A Traveler's Impressions of the Molotschna, 1927

In November 1927, Susanna Toews of Ohrloff, Molotschna wrote to her brother Gerhard in Canada, "Father is sleeping and the sisters are reading, even though they have read the stuff ten times. . .. Twice a week we get Das Neue Dorf. We read the most important material the first evening and then father reads the rest of it the next day" (note 1).

A youth in Friedensruh, Molotschna reported to the communist youth paper Die Saat in 1928, that their village receives 13 copies of Das Neue Dorf, 6 copies of Die Saat, one of the Moscow-based Deutsche Zentral-Zeitung, 16 copies of Die Trompete, 2 copies of Neuland, and some Russian papers as well. On average, 2 papers per household--all communist papers.

A Mennonite-based monthly agricultural journal, “The Practical Agriculturalist” (Der praktische Landwirt) had been approved for publication in Ukraine in 1924 but was shut down in December 1926. Government authorities in Ukraine were exasperated to see a “significant anti-Soviet religious periodical” and “widely popular” Mennonite church or faith-oriented paper Unser Blatt (“Our Paper”) had been approved in Russia for publication in October 1925 and was made available in Ukraine. It was shut down in 1928 (note 2).

In 1925 Das Neue Dorf--or "new village" --was created out of two smaller Bolshevik /Communist Party papers in Ukraine/Crimea and published twice-weekly. It was the “organ for the Bolshevik Party” designed for German villages of southern Ukraine. The Central Bureau of the German Section of the Central Committee of the Communist Party in Ukraine used the paper to address their on-going “Mennonite problem” and directed it on occasion to create pointed articles, such as: “What the Soviet power accomplished for Mennonites following the Civil War,” etc. Rural correspondents were explicitly directed to strengthen “supervision of abuses,” typically by publicly embarrassing former leaders with wealth or a connection to the church in almost every issue. Cartoons helped to get the message across, as did unsigned letters to the editors (see related post, note 3). But it also supported the official ethnic German cultural developments in officially German districts, advocated for sufficient land for the districts, and offered suggestions for a smoother transition and development to the new political environment.

One of the more measured articles is a type of travelogue through the Molotschna in 1927 (note 4); while it is only signed with the initials of the author (“H.R.”), he appears to be a fellow Low German Mennonite and Communist Party activist.

It is a longer article; here are some excerpts:

“About ten kilometers from [Rudnerweide] lies the village of Gnadenfeld. Here land division is now being carried out. It turned out that some land was being “hidden” [from the surveyor by those wanting to farm more land]. "Didn't you know?" asked the surveyor reproachfully. Everyone was silent at this question. The land share for each farmstead is 16 to 32 desiatina [17 to 34 hectare], yet some are without any land at all. For example, citizen H.D., who is a very hard-working farmer, has nothing except a pair of horses and wagons; he is a native of Gnadenfeld yet nevertheless has to lease some land from year to year.

Wernersdorf is just a small village. It is said that the people here are also poor, although today some farmsteads already look quite prosperous. Everything goes its daily course. Over the last year there have been only two incidents about which the good people of Wernersdorf became a bit disturbed. That was when the land surveyor was to come—this led to some "inconveniences" similar to those in Gnadenfeld, and then also when a new chairman of the village council was finally elected.

The former, they say, was an otherwise good man, but very forgetful in matters concerning the community or individual citizens. On every trip to Halbstadt he especially loved to stop in Tokmak on the way to look deeply into the schnapps glass. This did not suit the citizens of Wernersdorf in the long run, and it is firmly hoped that his successor, a former Red Army soldier, will do things better.

Wernersdorf is situated on the river. On the other side of the bank there is a Russian village. The relationship between the Germans and Russians is not very good. The Russian side often threatens with Makhno [anarchist leader], once they even said: "Makhno will be there in three days and then we will make an end with you Germans." Often there is stealing from the Germans, and the trail almost always leads to the Russian side. A direct hostility is palpable. The Germans do not look at the Russians like they do at their own kind, but from above down: "That's just a Russian."

Of course, a lot of ideological education (Aufklärungsarbeit) is needed here. The Halbstadt District should also contact the surrounding Russian districts and lead this work from both sides. National [ethnic] discord must not be tolerated under any circumstances. Festivals in honour of the Revolution could be celebrated together, meetings and gatherings could be held where German and Russian speakers would appear. Schools could also make joint excursions. The German farmers must show more good will towards Russian farmers, and help them with good advice, because the German understands farming here better. Many more suggestions could be made. It is not an easy task that stands before the district, but it must be solved and a rapprochement--more harmony between the German and Russian population--must be the goal.

