mennonites

Search This Blog