The ethnic German schools in the district still leave a lot to be desired. There is still a great lack of German books and guides for the teachers. The material situation of the teachers is still weak. Particularly difficult and time-consuming for teachers is the filling out of the most diverse forms, lists and papers, which are sometimes sent by the rayon in heaps in the Ukrainian language (in German rayon) which are sent by the rayon sometimes in heaps.

The cooperative functions better now than it did when the [Mennonite led] "Union of Citizens of Dutch Origin" was in charge [notice the spin-ANF]. The latter, through its mismanagement, caused tangible damage to many a German farmer. It is only in the present situation that the individual German cooperatives have the opportunity to develop. The demand for goods is great. Comrade “A.,” who heads the cooperative in Pordenau, said that the necessary goods are not always available in Melitopol. People are forced to travel further to buy goods, which, of course, unnecessarily increases the cooperative's expenses. More attention should be paid to the German cooperatives, which are still weak thanks to the previous mismanagement, and they should be better served in Raysojus in Melitopol.

Ideological education is weak. One cannot find a proper reading hall in any village, i.e., where one can get hold of a German book or newspaper. Young people spend most of their free time in the streets. The district party committee should pay more attention to this matter and find ways and means to get closer to the German population. The Party Committee is hardly known in German villages; many do not even know that it exists. If you ask a German farmer about it, he will say: Well, is there something like that in Halbstadt, too?"

Moreover, in many villages there is not a single Komsomol- or party member. This, of course, makes the work exceptionally difficult, but nevertheless, there could be a somewhat closer connection between the German farmers and the party organization.

The church still plays an important role in these villages today. Like everyone else, the Mennonite enjoys complete freedom of faith. But even the sturdy walls of the Mennonite church (Bethaus) sometimes sway quite noticeably. You can see it in the apparently small things. "Did you go to Sunday school today?" a strict father asks his son. "No, I was playing," comes the reply. "There were only girls and two of the very youngest boys." The church in G. [Gnadenfeld] is to be renovated, but the money does not come in; the farmer knows better and invests in his farm instead. The question of conscientious objection is discussed and already there are young people who do not want to renounce the honour of carrying a weapon on behalf of the state of the working class.

The harvest has turned out quite well this year. Winter cereals were mostly good, while the summer cereals in places was very weak. The present winter sowing gives hope for the coming year.

One does not like to leave such a beautiful region. We hope that the German village, the German district, will continue to take an active part in the Soviet construction and serve as a model. H.R.”

---Arnold Neufeldt-Fast

---Notes---

Note 1: John B. Toews, trans. and ed., Letters from Susan: A Woman’s View of the Russian Mennonite Experience, 1928–1941 (North Newton, KS: Bethel College, 1988), 22f. https://mla.bethelks.edu/books/wedel_series/letters_from_susan.pdf.

Note 2: See GAMEO: https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Unser_Blatt_(1925-1928)(Periodical); AND https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Allrussischer_Mennonitischer_Landwirtschaftlicher_Verein. Most issues available at: https://chortitza.org/DPL.htm, AND https://chortitza.org/ZUB.htm.

Note 3: Related posts: https://russianmennonites.blogspot.com/2023/02/agitation-propaganda-and-strategies-of.html, AND (forthcoming).

Note 4: "Reiseeindrücke (Halbstädter Rayon, Kreis Melitopol)," Das Neue Dorf no. 19, 165 (1927), 3. https://martin-opitz-bibliothDek.de/de/elektronischer-lesesaal?action=book&bookId=via000095#lg=1&slide=0. My translation.

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

"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

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

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

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

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

What does it cost to settle a Refugee? Basic without Medical Care (1930)

In January 1930, the Mennonite Central Committee was scrambling to get 3,885 Mennonites out of Germany and settled somewhere fast. These refugees had fled via Moscow in December 1929, and Germany was willing only to serve as first transit stop ( note 1 ). Canada was very reluctant to take any German-speaking Mennonites—the Great Depression had begun and a negative memory of war resistance still lingered. In the end Canada took 1,344 Mennonites and the USA took none born in Russia. Paraguay was the next best option ( note 2 ). The German government preferred Brazil, but Brazil would not guarantee freedom from military service, which was a problem for American Mennonite financiers. There were already some conservative "cousins" from Manitoba in Paraguay who had negotiated with the government and learned through trial and error how to survive in the "Green Hell" of the Paraguayan Chaco. MCC with the assistance of a German aid organization purchased and distribute

History of the Russian Mennonites

Search This Blog